How much harm does alcohol really bring you?

I’ll have a couple of drinks in a social situation, and that’s usually OK.

I know that alcohol can relieve me of my usual baseline anxiety, and so I avoid it for the most part for this reason.
I know that I could become very dependent very quickly if I used it in this way.

Alcohol doesn’t bring harm, but the manner in which it is used sure can!


Cheers,
Ian
 
A little can be fun. If you depend on it for anything, that's not good. Like anything else, if you can't do without it or it significantly changes who you are, it's likely harming you more than helping you.
 
As far as actual real health issues, its risks are often understated because it is institutionalised. Moderate drinking (a few beers or a glass or two of wine a week) has virtually no health risk and could be beneficial in certain scenarios with proper diet. Beyond that, and especially excessive drinking (over 4 drinks per day or 14 per week, slightly less for women or smaller weight perhaps) will most definitely add a significant potential for health risk of cancer and heart disease. http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/alcohol/alcohol-fact-sheet

Of course, the psychological effects vary widely from person to person and the risk for addiction is also highly unpredictable.

But you know, beer drinkers are the cool kids so it's the greatest thing really, and if you don't drink you are a failure in life.

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/the-island-of-drunk-monkeys
 
My year to this point was really difficult. I wished that alcohol just was not there, but it was, and I drank a lot of it. It wasn't helping but the situations I was finding myself in were intense and I was desperate to escape. I was wishing it wasn't available to me, but it was. It just became nothing to drink a bottle of wine. It frightened me how easy it was to drink my problems away. I hate to think about how much damage it did to my brain.
 
I don't think there's anything wrong with a glass of wine a couple of times a week. Beer too. It's no different than caffeine. It's the socially accepted vice and everything in moderation and all that.

Personally, alcohol is neither here nor there in my life. When I was younger, I used to drink when I went clubbing or attended house parties. People would buy me drinks or pour me drinks and hey, when it Rome...

Nowadays... ehhhh. I occasionally have moods where I have wine every day with dinner for a week or two and then one day forget to pour myself a glass and my life goes on again, completely wino-free. I will drink socially on occasion, but it's more of a once in a blue moon thing there too; very few of the people I spend time with are drinkers. I can't remember the last time I got anything other than a good buzz going at a social gathering.

As for the health implications, I don't have an intelligent or well-informed opinion. I remember reading/hearing somewhere that unless you've got some kind of predisposition or genetic hiccup, you need to regularly indulge in some alky to do any real liver damage. I know for a fact that it thickens you a bit if you drink heavily too many days in a row. I remember feeling as dumb as a sack of hammers in college after a few days of letting loose. I can imagine there are long term cognitive side-effects to drinking consistently like that.

Otherwise, a snifter of brandy or a glass of wine or a cold one every once in a while... I don't see the problem.
 
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my doc: “Informally, I’d like you to start having a glass of Cab Sauv every evening.”

my reply: “I’d like to start having a glass of Cab Sauv every evening, and it sounds lovely, but I can barely afford the meds you prescribe me, so for now the wine will have to wait.”


Cheers,
Ian
 
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I naturally dislike alcohol.

I enjoy wine, in very limited doses and very infrequent intervals.

I'm grateful for my natural intolerance (physical) of alcohol.
 
spudscoffee said:
My uncle died of liver cancer due to too much alcohol intake.
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My uncle nearly died from liver failure. I rarely drink and when I do it’s usually only a few cocktails.
 
2-4 beers a night currently. I go through long phases of this routine, several months, followed by shorter phases of not drinking. It's never great to have slightly elevated liver function all the time, but I could do worse. I guess I'm a high-functioning alcoholic. I think it contributes to occasional episodes of gout (beer has something in it that facilitates a build up of the acids that contribute to flare-ups), and I know that the extra calories are not a benefit because approaching 40 y/o my metabolism is no longer compensating. I don't like drinking to the point where I have a hangover. I'm not a big fan of hard liquor because it doesn't buzz like beer and it's like a fast forward to stupid button.
 
Occasionally, I would drink a glass of wine or a nice margarita; but that's in a very blue moon. I am not a huge alcohol drinker.
 
Still not drinking even though I really want to. I think I might have had a wine cooler last year some time but other than that.

At least it's not like cigarette withdrawal. Still want to smoke, too. Dammit.
 
I used to drink more. Then I drank sporadically a cocktail a night, but I figured it's merely a means to dull the feeling of emptiness. Now I drink non-alcoholic beer (Radler) or perhaps something light every once in a while, cutting way down on the hard stuff (there'll probably still be the odd outlier). I just can't handle it for my sensitive meat suit.
 
sprinkles said:
Still not drinking even though I really want to. I think I might have had a wine cooler last year some time but other than that.
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Keep up the good work. Drinking sucks (says the guy who still has a few beers a week, because reasons).

There might possibly be a few minor health benefits to having a few drinks per week, but in my opinion it's not worth the risk of becoming dependent. It's also patently inferior to other feel-good substitutes. If cannabis products were legal and readily obtainable where I live, I wouldn't drink more than a few times a year (i.e. work "social" situations where it's expected).

My attitude on drinking has also soured the older I've gotten. My body doesn't react nearly as well to alcohol as it once did.
 
I don't drink at all really. There was a very short time in my life where I drank a handful of times with friends, partly to get them to shut the hell up and also partly to figure out what all the fuss is about with drinking. It's a large part of society and I came from beer town (microbreweries galore) so it was basically inescapable. I never liked the stuff, and I think I am actually allergic to some types, but I never drank enough to thoroughly investigate this. I have no problem having a glass of wine or a beer with a friend if it is a way of social bonding, but generally I really just don't like the stuff. I am sort of lucky because my family has the alcoholic gene but it must have skipped me.

I think it can be extremely detrimental to a person's life and I've seen it destroy people over and over, but that's just my personal view.
 
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Wyote said:
I am sort of lucky because my family has the alcoholic gene but it must have skipped me.
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According to stories, my paternal grandfather pretty much kept Jack Daniels Distillery in business in the 50s-60s. Despite his alcoholism he managed to function at a very high level (well-respected, pillar of the community type) and was never abusive to his wife or children. Regardless, it finally caught up with him as he contracted cirrhosis. He died before I was born, but knowing that his alcohol abuse prematurely ended his life has always stuck with me.
 
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