There's nothing wrong with not being crazy about alcohol. It's just that certain people here insist on making threads about it or being smarmy and closed-minded about it in a more general sense like anyone who doesn't feel that way is Categorically Incorrect and possibly A Bad Person who must be shunned. Which, given that there are people who like alcoholic beverages, comes off pretty badly, I must say.
Nome of this is to say that there are not people with legitimate reasons not to drink here. I'm just saying it's all very whiny and judgemental.
Late to this thread and haven't read everything in it yet, but I've noted Alex's suggestion to try mead one of these days.
As for why I started drinking, it was because life sucked. I'm guessing that's probably the reason a lot of people do it, unfortunately. It wasn't because of peer pressure; if that affected me then I'd be a smoker too, but I never saw the point of smoking. The one time I tried I didn't end up hacking up a lung or anything (possibly because I'd been exposed to enough secondhand smoke to not be bothered by it), but I kind of thought "Okay, so...I feel absolutely no different from smoking this cigarette. I don't see what the big deal is."
But back to alcohol.
I don't drink beer all that much any more, because it seems like doing so gives me a beer gut or at least the start of one, and I don't want that. More interested in gin, vodka, and rum these days, since liquor doesn't seem to be as bad in that regard.
My parents let me taste their beverages when I was little. Usually my reaction was "blech!" but when I was a bit older I started to develop an appreciation for certain things, and they were pretty OK with me drinking a little when they broke out the wine and liquor for special occasions or happened to be at a party where alcohol was served so long as I kept people from hurting themselves and didn't get myself hurt. And that's still the case. In my dad's case, this can be extended to weed and such, although my mother is still wary of it. I don't lie to them and they trust me. That's always been our relationship.
You're fine, Tach. No offence was taken. I should have been clearer anyway.
@Sredni: I got to have a small taste of beer when I was a little kid once, and I reacted pretty much the same way and wondered why anybody would drink it.
Didn't ever want it again until many years later when I was like "Screw it, I need to get drunk, I don't care if it tastes bad." After a certain amount of beers it turned into an acquired taste.
I feel like drinking solely to get drunk, let alone something so comparatively low in alcohol content, is just a waste of good alcohol. Drinking as part of a situation where slight intoxication elevates the mood is nice, yes, but the flavour and burn and all that are more interesting to me than the after-effects.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Usually, when something bad happens of the sort that makes me go, "I need a drink," I get a drink, as in one. A stiff drink, and not a tiny one, but only one nonetheless. It takes the edge off, and allows me to just let things wash over me, but no more.
I do not get hung over in the conventional sense, by the way.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
What kind of alcohol would you recommend to a young princess who wants to experience drunkenness for the first time?
I would advise that you take care, given the medication you're currently on and the fact that suddenly craving intoxication and similar notions are classic hypomanic symptoms. :/
I will give you recommendations for good drinks to try as someone new to alcoholic beverages for responsible consumption once you've checked any potential bad interactions, however.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I would advise that you take care, given the medication you're currently on and the fact that suddenly craving intoxication and similar notions are classic hypomanic symptoms. :/
I will give you recommendations for good drinks to try as someone new to alcoholic beverages for responsible consumption once you've checked any potential bad interactions, however.
I mean, in all fairness, most people get random notions like that into their heads now and then. They just don't exhibit a pattern, or necessarily intend to follow through, or really dwell on them at all.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
*shrug*
I don't know, I just thought it would be nice to try being in an "altered state" for a while. Something different than just my normal being-kinda-crazy-all-the-time.
Centie: yeah, seconding the bit about medications. Start small if you're doing that. My old roommate, who was probably roughly the same size as you, got ridiculously fucked up drunk on just a couple not too strong drinks because of how it interacted with her anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds. Like, crying and sloppy drunk. Any other time it would have barely affected her....
There's a reason many medicines say not to take them with alcohol. It gets unpredictable.
I lived in a fraternity long enough to have figured out that drunkenness tends to exacerbate existing neuroses rather than cancel them out.
This is correct. People can get really weird when they're drunk because it doesn't reduce their anxieties to nearly the same extent as it reduces their inhibitions and decreases their coordination.
Pot is less dangerous. It can increase paranoia in some people, but for the most part it has a mellowing effect, and if you eat it there's really no physical downside unless you use it all the time.
^ Never take depressants with depressants, so the advice goes. It can kill you.
I lived in a fraternity long enough to have figured out that drunkenness tends to exacerbate existing neuroses rather than cancel them out.
I may be a strange case, because when I started out drinking it would always be pleasant (provided I didn't overdo it and throw up, of course) no matter what kind of mood I was in. But around the time I was in college I noticed that drinking to make myself feel better no longer worked; if I drank when I was feeling fine then it would be enjoyable as always, but if I drank when I was feeling angry about something the alcohol wouldn't calm me down like it had in the past; it actually made me more angry.
Anyway, that's why I no longer drink if I'm in a shitty mood at the time.
As for weed, I've smoked that like maybe half a dozen times in my life so far and it's always made me chill. No paranoia or anything yet, and hopefully none in the future.
I lived in a fraternity long enough to have figured out that drunkenness tends to exacerbate existing neuroses rather than cancel them out.
I may be a strange case, because when I started out drinking it would always be pleasant (provided I didn't overdo it and throw up, of course) no matter what kind of mood I was in. But around the time I was in college I noticed that drinking to make myself feel better no longer worked; if I drank when I was feeling fine then it would be enjoyable as always, but if I drank when I was feeling angry about something the alcohol wouldn't calm me down like it had in the past; it actually made me more angry.
Anyway, that's why I no longer drink if I'm in a shitty mood at the time.
As for weed, I've smoked that like maybe half a dozen times in my life so far and it's always made me chill. No paranoia or anything yet, and hopefully none in the future.
Part of that is, most likely, your developing a tolerance, as happens with most drugs, combined with the fact that alcohol tends to do away with most emotional restraints regardless of whether the euphoria is still there.
I've had alcohol only three times. Each time led to vomiting and I didn't have very much at all any of those times.
I can't smoke weed because I have horrendously bad asthma.
I've considered trying to locate LSD at times in the past, but, honestly, it seems like more trouble than it's worth.
Edibles are probably a worthwhile investment if you're curious about the experience and want to avoid some sort of attack—I can't really smoke myself—but only when you have disposable income and so forth.
LSD is a bit hardcore for a starter hallucinogen. Psilocybin lasts much less time and is generally less intense. You're also less likely to be rolling the dice with how good your chemist is: "Bad trips" are almost always caused by the isomers of the acid which occur in insufficiently pure batches and solutions thereof.
I personally have very, very little practical experience with hallucinogens, despite being friends with people who swear by them. But because of that latter fact, and general curiosity, I do know my way around what does what and how.
I lived in a fraternity long enough to have figured out that drunkenness tends to exacerbate existing neuroses rather than cancel them out.
I avoided joining a frat because of this. (Also because I don't like hanging out with a group of people specifically to the exclusion of either gender.)
My dad, on the other hand, did join a frat, and he claims he was the only person in his frat who didn't get wasted, because he didn't come from an affluent background and earned his way through his university studies.
We were actually the tamest frat on campus -- tame enough that we basically got shut down for not partying enough because it turns out a a fraternity doesn't have much else to offer that you can't get from any other close group of friends but without paying membership dues. There were surprisingly few habitual binge drinkers, but OH GOD were they a pain to clean up after and half of them wound up in some sort of rehab later on.
Hanging out to the exclusion of girls wasn't really a problem. Neighboring sororities came over pretty often to help plan events or sometimes just whenever, and of course most of the guys had girlfriends who were around very, very often. One of our alums and his wife wound up living in the house when they were temporarily homeless.
Comments
Nome of this is to say that there are not people with legitimate reasons not to drink here. I'm just saying it's all very whiny and judgemental.
having said, yeah this does look like it's just crapping on people for liking a drink you don't enjoy, sorry Anonus
And I don't even like most beer!
and then I had a beer and it was okay so I had some more
I guess I just don't see why it has to be a big thing
You're fine, Tach. No offence was taken. I should have been clearer anyway.
half the thread has been people saying alcohol is bad, yourself obviously included
nobody at all has said that it's not okay to not drink
probably the reason we have contemporary binge-drinking culture
I do not get hung over in the conventional sense, by the way.
I will give you recommendations for good drinks to try as someone new to alcoholic beverages for responsible consumption once you've checked any potential bad interactions, however.
I mean, in all fairness, most people get random notions like that into their heads now and then. They just don't exhibit a pattern, or necessarily intend to follow through, or really dwell on them at all.
There's a reason many medicines say not to take them with alcohol. It gets unpredictable.
This is correct. People can get really weird when they're drunk because it doesn't reduce their anxieties to nearly the same extent as it reduces their inhibitions and decreases their coordination.
Pot is less dangerous. It can increase paranoia in some people, but for the most part it has a mellowing effect, and if you eat it there's really no physical downside unless you use it all the time.
^ Never take depressants with depressants, so the advice goes. It can kill you.
the awkwardness
Part of that is, most likely, your developing a tolerance, as happens with most drugs, combined with the fact that alcohol tends to do away with most emotional restraints regardless of whether the euphoria is still there.
Edibles are probably a worthwhile investment if you're curious about the experience and want to avoid some sort of attack—I can't really smoke myself—but only when you have disposable income and so forth.
LSD is a bit hardcore for a starter hallucinogen. Psilocybin lasts much less time and is generally less intense. You're also less likely to be rolling the dice with how good your chemist is: "Bad trips" are almost always caused by the isomers of the acid which occur in insufficiently pure batches and solutions thereof.
I personally have very, very little practical experience with hallucinogens, despite being friends with people who swear by them. But because of that latter fact, and general curiosity, I do know my way around what does what and how.
My dad, on the other hand, did join a frat, and he claims he was the only person in his frat who didn't get wasted, because he didn't come from an affluent background and earned his way through his university studies.