non alcoholic beers have only gotten better over the years. thats my go to unless its a big big life event.
What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
71–80 of 214 posts
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#72Having given up drinking for two years now, I can say with certainty that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Everything is better. I won't bore you with details, but absolutely every facet of my quality of life has improved. Never touching the stuff again.
One drink is too many; a thousand drinks are never enough.
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#73The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…
But every culture has been using intoxicants to change their head space for as far back as we can see. Everything from marijuana, alcohol, hallucinogens, dissociative, stimulants etc. as and everyday part of human life. Might we not have evolved to somewhat “require” it in some ways?
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#74The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…
Is having a drink or two a week really measurably self-destructive? How does it measure compared to sitting at a desk all day, or putting mayo in your sandwiches?
The fact that people are actively destroying themselves via multiple vectors does not mean that each vector isn't existential.
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#75The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…
I agree with this. If you're a regular social drinker it requires quite a bit of self-reflection and lifestyle adjustment to stop drinking entirely, which is the hurdle a lot of people face. But anecdotally/personally I find that it's immensely worth it.
Might still have a glass of bubbly in celebration of something or enjoy the occasional wine tour at a vineyard, but I have no real intent to continue drinking regularly. The health tradeoffs aren't worth it to me.
Note also that unfortunately it seems women are much more sensitive to the risks of alcohol than men. I'm not a big fan of this "mommy needs her wine" culture we have.
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#76Alcohol is the most harmful drug out there[1] - worse than heroin, crack cocaine, and all the rest. It boggles my mind how common it is, while genuinely useful drugs like psilocybin are still Schedule I and relegated to the shadows. [1]: https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61462-6 https://i.imgur.com/DQDJMGt.png
What a nonsense.. there are millions of people drinking alcohol sporadically and are doing fine. I don't think there are that many people sporadically consuming crack and are doing fine. Now I guess you can define harmful in many ways and I didn't read the study and probably won't.
Alcohol is doing damage at scale vs crack which is doing damage to a much smaller set of individuals. See drunk driving deaths vs crack driving deaths.
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bet even with literally perfect lives humans would still drink alcohol and consume other drugs. It's a chemical you can ingest that gives you different experiences than you normally could or would. That will NEVER not be attractive to the human brain, even if you think that's irrational. Humans are curious creatures, and that curiosity includes the desire to understand dangerous or weird things.
Fully concur! However what you describe - effectively novelty seeking, which is very human - is a far cry from the chronic alcohol culture that permeates society. The former is healthy exploration, what we have however is chronic dissociation.
I think there’s a second order effect here you’re not seeing. Social acceptance makes imbibing orders of magnitude less stressful and you can still call yourself a “normal” person while doing it. I think that makes a huge difference.
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
let us know if you find a solution to social anxiety and especially existential dread
Alcohol doesn't help social anxiety except by social convention. Society believes alcohol changes personality, and that drunk people are less themselves. Thus, they judge drunk people less harshly (including themselves). But alcohol doesn't actually change personality. It only makes your brain work slower. It doesn't make it go anywhere it otherwise wouldn't, you just get there later. What we've developed is a way to…
Alcohol suppresses anxiety. Up until the hangover, when it exacerbates it.
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#79The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…
As a former alcoholic, ethanol is the worst garbage there is. You might as well hit your toes/whatever with a hammer - there's the pain, the near instant release of morphine and the (very long) hangover :D
It is in our nature to disassociate with reality/consciousness imo, for many of us it's too much to handle.
There are much better alternatives out there and I wish they weren't so demonized.
Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]
#80The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…
> but we should be able to at least acknowledge that any alcohol in any amount is self destructive.
Is driving in any amount self-destructive? Eating bacon? If we're going to call mildly (or moderately) unhealthy things "self-destructive", what term should we use for... well, truly self-destructive things?