All this time and energy wasted on chatbots, cancer research, and what have you. What we need is a universal robotic liver, so that we can all stay drunk all the time with no consequences.
I only drink a couple times per year. I'm typically pretty introverted and quiet, but once I've had alcohol, people keep telling me that I'm so friendly and fun and how they'd like to have some drinks with me again.
Thankfully, I hate how bloated and disgusting I feel when I drink, otherwise I'd probably be an alcoholic like my mom, who died of alcohol poisoning after being the life of the party for years until it got so bad she wasn't fun anymore.
Shit is bleak out there, no one gives a shit if you have a drinking problem because it's so normalized. Then when you need help and are pushing everyone away, there's barely any support unless you have money. And AA programs have their own issues.
I've had people bring up my completely legal, never-abused, responsibly used, doctor-prescribed medication out of "concern", while my then-partner would down a couple 40s before noon and no one would fucking bat an eye.
Shit's fucked. Alcoholism is so normalized and socially accepted that folks just treat it like a fun quirk.
My family has a history of the bad kind of alcoholism, so I didn't even try alcohol until my mid-twenties.
I was very introverted at the time, and I have to admit, I loved the person I was when I was drunk.
Fortunately for me, I had the willpower and the awareness to realize that just because I liked it didn't mean I needed more. For about 10 years, I drank socially, in moderation, maybe about once a month on average.
I'll admit it did get a bit dicey in University, where I had a drink most days with my friends after class, but I very quickly dropped that habit after graduating.
Not that it's relevant (is any of this story?), but I recently discovered I have an issue with my liver - presumably not alcohol related - and as a precaution I've just stopped drinking entirely. Fortunately I'm a lot more "extroverted" these days, but I'll admit I do miss it sometimes.
Yeah for introverts the options in life are basically forever alone, or learn how to use alcohol responsibly. Or irresponsibly if that's your thing. I go back and forth.
I started doing 1 or 2 drinks pretty much every evening during the pandemic, and more during the weekend, and much more when going out. I didn't really see any issue at all, but very gradually I became sadder, slower, less motivated.
Of course I didn't notice that until I'd stopped for a few weeks. Now I can't think of a single reason to drink. At this point in my life, it takes more than it gives.
I feel like it's probably always been that case, but I doubt I would have thought so as a young man.
This happened to me in the pandemic too. Working from home is kind of a drag, and building a division between work and home, logging off and sitting on the porch with a drink was such a lovely way to do that. But it quickly felt like too much drinking, alcohol is literally a downer, a central nervous system depressant. So I started going for a Pokemon go walk instead, and keep the drinking to weekends, except some weeks a half glass of wine with one supper, if it makes it better tasting. Never a full serving though.
We do joke at work about logging off and drinking when it's stressful but most of us are not really daily drinkers and I have literally never touched alcohol at a work party or happy hour at any job and nobody cares, nobody makes a big deal about it.
Gonna be honest, alcohol is kinda overrates. I dont really drink it and if I do its not that much with lots of water in between, because I don't want to fucking die the next die. But I think that the effect of alcohol isn't very appealing to me. I myself think, that the high you get from weed is much better than being drunk.
I have the opposite effects. Alcohol in moderation (like one drink, about 1.5 "units") makes me feel very gently relaxed but not much else, it's pleasant. Weed makes me feel tired, stupid, and irritated, I have never found the "high". I just feel annoyed and want it to be over. Everyone annoys me because I am myself annoyed. Actually getting drunk drunk is also annoying as fuck but weed I tried even very small amounts, no high. Except one time when young but I suspect that was laced, it was psychedelic. I've tried it a handful of times before and since and no, it feels yucky.
I only really like myself and how I behave when I'm drunk, I'm much more outgoing and confident, not to mention it just makes me feel good. I feel like if I had less self control, I could very easily become addicted, but as it is I don't drink that often, and when I do drink I don't drink much.
I feel like there must be another way for you to accomplish that feeling while sober, though, you are still you when you have a drink. Letting go a little.
Mmhm, alcohol makes any dumb activity fun, and any person interesting, to you that is, the drunk. It's the reason why I still occasionally drink, but only at weddings and what not, as not attending would cause more issues than just drinking once.