"I haven’t been drunk in 3 years... and I’ve been partying way more than you."

http://hellobubs.com/post/17052863136/i-havent-been-drunk-in-3-years-and-ive-been

by dariusmonsef • 14 years ago

349 221 14 years ago

hellobubs.com

badclient• 14 years ago

This is funny because I've never touched alcohol but am often accused of being drunk.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

you're just naturally fun, and maybe a little crazy. :)

davidw• 14 years ago

Moderation seems like a good approach. I like a nice glass of wine with dinner. I don't like being drunk, though.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

Like with most things it's easy to slide down a slippery slope. One glass of wine turns into two and then you've polished off the rest of the bottle. A glass of wine is something I may add back in like 20-30 years, but honestly I don't miss it that much. You're either alone and should just find a way to be in that happy, light place without the wine... or it's a social thing and you can find another delicious drink to socialize with. (hot cocoa, coconut-lime soda, etc.)

And the buddhist in my fully appreciates a moderation / middle way approach... But what is that glass of wine getting you? Is it strictly a taste thing? Is it the antioxidants? My guess is there are comparable things that would be you those same positive results of a glass of wine.

anatoli3• 14 years ago

Just because you can't regulate your alcohol consumption, doesn't mean that the rest of us can't either.

Don't try and force your own choices on other people.

sliverstorm2• 14 years ago

My guess is there are comparable things that would be you those same positive results of a glass of wine

Don't keep us in suspense then, because the only things I can think of that give you similar results to wine are beer and liquor.

adambyrtek• 14 years ago

Using your own argument, what is hot cocoa and coconut-lime soda getting you? Is it strictly a taste thing?

callahad• 14 years ago

My guess is there are comparable things that would be you those same positive results of a glass of wine.

That seems to be begging the question, if I'm using that term correctly. You're starting from the premise that the glass of wine has significant deleterious effects, and thus should readily be avoided if other goods can replace it. I'm not sure I personally agree with that premise.

pwthornton6• 14 years ago

For most people one glass of wine doesn't turn into a bottle. That's called a problem.

I enjoy having a glass of wine while I'm reading. It's relaxing and goes well with reading. Sometimes I have a glass of wine, take a bath and read. One day when you drink wine again you should try it.

rimantas• 14 years ago

http://www.fallacyfiles.org/slipslop.html

watty• 14 years ago

Good for him but not sure why he feels the need to push his zero-alcohol policy on others. I'd guess more people drink for other reasons than to "get drunk" but I guess this was his only reason.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

Didn't think I was being pushy... just suggesting an alternative. And I would say for most people drinking is for the purposes of getting drunk / buzzed. All I'm suggesting is that people take on the challenge of trying to achieve that state of mind that getting buzzed gets you, when sober. Be able to find that place where you're more carefree, relaxed and fun... so you can find it anytime and then be it all the time.

_delirium• 14 years ago

For college students I think that's true, but I wouldn't say for most people alcohol consumption is mainly for getting drunk/buzzed. Most people are somewhere between 0 drinks and "bottle of wine", along the lines of "a beer or two while watching a football game" or "a glass of wine or two with dinner".

I mean I guess you could drink soft drinks with dinner, but to me that's a weird unnatural thing to do (super-sweet, and doesn't fit well either taste- or culture-wise with traditional European cuisine). Water is ok, and I do drink that sometimes.

sliverstorm2• 14 years ago

You suggest alternatives in both the article and in every comment on this page. You're being pushy.

aepstein• 14 years ago

As his co-founder, I can assure you he doesn't push his "policy" on anyone else. Far from it. It's more a philosophy of being present for every moment, and living life to the fullest.

And pretty sure he was the one that bought a bottle of champagne for our team to celebrate the end of our adventure through YC...just he didn't drink any.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

Uhoh. I bought you a bottle of champagne and suggested you drink it... guess that was a little pushy.

matwood• 14 years ago

It's more a philosophy of being present for every moment, and living life to the fullest.

Interesting that you equate living life to the fullest with not drinking. Drinking a great beer with some friends or having a nice glass of cab with a big steak is high on my list of things to do while living life to the fullest.

jneen• 14 years ago

Especially with alcohol, there's a huge difference between what's promised and what's delivered. It seems to promise fun and relaxation, but really it just makes you a little wobbly and a little sick.

A friend of mine would always joke that "we're in for a night of beer and yelling!". It kind of put things in perspective.

noamsml2• 14 years ago

Interesting take on fun and relaxation: Try going to a party and drinking non-alcoholic beer. It tastes kind of meh, but overall delivers the same experience. One surprising result of that is that drinking non-alcoholic beer (which has the same alcohol content as some brands of orange juice) tends to loosen you up a fair bit, because it has all the trappings and promises of an alcoholic beer. Turns out the actual alcohol is incidental to those effects.

noamsml2• 14 years ago

I know a lot of people who go out to bars, drink, and spend the entire night shouting about how drunk they are and how drunk they were all those other times they went drinking. I don't get it. I've never been a heavy partier, but my craziest, weirdest, most memory-making times have all been stone sober.

drewblaisdell• 14 years ago

While I'm glad that someone found that total sobriety is the best for them, I found parts of this to be a bit distasteful. The times in my life when I overdid it a bit (or a lot) with the drinking, the next day I found myself thinking "wow, I acted like such an idiot last night", not "I could have acted like the same idiot without alcohol".

If I'm at a bachelor party making gay jokes ("no homo"), the amount of alcohol I've consumed is somewhat irrelevant.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

What parts did you find distasteful? I was conscious when writing this to keep an air of mtv beachhouse / jersey shore tone in it... That's the kind of partying that has been glamorized and what a lot of people seek out on the weekend.

I definitely don't suggest people act like idiots. I was simply trying to relate to the people that are probably overdoing it the most.

carbocation3• 14 years ago

Well, drewblaisdell named one of the distasteful parts directly, but I can quote it in isolation to make it more clear:

> at a bachelor party making gay jokes ("no homo")

reledi• 14 years ago

To me, you came across as somewhat of an evangelist. You showed us how much better off you are because you no longer drink, and for all those reasons, everyone else should also stop drinking.

It's certainly possible to have fun while being sober, in fact I think that's how most people have their fun. The fun they experience while drunk is a different type of fun.

For example, your friends are holding beers in the pictures of your partying experiences. You got to experience their drunk fun. If everyone was sober, you may have had a different type of fun. Skinny dipping, for example, is probably a choice made most often when you're not sober. My point is that a lot of the sober fun you experienced, you have your drunk friends to thank for.

philwelch• 14 years ago

"I was conscious when writing this to keep an air of MTV beachhouse /jersey shore"

I was wondering why you came across as a smug, arrogant douchebag.

Lewton3• 14 years ago

I did this for four months. (Started drinking again around new years because it seemed highly appropriate)

I definitely got the "Wow, you've been sober for 4 months?!? But we partied so hard last friday!" thing a lot. When people are drunk, they really don't notice you not being drunk..

I agree with most of the article, and will probably go back on the wagon again soon. But he left out some of the negative stuff... For example.. How grating it gets when your friends get so drunk that they start to repeat themselves... Over and over again.. And how hard it can be to get a point across to someone who's drunk when you're sober. Making conversations, at times, highly frustrating. When I'm drunk I'm just as stupid and the conversations run smoothly!

gliese1337• 14 years ago

Those are definite negatives to hanging out with drunk people. But, they don't really go away just because you're drunk, too. People are still bad at conversation, you just start to not notice. If your primary intent is just to be sociable, that probably solves the problem, but if your intent is to actually talk about something, it's just avoidance.

My preferred solution is to hang out with other people who are also not drunk, but still intent on partying. My freshman year of college developed a saying that I really should've started using in high school: "The Best Things in Life Happen When You Could Be Mistaken for Drunk, But Aren't."

Lewton3• 14 years ago

Having good conversations doesn't necesarilly have anything to do with having structured well thought out dialogue.

"Clicking" with someone, and having a great time incoherently talking about dumb stuff while laughing, can be just as fulfilling (but in a different way) than an intelligent enlightening discussion. Sure, you don't need alcohol to talk about dumb stuff with someone you're level with. But I find that alcohol severely expands the demographic of people I can get that kind of interaction going with

anonhacker• 14 years ago

Indeed this has crossed my mind many times... I have blacked out far too often and thought to myself, whats the point if i don't remember anything the next day?

That being said, it's easy to claim that you can be just as fun,charismatic,etc without alcohol, but I have tried before and its really hard. Can you share how you transitioned to being drunk sober?

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

I tried to outline some of those things in the post... ie, getting your friends on board so they don't make the non-drinking an awkward issue. Drinking something else as a social crutch. Give yourself permission to act a bit silly, just go along with the other people around you.

I'm not saying it's an easy thing. But if you can get to the point where you can be just as fun,happy, charismatic sober... You have that ability anytime you want it.

pwthornton6• 14 years ago

Most people who stop drinking do it for either health reasons (allergic, acid reflux, etc.) or because they are an alcoholic. He doesn't fully explain why he stopped drinking, and I'm wonder if it is because he had issues with drinking.

I do want to add before I write more that if you don't enjoy drinking, don't do it. Just because other people are doing it that doesn't mean you should. I know some people who don't actually enjoy alcohol, but they still feel like it's the thing to do socially. If you enjoy not drinking, rock it.

If you're out of your early 20s and you're still getting drunk regularly, you probably have an alcohol problem. I'm 27 and haven't been drunk in years. I drink a few times a week and usually only have a drink or two. I might have three-ish tomorrow because of the big game.

It's fine if you don't want to drink, but there is something missing from his story. Maybe he needed to stop drinking, but many of us can responsibly handle and enjoy alcohol.

I love beer. I love trying different kinds of beer. I love the taste, and I want to discover new kinds.

If you're drinking alcohol just to get drunk that's the issue. Many of us drink beer, wine or mixed drinks because we actually enjoy the drink.

I know I have a few tasty microbrews lined up for tomorrow.

ElliotH• 14 years ago

I'm not sure. I've started taking a break from alcohol recently, and while I'm not sure I'll do it forever I am loving the side-effects like more disposable income, general feeling of healthiness after a night out and such. There's lot s of reasons to consider stopping drinking other than serious health issues or alcoholism.

And this is coming from someone who really enjoys good whiskey and local ale, so I really do miss the taste.

Lewton3• 14 years ago

IMO. He clearly explained why he stopped drinking (wanting to actually experience everything with a clear mind).

I stopped drinking to see if I could. Compared to that, his explanation is more than enough

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

Never had issues. I thought I explained in the post that I did it as a challenge to not need the "liquid courage" to do all the fun stuff when partying with friends. I guess that is an issue, but would be a confidence issue... not an alcohol one.

I have plenty of friends who drink socially, have been drunk every so often and are in their 30s. I don't think any of them have drinking problems.

You mention a couple times that there is something missing from the story but I wonder if you read the post? My story explains that I did it as a challenge. To not need the social support of drinking, so I can experience a party at any time... without alcohol.

My point was not to say alcohol is bad for everybody or that if you drink you have a problem... again, I was speaking about people "partying" ie drinking 4+ drinks. If you drink in moderation or have a glass of wine here or there, then the post wasn't addressing your lifestyle.

yason2• 14 years ago

In Finland we have this joke that "You can't have fun without alcohol but you can have alcohol without fun—thus prefer the former, obviously."

Dove2• 14 years ago

"You can't have fun without alcohol"? Really? Is that some kind of a typo or do you guys really say that?

Tharkun2• 14 years ago

You obviously haven't been to Finland, have you? Finnish males communicate by grunts and don't express emotions when sober. When drunk, they communicate by brawls and express emotions in streams of vomit.

Seriously, spend a night in Helsinki sometimes, it's an eye-opener.

yason2• 14 years ago

It's a joke but like with many jokes the bigger the grain of truth the better. Another classic is "Having fun without alcohol is pretense." These are typically said when, for example, planning an evening out with friends or gathering at someone's place and the question of "Ok, shall we drink something, too, then?" comes up.

More often than not the collective conclusion is that of why not have a few beers since we're going to have some fun time anyway--probably motivated by the fear of not actually having fun without those beers. And then inevitably some of the participants stretch the meaning of "few" and you can witness something like this act by a Swedish guy who captures something of the essence of Finnish drunkenness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAl9OyGYxOg

Note that we can't generalize from this. Many Finnish people are decent with regard to the consumption of alcohol and many citizens of numerous other countries often drink too much. But there is a certain difference between Finland and many nations. What is common in Finland—or first frowned upon but immediately dismissed as "I'll do it too"—is generally considered a very undesirable way to embarrass yourself in many other countries.

ccollins• 14 years ago

A couple of years ago, I spent Thanksgiving with a friend and the first thing he warned was, "My family does not drink alcohol!". Interesting... I am accustomed to intoxicated family parties, but on that specific Thanksgiving, 20 of us drank tea and ate turkey. It was pleasant.

After dinner, his father (a Doctor, along with 80% of the family) shared his views about alcohol, predicting that in one generation alcohol will be socially rejected the way tobacco is today because of how utterly destructive alcohol is to the human body.

Remember! Just 50 years ago, the majority of the United States had no problem with cigarettes.

I still drink, along with almost every adult I know, though I cannot help but think that my friend's dad is right.

georgieporgie5• 14 years ago

Don't forget that around a hundred years ago, alcohol was pretty socially unacceptable.

pwthornton6• 14 years ago

Maybe in some Protestant circles, but in many parts and communities of the country, that was never the case. Catholics, Jews, Germans and some other immigrants 100 years ago were very much into drinking, as it is part of their culture.

pwthornton6• 14 years ago

There are plenty of studies that show alcohol is good for people in moderation, unlike smoking. Your friends father's views on alcohol will not happen. Prohibition was a massive failure in the U.S.

In fact, people who drink live longer than those that don't: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2017200,00....

Even heavy drinkers outlive those who abstain. Let that sink in.

The big issue with drinking isn't what happens to one's body, but rather what drinking causes some to do -- drunk driving, rape, assaults, etc. The biggest scourge from drinking is that it causes some people to do terrible things. And while heavy drinking can cause issues with one's body, that pales in comparison to what a drunk can do to others.

DanBC• 14 years ago

[snip]

Whoops! Apologies.

zedshaw• 14 years ago

> The sample of those who were studied included individuals between ages 55 and 65 who had had any kind of outpatient care in the previous three years.

So they sampled a conveniently sick group of elderly men and then "controlled" for all the things that make them elderly men and that showed that the heavy drinkers lived 2nd longest (not the longest)?

I suspect that they probably had to cook their statistics in order to support their hypothesis. You find that when they have to "control for everything", instead of finding research subjects that they can actually randomize and properly control. They probably had so many variables controlled that it was just bound to fit whatever model they came up with.

zobzu2• 14 years ago

yeah, because 500 years ago we were also smoking and only figured now that it was really terrible. on the other hand, 500 years ago we were also drinking and we've still no clue how alcohol is!

oh uhm, actually it appears we do with great details. Damn.

jamesredman• 14 years ago

Light alcohol consumption has been shown to have a beneficial effect on health. I'm not sure where this doctor is getting his information from, but in terms of stress relief, a couple alcoholic beverages a week does not appear to be utterly distructive to the human body.

corin_7• 14 years ago

Big, big difference. If someone gets drunk at the same table as me they aren't doing me any harm, as long as they don't attack me, or drive me anywhere - that's a long way from sitting next to someone puffing away on a cigarette...

Perceval3• 14 years ago

The actual damages of alcohol to society are massive and well-documented: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11660210

Alcohol far and away leads the pack in causing harm to others.

commandar3• 14 years ago

>After dinner, his father (a Doctor, along with 80% of the family) shared his views about alcohol, predicting that in one generation alcohol will be socially rejected the way tobacco is today because of how utterly destructive alcohol is to the human body.

I think this has a likelihood approaching nil.

The consumption of alcohol is literally as old as human civilization; humans first stumbled upon fermenting grains into ale around the time humans first began farming.

There would have to be some sort of ground breaking discovery to attach the same sort of health stigma to alcohol as tobacco. Right now, the research is extremely mixed. The continual debate over possible health benefits of wine would be one indicator. The fact that data indicates that complete abstainers generally live shorter lives than those who drink would be another.[1]

>Remember! Just 50 years ago, the majority of the United States had no problem with cigarettes.

Remember! Less than 100 years ago, the anti-alcohol movement in the United States was strong enough to put Prohibition into place.

And what's interesting about that is that it illuminates another key place where I think the idea that alcohol will suddenly become socially unacceptable is completely off the mark. We've consumed alcohol for thousands of years, and we've been fairly aware of its destructive effects for nearly as long because alcohol is more immediately destructive than tobacco.

One of the biggest drivers of the temperance movement in the late 19th and early 20th century were women. In the time predating modern social safety nets and women's liberation movements, a woman with a drunk for a husband would end up with mouths to feed and very few options for making an income.

Yet prohibition was a disaster on a grand scale because society at large rejected it. It would take a major sea change for things to be any different today or in 50 years.

[1]http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2017200,00....

brazzy4• 14 years ago

Slavery, Torture as a judical tool and blood feuds are also literally as old as human civilization and yet have recently fallen out of favor.

As for mixed research results - no surprise when there's a huge industry and status quo bias funding one side of it.

randomdata2• 14 years ago

Prohibition was rejected because it was forced upon people, but I could see people start to "naturally" reject alcohol as they have tobacco. Drinking and driving used to be the normal thing to do, now you are an evil, evil person for even considering it. The straight up consumption of alcohol could easily go the same way.

nostrademons• 14 years ago

Alcohol's been around for millenia because for millenia, humans could not reliably find safe water sources. All sorts of microbes like to grow in water; if it weren't for the cellular poison known as ethanol, you'd probably be drinking giardia, cholera, E.coli, and all sorts of other microbes along with your water.

It was only the development of municipal water chlorination that made alcohol unnecessary. That didn't start getting widespread adoption until the 1930s (two generations ago), and wasn't legislated until 1972 (one generation ago). So it's certainly conceivable that within one generation, alcohol will go the way of tobacco.

lunarscape• 14 years ago

>predicting that in one generation alcohol will be socially rejected the way tobacco is today because of how utterly destructive alcohol is to the human body.

He's not the only doctor to think that way. "Alcohol is the most dangerous drug in the UK by a considerable margin, beating heroin and crack cocaine into second and third place, according to an authoritative study published today which will reopen calls for the drugs classification system to be scrapped and a concerted campaign launched against drink." http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/nov/01/alcohol-more-h...

alexholehouse• 14 years ago

I'm really surprised at the level of hostility in these comments. I read this not as a preachy, "do this or waste your life" type post, but as a reflection of one man's experience and the very positive outcome that this lifestyle change had.

Maybe it's not relevant for some people - if you're not the kind of person who parties and gets drunk regularly (where regularity is obviously subjective) then clearly his experience may well be irrelevant. On the other hand, if you are, maybe you can try it - maybe it won't work for you and maybe it will.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

Thank you. That was how I meant it... simply suggesting a hack to my life that worked out really well for me.

The hostile reaction was a bit of a surprise.

potatolicious2• 14 years ago

When I read the post I didn't get a very sanctimonious feeling out of it.

But quotes like these are not at all defusing the hostility:

> "Like with most things it's easy to slide down a slippery slope. One glass of wine turns into two and then you've polished off the rest of the bottle."

You've gone from "here's a great idea" to "if you're not doing it my way you're on a slippery slope to hell", and I think that's the tone people are objecting to.

gyardley• 14 years ago

Hmmm. Well, my strong negative reaction to it started with the last three words in the title.

Note how different "I haven’t been drunk in 3 years... and I’ve been partying way more than you" comes across, when compared to something like "I haven’t been drunk in 3 years… and I’ve been partying a ton!"

As soon as you mention "more than you", you're making a direct comparison of your behavior to your readers' behavior, and that not only comes across as judgmental, it invites criticism from anyone who behaves differently and prefers it. (Like, for instance, me - I enjoy a quality beer or wine, but for me your social life, drunk or sober, would be the ninth circle of hell.)

tpr1m• 14 years ago

Not sure why you're surprised after including a baity and condescending title.

cbs2• 14 years ago

>The hostile reaction was a bit of a surprise.

Its a bit of a strange state of affairs when a sober person announces that fact to people who drink. There's actually a great cracked article that explores this dynamic (I'll post this and then edit with the link if I can find it). When someone who drinks is told by someone who doesn't that they don't drink, they have a hard time not perceiving it as dig against them for drinking, or a 'holier than thou' kind of statement.

Given the prevalence of drinking in society, its easier to explore the concept in regard to marijuana. I can't even count the number of times I've said something along the lines of "you've never smoked? come smoke a bowl?". When the culture you're a part of has the idea that everyone is going to do it some time, with some sort of frequency (be it very very low or every night) hearing people against it completely is is a bit... odd to deal with. Its like finding out the person you're hanging with has completely opposite political views as you. Even if you're both OK with it and want to move onto a new topic of discussion, its awkward.

edit http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-things-you-dont-realize-about-...

salemh3• 14 years ago

I found the post more of a great philosophy of a life approach -- even outside the "sober vs not" theme. Sometimes hostility from others who are not sober can come from the turn of an introspective eye (conscious or subconscious) to themselves. Meaning, seeing someone else sober, can make one question their own lack of sobriety, even if no chronic problem exists (alcoholism, etc.) Some cog. therapy stuffs. Found it in myself (inebriated) and with friends / others (when I am sober). Its interesting to see the reactions or non-reaction when one "thinks" you are intoxicated, when not, and those same people in a different setting knowing you are Not intoxicated.

corin_7• 14 years ago

First, I agree with people pointing out that alcohol doesn't have to be for getting drunk. At the moment I have three near-empty boxes of beer (bottles), six part-drunk bottles of whisky, and a few empty wine bottles. None of that alcohol has been consumed by myself or anyone else to the point of being even buzzed, yet alone drunk.

However, I do enjoy getting drunk. I've never drunk so much I threw up, or fell over, or hit anyone, or... etc. But yes, when I'm out with friends or colleagues we will happily enjoy a night with much alcohol flowing - enough to be classed by the UK government as "booze drinking", at least.

I sometimes do or say something I feel embarassed about afterwards (most recent example was a conversation about poetry with a London taxi driver at ~5am), but nothing I've been ashamed of.

Sure, I can have fun without alcohol. Sometimes I do - certainly I've never had the thought that being drunk is a requirement for having fun. It just provides a different type of fun. Different things make you laugh, you have different conversations...

Obviously these things vary for different people, I've known people who I don't want to be around when they're drunk - but also plenty of people just like me.

edit: Just read the first paragraph of this comment and thought "I wrote that myself and even I think that sounds like an alcoholic in denial". When I'm out and drinking I'll drink a lot, when I'm at home I'll have a glass or two over an evening. If I tried to get drunk off the whisky I have at home it would be a really expensive night.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

I really didn't intend to say drinking or not drinking was right/wrong for everybody... just trying to tell my story and what I've found worked well for me.

I would love to know what the beer/whisky/wine brought to your time with your friends, it it wasn't for getting drunk/buzzed? Honestly curious.

anatoli3• 14 years ago

Do you only appreciate a nice steak frites because it makes you full?

You seem to think that it's impossible to genuinely appreciate the flavour of alcoholic drinks and to have interest in drinking the many kinds for the variety of interesting flavours.

Why should I avoid certain drinks simply because they have alcohol in them? Can you explain?

corin_7• 14 years ago

Regarding the first paragraph - it brings taste. Same reason we eat nice food rather than the cheapest most nutritional food we can find. It's not alcohol for the sake of alcohol, if I had a bottle of vodka at home I wouldn't bother drinking it. Come to think of it, I think I actually do have a bottle of vodka somewhere in a draw in my bedroom... it's there because I haven't ever wanted to get drunk at home since I was given it 9 months ago.

Whisky in particular I can't get enough of (in the hyperbolic way, not the "I literally drink as much as I can" way!) - I forgot to include, when looking around the room, that I have ~15 30ml bottle samples of various whiskies that I haven't tried, which I regularly add to and try. After trying them I might add it to my mental list of real bottles to buy in the future... often won't.

jakejake• 14 years ago

It sounds like you have a really high tolerance for alcohol. I've had a few friends like that, they could drink a whole case of beer. I myself drink 3 beers and I'm pretty well buzzed. Never could drink that kind if quantity. I do enjoy a great beer, though.

A few of my buds with the high tolerance seemed to get themselves into trouble eventually with booze, though. DUIs in particular, lots of legals bills. One turned raging alcoholic and is still in a shambles.

Not trying to say that will happen to you, I just notice of my friend for whom booze did become a problem - they share that trait of being able to drink a lot without seeking to ever get drunk.

corin_7• 14 years ago

I believe there are various medical reasons for alcohol to effect people differently (one of which is body weight, which presumably is a part of it for me), but also it's very influenced by experience. The more you drink, the better you can hold your drink.

I think that's probably the reason for your link between people with high tolerance and people for whom alcohol became a problem. It's not that having a high tolerance is problematic, it's just that anyone who gets drunk enough to have problems with it has probably drunk enough in the past to have built up a pretty good tolerance.

Personally I find my tolerance level varies greatly - I assume things like tiredness, what I've eaten, time between drinks and other stuff is in play, but I've never really clocked the exact causes. For example when I'm at Arsenal games I'll always have a couple of glasses of wine at half time, and usually feel a bit buzzed from them - drinking the same while in a restaurant, or at home, wouldn't do anything. Presumably there's a pattern of my behaviour before/during these games that makes it happen.

geuis• 14 years ago

I like to drink. I love the taste of a good bitter beer. I love trying different kinds of scotch and wiskey. I've had some of the best times just drinking with friends. Everything doesn't have to be a soul searching adventure.

I don't get wild and belligerent when I drink. So there's definitely no need to be that way sober.

zobzu2• 14 years ago

Obviously this story has nothing to do with alcohol. It's just some kind of deflection.

It's about he had a cancer in the eye, realized life's short, cancer got fixed and he lived his life the way he actually wanted but never dared to.

georgieporgie5• 14 years ago

The author comes across as projecting, having social issues, and obsessing on "achieving" juvenile behavior (not to say I don't engage in juvenile behavior, but it comes naturally). Flagged.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

I probably was projecting a bit... as I was telling my story. The experiences, the reasons to change, etc. Were all personal reasons. And yes the focus on juvenile behavior was because I was writing to the people who party this way. What I didn't expect was so many casual drinkers to think I was speaking to them to to take offense.

ryan-allen• 14 years ago

You're going to hit nerves no matter what you say. You're discussing the use of a widely legal and popular narcotic.

I think the only mistake you made was submitting this piece to Hacker News in the first place.

To write about your personal experiences is fine, to submit them to a resource of useful information is a whole other matter.

xiaoma2• 14 years ago

I'm not sure I follow the author's reasoning. It's also possible to have a great time without consuming meat, without having sex or even without including friends in the activity. So what?

pavel_lishin2• 14 years ago

I can start a fire by rubbing two sticks together, but I'll still bring matches to a campout.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

If you drink alcohol to get buzzed/drunk in order to be more relaxed/social/happy, etc. All I'm suggesting is that it might be possible for you to achieve that without drinking... and then you can access that place any time you want.

If you enjoy drinking and don't need it for the above. Awesome for you.

gst• 14 years ago

Just speculation, but I have the impression that alcohol "problems" are a larger problem in countries where the age required to legally buy alcohol is rather high.

In my home country (Austria) I could buy alcohol at age 13 without any problems. No one would ask for an ID. I think nowadays they are a little bit stricter, but you are still legally allowed to buy alcohol once you turn 16. Once you turn a little bit older alcohol isn't that interesting any more. Of course, you'd still buy a beer (or more) if you're partying with friends, but getting totally wasted is something teenagers would do.

I've moved to the US some time ago, and here I have the impression that even people in their late-twenties get regularly drunk just "because they can" and are "allowed to do so". Seems they just never learned how to use alcohol responsibly while they were young, and at some age it's too late to learn it.

tbsdy• 14 years ago

Most countries don't have such a low limit. Australia is considered low, and we have a national binge drinking problem.

silvestrov• 14 years ago

One thing is the official age limit. Another, and much more important thing, is the age when the parents start serving alcohol to their children.

My parents allowed me to have a small sips starting when I was 5. At that point in my life, I could not understand why adults wanted to drink such awful stuff when there was sweet soda. My parents have never said NO to me when I asked for alcohol.

Result? I learned that alcohol is something you drink in moderation, I've never been (really) drunk, I've never associated alcohol with rebellion or a necessity for having fun or having a diner.

mekoka• 14 years ago

My thoughts exactly. Having traveled a bit, I've noticed that the stiffer the alcohol regulations, the more irresponsible people tend to be with their drinking when they come of age. The result of a whole lot of new found liberties all at once, with no real grasp of what the small prints attached really entail. I remember in my early 20s, when some of my American friends' idea of having fun was let's go out get wasted and I was puzzled by this notion.

In my opinion, being responsible with alcohol requires experience, which we all know is acquired through trials and error. I share the controversial belief that parents should be the ones to responsibly shepherd their kids' drinking habits. They shouldn't just wait for them to turn 21 and discover it in the "wild", or worse, let them go in those popular drinking safaris in Canada or Mexico, where the legal age is lower and regulations somewhat more loosely applied.

meric• 14 years ago

It's a good theory, but on the other hand stiffer alcohol regulations could be a response to a larger underlying prevalence in alcohol abuse.

You often find more police stations in places with more crime. Does that mean police stations cause crime? I doubt it. You could argue police stations cannot reduce crime to the levels of lesser crime areas but you cannot say that police stations are the cause of crime. The reality is: there is crime so you build police stations, not the other way around.

I believe this is the same for alcohol regulations. There are a lot of alcohol abuse so they make alcohol regulations stiffer. It may be true that regulations does nothing to reduce abuse and actually cause people to abuse alcohol even more but there is no evidence to prove this unambiguously.

jmonegro• 14 years ago

You're not alone. I personally experienced in many of the different places I lived in as a teenager, from places where you almost never get carded at all, to places where the threshold is 15/16.

noisebleed• 14 years ago

So, I completely agree with you regarding the observable counterproductive nature of over-restrictive substance laws, but I'm curious why you put "problems" in quotes. I ask because I've seen a tendency in some cultures to feel that alcohol addiction doesn't exist, or that it's an issue that is severely overstated elsewhere.

munchhausen• 14 years ago

I agree that the easy availability of alcohol to teenagers in most European countries seems to achieve the effect that you describe.

There is another angle to this though - is it better to engage in binge drinking right in the middle of adolescence, when the body and mind is at a rapid pace of development, or in your twenties, when you are physically better equipped to deal with the effects of excessive alcohol consumption?

I am not a medical professional, but instinctively, the second option seems to me to be the safer one.

beagle3• 14 years ago

> your twenties, when you are physically better equipped to deal with the effects of excessive alcohol consumption?

Why would you believe that? I don't have any specific knowledge, but I also see no reason to believe that you're better equipped (physiologically) at 25 to handle alcohol than you are at 15.

mhitza• 14 years ago

There is a study on adolescent binge drinking and its effect on the brain; if anyone wants to read it http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2827693/?tool=pm...

In short, it affects spatial working memory, verbal encoding and ability to inhibit ourselves. These effects don't seem that nefarious, and not so prominent in affecting our lives in a significant way; but don't take my word because I'm no neuro scientist.

On the other hand, on personal experience I've seen greater social issues with people that are heavy drinkers in their post adolescence period.

petemcstanley• 14 years ago

To me it's the people in the US who are the responsible ones. I moved here a while ago from Australia. Being blind drunk in Australia is for the most part acceptable at every level of society. Here in the USA, I'm sure it's acceptable somewhere but my experience so far is that it's viewed more like you're a fool who just never learned how to pace yourself.

nvarsj• 14 years ago

I have the gotten the same impression from my wife, who is British. While the typical Brit doesn't go through the same sort of binge period in college, they tend to get drunk much more often throughout life. It's pretty much the norm to go to a family social gathering where everyone gets drunk or near drunk (including the 60+ year old grandfather). In fact, it's considered very odd (even anti-social) to not drink.

readme• 14 years ago

Next stop, Australia.

fertel• 14 years ago

In terms of numbers Austria consumes far more liters per capita per year than the United States. 13.24 liters vs 9.44 liters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_co...

There are other reasons why "binge drinking" appears to be higher in anglo countries (US, Britain, Canada, etc...). Especially among the upper middle class. Longer work weeks than the rest of the industrialized world, less vacation days, etc... Drinking age may play a role in our propensity towards binge drinking, but I think it also has a lot to do with our "work hard, play hard" mentality.

ajarmoniuk• 14 years ago

I think it's the other way round: a high age limit may be a consequence of the drinking problem a society has, as a measure to limit consumption.

olalonde• 14 years ago

Same observation in China: all the heavier drinkers seem to be foreigners (me included).

Now we have to question the cause/effect relationship. Do we have higher age limits because we have alcohol problems or do we have alcohol problems because the age limit is high?

ajuc• 14 years ago

I'm not sure. I think it depends whether the not drinking till some ages is self-imposed, or externaly imposed, and how much external that prohibition is.

For example I weren't drinking till 18, because I was very religious in primary/secondary school, and priests encouraged promising to yourselves to never drink till 18. Most people didn't care, I did (religion is nice mind-hack, btw, it's a shame it stops working when you don't believe it anymore).

So I had to learn to party without alcohol, and I did. Some people were unfriendly because of that, but I figured they were obviously dumb, if me not drinking spoils their fun, so I won't care about them.

Then I got 18, go to university, and drink alcohol like everybody, but never feel the need to drink too much. As for now I'm 28, and I've never had hangover, or lost memory. And I was partying hard at university.

In my country you can buy alcohol from 18, but enforcement is not very strict, so kids start drinking in primary school, because it's cool, because you're gambling system. Of course most people grow up eventually. Binge drinking is a part of culture (well, wódka is Polish/Russian invention :) ), but young people prefer beer, and you have to really want to got drunk, when drinking beer, to got drunk.

I think it more depends on the attitude and example of parents (mine had drink on occasions, but I've never seen my parents drunk. They also never made the alcohol sound like it's some great forbidden fruit they had to protect me from).

kvgr• 14 years ago

I do not think it is about regulation, in Slovakia where I am from or Czech where I study it is really easy to buy alcohol in younger age, but people tend to get shitfaced all the time, regardless whether they are 16 or 26... It depends largely on culture.

VMG• 14 years ago

I recommend the use of cannabis

thomasdavis• 14 years ago

aha I came here for this.

Damn fear campaigns generating 'non-conforming' conformist.

moultano• 14 years ago

Thanks for writing this. I've felt the same way for pretty much my whole life, and I'm glad there are other people who feel the same way. It's a much better investment in yourself to be comfortable being your best, most uninhibited self, without sacrificing mental clarity.

That said, I did hear one argument from a friend once that made me understand drinking a little more. When you drink heavily with a friend, you're in effect saying that you trust that person enough to see you without full control of yourself. It's a more intimate interaction as a result. I half buy that, though I still avoid alcohol.

The most important thing to remember about all this is that there really isn't any judgement involved. When I'm hanging out with people, I want them to be fun and uninhibited. If that requires alcohol, that's fine. It's a personal choice to increase my own happiness, not a judgement of anyone else.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

Agreed, especially on the judgement point. I really didn't intend to, but I think I offended a few people here because it sounded like I was passing judgement on people that do drink.

I just bought my wife a 6-pack of beer from the store yesterday and I think she's the most amazing person on this planet.

kennethologist• 14 years ago

This article was very helpful and it encourged me. I'm in my mid twenties and I've never drank gotten drunk (outside of sampling) and always had peers pressuring me to drink. But this article reaffirmed my reasons for not drinking. Conclusion; I don't see how drinking would enhance my life than when I am sober. Thank Bubs!

mattie0285• 14 years ago

Well its just actually a matter of perspective sometimes. If you think you could still keep up there is no problem so long as you still has control over yourself. Remember that accidents happen when we are not aware of it. Be a responsible drinker.

grogs• 14 years ago

I'm British, I've been crazy drunk 3 times. I don't do that often, I don't really even go clubbing anymore (last time was 6 months ago - in Hungary, gotta go back 10 months for UK clubbing).

I think the drinking culture in the UK is really bad. The French will happily drink a bottle of wine... but with a meal. I definitely drink most people get bored of it pretty quickly. I think it's insane that people get "pissed" weekly. Hangovers are not fun.

However, I have a (mini) fridge just for botted lager, which I dip into when watching football. I have a collection of 8-16year single malt whiskys which I slowly sip of occasionally. I often buy a nice bottle of ale, which goes well with a steak.

No clue why people would continue getting very drunk behond the age of 25. (I'm 21 and mostly bored of it)

kurrent• 14 years ago

"If you’re drunk, you’re not fully there. You don’t remember everything. "

that's part of the whole reason to get drunk for me

Aloisius• 14 years ago

Exactly. Alcohol is for helping me forget the stupid things I'm going to do. Why anyone would want to remember them in vivid detail is beyond me.

kragen• 14 years ago

Maybe if your life is so awful that you want to obliviate it, you should change it instead of drinking.

antidaily• 14 years ago

Wow this guy's life sounds AMAZING. All kidding aside, I'm for anything that makes you happy and doesn't harm others.

mdmarocks• 14 years ago

I agree completely despite being a frequent recreational user of drugs including alcohol. I was once an extremely shy person who on following friends to social gatherings would ignore girls hitting on me and otherwise avoid interaction. I was very lonely so I sought out drugs as a way to subdue my inhibitions. Misguided though that may have been, ecstasy in particular has helped me gain confidence in social situations (due partly to a placebo effect :). I realized that I should and would be able to be comfortable and have fun while sober if I only tried.

Drugs are fun in moderation (let's not throw the babies out with the bathwater) but only to the extent that they cause fun rather than detracting from it. In my experience for a given drug such a point of inflection always exists.

Drinking for the taste also makes sense.

usaar333• 14 years ago

Once a week there is a post on HN where I fail to understand how it got so up-voted. This is that post. If not for the moderate condescension and proselytism, I wouldn't think much of it; instead, I've become inspired to comment.

OP probably does feel more "fun" in a given month than most of us. But the article comes across as though the reader has never experienced such a life.

A lot of us have - in our teenage years. The life of skinny dipping, cross-dressing, and acting like an idiot, all without the aid of alcohol, aptly describes my own. Sure, those times were fun, perhaps among the most fun of my life. But a lot of that fun came from both their novelty and ignorance of the perhaps more enjoyable adult fun (alcohol, sex). Unfortunately, as life went on, those activities grew mundane. (Besides, one seeks higher levels of happiness as he ages, for instance the self-actualization that comes with building a successful business). In a sense, I envy the author's enjoying such activities at 30 as much as a teen would. Why he thinks he is able to would make a great follow-up blog post. Most of society after all shifts to the "adult fun".

On another note, the extremism of the post bothers me. The author equates drinking alcohol with getting drunk. Which of course excessive consumption causes. But I can certainly remember everything if I consume just a few shots, but those said shots certainly make the world around me seem much more entertaining.

blahedo• 14 years ago

Why the false dichotomy? The author seems to imply that the alternatives are 1) never touching a drop of alcohol, or 2) getting blind drunk, being incapable of controlling your actions, and blacking out. There are some good points in there about how you shouldn't "need" alcohol, and arguments against getting totally wasted, but he seems to be completely ignoring a huge, huge middle ground.

johnnyjustice2• 14 years ago

You're completely right for some people. But alot of people think that fun can't be had without alcohol. And its catchy title. But your right, it could say simply "You don't need alcohol to have fun"

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

The title is probably more link-baity then I really intended... and I'm sure a better writer could have some up with something that captured interest without polarizing people.

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

The whole post is less about drinking and more about finding the ability to have an amazing time, any time, owned by your mental ability. If you can do that, and you don't use alcohol to get there, then that's awesome and I'm stoked for you. The post was written for people who do party hard and use alcohol to be happier/more social/funny etc.

ryanwaggoner• 14 years ago

For a lot of people, it's not a false dichotomy; there is no middle ground. And I'm not necessarily talking about alcoholism either (though that qualifies); the insidious thing about alcohol is that it clouds your judgement and makes abuse more likely. So you've had a few drinks and you're having fun, hanging out with friends, feeling pretty good. And then everyone is ordering another round, which is almost certainly a bad idea from a logical perspective. But you're not thinking logically anymore, so you do too.

Think about it like this: how many people who drink have been drunk to the point of throwing up (and subsequently hungover) more than once or twice? Most people who drink would answer yes. And that makes zero sense; what logical person would choose to experience that misery more than once? And yet many do it almost every weekend. Because alcohol screws up your brain.

sunahsuh• 14 years ago

> the insidious thing about alcohol is that it clouds your judgement and makes abuse more likely. So you've had a few drinks and you're having fun, hanging out with friends, feeling pretty good. And then everyone is ordering another round, which is almost certainly a bad idea from a logical perspective. But you're not thinking logically anymore, so you do too.

...or you can hang out with friends who drink like responsible adults (and not like overgrown frat kids.) Excessive drinking isn't a result of alcohol consumption as much as the drinking culture in the US. We have this notion that "when people drink they act like idiots with clouded judgement," which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other countries where attitudes toward alcohol are different there's a marked difference in how people behave under the influence. Now, while you can't do a ton about the way US culture as a whole views alcohol consumption, you can make it a point to socialize with people who know how to have a good time while drinking in moderation (or influence your friends to be more responsible in the way they drink.)

(More about how behavior under the influence is actually determined by our social expectations and not a characteristic of alcohol itself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15265317 For instance, "This basic fact has been proved time and again, not just in qualitative cross-cultural research, but also in carefully controlled scientific experiments - double-blind, placebos and all. To put it very simply, the experiments show that when people think they are drinking alcohol, they behave according to their cultural beliefs about the behavioural effects of alcohol.")

rmc• 14 years ago

what logical person would choose to experience that misery more than once?

Because people are not logical and make decisions and trade offs. As proof, child birth is supposed to be one of the most painful things ever. And yet there are people who do it more than once. People do not make the logical "that was sore, i'd better not do it again" decisions you think they do.

Other examples: smoking, harder drugs, not exercising, eating fatty foods, running a marathon (people can't walk up stairs for a day or two after running a marathon), etc.

pmr_• 14 years ago

The hard part is to realize that you belong to the group that cannot be on the middle ground. It took me at least 4 years to fully realize that. It is everything or nothing. Trying to keep a balance between the two extremes takes so much effort, leaves a lot of room for failure and requires to adapt patterns. The black-and-white approach is simple and effective. It does not require you to think a lot and there is not much room for error.

Thinking clearly about what amount of alcohol is appropriate for you while you are actively incapacitating yourself is just very hard for some people. While I appreciate relativity and nuances it's just not worth it in this case.

shaunxcode• 14 years ago

Sometimes I am surprised to find I am the only straight edge hacker I know. Most of the time though I just don't care. So while I totally concur with the article I fail to see how this parses as hacker news?

johnnyjustice2• 14 years ago

I love the idea, but I am left not knowing what to do next. It ends with a bunch of motivational stuff, give me direct challenges! some concrete action steps and you have yourself a full blogpost article thing thats awesome and can really change the status quo

dariusmonsef31• 14 years ago

I would love to go deeper on this. I don't have the time right now to write what would be a short book length piece, but appreciate the motivation to do it.

Tharkun2• 14 years ago

To each their own. I never drank alcohol, not until long after my student days had come and gone. Some of my best friends never drink, either. It doesn't stop you from having fun, nor does the inverse guarantee you'll have fun. But in the end, it's your own choice, and it's always interesting to see different points of view being discussed on HN.

Haters gonna hate.

kisstheblade• 14 years ago

I've seen these kind of people, and the fact is that they are not "the fun of the party" though they themselves of course can enjoy themselves (and the drunk people don't mind). It's the "drunken" people providing all the fun and atmosphere (no, you don't have to be wasted, just a little drunk so that you don't have so many inhibitions).

pinaceae• 14 years ago

...but being sober is not the same as being on drugs. same fun? no. better fun? define better. different fun.

drugs are a big influence of human history, art pretty much was build on it. you can tell by trends in art which kinds of drugs were fashionable.

it is interesting to "hack" your body with drugs. you change, like vacation from reality.

sobriety is overrated.

drumdance• 14 years ago

It's overrated if it comes easy to you. For some of us it's an achievement.

physcab2• 14 years ago

I get the point of the post. But come on, we're adults. Drinking is a choice. For some people, if having a drink makes them more social and they enjoy it, more power to them. If people choose to be sober and it works for them in their social life, hey, good for them too.

Yes alcohol can be abused. But just because you choose to get shitfaced doesn't mean you don't know how to have fun the "real" way. It also doesn't mean you're an alcoholic. And just because you don't drink, doesn't mean you're the outcast.

Your post would have been a lot more meaningful if you neglected the part about the alcohol altogether. I think what's inspiring is that you chose to go down a different path and it led to amazing things in your life. Drinking is irrelevant and takes away from the good message you try to convey.

peteretep2• 14 years ago

I quit drinking Jan 1st, and commented about that on Facebook. A friend messaged me and told me she'd done just the same, but was explicitly not telling people to avoid judgemental comments. Judgemental comments? lolwhut?

But any time recently people have seen I don't drink, everyone has an opinion. And 90% of those opinions are long-winded justifications on why it's ok the other person drinks.

Drinking in moderation won't kill you. Very occasionally people suggest that there are even medicinal purposes. But: life gets better without alcohol. I went out for my birthday party last night, and we had an awesome night of drunk karaoke, only, I wasn't drinking. I had a load of fun, sang like an idiot in to the microphone with my friends, and got home safe, having spent almost no cash.

Giving up drinking for me was like giving up smoking before it: I really realized I could just no longer justify doing it. Ever. It's a literal poison, and the idea that you can't bond, have fun, and have crazy nights without it is all bullshit.

physcab2• 14 years ago

> the idea that you can't bond, have fun, and have crazy nights without it is all bullshit

Right, and I realize that. You're making the same point the OP did. But I'm saying you can bond, have fun, and have crazy nights with alcohol and thats ok too. It's a personal choice either way.

oe• 14 years ago

I don't know if it's a Finnish tradition only, but a lot of people (around 14% of population in 2010) stop drinking for the month of January. For some it's a way of giving a break for their livers, and some want to see if they are still able to completely stop drinking.

The good thing is having one month per year where it's almost socially acceptable to not drink any alcohol. Of course everyone could just drink moderately all year, but that doesn't seem to happen.

baby• 14 years ago

Looks like he's bragging more than anything else, and the sad part in it, I really don't think he partied the way I did.

gmantastic• 14 years ago

Great post. I stopped drinking for good 2 years ago, after 20 odd years of being drunk pretty much every night. For me, the enjoyment was gone, and only the habit remained, along with a pile of worries about if/when my health would fail. After a rough few days, I've not looked back, and have no plans to drink again (I could never moderate). I too have lost weight, feel great, and still enjoy parties. My wife is somewhat dismayed that the stupid behaviour she put down to the drink is actually the real me and my warped mind! If you like drinking and can drink in moderation, then keep going, but if you need to stop, then go for it. Just stop fully, and stay stopped. NB: I found Allen Carr's "Easy Way to Control Alcohol" book useful - he uses some great imagery I found helpful in the early days after stopping.

INTPenis• 14 years ago

Insecure people drink because they can't deal with their real selves. If you're secure with who you are, you won't need to alter your mind to do something.

salemh3• 14 years ago

What is caffeine then?

tluyben2• 14 years ago

While of course his 'main idea' is solid; you don't need drugs (alcohol being a particularly addictive and unhealthy one) to have a good time, but saying that he never had “Wow, I’m so glad I did that thing I did last night. It’s significantly improved my life.“ => that's crap, at least, I am not him, but I have had that, so did all my friends. Of course you don't wake up and think 'it's significantly improved my life' (who thinks that??), but certainly 'i am so glad i did that last night'.

When forced to think about that, then yes, it significantly improved my life; I met great friends and girlfriends (which I wouldn't have met in such short period otherwise and at the time that mattered to me), had conversations with friends which were far more honest than we would've had without drink.

One case for instance I was at a very boring party, everyone was ready to go home at 10pm. I was together with my gf and we decided to drink some cocktails and go home too. After feeling a nice buzz, we started dancing alone on the big dance floor with almost no-one around (and surely no-one dancing). Another couple joined in a bit later, we started talking and that guy is now my best friend. This is over a decade ago. This would not have happened if both couples didn't drink; we would've gone home. I know there are people who can 'do this' without alcohol and now my wife and me can too, but back then it was just 'boring party, waste of time, bye' when sober. And I wouldn't like to have missed that for the world; there is almost no chance I would've met him otherwise (I know that in hindsight).

Mindphreaker• 14 years ago

I hardly post comments here but I have to thank you bub! I quit drinking for 3 years and unfortunately started it a year ago again.

I quit drinking because of my aunt who died because of liver cirrhosis (result of alcohol addiction), started it again because the last year wasn't an easy one for me. :/

I was very proud that I could stop drinking and still having fun. I had the exact same moment you mentioned, where some random girl told me that I was sooo drunk yesterday and I just replied.. nope, I was sober. :D

During my time drinking I lost extremely much of my former productivity. I have to admit I don't regret every drunk evening, there were some really good too! But I definitely lost mental strength during my drinking time.

I had to lough at the point where you wrote about the lost money and in my case gained weight. That's all true too.

I'll quit drinking again, one more time. :D

known• 14 years ago

Take one 250 mg Disulfiram pill and prevent http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A29443179

anonymous• 14 years ago

> but top 5 worst days of my life were all recovering from a lot of drinking.

Considering that this guy had cancer, his hangovers must have been of truly epic proportions.

peteretep2• 14 years ago

Been doing this since January 1st. It's awesome. Try it.

"I haven’t been drunk in 3 years... and I’ve been partying way more than you."

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