Although I’m sure everyone’ll understand why having just spent the last 10 days nursing my mother in hospital for severe alcohol related illness and had my own brushes with it I’m a bit biased on the subject. What are your views on the drug? Harmless or not? Give us your stories…
alcohol use needs to be monitored responsibly like any other recreational drug…
i drink fairly regularly (there is actually an empty glass next to this monitor staring me in the face as I speak) but have cut down a lot recently…
the clincher came when after a Friday afternoon drinking (where by 19:00 I had already gone over the “binge drink” limit (the traffic safety limit was long passed I reckon)
I got on my bicycle and rode clear across the other side of the city, although I did not have any accidents I realised I was starting to take way more risks than normal despite having slowed reactions (like cutting in and out of lanes of traffic, and coming up on the inside which I normally do not do) , later on in the evening had totally forgotten the bike ride (as if it had never happened!).
I took that as a signal to calm down a bit… before I have a nasty prang and/or get done for cycling whilst unfit (it can happen especially when there are bobbies on bikes , street-wardens and CCTV everywhere)
they say that alcoholism is heredatory
my grandfather worked as a postman and had a skinful by 2p.m. every day of his adult life. the day he didn’t feel like it he said “my days are numbered” and he was dead a month later
my father is alcoholic, although he manages to ride the wagon for up to a decade at a time. he’s not even got a wagon in sight at the moment tho
i brew my own cider
perhaps i shouldn’t:alcoholic
alcohol feeds violence for sure. when i started going to free parties, no-one seemed interested in alcohol. if you clean up after a party today, the bulk of the trash will be beer cans
all my worst experiences in life have been on alcohol – i’ve made the worst decisions and done most of the things i regret when drunk.
last year i lost a very dear friend who simply drank himself to death.
alcohol scares me more than anything else (apart from heroin and crack): its a nice taxable drug that is socially acceptable, it kills more people and ruins more lives than any other drug, there is no real purpose to drinks like special brew other than to accelerate the demise of alcoholics (particularly the homeless), and town centres on a friday and saturday are now like war zones….
our attitude to drink in this country terrifies me
yeah my biggest gripe with the whole booze thing is the attitude this society has, we look down on the kiddies that are goin out and getting boozed up with dismay but why are we so surprised?? booze is just a joke in this society, try and find an 18th birthday card without a joke about getting bladdered on it?! even my parents who are as straight as anything joke about me getting wasted….it would be a completely different story if i was getting stoned, for example because that’s a nasty illegal drug….it’s deemed ‘cool’ in this society to binge drink and joke you’re an ‘alcoholic’.
I wouldn’t say it’s harmless but neither do I think it’s any sort of risk. Alcoholics usually have other issues, the death of a loved one, stress etc and they find their problems solved in a bottle.
So the problem isn’t neccesary alcohol, but the factors that surround the reason for the individual to drink excessively.
Anyroad must dash, I don’t want to miss happy hour…
Alcohol is easily underestimated. I find it odd that the UK government is trying to hightlight the health risks of binge drinking on the one hand and trying to increase drinking hours on the other. Just doesnt make sense.
Another thing i find interesting about alcohol is something i read/watched which said that there are two types of alcohol drinkers : Those who can drink more and more the older they get because of building up a tolerance. And those who will be able to drink the same amount and get just as pissed all their life without building up much of a tolerence. This is apparently hereditary and can be isolated by a gene they have found recently.
I feel this could be true because i personally dont drink much but when i do go down the pub i only drink 2 pints at most. Neither of my parents or brothers can drink very much and generally dont rate it. Perhaps we have the ‘never build up a tolerence’ gene. On the other hand i have friends who can knock em back far quicker and with less effect than me, the ‘tolerence gene’ perhaps. Anyone else find this ?
A problem i could see with this if its true is that some people may not understand that they cant drink as much as others and might feel pressure to ‘keep up’ when on a night out drinking with people who do have a massive tollerance.
I know a German fella whose embarrased to take a bird out over here cos pubs shut so early, as early as 11. Europe doesn’t have a binge drinking problem because their laws are much more relaxed whereas over here pubs close at 12, unless they apply for a late licience.
Because drinkers are on a time limit they’re going to get as pissed as possible knowing they haven’t got much time to do so. And of course hundreds of alcohol fueled people leaved the pubs at the same time there’s going to be trouble.
If liciencing laws were increased to 6am (and not all the pubs will choose to stay open until then) then people probably won’t get as pissed cos they don’t have to go home at an early time. Say they do become legless then the drinkers empty the pub at various times rather than all at once.
Germany drinks more than Britain (per capita)
France has more alcoholics than Britain (per capita again)
IME there is alcohol related crime / disorder etc everywhere and every country that there’s alcohol served
i think there’s much more complex underlying causes for the highly visible smashy-fighty drinking culture in this country than opening hours
some theories look at how no young people can afford to buy a house, even if they saved and saved, so, fuck it, let’s blow our money on a good time
britain is far less family orientated than almost any other european country, so your friends (and drinking partners) become your ‘family’
the thatcherite era embedded a very individualistic attitude to society
etc etc
i don’t think extending opening hours is going to make much difference to the problems caused by paraletic young people, except possibley at the taxi ranks, really
i mean, France only has an extra hour, two in the summertime. it’s not significant enough a difference to claim that this is the reason for a calmer drinking culture.
i also think that the way people talk about europe (“in france people just sip a few beers and go home quietly”) is rose-tinted and out dated
when i was livng in montpellier, france a few years ago it was far more violent than anywhere I’ve lived here (including some real shit holes in south london); guns, knives, rapes, muggings are all common place in france as well
gangs of people carrying weapons would be drinking on pretty much every street corner waiting to attck anyone who couldn’t defend themselves or who was powerful enough through who they knew to be relatively immune
road deaths in france are high among young people who drive drunk
spain has similar problems; anyone who has lived in the centre barcelona (for example) will know that, as much fun as it is to be able to buy a drink whenever you want, when you need to sleep, you won’t stand a chance due to all the loud drunks wandering around
i also think i should be allowed to buy a beer whenever i want one, as i can anyway, but the shopkeeper is risking a hefty fine
perhaps extending oening hours but refusing to serve people who are already pissed would be the way forward
Having been married to an alcoholic, I can assure you that alcohol is NOT harmless. The times he would come home and yell in my face, nose to nose that I was the worthless person……… he would fall into bed if he could find it and then wonder why I was quiet and withdrawn the next day and I should ‘just ignore him when he’s had a few’………….. yeah right – alcohol is shite and ruins more lives than just their’s in fact the worse thing is they don’t realise the damage it does to others until its too late.
I escaped, divorced, and now beginning the rest of my life. :horay:
Alcohol is very dangerous. It’s harder to come off than Heroin and you can actually take fits and die through alcohol withdrawal. How many alcoholics do you know who have managed to quit on their own? You need professional help and medical supervision. Anything’s ok in moderation, it’s knowing where the line is and drawing a line under it that’s the difficult part. I also agree that it’s a genetic thing. All the men in my family are alcoholics bar my brothers who are both drug addicts. I am also a recovering drug addict so think there’s some kind of f*cked up gene in my family!
Linz x
For many people, drinking is very harmless, however, for others it can be quite destructive. There are many things that excessive alcohol consumption can promote, which in effect raises risk factors. Obviously, there is the state of being drunk. While intoxicated, the person experiences a lack of coordination. This causes them to loose balance as well as depth perception. However, most importantly, when someone is drunk, they loose the ability to think properly. They have trouble thinking clearly, therefore, more problems arise. Many times, being drunk leads to an increase in sexual activity, and as we know, this leads to uncontrolled births.
Also, some teens tend to binge-drink (this is when they drink in large quantities). Sometimes, binge drinking leads to alcohol poisoning as well as even death. This is because alcohol acts as a depressant, it slows down the central nervous system and this causes the heart to beat more and more slowly.
Another effect of drinking is that is causes your veins to expand slightly. A result of this is that your body temperature is more seceptable to change according to the temperature of your surrounding environment.
Long term effects
Over a period of many years, drinking has been proven to cause certain things in your body to change. For example, it gradually kills your brain cells. It also causes you to lose your sense of taste for certain types of foods. It even makes your sense of smell and touch weaker. Those are simply the obvious effects, it doesn’t mention the emotional stress which the alcohol places onto a person. Someone may loose many friends because alcohol has made them very unpleasant to be around. Many married people end up in divorce over alcohol related issues. These long term effects certainly apply to you if you start at age twenty-one, but what if you started as a child. The alcohol greatly effects a child’s brain much more quickly and more drastically than it could to any adult. By starting alcoholism at an early age, you are setting yourself up for a quick failure.
Stages of Alcoholism
There are a few stages of alcoholism. Some people can drink socially and never have any type of alcoholic problem. However, there are people who eventually decide to take it to the next level. From drinking a beer every now and then with some friends, to having many beers, becoming intoxicated. Then after that, you will have some people who eventually live to drink, every time they get money, they decide to spend it on alcohol. This is because they have let the “drug” control them.
Here are a few signs of alcoholism
· Drinking alone or in secret.
· Not remembering conversations or commitments.
· Making a ritual of having drinks before, with or after dinner and becoming annoyed when this ritual is disturbed or questioned.
· Losing interest in activities and hobbies that used to bring pleasure.
· Irritability as usual drinking time nears, especially if alcohol isn’t available.
· Keeping alcohol in unlikely places at home, at work or in the car.
· Gulping drinks, ordering doubles, becoming intoxicated intentionally to feel good or drinking to feel “normal.”
· Having problems with relationships, employment or finances or legal problems.
everything in moderation, TBH though i rekon that alcohol is a brilliant drug it is also easily abused to the extent where lives can be ruined homes torn apart and just general destruction is reaked in its path. l8ly my alcohol intake has increased alot, mainly due to the spare time i have and lovely weather, nothing better for a summers day than sitting on the green having a nice cool pint:bigsmile:, but i aint one for spirits and i dont hide the bottles so i am ok for the time being, i should really find an alternative drug though as i am sure too much of one thing aint good for me.
Bit of a vicious circle leading to hypocricy on my behalf this one.
I like alcohol. I find it very social to go down the pub and have a few pints with my mates and/or my lady and enjoy the mild buzz I get from say 4 – 6 pints and have a chat and jest about a bit. (I’m a lightweight after a long spell of not touching it)
Having said that I nearly developed a problem with it when I was drinking very heavily every night (bottle of cheap piss wine and 8 cans of stella (sorry) before I’d even got out and then I’d cane like £60 on drinks mostly for myself), led me to a lot of debt and I put on 3 stone (21Kgs) in 6 months I had gone from a fairly well shaped individual to a fat bloater! This led to a touch of depression so…………..cue more alcohol to numb it!
Also as someone said earlier in the thread, I have made some stupid decisions and made a right twat of myself on this drug. I’m not talking ‘ego man’ made a bit of a fool of himself and can’t forgive himself cos girls laughed at him, I’m talking proper fuckwit scenarios.
I discovered MDMA and to cut a long story short I took a good look at my life and realised alcohol was a BIG negative influence in my life and stopped altogether, but then I was doing too many pills/MDMA.
Finally I discovered moderation and have found a good balance.
ABused rather than used (maybe not heroin and/or crack tho…not really into self pity).
Here comes the hipocricy:
I also DESPISE alcohol due to the negative effects it has on people and society. Myself and co. have renamed the stuff twat juice, owing to the effect it has on some people, but then again it’s probably the person and alcohol brings it out of them, at least that’s what I reckon cos when I acting a twat on it, I had lots of issues to deal with. Now I wouldn’t dream of doing the things I did then, no matter how drunk!
Anyway
To me life’s all about balance, too much of anything will harm you. :good_evil
Had people come close with death on it, had my family go through lots of shit because of it, n makes people fight. IMO = not worth it!
If alcohol was made illegal tomorrow the goverment would have to add the tax somwwhere else so big up the piss headz!:horay:
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