People who don't drink- why don't you?

If you are asking you should quit the sooner the better.

Lots of prejudice but I deal with it in a straight up matter of fact way. Anyone who trolls you over not drinking is not worth your time.

I am very thankful and proud that I was able to quit. Drinking alcohol daily after work and throughout the weekends. Tried to quit many times even went to AA but did not like the vibes. So like about half the people who are able to quit I quit on my own the date is a nice palindrome :4/9/94 . Started running a few months later in Sept of 1994. Running filled the void. I felt GREAT HIGH after each run. It made the difference. I owe my life to running.

How is your marriage given the circumstances? Genuinely curious.

The issue with beer in the US is that it falls into 2 categories:

(1) Macro-brew garbage that nobody with a remotely reasonable level of income can stand to drink;

(2) Craft/micro-brews created by hipsters with thick beards. Many of these beers are awesome, but it seems like they compete on having the highest % alcohol. The result is great beers, but with 7-9% alcohol, which is way too high.

If you enjoy a good brew, the answer to this is to drink session ales, which are more the norm in Europe and becoming increasingly common in the US.

Alcohol makes me feel lousy, unless it's a mixed girly drink where you can't taste the alcohol. Even then, 2 drinks and I'm all set. In College, your friends always need a DD and usually they'll be drunk and generous with their money when you take them to get post-party grinds.

Drink yourself to death - nobody cares. Shoot some smack up your shaft - go to jail. What a hypocracy.

We've been married for going-on 30 years now, and it's not great. But some years ago a divorced friend told my spouse that the only thing worse than staying married is getting divorced. I think this has stayed with my spouse, who otherwise would probably have called it quits years ago.

This is perhaps connected to my 90-year-old mother-in-law, a very sweet person who seems to like me a lot. It is possible that my spouse is waiting until my mother-in-law dies before cutting me loose. Kids are grown--got out of the house as soon as they reasonably could, and mostly stay away.

My spouse and I do very little together--has no interest in traveling with me, usually says no (pleasantly) to offers of movies or shows or dinners out. Has a nice circle of friends/coworkers--selected in part, I think, for their ability to be drinking buddies--and frequently spends time with them. For a variety of reasons, including family history, I suspect that if I started drinking I would be an alcoholic too, and maybe not control it as well as my spouse mostly does--spouse is a high-functioning alcohol addict (and Ph.D) who's able to hold down and keep a well-paying job.

We get along well most of the time. After a couple decades you learn what situations might set someone off, and you get better at avoiding them. I went to AlAnon a few times, but couldn't stomach the religious aspect. I will say that I think I was a somewhat better person after each meeting, though. And one of my kids went to AlaTeen (sp?) regularly for a while, and found it helpful.

It caused insomnia on several occasions.

I don't drink for a variety of reasons. Have no intention of arguing about them in this forum.

AND, I have never cared a fig about what other people thought of my personal decisions. I don't break any laws and I don't infringe on the rights of others.

drinking alcohol or not is no different than the briefs or boxers dilemma. To each his own.

Inspired by this post, enjoying my last beer right now before going on 11 weeks of sobriety before my next marathon.

I don't have a problem by any stretch, mostly on a handful of beers on the weekend, but it encouraged me to at least give "seasonable sobriety" a shot. I don't anticipate it will affect my running or my life much at all in general, but I think it's important stuff to think about. I cannot remember where I read it, but one of the most impactful definitions of addiction was the "inability to abstain." As someone who extremely enjoys drinking some local craft beers, it's not something I am "thrilled" about, but I do run a ton of mileage and I am looking forward to see if it makes any difference at all.

Thanks all.

Do you people realize you can drink a beer and still be sober?

i'm turning to kamboocha.

too easy to convince yourself two is better than one. it's a fine line.

maybe a better way to say it is I am "abstaining" for 11weeks.

Bad Wigins wrote:

stop the trolling wrote:

I still can't decide if you are a troll or one of the most insufferably pedantic aholes of all time. Probably both.

Having tried heroin, coke, lsd, shrooms, mdma, weed and meth, I can tell you that alcohol is not even close to being the strongest drug. Stop spouting off about crap that you don't understand.

You're just a self-righteous idiot. If you knew half as much about drugs as you think you do, you wouldn't assume your experience was unique, let alone act proud of it.

I'd explain why alcohol is so strong, but all you're worth is insults. Get a life, if you can.

While I agree with your mention of wouldn't assuming his experience was unique, I didn't get the sense he was proud of it.

Regardless, as a molecular neuroscientist I'd LOVE to hear why you think alcohol is the most powerful drug. There are objective measures of this, EC50 (how much of the drug provides half of its maximal response) and LD50 (how much of the drug kills 50% of the people/subjects who try it.) Alcohol isn't in the top 50 of either. You are wrong.

not assuming*

John utah wrote:Do you people realize you can drink a beer and still be sober?

some people are right wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

You're just a self-righteous idiot. If you knew half as much about drugs as you think you do, you wouldn't assume your experience was unique, let alone act proud of it.

I'd explain why alcohol is so strong, but all you're worth is insults. Get a life, if you can.

While I agree with your mention of wouldn't assuming his experience was unique, I didn't get the sense he was proud of it.

Regardless, as a molecular neuroscientist I'd LOVE to hear why you think alcohol is the most powerful drug. There are objective measures of this, EC50 (how much of the drug provides half of its maximal response) and LD50 (how much of the drug kills 50% of the people/subjects who try it.) Alcohol isn't in the top 50 of either. You are wrong.

In terms of damage to society, it is the most powerful drug. Drunk driving, domestic violence, violent crime... ~ 100000 deaths per year, almost double the death-rate of overdose with illicit drugs per year.

Stem cells wrote:

I spent years drinking myself nearly to death. I was drinking to blackout daily, I would wake up and start drinking, drink through work, drive drunk DAILY.

It's honestly a miracle that I never managed to kill myself or someone else.

I haven't had a sip since 2010.

As this is a running site-

PRs when drinking:

12:20 2-mile

PRs after quitting:

4:43 mile

10:02 2-mile

15:50 5k

1:13 half

2:37 full (horrid conditions)

Thank you for sharing this.

some people are right wrote:

Regardless, as a molecular neuroscientist I'd LOVE to hear why you think alcohol is the most powerful drug. There are objective measures of this, EC50 (how much of the drug provides half of its maximal response) and LD50 (how much of the drug kills 50% of the people/subjects who try it.) Alcohol isn't in the top 50 of either. You are wrong.

As a molecular neuroscientist you erroneously think comparing mass of lethal dose is a relevant context. Do you suppose a heroin addict is going to inject from a 12 oz, or even 1 oz syringe? People that take drugs know the appropriate dose. Not to mention the power of a drug has to do with much more than its toxicity. You might as well go calling cyanide or sarin powerful drugs by your standards.

Alcohol is the most powerful because:

1) it impairs neuromuscular function at normal doses. Opiods, stimulants, weed, etc don't normally make you fall down or crash your car. They can only shut down your coordination indirectly by putting you to sleep or making you spastic, typically at high doses.

2) it can make you lose control of yourself. Violence, noise disturbance, bad judgement. These are far more common with alcohol than other drugs.

3) blackout. Few drugs besides alcohol and some benzodiazepines can make you wake up with no memory of what you did the night before.

4) Toxicity. Though your standards for a "powerful" drug are incorrect, when you consider health risk, alcohol does much more harm to the body than the relatively tiny doses of other drugs. One drink is an entire ounce. An addicted alcoholic goes through "detox." Other addicts, strictly speaking, go through only "withdrawal."

More than any other drug, alcohol has the potential to turn you into someone other than yourself. That's powerful.

You sound confused.

I don't drink.

I don't get crap either from colleagues or friends

You must be having immature drunks for friends.

I was a 1 beer/glass of wine per night drinker but got diagnosed about a month ago with grade 2 esophagitis based on endoscopic imaging and was having some severe heartburn/reflux issues after greasy meals/alcohol. Although I don't blame the alcohol entirely, I've decided to cut it out. I've had no symptoms since and don't miss the booze.