If you don't drink that much and go out with people who are borderline alcoholic....

[Questions]

I never really drank much until I came here, but as im tight fisted, I drink the cheapest thing on the drinks menu, and fortunately here, its good quality beer. Im guessing its the quality of the beer that keeps the hangovers at bay.

I don't think it matters what you drink really. If you drink enough of it, you'll feel like shit.
Can never get my head round all that, "if I drink whisky, I get punchy", or that "if I drink gin I get depressed" nonesense.

 

[daveinprague]

I don't think it matters what you drink really. If you drink enough of it, you'll feel like shit.
Can never get my head round all that, "if I drink whisky, I get punchy", or that "if I drink gin I get depressed" nonesense.

Never had a hangover with the beer here seriously. Shots or wine and I want to die the next day

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I'm 32 and recently made the decision to go tee-total. Had my last drink on holiday last Saturday which I drank in the company of friends and strangers we'd met over the night. The Newcastle game was my first sober football game in a while.

I'd been toying with the idea for a while and have gone through many times in the last 14 years where I'd stop for a month or for six months but I'd always fall back into it. Last month I decided to tally up my spending on booze and booze-fuelled takeaways. It worked out to about £400 over the month. £400 on stuff that messed with my head and my body. That hit me pretty hard.

Financial reasons aside my now ex-girlfriend told me that I'm not very nice to be around once I've had too many though she did say that's not why she's leaving me which is either a good or a bad thing, I can't decide. I also suffer from terrible drinkers guilt; "why did I say / do that" etc etc.

Overall, at 32, I've decided that it just isn't worth it for me. The pro of "being drunk is sometimes fun" is emphatically outweighed by:

It's expensive
It turns me into (more of) a ****
Hangovers that last for days
Drinkers guilt

I'm going through a similar conversation in my head right now. I've always liked my booze, probably a little too much - though not as much as some I know. However, I've reached the point of not wanting a hangover every weekend and feeling a little jaded for much of the week. So I'm toying with giving up the booze... starting with Sober October.

I've actually been warming up at a conference this week. Last night was the gala dinner in which I mainly drank water and Sprite and went to bed at 10pm. This morning it seemed the earliest people went to bed was 1am, and almost everyone wished they hadn't. So my test run suggests not drinking is a good thing. I did a month last year, but went back on it... slowly initially, and then back to my normal self. So I'm thinking that maybe it's time to knock it on the head.

For those interested, I also read "Kick the Drink Easily" by Jason Vale. Good read, and makes some very valid points.

 

[Normal Rob]

I had a lifetime of fairly high alcohol abuse up until about 3 years ago (43 now). I was raised in a family were drink was readily consumed in large quantity, entertaining happened most weekends and i was allowed to drink (in moderation) from an early age. Early teenage years were about sitting anywhere (park, railway bridge etc) with a half bottle of whisky, a bottle of wine or a 2 litre bottle of ale. Moving onto pubs and later dining from home - i've spent tens of thousands (just put £70 a week for 20 years into a calculator - it's frightening, and possibly a conservative estimate)
However i still love a drink, i love going to the pub for a couple of ales (though with a rapidly growing family this happens infrequently these days), or enjoying a glass or 2 of wine with my wife and/or friends. Occasionally i still get hammered, though this is fairly rare these days. I now have 3 dry days per week on average, and consume much less on drinking nights.I have gone for 2-3 weeks without alochol, but it's not often that i choose to do that. I love the cameraderie that sharing a bottle of wine can bring, usually with good home cooked food. I respect others and their alcohol choices - you certainly do not need to drink if you come to mine. I'm a drinker, but now enjoy it rather than be led by it. I'm happy with this.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Never had a hangover with the beer here seriously. Shots or wine and I want to die the next day

But it's the alcohol (or ethonol to be precise) which gives you a hangover. If you consume enough of this you'll suffer no matter what the quality of the booze. Sure there is other and varying stuff in booze which can exacerbate and aggravate a hangover but to say you can't get one of quality booze is nonsense.

 

[Bakero]

But it's the alcohol (or ethonol to be precise) which gives you a hangover. If you consume enough of this you'll suffer no matter what the quality of the booze. Sure there is other and varying stuff in booze which can exacerbate and aggravate a hangover but to say you can't get one of quality booze is nonsense.

I agree but different drinks definitely give me different types of hangover. Some preferable over others.

 

[Smoky McPot]

I think a fairly big problem is that the British culture is so embedded with drinking. Some of our earliest childhood songs are alcohol related (what say we do with the drunken sailor/ten green bottles etc), pubs are where most people go to meet friends etc, so naturally alcohol comes into play. I'm not teetotal (I work in the drinks industry), but I find the big difference is that I want to drink different drinks because I like the taste of different flavours, alcohol just happens to a by product of the drink. I'm a big fan of the continental/asian style of eating, where you're allowed to spend two hours in a restaurant with your other half and friends and not feel embarrassed. Drink because you like the taste, not because everyone is.

 

[Uncle C]

The biggest cultural problem is buying rounds when out with friends. It encourages everyone to drink at the speed of the fastest. It brings about a great deal of peer pressure.

 

[BBassic]

I'm going through a similar conversation in my head right now. I've always liked my booze, probably a little too much - though not as much as some I know. However, I've reached the point of not wanting a hangover every weekend and feeling a little jaded for much of the week. So I'm toying with giving up the booze... starting with Sober October.

I've actually been warming up at a conference this week. Last night was the gala dinner in which I mainly drank water and Sprite and went to bed at 10pm. This morning it seemed the earliest people went to bed was 1am, and almost everyone wished they hadn't. So my test run suggests not drinking is a good thing. I did a month last year, but went back on it... slowly initially, and then back to my normal self. So I'm thinking that maybe it's time to knock it on the head.

For those interested, I also read "Kick the Drink Easily" by Jason Vale. Good read, and makes some very valid points.

Cheers for the book recommendation, will check that out

Don't know about you but I find it good to know others are making the same decisions for similar reasons.

 

[Lower West Stander]

Really good thread.

Not a big drinker at all. Never drink when I'm working during the week because I just feel groggy next morning. Love a bottle of wine if I'm eating out or a pint after a game of golf. Sometimes nice to have a few at a concert but that's it. A find I enjoy it far more when I do have a drink as it feels more like a choice

Certainly drink less than I used to. I find it much more enjoyable now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Weststander]

I get round this by drinking pints of shandy. I naturally lost interest in downing eight pints of beer years ago, but still enjoy drinking large volumes in a pub/restaurant situation, so shandy is good for me and I like the refreshing mix.

I might feel a bit groggy the next morning, whilst contempories feel wrecked for a day or two.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

I had a lifetime of fairly high alcohol abuse up until about 3 years ago (43 now). I was raised in a family were drink was readily consumed in large quantity, entertaining happened most weekends and i was allowed to drink (in moderation) from an early age. Early teenage years were about sitting anywhere (park, railway bridge etc) with a half bottle of whisky, a bottle of wine or a 2 litre bottle of ale. Moving onto pubs and later dining from home - i've spent tens of thousands (just put £70 a week for 20 years into a calculator - it's frightening, and possibly a conservative estimate)
However i still love a drink, i love going to the pub for a couple of ales (though with a rapidly growing family this happens infrequently these days), or enjoying a glass or 2 of wine with my wife and/or friends. Occasionally i still get hammered, though this is fairly rare these days. I now have 3 dry days per week on average, and consume much less on drinking nights.I have gone for 2-3 weeks without alochol, but it's not often that i choose to do that. I love the cameraderie that sharing a bottle of wine can bring, usually with good home cooked food. I respect others and their alcohol choices - you certainly do not need to drink if you come to mine. I'm a drinker, but now enjoy it rather than be led by it. I'm happy with this.

I can certainly relate to this Rob

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Cheers for the book recommendation, will check that out

Don't know about you but I find it good to know others are making the same decisions for similar reasons.

Absolutely. "No beer for one year" is also an organisation worth looking at. I'm also told Brewdog do a really good alcohol free pale ale called Nanny State. I'll be sampling that at the Good Companion on Saturday

 

[Guinness Boy]

Absolutely. "No beer for one year" is also an organisation worth looking at. I'm also told Brewdog do a really good alcohol free pale ale called Nanny State. I'll be sampling that at the Good Companion on Saturday

Nanny State - for an alcohol free beer - is very nice indeed. I'd rather drink water on alcohol free nights and proper beer when I'm out but the wife drinks Nanny State now and again when she's out round friends' and doesn't want to get smashed so there's often some in our fridge. Not like the flat in Sydney......

 

[Iggle Piggle]

I can certainly relate to [MENTION=323]Normal Rob[/MENTION] and [MENTION=159]Stumpy Tim[/MENTION]. I like a drink and staying away with work means I drink more than I should and it's something to do to be quite honest. I often start the week with the best of intentions but a supplier is taking me out tomorrow, the in laws are round Friday, Saturday we are out with friends and Sunday is the football. That's about 70 unit's right there.

Everyone I know likes a drink and I have zero friends that drink next to nothing. Yesterday me and a mate had a pint of lime and soda in a pub. We worked out it was the first time in 5 years one of us hadn't had an alcoholic drink in all that time. We are a nation of piss heads.

 

[Badger]

I'm going through a similar conversation in my head right now. I've always liked my booze, probably a little too much - though not as much as some I know. However, I've reached the point of not wanting a hangover every weekend and feeling a little jaded for much of the week. So I'm toying with giving up the booze... starting with Sober October.

I've actually been warming up at a conference this week. Last night was the gala dinner in which I mainly drank water and Sprite and went to bed at 10pm. This morning it seemed the earliest people went to bed was 1am, and almost everyone wished they hadn't. So my test run suggests not drinking is a good thing. I did a month last year, but went back on it... slowly initially, and then back to my normal self. So I'm thinking that maybe it's time to knock it on the head.

For those interested, I also read "Kick the Drink Easily" by Jason Vale. Good read, and makes some very valid points.

You've changed Tim!

I have to say my alcohol intake has gone down significantly since I moved to Canada. I think the major factor in the UK is doing rounds. I'd go out on a Friday or Saturday night and as soon as the first person finished their beer it was time to get the next round in. We'd all end up drinking at the pace of the guy who could drink 8 pints in no time and feel no ill effects. My hangovers get worse every year, especially since I got into my 30s. I don't really want to spend the next day (or often two days) recovering. It's not just the physical recovery, I find alcohol can ruin my mental health. If I've had a skin full I'll turn into a depressed, anxious wreck the next day.

These days I'll go out and have a few drinks with no pressure to drink quickly and get the next round in. I also feel the fittest I've ever felt in my life.

 

[Questions]

Never had a hangover with the beer here seriously. Shots or wine and I want to die the next day

You're obviously a lightweight with beer then daveinprague. Step up, cmon.

 

[daveinprague]

You're obviously a lightweight with beer then daveinprague. Step up, cmon.

Smoking weed as well ffs

 

[Questions]

Smoking weed as well ffs

I'm chilled tonight. I think a peanut butter sandwich is next.

 

[daveinprague]

I'm chilled tonight. I think a peanut butter sandwich is next.

OMG that was my plan!..and I'm serious