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When people show up to work on Friday morning with a "bad headache" usually that's a hangover = Dehydration caused by alcohol consumption plus effects of alcohol to the brain
4th of July, 2015. 22 year old Devon Staples decided that it would be cool to place a fireworks motor tube on top of his head and light it up. He was drunk at the time. Instead of firing off and possibly only leaving him with a head on fire, the motor blew up killing him instantly. It was a case of getting drunk and loosing your head.
You don't have to be drunk to do stupid stuff. I knew one young woman who died because she decided to ride her bicycle between two slowly moving semis in traffic. There turned out to not be quite enough room. She fell off and got run over. The truckers didn't even know she was there. You can't always blame alcohol for stupidity.
That said, it is obnoxious to be sober around a bunch of drunks. They are loud and oblivious to people around them. I use alcohol, but am a very moderate drinker. When the party starts getting drunk, I leave.
I'm the classic two fisted drinker. One fist holds a whiskey neat, the other holds a glass of ice water. When I start out I sip the whiskey more. After I have had a couple, I sip the water more. It allows me to drink all night and never get drunk. When I see someone knocking back shots, I know they are binge drinkers who can't handle their liquor. My wife and I have over 40 different single malts in our liquor cabinet. Some of those bottles are over a decade old.
Sadly, I can't have a pipe with my whisky. While I have no trouble with alcohol, I am a terrible nicotine addict. I quit smoking 25 years ago, and have no intention of ever going through withdrawal like that again. It's a wonderful drug, just too dangerous for me.
Did you read the article? It's essentially established fact at this point that moderate drinking is 'better' on the aggregate than abstinence. What that article does is make a stronger case, that heavier drinking is arguably better than abstaining. Read the article; given that I posted it for 'public' viewing, what do I have to gain from lying about its contents?
No accusations of you being dishonest, mrcnkwcz.
I'm quite familiar with Mr. Peele. He's a bright man who has gotten very wealthy telling people what they want to hear. He's even gone so far as to suggest that most cases of alcoholism self-resolve.
The word "postulate" in your first post about him is key.
His message is fine for the eighty-five percent of us who are not alcoholics but deadly for the other fifteen percent.
1. For those who like the effects of alcohol, it enhances life and makes it more enjoyable. As the heroin addicts say in Trainspotting: "What people forget is the pleasure of it all! We're stupid but we're not that F'n stupid!"
(Of course we are talking personal use and not effects on others.)
2. It only kills braincells in heavy amounts, not moderate to light drinking.
(There are many other sources but this one also has other info applicable to the topic.)
That's absolutely true, but to see a person up close who has "wet brain" is horrifying.
I had a best friend once who I'd known years earlier from work. She'd quit the day her supervisor told her she had to go to the Employee Assistance Program. Dropped off the face of the earth, and turned up a few years later, sober. We became close, and she was by my side through my divorce and other big life events. Seven years sober, she began to drink again. This time there would be no recovery.
I haven't seen her in five years. I could not bear to talk to her anymore. She didn't make sense. She would ask the same question or repeat the same sentence ten times in five minutes. She kept a bottle of vodka under her bed because she needed a swig to get up or she'd have a seizure.
I pretend she's dead. I will never forget her from those sober years and the great times we had. Her mind is gone, and so is that person who she was.
I take a much broader view of the term drug. Smartphone/Ipads, I see it too often, are the modern drugs to too many people. With some of my co-workers, I can't even carry on decent conversation with them anymore, as when there's that beep/signal, right in the middle of the conversation, out comes their "drug"!
Interesting, that I'm a much safer driver on the streets, after I've drank a beer at a local bar. I'm so extremely paranoid of getting a DUI, on my route home, I'm the most vigilant driver on the roads, even worrying about speeding through a yellow light, my eyes are wide-eyed the whole trip back home.
Sober? Ah! Now I can relax and be more careless behind the wheel of my car as I know I won't be getting a DUI if I'm stopped by the police!
As an ex-hippie, I went thru my drug period 40-45 years ago, and, as they say, nothing succeeds like excess, and yes, there's were the excesses, and those desires were buried long ago. Recreational marijuana, no thanks! About once a week now, I'll take a flexaril, a muscle relaxer, which can keep me relaxed for 3 days after. And one drink after work everyday!
No, it's not if you know the moderation, and you are able to restrain yourself to stick to the moderation.
A glass of wine (especially red wine), or two, or even three, taste rather good, and is remarkably healthy, too, protecting against a whole range of diseases.
Have you even HEARD of alcoholism? There are millions of 'proto-alcoholics' out there, who have no idea that they can easily be 'turned' into full blown alcoholics. Or their second cousins, drunks. Adding alcohol to a non-drinkers life is a calculated risk, that is unfortunately only figured by statistics, not individual risk.
Do I personally know a LOT of social drinkers who are responsible (or at least semi-responsible) in their drinking? You betcha! Do I know a LOT of social drinkers who will drink until they pass out or nearly so? Absolutely. And do I know a LOT of people who sit at home and drink themselves to sleep nearly every night. Again, the answer is yes.
The truth is, you don't know which of these people you will be until you start. I have 14 bottles of various beers in my refrigerator, and I drink about 3 bottles (12-16 ounce) a week. My brother enjoys single malt scotches, to the tune of a couple of ounces every other day, or thereabouts. And I have a close relative who is happy to drink a standard 750 milliliter bottle of wine every night. If my daughter goes to a nice restaurant, she will order one drink, if she isn't driving.
Oh, and three glasses of wine will put most people WAY over the limit into DUI land. Better have some money saved up for that if you drive.
You bet alcohol impairs judgement! That has been proved several times with who i woke up with. I'm sure a few have felt the same as well. And there truly needs to be a breathalyzer for internet use. A breathalizer app for facebook and forums would do wonders as well!
It seems like a silly question, of course alcohol affects judgement, the only question is whether the effect is negligible or not and that is based upon one's body and the amount of alcohol consumed. But even one once of alcohol has a measurable effect on motor reflexes and judgement. Is that affect discernible outside of a laboratory experiment just depends.
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I'm sure a few have felt the same as well. And there truly needs to be a breathalyzer for internet use. A breathalizer app for facebook and forums would do wonders as well!
