Getting and Staying Sober. (2 Viewers)

[jane]

I cut way back on drinking in the last couple of years, and while I occasionally indulge (like last night, drinking the bar in the Clarence pretty much dry) and I really enjoy it, I very rarely get drunk anymore. I might have a couple of drinks in a week, but I've just gotten used to not boozing, even if I'm in the boozer. I did get pissed as a fucking something something last night, and just kind of found it comical today that I feel like my brain has been replaced with George Best's liver, but that's because I know it's a rarity, and also that it's a consequence of a choice I made to have five cocktails instead of just the one. I won't do it again for ages, and I really, really enjoyed every minute of drinking them, even knowing it was going to wreck my head for the day, which it did.


I've changed the way I socialise. I meet people for coffee or dinner now, rather than necessarily being in the pub. I don't really have any problem socialising sober when other people are drinking because I think I'm just lucky that most of my friends are pretty much the same sober as they are drunk, and I am just as likely to talk shit sober as I am drunk. I tend to go home a bit earlier because I get tired more quickly and I just like to get the hell out of town before the grim spectacle of late night Dublin, but I still have fun. But I also have the luxury of not being from Ireland, and so not coming from a culture where drink is the centre of all life. It's a culture I've adapted to, not one that I've always been immersed in.


I don't really have any advice for you because everyone's experience is different. Just because it's not particularly hard for me doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you because you are finding it hard. Maybe that's advice: just accept that your own conflict/struggle/relationship with boozing is yours alone and try not to compare it with other people's because you could just end up feeling like shit about it. And the more you feel like shit about it, the less you'll see a point in sticking with committing to a healthier life. So try not to beat yourself up, just try to see cutting back on drinking as a really cool favour you're doing for yourself that will make you happier, and that you deserve to be happier and healthier.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

The trick is to have a few drinks when you go out as opposed to going out to have a few drinks.

If you go out with the idea thet your work is not done untill you are completely blathered then ou are in trouble.

I find though it only takes a few nights where you drank moderately or not at all and still enjoyed yourself to break the habbit. And you dont feel when you go home half sober that you missed out on anything.

 

[jane]

The trick is to have a few drinks when you go out as opposed to going out to have a few drinks.

If you go out with the idea thet your work is not done untill you are completely blathered then ou are in trouble.

I find though it only takes a few nights where you drank moderately or not at all and still enjoyed yourself to break the habbit. And you dont feel when you go home half sober that you missed out on anything.

There's also the really nice feeling of realising you can go out at night and wake up without a hangover, thus having the best of both worlds.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

There's also the really nice feeling of realising you can go out at night and wake up without a hangover, thus having the best of both worlds.

Thats nice too!

 

[Corey]

Giving up booze is as easy as breathing.

But i love breathing.

 

[clonan attack]

Giving up booze is as easy as breathing.

yeah but did you ever drink? Seriously?

If so you're one of the few I've ever heard say something so flippant about a drug thats broken many a great person.

 

[Hair Iron Madin]

But i love breathing.

as much as i love drinking.

we should have gills. the best bit of waterworld was that scene with kevin costner skulling a barrel of beer in one go while breathing through his gills and pissing as soon as his bladder passed the litre mark.

the simple truth of it is you can NEVER give up. If you give up one vice you invariably take up another. Its a having a stronger addictive personality. give up booze go to gym and end up doing as much exercise as drinking to the point you're nearly doing same amount of damage to your body as heavy drinking (not necessarily the same organs).

do what sickboy does in trainspotting. gives up for a while just to piss off the others off who are on cold turkey.

you have special powers.

i have a special powers (1/2 bottle on my bedroom shelf)

 

[brianoak]

50euro just at the bar each night.

that about ten pints boss.

 

[egg_]

50euro just at the bar each night.

that about ten pints boss.

Ten pints! Christ dude, you need to give up for sure

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

yeah but did you ever drink? Seriously?

If so you're one of the few I've ever heard say something so flippant about a drug thats broken many a great person.

I drank a lot when I was about 14-15. really pissed a few times a week. I had a thought about how I'd much rather ride my skateboard than be hungover and so gave up drinking. I also started buying way more records. I've never even been tempted since. Almost 20 years ago now.
Most people come up with weak excuses as to why they can't give up. Saying that a party,someones going away/just come home,it's christmas/new years or any other reason to celebrate is not something that makes you drink. If you want to drink,that's fine,just say it. but most people who claim they want to give up are not alcoholics. They just don't want to not fit in.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

That probably sounds way harsher than I mean it to. I don't care if people drink or not,it's the never again crap that's annoying.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

I drank a lot when I was about 14-15. really pissed a few times a week. I had a thought about how I'd much rather ride my skateboard than be hungover and so gave up drinking. I also started buying way more records. I've never even been tempted since. Almost 20 years ago now.
Most people come up with weak excuses as to why they can't give up. Saying that a party,someones going away/just come home,it's christmas/new years or any other reason to celebrate is not something that makes you drink. If you want to drink,that's fine,just say it. but most people who claim they want to give up are not alcoholics. They just don't want to not fit in.

Your little teenage pukeoramas are so far removed for the misery of alcoholism .....

 

[Gambra]

Am i the only person here to not drink and to never actually have drank? Just wondering.. I've decided to never drink cos of family reasons (just just say one uncle had a liver transplant at 34 cos of it. He beat George Best by a good 20 years there.) and I know I never will. I'm become used to going out and not drinking and it doesn't really bother me. I've see every week when I go out how bad people get and never ever want any part of that. Just my own decision like, I'm not the preachy type either.

 

[Pat Pockets]

I drank a lot when I was about 14-15.

Whered you get the money for that if you dont mind my asking?

 

[clonan attack]

Ten pints! Christ dude, you need to give up for sure

Well it was in a city centre pub and i was drinking Jameson and Coke so they're about 7.50 a pop, so thats only 7, that said, you're right, I'm trying.

I drank a lot when I was about 14-15. really pissed a few times a week. I had a thought about how I'd much rather ride my skateboard than be hungover and so gave up drinking. I also started buying way more records. I've never even been tempted since. Almost 20 years ago now.
Most people come up with weak excuses as to why they can't give up. Saying that a party,someones going away/just come home,it's christmas/new years or any other reason to celebrate is not something that makes you drink. If you want to drink,that's fine,just say it. but most people who claim they want to give up are not alcoholics. They just don't want to not fit in.

That's not that harsh, at least this statement has good logic. Never really did the extreme sports thing and only ever a cd buyer/ now mp3 buyer so i think it's the disposable income more than anything thats contributed to my weekend binges, that and i hang around with ten people possibly worse than me (drink more, not necesessarily in a worse state). Not one person i hang around with stays sobre on weekends, but they've been my best friends since i was about 12 so there's not a question of ditching them ever. I do want to continue to drink, i love drinking, just not as much.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Well it was in a city centre pub and i was drinking Jameson and Coke so they're about 7.50 a pop, so thats only 7, that said, you're right, I'm trying.

7.50 is expensive.
could you get the one coke to last you two drinks?

 

[CITY BABY]

Well it was in a city centre pub and i was drinking Jameson and Coke so they're about 7.50 a pop, so thats only 7, that said, you're right, I'm trying.



That's not that harsh, at least this statement has good logic. Never really did the extreme sports thing and only ever a cd buyer/ now mp3 buyer so i think it's the disposable income more than anything thats contributed to my weekend binges, that and i hang around with ten people possibly worse than me (drink more, not necesessarily in a worse state). Not one person i hang around with stays sobre on weekends, but they've been my best friends since i was about 12 so there's not a question of ditching them ever. I do want to continue to drink, i love drinking, just not as much.

Maybe you should drink more, bear with me a second, most nights of the week I drink about 5 or 6 pints, never, well almost never get drunk during the week, It would be alot less than once a month that id get drunk on a weeknight, friday nights i do like to get so drunk i make an arsehole of meself but saturday and sunday I just enjoy a few socialbles in the evening. but I think the fact I live in the city centre helps so goin inta town upon a night isnt a ritual that requires a certain outcome!

 

[Diddles]

I drank a lot when I was about 14-15. really pissed a few times a week. I had a thought about how I'd much rather ride my skateboard than be hungover and so gave up drinking. I also started buying way more records. I've never even been tempted since. Almost 20 years ago now.
Most people come up with weak excuses as to why they can't give up. Saying that a party,someones going away/just come home,it's christmas/new years or any other reason to celebrate is not something that makes you drink. If you want to drink,that's fine,just say it. but most people who claim they want to give up are not alcoholics. They just don't want to not fit in.

You must tell the AA about the powers of skateboarding! It would all be so easy to give up drinking! And these people would have a record collection! Fuck's sake, my mother DIED from drinking and she certainly wasn't doing it to 'fit in'. It might be a simple decision to stop when your fifteen because, well, your simple when your that age. Problem drinking is a much more complex issue.

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

 

[The Schnapper]

Lets raise our glasses to this thread