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Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

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Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#71

Try marijuana edibles. You don't have to smoke marijuana. It's plenty potent in edible form.

How about rather instead of suggesting OP lean on a different substance for finding meaning and enjoyment in their free time, we offer suggestions for what a substance-free weekend might look like?

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#72
post #55

> For those of you who don't drink, how do you fill your Friday and Saturday nights? As life-long teetotaler, I always had more things to do than time: hobbies, sports, or simply talking to friends and family. I might be workaholic, since most of time I cannot find time for those things because of work, but if/when I do have free time the possibilities seem endless. It's Saturday evening where I am right now, I'm goi…

I am also a teetotaller. In my youth I watched peers drink, seek alcohol, get drunk, crash/burn etc - apparently with great joy. As for me, I got tired, lost coordination, etc, but had no apparent 'joy of getting a little/fully drunk'. As a result, I ordinarily never drunk alcohol = waste of $$/zero apparent pleasure/abandoned it. That said, the herd effect where other drinkers act to coerce drink for drink matching was in play - so the zero alcohol drink became my choice, I drank coke by design. If someone grabbed my drink = pew, I said I was driving - an acceptable defence. Works well, saves $$ and lets me run with the herd...

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suggesting benzos is dangerous advice

Taking them every day is dangerous in terms of: (1) risk of addiction, (2) risk of falls, (3) long term suppression of memory formation. Talk to somebody who uses long-acting BZs and you'll probably notice that they have the same conversation with you that they had 10 years ago. Antidepressants are the first-line choice of anxiety disorders because they don't get in the way of people finding solutions to their proble…

Conversation with doctor "hey I'd like to cut down drinking by replacing it with benzos, can you write me a script"

And going the darkweb route is a nonstarter due to fentanyl being found in a variety of Xanax

Or you can use a friend I do they have a legit prescription

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is all you want to remember when you look back at your life a bunch of hangovers and stupid things you did?

The grass is always greener on the other side. I'm sure more solitary individuals will regret not being more socially active and having fun. On the other side though, you will also definitely regret partying too much if it impacts your life outside of it. I would guess that moderation is key and not being too far on one side or the other could optimize for happiness (but it's a guess.. I was too far on the partying s…

A lot of alcohol culture centers around this sort of vague FOMO that you will miss out on all the fun and regret this when you are older. But what is it you are actually doing? In order of increasing inebriation: Mostly sitting around gossiping, possibly making an ass of yourself dancing like a tube man, some occasionally hook up with a stranger for some mediocre to disappointing whisky-dicking.

Weekend drinkers, while terrified of having a boring life, are some of the most boring people I know. They never read anything, they never do anything, they never build anything or have any interesting ideas. They're too busy sleeping until noon to have time for that.

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#75
post #10

Don't stop drinking. Live your life. You only have one. Are you going to worry about an air conditioner falling on you while you walk down the pavement?

Is all you want to remember when you look back at your life a bunch of hangovers and stupid things you did?

"Stupid things" and "hangovers" are not part of my social drinking.

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#76

Of all the benzodiazepines it is particularly pleasant to have a Valium or a Xanax and go to a party. It has an effect very similar to alcohol but doesn't have the physical toxicity. If you have even minor anxiety symptoms you probably won't have a hard time getting an ℞ for Xanax from your primary care doc for 30 pills or so, particularly if you intend to substitute it for alcohol. Even though those drugs are very s…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#77

A lot of the answers here thoroughly confuse me. It seems like a completely false premise that alcohol is required to (1) have fun (2) let loose (3) remove inhibitions. Consume a minor amount of alcohol/sugar/drugs if you want to, sure they are damaging, but stress is damaging too, and even oxygen is carcinogenic if you use too much. But do not believe people that tell you that you need an externally delivered chemic…

People like getting fucked up. It’s not that confusing.

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#78
I quit drinking several months ago after 25 years relatively hard drinking. Was I an alcoholic? I guess so, but I am able to absorb alcohol quite fast, very rare had any hangovers and was a type of “high-functional alcoholic” with at least one bottle of red wine each evening. Of course, all social activities, celebrations, catch-up with friends always were combined with decent amount of alcohol. These my thoughts on challenges of sober life:

First of all, there are no crazy and adventure stories around starting with “we had a couple of cups of tea”, no. In same moment, it is extremely hard to be around drunk people more than half an hour being sober - endless loops in conversations, and jokes are not so funny as it were before. I definitely have less “party time” now, but I cannot judge my friends - this is their choice. Instead, I can offer them different type of activities - dinner at home at Friday or Saturday, outdoor trips, etc, to keep friendships going and be social. Interesting, people tend to drink less if you invite them on your activities. Just create this environment of interesting activities for your friends and comfortable for you. There is no reason to suffer in overcrowded bar at Friday night - too boring (tell me this year ago!).

Secondly, even with reframed social activities alcohol-free lifestyle releases a lot of free time. In my case I just overwhelmed with my old and new hobbies, all my spare time is already allocated and it is not an issue for me to spent Friday or Saturday alone in my cave - plenty things to do. Hard to advice something here, but maybe just learn something new?

Alcohol is a great social clue which makes you accept people you won’t accept.

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is all you want to remember when you look back at your life a bunch of hangovers and stupid things you did?

But the poster seems to be doing it based on concern due to health posts on HN not because of hangovers or stupid behaviors. Also many people who drink don’t drink to get drunk so hangovers and stupidity aren’t part of the experience.

This is in context of all the experiences you'll miss out on.

If you are drinking so little that you are not getting hangovers (and you are older than say 35), then you are drinking so little you might as well substitute the alcohol for something non-alcoholic and do the same thing, because your experience will largely be the same as that of a sober person either way.

Re: Ask HN: What to do instead of drinking alcohol?

#80

I went from moderate (weekends, social, never alone) drinking to _zero_ drinking for about five years. This was during peak "social" life of after university and before marriage. I did the exact same things I used to do except with no alcohol: bars, clubs, parties, whatever. The toughest thing was realizing how...boring...some of these activities can be. There is, by default, an enormous amount of "down time" at a ba…

Great comment, especially last sentence - no mental benefits of being sober in a short run. You can even start to think on 3rd month - why I did so if nothing changed? But after 6 months you will feel much, much better, I can confirm this and I heard this opinion few times from quitters.

Some people might expect enlightenment after week of sober life. Never understand why, if alcohol require years to turn you to an alcoholic, how you can back to normal life in a week time?

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