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The Zen of Drinking Alone

drunkard.com

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Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#211

Post by jwmoz »

Sounds exactly like something an alcoholic would write :D

All seriousness, last couple years I changed my drinking habits. Grew up in UK so big drinking culture. After moving to somewhere in Asia with a big health focus I quit drinking for a couple months due to the training and it completely rewired me. Before was a habitual drinker, not large amounts but regularly. Managed to totally kick the urge or need to drink and now just occasionally have a beer or glass of wine. Haven't had a serious hangover in a long time.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#212

Post by sgarland »

xlance wrote: post #52
Aloha wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have very strict rules I follow for alcohol consumption, if for no other reason than I'm the son of a man who was a functioning alcoholic for most of his life. I've read the big book, and consider it a source of wisdom, even if I perhaps don't follow all of the tenants contained within. The serenity prayer, which is AA adjacent if not (now) directly part of the AA wisdom is my personal lodestar, it's great wisdom o…

I don't drink alone for the exact same reason. How some people can function while drinking every night is beyond my comprehension.

Have you met SREs?

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#213

Post by NikolaeVarius »

Aloha wrote: post #140
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardest parts for me at the moment is quitting the habit itself, and after that the physical withdrawal symptoms, which are not fun.

How much do you drink a day, if its not too forward to ask? The answer varies where I might send you to seek help.

Enough that im horrified by it

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#214

Post by tenpies »

oconnor663 wrote: post #210
coldtea wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This magazine or blog or whatever seems to either be an elaborate joke or bait or something Or you know, part of the once respected in some circles tradition of self-destruction with style, before everybody started jogging and going vegan to live to 100 years old as a "productive" boring member of society...

Before we came up with jogging there was church :)

If anything, most of organized religion is about preparing to die. The complete opposite of our current materialism and obsession with keeping personal entropy at bay.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#216

Post by ruined »

coldtea wrote: post #118
delusional wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This magazine or blog or whatever seems to either be an elaborate joke or bait or something: >Are you guys for real? >Yes. While there is some satire involved, we believe to the very core of our >souls every word we write. >Who are you? >We are a group of functional alcoholics based primarily in Denver, CO. Included in our ranks are published novelists, filmmakers, English gentlemen, barflies, punk rock musicians, co…

> This magazine or blog or whatever seems to either be an elaborate joke or bait or something Or you know, part of the once respected in some circles tradition of self-destruction with style, before everybody started jogging and going vegan to live to 100 years old as a "productive" boring member of society...

but alcohol is so pedestrian. and socially acceptable. this is somehow even more pathetic than being a weed guy.

style would require an edgier, more risque substance, and a narrative. but you'll never see it. i think even tweakers know better than to spend energy justifying choices to strangers

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#217

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

tempestn wrote: post #139
okareaman wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to apply what I know to food and failing. Now is the first time I've tried dieting and I have a lot more respect for the degree of difficulty. You're right, the issue is very similar

I've hypothesized that a unique problem with unhealthy eating habits compared to other addictions is that you have to eat. I would think at least with something like alcohol or nicotine, what you need to do as an addict is fairly simple (which of course is different from easy). But you can't just cut out food entirely, so it's a much more complex issue trying to eat in a healthy manner. Especially since even being to…

It'd be near impossible to become obese (or remain obese) if you just cut out sugar and processed foods. Nobody ends up in an electric scooter by pigging out on vegetables and chicken breasts. If you want to get shredded you'll have to do much more, of course, but if you just want to look and feel like a normal weight human, it really doesn't have to be any more complex.

Just as many alcoholics can't handle a glass of wine with dinner or a beer with a friend on a Friday night, many food addicts just can't handle sugar or fast food at all, and would be better off cutting these things out of their lives entirely. It's a more hardcore lifestyle change, but it can also be a psychologically simpler ruleset to follow.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#218

Post by galaxyLogic »

sigmaprimus wrote: post #193
colechristensen wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re not all alcoholics. Substances affect people in vastly different ways. A key problem is that people do not understand this, that substances and substance abuse don’t work the same across the board and one person’s experience does not extend to the rest of humanity. It is more like there are tribes that don’t understand each other.

I thought I was an alcoholic beyond help but it turns out I was just selfish. I used to drink to get drunk almost every day when I was living with someone, they drank too but not to the excess I did. Then one day they were gone, they passed away and suddenly I found myself alone and responsible for maintaining a home and taking care of several animals. I realized I could not risk something happening to me in my drunk…

I have a theory about this which may or may not be correct. When you drink the first drink it has much larger effect on you than the second.

So first beer has an effect and you can make the decision whether you want that effect (with its pros and cons) or not. But if you say yes, then there is less reason to say no to the 2nd drink. After 2nd drink there is even less reason to say no to the 3rd and so on.

So when you contemplate taking that first drink ask yourself: If I do, is there any reason why I wouldn't keep on drinking after this first drink? And by the logic above, there really is less of a reason to say no to the 2nd drink than the first and so on.

But curiously and luckily this logic means that there is also a big reason to NOT have that first drink, because you can assume that its effect is not only the effect that one glass has on you, but also the effect that it makes you drink more. That is a good reason to not drink the first drink. If you don't say no now, why would you say no later?

So I wouldn't consider you an alcoholic just because your first beer leads to the 2nd and so on. You are not alcoholic you are just being logical. If you have a reason to drink the first beer then you also have a reason to drink the 2nd and so on. But luckily because you are logical you can see that it is not a good idea to drink that first beer in the first place.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#219

Post by nicbou »

theNJR wrote: post #11
akprasad wrote: post #3

I wish I could source it, but I recall reading an anthropological study of drinking that mentioned that solo drinking is universally shunned across all cultures. There's also something perverse about associating this with Zen given that abstaining from intoxicants is the fifth precept ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_precepts#Fifth_precept ). I would never say there is no insight that could be gleaned from this -…

Was it this Atlantic article? https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/america...

That's certainly the one I had on my mind, but I'm another user.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#220

Post by LaundroMat »

Spinnaker_ wrote: post #171
delusional wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This magazine or blog or whatever seems to either be an elaborate joke or bait or something: >Are you guys for real? >Yes. While there is some satire involved, we believe to the very core of our >souls every word we write. >Who are you? >We are a group of functional alcoholics based primarily in Denver, CO. Included in our ranks are published novelists, filmmakers, English gentlemen, barflies, punk rock musicians, co…

I definitely used to think that way. It's the type of thing that is a lot of fun to be a part of, until it isn't anymore. It's a thrilling way to self identify, until it becomes your entire identity. I hope they all end up ok.

This is what made Pete Hamill stop drinking. After decades of hard drinking, he realized he had always been putting on an act. In fact, he inadvertently started to step out of himself to watch himself not be himself. That realization bothered him so much, he just quit.

I've given away the ending, but his book ("This Drinking Life") is well worth reading. (As a biography, not as a guide to help anyone quit drinking).

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