What does alcohol mean for you?

[Kev]

Reading Miles post about trying to cut down, Lyle and Van Childs debate about the best whiskey's and CFH's just general drunkenness has got me thinking about booze. The beverages not the poster, although he is in my head now. Specifically I'm thinking of when he contacted a total stranger with the great line 'Sorry about your dad's death, we live nearby and someone suggested you might like me, do you fancy a date'. It's making me laugh. hahaha


Anyway back to topic.

I only drink when I socialise. In the past I have enjoyed drinking to excess and getting drunk, even blacking out, so I'm certainly not against it, but I would never drink alone. I just don't see the point. I never have yet it seems there are many people who do, some even sounding like enthusiasts who drink not to get drunk but becuase of the taste and to try different brands and brews.

So what is your response to alcohol?

Do you drink only socially? Do you drink to get drunk, to forget, more confidence?

Do you love the taste or is the making and tasting of it a hobby?

Are you against drinking at all?

I guess my attitude to alcohol is that it is a social tool to bond with friends and get into a party mood. I drink to be connected to my beer drinking friends and of course the people around and thus the atmosphere. Just I wouldn't ever wear a tracksuit as clothing I wouldn't wear everyday clothes to a gym, the right tools for the right occasion.

I've never seen alcohol as a solo activity but am interested to see why so many others, maybe even a majority do?

[paddy448]

I like a beer now and again mate. When I have to much tho I start to exxagerate greatly in my conversation with people. For example if ran a mile I have to say I ran 10. I was speaking to a lad the other day about getting him work somewhere, and I was saying I could get him a good amount of money, even tho full well it was completely bollocks, I just seem to get so wrapped up in what I am sayin. I woke up the next morning thinking what the fukk where u talking about paddy. Is this normal ? I'm not always like this but I do feel like I drift into another zone sometimes. At least I'm not a violent drunk I suppose

[VictorCharlie]

I drink socially at friends and family get togethers. I only make it out to the bar a handful of times a year and its usually a short visit and like I said I usually have a glass of wine or beer with dinner. I do really enjoy good booze so if I have a drink alone it is more often my liquor snob coming out rather than a desire to get shitty by myself.

[Kev]

I like a beer now and again mate. When I have to much tho I start to exxagerate greatly in my conversation with people. For example if ran a mile I have to say I ran 10. I was speaking to a lad the other day about getting him work somewhere, and I was saying I could get him a good amount of money, even tho full well it was completely bollocks, I just seem to get so wrapped up in what I am sayin. I woke up the next morning thinking what the fukk where u talking about paddy. Is this normal ? I'm not always like this but I do feel like I drift into another zone sometimes. At least I'm not a violent drunk I suppose

That will be the Irish blaggard in you

[paddy448]

Lol, I never thought of it that way mate. It all makes sense now. Maybe I'm not weird after all, it's just genetic. That actually does make me feel better about myself. At least I can explain it now. I no we all as people have our moments sometimes when where drunk, I suppose u just got to roll with. At least I am a happy drunk, I would hate being a violent one, I'd have to quit the beer if I was.

[CFH]

This is an interesting question...

I really don't drink that much at all, maybe bi-weekly at this point, and it's pretty rare that I get sloppy drunk these days. I'm about to go buy some beer or whiskey tonight because the Canucks are playing, but otherwise I wouldn't be imbibing.

Nonetheless, I do drink too much (though rarely alone, it's usually me and my girlfriend) and I think it's a combination of a couple of things: boredom and dissatisfaction with my current life/career (though that is going to change for the better very soon). I look forward to Friday's when I can have a few drinks, relax (something that I often have difficulty doing), and just have a bit of irresponsible fun.

I used a lot of brackets there...

[Gandalf]

I have been imbibing alcohol for for about 14 years. Typically once a week, sometimes more. I started drinking as a social thing with friends and we would get drunk together. Later we found we could get served in pubs and would then drink there. This behaviour continued through university and into my early years in Korea when I was a very social being. Socially I began to calm down as I met my future wife. The transient nature of friendship here and one year contracts mean that whenever you make a friend it is time for them to go home, so in the end you care less about making new friends. My very best friends now live in different countries where they too have developed lives somewhat like my own.

After marriage I would still venture out for a beer every few weeks with other friends like me who had become settled down and were less inclined to the newbie party lifestyle, but more and more I found myself enjoying a beer at home, listening to music and just posting some random stuff on here. Same old habits, but just less physical company. Usually once a week, sometimes I would go mad and do it twice, but that was dangerous as that kind of behaviour was frowned upon.

My relationship with alcohol is a strange one. If I do drink I tend to drink too much and sometimes in the recent past, I have decided to start drinking, ignoring the frowns of the wife and once I have started realise that I have no idea why I am drinking. There is no sense of fun. It is lamost like a ritual that I have forced myself to go through until the bitter end. And then of course you wake up with the hangover and the wasted day where you are hardly able to do anything.

It came to a point last tuesday night where I slipped into the routine. The wife was back in the other city finishing her work and I was alone at home with no class until 1 the next afternoon...what was a man to do? Drive to the supermarket, buy some beer and then drink it! Ah what a splendid idea! And so that is what I did. I didn't drink a tremendous lot at about 7 pints, but I was drinking it and there was no enjoyment, no sense of satisfaction. Just a case of "let's drink this before it gets too late and you wake up too late for some lunch". So, I drank it and then I woke up at around 10 and then went into work and did my classes. Nothing went wrong, but I felt like shit and I knew within myself that my teaching wasn't as good as it usually is. I got home and felt like a wreck. And it was at that point when I decided "I cannot do this anymore".

I have said this to myself many times before, but usually disregard it within a week. I've had my teetotal wife say to me "Why do you drink?" and oftentimes I have been unable to come up with a valid reason. It isn't fun, doesn't taste particularly wonderful. Just maybe I am one of those people with a predisposition for alcohol, my father liked to drink and my grandfather before him did too. My wifes father also died after rotting himself with soju. I have all the danger signs around me and my wife gets it, she doesn't drink and there is me ignoring everything and pretending I am immortal.

Well, no more. I am resolute. Alcohol means dead time and headaches. Alcohol is a waste of life and it really is time to cut it dead. I don't even want one glass of wine with dinner because I will want to polish off the bottle and then open another. It is a pointless habit and the only way to treat alcohol is to avoid it completely. If that means being one of these teetotal types counting the days since his last drink then so be it. I don't want to drink anymore.

[greynotsoold]

I used to drink a ton, though neither of my parents drank at all, at least when I knew them. Suspect my dad may have been a bit of a drinker in his younger days as, after he passed, I found some pictures of his friends and he looking pretty bleary. (This would've been pre-WW2) I could never understand why he'd come home after work instead of going to a bar and carrying on.
Alcohol has always been a romantic thing for me- in the sense that all my heroes drank excessively (Jack London, for example)- and a big disappointment. Never had many adventures to write books about. Busted knuckles, horrible hangovers, lots of wasted time.
Not much else.
Sometimes I still sit around and drink when I get bored, though I hate getting drunk because feeling like shit is no longer a badge of honor at my age. I drink to be social among my current friends, though I always feel uncomfortable anyway. I think that is because, when it comes to trading stories, as guys will when they drink, mine seem so unbelievable. Because now I have white hair, am very soft spoken and hobble when I walk, I guess.
Can't just have one beer, even now, so I don't drink, just hang around and bust out push-ups or crunches when I get bored. Had a few today, though, and, instead of following up with a few more, I'm spilling my guts on all of you.

[Gandalf]

Actually, sometimes I would drink even more than twice a week and I just didn't care. A person who is strongly inclined to drink heavily is extremely selfish and just doesn't show enough concern for those around him and will certainly disregard the concerns others have for him. He will have his evening of consumption and that is that. And then the hangovers.

To think that we have legalised booze and yet other far less descructive drugs are illegal and not even on the public agenda is astonishing really.

[Kev]

I've never had any desire to get drunk or even drink alone. I have twice got the beers out alone for big fights. Staying up for Oscar Mayweather was one, and I did it for a big Manny fight, can't remember which now.

But weirdly I did it as a social thing as I was in the live chat rooms on here with a bunch of you guys and drinking somehow made it more sociable, like we were all watching it together.

But aside from that I have never drunk alone. Yet I'm still addicted, I mean in your shoes Miles with the wife away and an evening free I would have been a porn animal hunched over pc all night enjoying the unrestricted liberation of having nobody to walk in on me. Like you I'd wake up the next day feeling dirty and feeling I'd wasted the night and not really enjoying it anyway (99% of porn is the futile hunt for the right material) but still doing it again the next moment she went out.

I think every male battles some addiction maybe either alcohol, drugs, smoking, porn, food etc. Probably not many who aren't destructive in some way. AT least most of seem to only suffer one out of the five. All five would be a nightmare

[CFH]

I am a total beer snob too. I LOVE beer and, much like a douchey wine-snob, I've learned the proper way to taste it, the differences in type etc.

[generalbulldog]

I have been imbibing alcohol for for about 14 years. Typically once a week, sometimes more. I started drinking as a social thing with friends and we would get drunk together. Later we found we could get served in pubs and would then drink there. This behaviour continued through university and into my early years in Korea when I was a very social being. Socially I began to calm down as I met my future wife. The transient nature of friendship here and one year contracts mean that whenever you make a friend it is time for them to go home, so in the end you care less about making new friends. My very best friends now live in different countries where they too have developed lives somewhat like my own.

After marriage I would still venture out for a beer every few weeks with other friends like me who had become settled down and were less inclined to the newbie party lifestyle, but more and more I found myself enjoying a beer at home, listening to music and just posting some random stuff on here. Same old habits, but just less physical company. Usually once a week, sometimes I would go mad and do it twice, but that was dangerous as that kind of behaviour was frowned upon.

My relationship with alcohol is a strange one. If I do drink I tend to drink too much and sometimes in the recent past, I have decided to start drinking, ignoring the frowns of the wife and once I have started realise that I have no idea why I am drinking. There is no sense of fun. It is lamost like a ritual that I have forced myself to go through until the bitter end. And then of course you wake up with the hangover and the wasted day where you are hardly able to do anything.

It came to a point last tuesday night where I slipped into the routine. The wife was back in the other city finishing her work and I was alone at home with no class until 1 the next afternoon...what was a man to do? Drive to the supermarket, buy some beer and then drink it! Ah what a splendid idea! And so that is what I did. I didn't drink a tremendous lot at about 7 pints, but I was drinking it and there was no enjoyment, no sense of satisfaction. Just a case of "let's drink this before it gets too late and you wake up too late for some lunch". So, I drank it and then I woke up at around 10 and then went into work and did my classes. Nothing went wrong, but I felt like shit and I knew within myself that my teaching wasn't as good as it usually is. I got home and felt like a wreck. And it was at that point when I decided "I cannot do this anymore".

I have said this to myself many times before, but usually disregard it within a week. I've had my teetotal wife say to me "Why do you drink?" and oftentimes I have been unable to come up with a valid reason. It isn't fun, doesn't taste particularly wonderful. Just maybe I am one of those people with a predisposition for alcohol, my father liked to drink and my grandfather before him did too. My wifes father also died after rotting himself with soju. I have all the danger signs around me and my wife gets it, she doesn't drink and there is me ignoring everything and pretending I am immortal.

Well, no more. I am resolute. Alcohol means dead time and headaches. Alcohol is a waste of life and it really is time to cut it dead. I don't even want one glass of wine with dinner because I will want to polish off the bottle and then open another. It is a pointless habit and the only way to treat alcohol is to avoid it completely. If that means being one of these teetotal types counting the days since his last drink then so be it. I don't want to drink anymore.

And that is the reason why I have never taken an keen interest in beer/alcohol at all. I just never liked the taste and don't find it particularly fun. In the past ten years I've taken maybe 5 or 6 sips of alcohol total and it was usually champagne at weddings. The only time I've actually drank was probably my 1st year in college and drank a few beers for the party and thought, "Is this it?" So from there I just thought drinking was just overrated. I guess it just wasn't my thing. I mean if I want to get a buzz, I'll just smoke some weed.

[CFH]

I have been imbibing alcohol for for about 14 years. Typically once a week, sometimes more. I started drinking as a social thing with friends and we would get drunk together. Later we found we could get served in pubs and would then drink there. This behaviour continued through university and into my early years in Korea when I was a very social being. Socially I began to calm down as I met my future wife. The transient nature of friendship here and one year contracts mean that whenever you make a friend it is time for them to go home, so in the end you care less about making new friends. My very best friends now live in different countries where they too have developed lives somewhat like my own.

After marriage I would still venture out for a beer every few weeks with other friends like me who had become settled down and were less inclined to the newbie party lifestyle, but more and more I found myself enjoying a beer at home, listening to music and just posting some random stuff on here. Same old habits, but just less physical company. Usually once a week, sometimes I would go mad and do it twice, but that was dangerous as that kind of behaviour was frowned upon.

My relationship with alcohol is a strange one. If I do drink I tend to drink too much and sometimes in the recent past, I have decided to start drinking, ignoring the frowns of the wife and once I have started realise that I have no idea why I am drinking. There is no sense of fun. It is lamost like a ritual that I have forced myself to go through until the bitter end. And then of course you wake up with the hangover and the wasted day where you are hardly able to do anything.

It came to a point last tuesday night where I slipped into the routine. The wife was back in the other city finishing her work and I was alone at home with no class until 1 the next afternoon...what was a man to do? Drive to the supermarket, buy some beer and then drink it! Ah what a splendid idea! And so that is what I did. I didn't drink a tremendous lot at about 7 pints, but I was drinking it and there was no enjoyment, no sense of satisfaction. Just a case of "let's drink this before it gets too late and you wake up too late for some lunch". So, I drank it and then I woke up at around 10 and then went into work and did my classes. Nothing went wrong, but I felt like shit and I knew within myself that my teaching wasn't as good as it usually is. I got home and felt like a wreck. And it was at that point when I decided "I cannot do this anymore".

I have said this to myself many times before, but usually disregard it within a week. I've had my teetotal wife say to me "Why do you drink?" and oftentimes I have been unable to come up with a valid reason. It isn't fun, doesn't taste particularly wonderful. Just maybe I am one of those people with a predisposition for alcohol, my father liked to drink and my grandfather before him did too. My wifes father also died after rotting himself with soju. I have all the danger signs around me and my wife gets it, she doesn't drink and there is me ignoring everything and pretending I am immortal.

Well, no more. I am resolute. Alcohol means dead time and headaches. Alcohol is a waste of life and it really is time to cut it dead. I don't even want one glass of wine with dinner because I will want to polish off the bottle and then open another. It is a pointless habit and the only way to treat alcohol is to avoid it completely. If that means being one of these teetotal types counting the days since his last drink then so be it. I don't want to drink anymore.

And that is the reason why I have never taken an keen interest in beer/alcohol at all. I just never liked the taste and don't find it particularly fun. In the past ten years I've taken maybe 5 or 6 sips of alcohol total and it was usually champagne at weddings. The only time I've actually drank was probably my 1st year in college and drank a few beers for the party and thought, "Is this it?" So from there I just thought drinking was just overrated. I guess it just wasn't my thing. I mean if I want to get a buzz, I'll just smoke some weed.

Pussy.

[CFH]

When I could smoke weed, I almost never drank. Pot was more fun, with less consequences and no hangover. Those were the days...

[boozeboxer]

I stop by the bar for a drink (or two at the most) after work 3-4 days a week. More of a social thing.

I would say I drink more days than I do not, but rarely do I get flat out pissed. If it is a nice day I just enjoy being outside.
Usually just build a fire in my yard and have 3 or 4 and think about things and listen to the radio.

I have always drank alone as easily as with other people (although I rarely drink to excess by myself and can easily with the right friends). But I have found I just naturally don't like that many people and avoid big crowds or people having fun raving in clubs:
Men and how they act around women disgusts me often. In fact, I view both genders as exceedingly weak and stupid most of the time (in particular their interactions with each other). Often I will see some complete prick with a girl being moronic and I feel that if I had to act or look like that to have said girl, I would rather do without.

Often I will read into a novel and have a few beers and it is nice.

My friends all drink, in varying degrees of severity. Some people think it is a silly habit, but I think having three screaming fucking kids and going to soccer practice is a silly never-ending crazy ass hobby. So to each their own.

Whenever I think of the stereotypical happy family in the suburbs and those goddamn car seats and french fries and shit everywhere, it truly turns my stomach. I often marvel that my values are so apart from many.

Yesterday my best friend and I went canoeing and we drank many beers and had a good time out on the river. That then evolved to going to another buddy's house and admiring his renovations to his house going late into the night and several beers. But I am a river rat.