Yes, killed themselves drinking…
fwiw, I came across that when I wrote this:
2 Likes
That’s a great article meep. Love the insights there. Thank you for sharing.
Drinking doesn’t ever make a social situation better for me. My reaction to alcohol is to feel tired and antisocial, and if i get “tipsy” i just want to leave the party or hide in a corner and sleep. If everyone reacted like me, no one would serve booze at parties.
So i never drink to make something more fun (well, maybe caffeine, but that’s not what you are asking) nor to try to make a situation more tolerable.
And I’ve never used drinking as an escape. Maybe because drinking enough to do that would make me feel shitty in other ways. But that’s what goactuary, TV, and novels are for.
I do drink a little. I can have about one drink without any adverse effects. And I like the flavor of many alcoholic beverages. It’s often socially expected. I think it’s helpful at the very start of a cold, too, and if I’m just coming down with a cold i may have a snifter of whiskey before bed.
My senior year of HS, we had an exchange teacher from England who became my home room teacher/advisor. During one of our home room sessions, he asked us why “kids” generally like alcohol.
Then he started acting a bit drunk and the class started laughing. Then he pointed out that the humor was one of the key motivators for the use of a substance that reduced inhibitions . . . we liked seeing how stupid “everyone else” started to get . . .
The best part of this exchange teacher was that I had a WWI / WWII class with him and actually got the British perspective about the war–which was great because I was already very familiar with the US perspective.
Also, he taught the US Civil War class–which he knew very little about, but showed us how one would approach a subject with little knowledge. In fact, many of his questions to us were ones we wouldn’t have had with a teacher who “knew the material” already.
1 Like
*with alcoholism.
Your first paragraph describes me to a T. Except substitute marijuana for alcohol.
I find video games to be the perfect escape. The right video game can completely erase mourning. Alcohol doesn’t do that at all for me.
But it can tap into a part of my brain that I can’t even access normally. Social lubricant, but more than that-- brain lubricant. It makes me less able to be myself, but much more able to be other things.
That are other ways to make you feel shitty?
1 Like
You know, my dad recently passed away and alcohol abuse was a primary factor. I don’t think I’ll ever be a non-drinker. But my dad’s death has certainly reframed my relationship with alcohol.
Treat that $25 bespoke artisanal cocktail with respect, because alcohol will kill you.
Yeah thats also me with marijuana, particularly edibles. Reminds me of xanax which i also dislike
Just makes me sleepy and puts my head in a fog
My favourite elective in college was a class on US History 1763-1789 taught by a professor visiting from England.
Definitely a different perspective was offered.
I haven’t drank since December 2019, and it really hasn’t been too bad. I thought it would be a struggle to be around friends who still drink, but that hasn’t made me miss drinking at all. What IS hard is having certain meals without wine; wine is what I miss most. I am always glad I didn’t cave and have a glass (because it was never just a glass), but my motivation to drink doesn’t seem to be social, even though for a long time I self-medicated my social anxiety with booze.
1 Like
For me, the thing about edibles is that marijuana tastes like shit.
I had edibles from a pot shop in Portland. Tasted good, like candy
Well, like they say. A spoonful of sugar…
never had an edible. if I did, i am not sure I would bother to chew and taste anything but rather just swallow it like a pill? am i wrong? if I want to taste a real gummie bear, i’ll have those. not eating a gummie w THC for the flavor
one thing I noticed since I quit drinking is that football (US) is a terrible sport. I really think you need to be drunk to enjoy watching it.
Try baseball. Jesus.
All sports, but especially that one.
1 Like
It wasn’t even tolerable with drinking.
See, Baseball has little enough action that you can read a book, or chat with friends, with the game on in the background. And when you hear cheering, you can watch the replay. And you miss absolutely nothing. That makes it the game I most enjoy “watching”. Football is really dull, and if you don’t pay attention, you miss anything that might have been worth seeing.
(I do occasionally enjoy watching a spot of hocky or soccer. That’s pretty much it. And yes, I am always sober when I watch sports.)