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Can you stop drinking?

Katana said:
I tried to stop drinking once, but I couldn't give up the olives.

[qimg]http://friendsinthehills.com/sitebuilder/images/Martini1-100x135.png[/qimg]

Yum!
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I LOVE olives. I think I need a martini now.
 
I've never drank and never felt the need to "fit in" by drinking, primarily because my close circle of friends in high school and college were also tee-totallers. What I always found surprising, and a bit annoying, depending on the person, was the reaction by casual acquiantances when I declined to join them in having a drink. You'd think by some of their reactions that I advocated stomping on babies. I mean, I didn't go into personal details about my father dying a recovering alcoholic and that I didn't want to end up like him. I just said no thanks, I don't like the taste. That's why I personally hate alcohol advertising, especially beer, because TV commercials all-too-often make their product seem like the only thing needed to make you popular. But then again, that's the point of almost all advertising, isn't it? If it's not beer, it's cars or shoes or iPods or whatever other bright, shiny thing is used to distract us from what's really going on.

Michael
 
El Greco said:
To be fair, it's the antioxidants in red wine that have the benefits. Alcohol doesn't have any benefits itself. I also think that most (if not all) the beneficial antioxidants in red wine have been identified and they are easily obtainable from other sources.
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Sure, and we can all eat tofu to survive. There's a benefit to having healthy nutrients found in things that people might actually want to consume. Wine is a healthy and appealing way to obtain antioxidants.

To say that anybody who drinks has a problem, is irresponsible and is making less than smart choices (which is what the OP post indicates) is absurd and unsupported.
 
nosho said:
Even so, we have to recognize that our own behavior will influence others. Particularly if we are parents. When we drink in front of our children, we are teaching them to drink.
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And what might be the problem with that?

I mean, people have been drinking alcohol since before the ancient Egyptians, and yet we are still here.
 
nosho said:
You're right, of course. But drinking tends to lower inhibitions. Many times people do things after drinking that they ordinarily would not do.
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Which is the whole point. That's why people drink at parties. To break the ice. To become more outgoing than they usually would.

I think it is fair to say that people are generally mistrustful of strangers. This instinct is deep and probably has a good reason for existing. But sometimes, you need to get past this inhibition, because it is for the better (for you).
 
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If my husband hadn't been drunk the night we met, I doubt we'd have gotten together. So, balls to the OP.
 
I met both of mine in bars. The first time, it was very bad. The second time, it was very good.

:alc:
 
So here I am reading this thread over a glass of a simple Pinot Noir, and remembering how things were a few years ago. While going through the divorce (just shy of a 10 year marriage) I drank A LOT. A few liters of vodka each week – a lot by just about anyone’s definition. But even in the midst of all the chaos, legal battles, bouts of self-pity, etc. I would decide at random to stop drinking for a non-specific period, just to prove to myself that I could.

So I would go from a near constant drunken haze each night for weeks at a stretch, to zero alcohol for anywhere from 2 to 10 days. Then once I felt I’d made my point to myself I was back at it as heavily as before. Rinse and repeat for about two years.

Once all that passed and I squared my life away I fell back into mainly having a glass of wine or two with dinner, and sometimes not even that – all depending on what sounded good at the time.

Number of nights spent excessively drunk : a few hundred
Number of jobs lost due to drink : zero
Number of accidents or tickets due to drink : zero
Number of times driven while drunk : zero
Number of ‘interventions’ subjected to : zero

As far as the whole “why not do yourself and everyone else a favor and stop for another month?” challenge, I’ll simply ask : how is stopping something which does harm to no one doing anyone a favor? The implication in the OP is that any alcohol intake at all has a demonstrably negative effect, which (as many have already pointed out) has yet to be substantiated. Frankly I find it insulting that someone would presume to project their apparent personal weakness (to say nothing of an almost Carry Nation-esque morality) on to society as a whole.

As far as my behavior serving to influence others, how far do we take that? Should I not have those French fries with my burger, in case it tempts the obese person at the table next to me into that much more of a fat intake? Should I not ride my mountain bike for hours at a time, as someone in poorer physical shape might be driven to push themselves too far? Should I renounce my fondness for raven haired women in leather and wielding a riding crop, to make sure someone whose back doesn’t heal as quickly from scars as mine doesn’t end up with … well, you get the point.

And even though I’ve finished the glass I had when I first started writing this, I’m still able to get down off my soapbox without fear of falling.

Cheers.
 
nosho said:
?

Prohibition isn't the answer. Individual choice is. There's no such think as drinking responsibly.

[/soapbox]
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How about I define "drinking responsibly" as "not causing any harm to anyone other than myself"?
 
Sorry to be so full of crap. You folks are pretty amped up tonight...
 
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Cleon said:
Methinks (one word) you are full of crap.

At least two people who've posted critical responses are complete tee-totallers--they don't touch alcohol at all..
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Since you corrected my (old) English, let me point out that "Tea-totaller" is NOT spelled "tee-totaller," unless you choose golf over booze!
:D :D :D
 
steverino said:
Since you corrected my (old) English, let me point out that "Tea-totaller" is NOT spelled "tee-totaller," unless you choose golf over booze!
:D :D :D
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Hmmm...golf and alcohol. Two things I'm not interested in. But thanks for the correct spelling. I'll keep it in mind for later use.

Michael
 
steverino said:
Since you corrected my (old) English, let me point out that "Tea-totaller" is NOT spelled "tee-totaller," unless you choose golf over booze!
:D :D :D
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Oh my goodness me you could not be more wrong!

Sorry to show you up, but the correct spelling most certainly is "tee-totaller", and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the drink tea.

If you want the origin, Wiki has a good explanation here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tee-totaller
 
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