Hi,
I just found this forum recently and there are some good stories and good advice on here so I thought it was worth joining up.
I am no spring chicken, turned 60 this year. Living in Australia, its hard to escape booze.
I have it pretty much under control at the moment, but its no walk in the park. I constantly monitor how much I drink, and every now and again, I notice that I have been having a bottle of wine with the evening meal every day for several weeks, and at that point I call a halt to it, and go dry for a few weeks to let the body sort itself out. I hate how fuzzy and lethargic I start to feel after drinking for extended periods, even if its just a few glasses of wine or beer on a daily basis. After 7 days alcohol free, my mind feels clear and I get back that bounce in my step.
I dont get drunk very often but if there has been a stressful day at work its easy to crack open that second bottle of wine and put some good loud rock music on and forget about reality for awhile. The other "excuse" is if something good has happened, justifying a celebration.
I have had some "interesting" experiences with alcohol over the years, some I am probably lucky to have survived. I always have to be alert to having that one drink too many that pushes me over the edge where I lose my self judgement, and dont care any more. At that point I am happy to drink until dawn. That is OK to a degree, but I am not a big fan of having to nurse a hangover and struggle to survive a work day on one cylinder.
I am pretty lucky that when I get drunk, I become a comedian, and dont do any damage to anyone else. Thank God I did not inherit the nasty streak of my father or my brothers, who have been know to beat up unfortunate people that get in their way when they are drunk. And they have never shown the slightest interest in cutting back on the booze. To them getting drunk and getting in fights is as normal as breathing oxygen. There have been occasions when I have been in a non-drinking phase, when I turned up at family social events and just drank coffee or soft drink and found myself on the receiving end of a barrage of insults about my manhood and sanity.
Its a strange concept this idea of drinking a substance that inebriates you and impairs your physical and mental faculties. I would be quite happy to wake up tomorrow and find alcohol banned. I think humans still have a long way to go in the evolutionary path before we become rational beings. My dream scenario is for drinking alcohol to be given the same stigma that smoking cigarettes has now. It used to be the in thing when I was a teenager and young adult, that you almost had to smoke or you were considered a wierdo. Now things have changed and smokers are seen as a lower form of life, polluting their own lungs and anyone within range of their smoke. It is amazing how quickly that perception changed from the glamourous female smoking menthols and the hard man on his horse smoking a marlborough to, today where we look at a smoker and all we see is a misguided person making themselves sick and committing suicide.
But with alcohol, it is still promoted heavily and is available everywhere. It is associated with glamourous actresses and tough, masculine sports men. Its very hard to socialise in a society like Australia without having alcohol present at any social or sporting venue. How great it would be if all alcohol ads were banned and it was seen as a disgusting practice to drink an alcoholic substance. You cant ban alcohol, but you can make it socially unacceptable to be seen drinking it.
So my personal plan is to press on with the moderation approach, and see what happens. I have the festive season coming and also a few social commitments coming such as an old friend visiting from England who will expect me to have a beer with him and would be deeply offended if I turned up and started drinking soft drink or low alcohol beers. I dont want to totally cut off all my old friends. Maybe next year I will move to full abstinence. Lets see how it all goes.
Cheers,
Kevin
I just found this forum recently and there are some good stories and good advice on here so I thought it was worth joining up.
I am no spring chicken, turned 60 this year. Living in Australia, its hard to escape booze.
I have it pretty much under control at the moment, but its no walk in the park. I constantly monitor how much I drink, and every now and again, I notice that I have been having a bottle of wine with the evening meal every day for several weeks, and at that point I call a halt to it, and go dry for a few weeks to let the body sort itself out. I hate how fuzzy and lethargic I start to feel after drinking for extended periods, even if its just a few glasses of wine or beer on a daily basis. After 7 days alcohol free, my mind feels clear and I get back that bounce in my step.
I dont get drunk very often but if there has been a stressful day at work its easy to crack open that second bottle of wine and put some good loud rock music on and forget about reality for awhile. The other "excuse" is if something good has happened, justifying a celebration.
I have had some "interesting" experiences with alcohol over the years, some I am probably lucky to have survived. I always have to be alert to having that one drink too many that pushes me over the edge where I lose my self judgement, and dont care any more. At that point I am happy to drink until dawn. That is OK to a degree, but I am not a big fan of having to nurse a hangover and struggle to survive a work day on one cylinder.
I am pretty lucky that when I get drunk, I become a comedian, and dont do any damage to anyone else. Thank God I did not inherit the nasty streak of my father or my brothers, who have been know to beat up unfortunate people that get in their way when they are drunk. And they have never shown the slightest interest in cutting back on the booze. To them getting drunk and getting in fights is as normal as breathing oxygen. There have been occasions when I have been in a non-drinking phase, when I turned up at family social events and just drank coffee or soft drink and found myself on the receiving end of a barrage of insults about my manhood and sanity.
Its a strange concept this idea of drinking a substance that inebriates you and impairs your physical and mental faculties. I would be quite happy to wake up tomorrow and find alcohol banned. I think humans still have a long way to go in the evolutionary path before we become rational beings. My dream scenario is for drinking alcohol to be given the same stigma that smoking cigarettes has now. It used to be the in thing when I was a teenager and young adult, that you almost had to smoke or you were considered a wierdo. Now things have changed and smokers are seen as a lower form of life, polluting their own lungs and anyone within range of their smoke. It is amazing how quickly that perception changed from the glamourous female smoking menthols and the hard man on his horse smoking a marlborough to, today where we look at a smoker and all we see is a misguided person making themselves sick and committing suicide.
But with alcohol, it is still promoted heavily and is available everywhere. It is associated with glamourous actresses and tough, masculine sports men. Its very hard to socialise in a society like Australia without having alcohol present at any social or sporting venue. How great it would be if all alcohol ads were banned and it was seen as a disgusting practice to drink an alcoholic substance. You cant ban alcohol, but you can make it socially unacceptable to be seen drinking it.
So my personal plan is to press on with the moderation approach, and see what happens. I have the festive season coming and also a few social commitments coming such as an old friend visiting from England who will expect me to have a beer with him and would be deeply offended if I turned up and started drinking soft drink or low alcohol beers. I dont want to totally cut off all my old friends. Maybe next year I will move to full abstinence. Lets see how it all goes.
Cheers,
Kevin
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