Print

[sunflowersFTW!]

Urban Scout, that's generally how I am with drinking, too. I just love to go out. I was at a bar one time and was talking to two Iranian guys who were drinking water. I commented that I thought it impressive they could be around drunks at a bar and drink water. I know it's illegal over there, but I couldn't wrap my head around being around alcohol and enjoying it if I don't drink (my friend I previously mentioned puzzled me too, but I was glad he'd go out with us). They told me back home, they have clubs that go on all night, but alcohol is forbidden in that country so people dance and have fun completely sober. I hope someday a club like that would actually be successful where I live, but given that alcohol is a staple of Omaha and cocaine has been all over the place like the plague, I am a bit doubtful anyone would go.

I used to (try to) do the Eastern Orthodox Lenten fast every Lent season, which includes abstaining from alcohol (as well as all animal products and cooking oils and sugar) and I had no problem going to shows and parties without drinking. In fact I think I had the most fun doing that. However, last year I tried to go out without drinking for any reason at all, and wound up coming home drunk. I'm sort of getting to that point where I too think I need to just quit full stop. I've been drinking way too much this year, even at my house by myself and that's never a good sign. My boyfriend recently developed an allergy to alcohol (his father has it too) and has completely quit drinking and smoking, so I'm hopeful he'll be a good influence on me.

[timeLESS]

Havent been drinking since last post here and generally i am doing very well. I feel my thoughts have come apart alittle. I have to cope with moods in different more direct/involved/conscious ways now. I feel changed and its kindof difficult but it will be all good in the long run.

[BlueHeron]

TimeLESS, what do you mean when you say your thoughts have come apart?

I'll bet that when they come back together again, they will have more wisdom to share.

Congratulations and keep it up!

[timeLESS]

Well not drinking forces you to deal with all kinds of issues in a very confronting way.
 I stopped smoking several years ago. When i stopped i had to confront anxiety fear and other kindof moods and thoughts / issues without the soothing comfort offered by smoking. That meant i had to deal with some emotions and feelings all by myself. This forces a person to take a really close and critical look upon itself.

With booze its the same way. Lots of the culture i reside in revolves around booze and booze can make up a large part of your experience of life. Not taking booze forces me to deal with issues on a much more intense level. I have to deal with things that bother me, frighten me, things i've had safely hidden away or forgot. Not drinking gives me time to think and rethink many many things and basically drastically alters even shatters the experience of life as i knew it. Everything has to be requestioned i guess. Reformulated. experienced anew. I guess that makes my thoughts seem chaotic and very very active, without the consolation offered by booze and cigarettes i am confronted by these many many feelings. Sometimes thats a bit much.

thanks for asking!

[timeLESS]

a very specific type of loss of self control. sure. they call it alcoholism. you call it lack of self control. I find alcoholism a much better way and here's why:

Ive practiced martial arts for many years and have a pretty good control of myself in that regard. No lack of self control here at all.
Also, i am at peak ability under stress. I think more focused more clearly under pressure, lots of self control again. There are more areas like these in which i feel confident like that.

yet when i drink but one drink. I loose it all. it is here and only here i loose my self control. Its called alcoholism and its not about people that cant control themselves its about people that cant control themselves when drinking or when faced with the possibilty of drinking.

So...When i drink i dont indeed "own up to my shit" as you put it. For me there is no such thing as drink until y'r full because i cant recognize when exactly i am indeed full. Thats why i dont drink at all, because i become a retarded drooling boy angry and confused. I cannot learn to control myself when drunk and frankly i dont see the point in that either. So i dont drink and honestly i dont see why you feel the need to call my or anyone else's experiences "crock of bullshit"  and " an easy excuse".


Summed up. Alcoholism is a more defined form of " lack of self control"

[Willem]

I have split Raedwald's post into its own topic, and moved it to the Humanure bucket. FYI. You can continue the conversation there if you like, or return to the original spirit of this thread and stay here.

[Peter Bauer]

Since Robb and timeLESS brought this up in the intro thread I thought I'd bring it back.

I've had less and less of a problem involving alcohol. I stopped drinking Vodka. Yeah I know. Stupid right? But seriously. I tracked all the times I did fucked up shit and found that it was almost always vodka.

I still have a problem if I drink liquor, or if I "accidentally" get really drunk, where I can't stop drinking. But for the most part, I'm pretty good these days about "limit". But if an environment lends itself to limitless (friends buying me drinks) I will fall prey to that limitlessness. Ah!

But overall... I drink maybe once a month these days, and not much. I'll get wasted only a couple times a year now. When I was dating Penny Scout I started drinking again, because she was brewing beer. That was a good slow transition into reintroducing alcohol, and making sure not to drink vodka and limit my hard alcohol has helped tremendously.

Also, know that alcohol fucks up your endocrine system and gives you more estrogen definitely makes me turned off to drinking altogether anymore. I mean, I want to stay buff and not get one of those estrogen bellies like my dad has. Haha.

[jhereg]

Doesn't sound stupid to me. I've definitely noticed that different alcohols have radically different impacts on me. I get real damn mean on gin, and Red Dog seems to have a heavy dose of pure, raw courage in it (and not just me! one of my brothers-in-law has some of his own stories about that shit....)