[Drinking] BBC2 prog - Adrian Chiles & alcohol addiction

[Hungry Joe]

What do you drink in the pub? I am trying to work my way through soft drinks that are not just full of sugar but struggling to find things I like.

I drink either a decent zero alc (or very low - 0.5%) if on offer, something like Nanny State if available, there's a few decent pale ale options now in some places, tea or coffee or sparkling mineral water, or a combination of those. I hate sugary drinks.

 

[Springal]

https://www.bigdropbrew.com/ Are creating some lovely zero Alcohol beers. Apparently their stout is nice - although more like a black IPA

 

[Wilko]

I drink either a decent zero alc (or very low - 0.5%) if on offer, something like Nanny State if available, there's a few decent pale ale options now in some places, tea or coffee or sparkling mineral water, or a combination of those. I hate sugary drinks.

I had nanny state the other day and really did not like it. Lime and soda prob wins for me, I am happy with a pint of water but feel like a cheapo ordering it in a pub.

 

[Hungry Joe]

I had nanny state the other day and really did not like it. Lime and soda prob wins for me, I am happy with a pint of water but feel like a cheapo ordering it in a pub.

Nanny State isn't to everyone's taste, and you have to be a bit careful if on certain meds as it contains grapefruit. As mentioned, bigdrop are doing some nice ones, their IPA was the best I've had (they do it in the North Laines Brewhouse).

 

[lawros left foot]

One of my best friends, when I was younger, is now a chronic alcoholic. He was admitted to hospital after collapsing in the street about 18 months ago, he spent 3 months in hospital, and was given the last rites twice. He was released from hospital care, and his sister took him in, giving him a roof over his head and food etc. He was told if he continued drinking his life expectancy is numbered in months not years.
He’s now in his own flat, drinking as much as ever, and just wasting his life away, literally.

Myself, and various other friends/ relatives have offered him help, with no strings attached, he smiles, says Thanks, and carry’s on.
He’s a couple of years younger than me, and looks 20 years older, the thing I don’t really understand, is that all my mates tended to hit the booze pretty hard when we were younger, every available minute spent in the boozer, but, he appears to be the only one who came out with a drink problem. He wasn’t the biggest drinker amongst us, but, thinking back, you could never tell if he was drunk.
Sorry for rambling on, I know I’ll be going to his funeral in the next couple of years, and, it does upset me a bit, and I do wonder if I could do more for him, but, he doesn’t want to stop drinking.

 

[Springal]

He’s a couple of years younger than me, and looks 20 years older, the thing I don’t really understand, is that all my mates tended to hit the booze pretty hard when we were younger, every available minute spent in the boozer, but, he appears to be the only one who came out with a drink problem. He wasn’t the biggest drinker amongst us, but, thinking back, you could never tell if he was drunk.
Sorry for rambling on, I know I’ll be going to his funeral in the next couple of years, and, it does upset me a bit, and I do wonder if I could do more for him, but, he doesn’t want to stop drinking.

Sorry to hear that. Don't feel bad on yourself but that is addiction. Most people can be fine with anything, drink, drugs, OCD or whatever but some people can't deal with it. You can never really cure it only try and help someone to curb their feelings around the addiction but ultimately it has to be down to the person to want to and mentally deal with it.

 

[Hungry Joe]

One of my best friends, when I was younger, is now a chronic alcoholic. He was admitted to hospital after collapsing in the street about 18 months ago, he spent 3 months in hospital, and was given the last rites twice. He was released from hospital care, and his sister took him in, giving him a roof over his head and food etc. He was told if he continued drinking his life expectancy is numbered in months not years.
He’s now in his own flat, drinking as much as ever, and just wasting his life away, literally.

Myself, and various other friends/ relatives have offered him help, with no strings attached, he smiles, says Thanks, and carry’s on.
He’s a couple of years younger than me, and looks 20 years older, the thing I don’t really understand, is that all my mates tended to hit the booze pretty hard when we were younger, every available minute spent in the boozer, but, he appears to be the only one who came out with a drink problem. He wasn’t the biggest drinker amongst us, but, thinking back, you could never tell if he was drunk.
Sorry for rambling on, I know I’ll be going to his funeral in the next couple of years, and, it does upset me a bit, and I do wonder if I could do more for him, but, he doesn’t want to stop drinking.

I've lost two pretty close colleagues to alcoholism, one in his late 20's, other early 30's. Nothing that anyone did made a difference in the end, they knowingly drank themselves to death having already been hospitalised on several occasions. Absolutely tragic.

 

[Surport Local Team]

As I have got older I find the anxiety I get the next day after a session is horrendous. I must cut down! I do struggle to as I used alcohol as stress relief (which I know is wrong).

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Yes, when you start checking the empties and noting the units it's quite a shocker. If you had the miguels and 1 red Saturday then the rest of the week was just 3 bottles of red and 2 large Peroni ..... that doesn't sound like much to me at all, but when you add the units up it's still 40-ish units, way over the guidelines.

I suppose my point is that's a good week and I'm over 4 times over the recommended limit for the week. I dread to think what a bad week is.

More or less anyone who I get on with likes a pint. Even those that are exercise centric still like a pint and we will end up in the boozer after swimming or whatever. There's always something going on that is centred around booze. This weekend I'm off to Haydock and a friend is visiting friday. To all intents and purposes i will drinking from friday night until Sunday morning with a bit of sleep in the middle. Next week, I have a meeting with a supplier that will end up in a session which is never less than 5 pints. Those 3 alone will be 75 ish points.

Having spoken to an alcoholic whom had bottles of vodka stashed on his training runs for the london marathon and checked into hotels to raid the mini bar when all else was shut, I appreciate I'm nowhere near that level. It is, however, eye opening to realise how many units get consumed on a good week and how I can quite easily drink double the weekly recommended limit in an afternoon and still be alright the next day. Whilst I'd have been proud of that in my 20s, perhaps now is the age I should realise that's a bad rather than a good thing.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

https://www.bigdropbrew.com/ Are creating some lovely zero Alcohol beers. Apparently their stout is nice - although more like a black IPA

Brewdog have a couple of nice sour beers that are 0.5% - Raspberry Blitz and PassionFruit Popsicle.

 

[Wilko]

I suppose my point is that's a good week and I'm over 4 times over the recommended limit for the week. I dread to think what a bad week is.

More or less anyone who I get on with likes a pint. Even those that are exercise centric still like a pint and we will end up in the boozer after swimming or whatever. There's always something going on that is centred around booze. This weekend I'm off to Haydock and a friend is visiting friday. To all intents and purposes i will drinking from friday night until Sunday morning with a bit of sleep in the middle. Next week, I have a meeting with a supplier that will end up in a session which is never less than 5 pints. Those 3 alone will be 75 ish points.

It is this thinking I had to change. Saying things like 'Well, ive got a birthday to go to on Saturday so that will be a few drinks and I've got football so that will be at least 4 pints'. You do not HAVE to drink. I will be going to Old Trafford on Saturday with 4 others, they will all be drinking beers, I won't because i do not have to.

 

[whitelion]

One of my best friends, when I was younger, is now a chronic alcoholic. He was admitted to hospital after collapsing in the street about 18 months ago, he spent 3 months in hospital, and was given the last rites twice. He was released from hospital care, and his sister took him in, giving him a roof over his head and food etc. He was told if he continued drinking his life expectancy is numbered in months not years.
He’s now in his own flat, drinking as much as ever, and just wasting his life away, literally.

Myself, and various other friends/ relatives have offered him help, with no strings attached, he smiles, says Thanks, and carry’s on.
He’s a couple of years younger than me, and looks 20 years older, the thing I don’t really understand, is that all my mates tended to hit the booze pretty hard when we were younger, every available minute spent in the boozer, but, he appears to be the only one who came out with a drink problem. He wasn’t the biggest drinker amongst us, but, thinking back, you could never tell if he was drunk.
Sorry for rambling on, I know I’ll be going to his funeral in the next couple of years, and, it does upset me a bit, and I do wonder if I could do more for him, but, he doesn’t want to stop drinking.

Really sorry to hear your predicament. It's natural to want to help but I'm afraid (no doubt you know) he can only help himself. The only other way to save him really is to have him sectioned and hope that can save him. For some (think George Best) no matter what help is offered the power of alcohol has such a grip that all sense and reasoning has nil effect.
Please don't blame yourself for not doing enough etc.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

It is this thinking I had to change. Saying things like 'Well, ive got a birthday to go to on Saturday so that will be a few drinks and I've got football so that will be at least 4 pints'. You do not HAVE to drink. I will be going to Old Trafford on Saturday with 4 others, they will all be drinking beers, I won't because i do not have to.

The odd thing is I can do this if I'm in the right mindset. Dad's taxi's and Open Water swimming in the summer are two things I do regularly that don't sit well with drinking for obvious reasons. I either don't drink or go depending on the circumstances. The trouble is when I'm in drinking mode I can have 8 or more pints before i hit the spirits and am more likely to be the last rather than first to leave. I don't really have an off switch when I'm out and I've realised I am putting far too much away as a result.

In the short term I'm going to log my units a week and at least try to get it below 50 whilst making a concious effort to start later / finish earlier when out. I appreciate that shouldn't be the toughest of goals but setting unrealistic expectations is always the route to failure in my experience.

 

[Bry Nylon]

...when I'm in drinking mode I can have 8 or more pints before i hit the spirits.

If Iggle Piggle is sinking 8 pints before hitting the hard stuff, God alone knows how much Macca Pakka is knocking back. And a night out with the Tombliboos sounds like it'd be absolute carnage.

 

[BN41Albion]

I also found it interesting. I did think he seemed to have a lot of time on his hands to go boozing though; didn't seem to do too much work for all the money he must earn! Easy to drink far too much without really thinking about it in that kind of profession, too.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

I watched it last night and found it very interesting. I saw much of then behaviour I saw in myself and my friends when we were younger. I just think that, as with any addictive substance, it has to be the person affected who consciously decides to make a change.

I do think it’s a generational thing though. A lot less of the younger generations seem to have this infatuation with alcohol being linked to every activity they do, but for those in the 40/50+ age bracket, basing their lives around alcohol seems to just be the norm. It’ll be interesting to see if we see a shift over the coming decade towards less binge drinking and alcoholism.

 

[essbee1]

I watched it last night and found it very interesting. I saw much of then behaviour I saw in myself and my friends when we were younger. I just think that, as with any addictive substance, it has to be the person affected who consciously decides to make a change.

I do think it’s a generational thing though. A lot less of the younger generations seem to have this infatuation with alcohol being linked to every activity they do, but for those in the 40/50+ age bracket, basing their lives around alcohol seems to just be the norm. It’ll be interesting to see if we see a shift over the coming decade towards less binge drinking and alcoholism.

Perhaps trivializing the issue a bit, but it seems the younger generation have a lot, how can I put it 'distractions' than I certainly
I did when I was in my 20s. Social media, gaming, etc etc seem to be the point of reference these days, not 'let's meet down the pub every
evening'.

 

[zefarelly]

Dr Zef would prescribe a week long course of Watneys red barrel.

You can’t have tried Worthington’s or Budweiser.

 

[zefarelly]

Big drop are the main players, Brewdog nanny state is OK ish . . . but fruit? no thanks . . .A its sugary shit which is just as bad as alcohol, and B its borderline alcopops.

I did try an ice cold becks blue with a bit of grapefruit and fizzy water the other day . . . as a pint to refresh oneself after a few hours graft on the car in the workshop, not bad.

Brewdog have a couple of nice sour beers that are 0.5% - Raspberry Blitz and PassionFruit Popsicle.

 

[zefarelly]

Pontipine didn't get rotund on lime and soda either.

If Iggle Piggle is sinking 8 pints before hitting the hard stuff, God alone knows how much Macca Pakka is knocking back. And a night out with the Tombliboos sounds like it'd be absolute carnage.