On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties • Hacker News Board

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#151

Post by divan » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 11:20 AM UTC

TheFreim wrote: post #72

divan wrote: post #60

I never tried alcohol and never felt compelled to. As a kid I wondered what's happening with those drunk people I had a chance to see. So I read some books in library about alcohol (my mother was librarian, so that was my internet back then). It all just made sense and I decided that don't want to even try. I was asked to try alcohol by parents and relatives, I was ridiculed and insulted by classmates (drinking someh…

Nice to find another life-long teetotaler. One of the most infuriating things is how confused people get when they hear that I don't drink, I have had people ask me how I am "able to have fun" and other similar things. I don't understand why people need to be in an altered state to have fun, I have plenty of fun and it seems like alcohol brings a lot of trouble. I'm not against alcohol, I think it can be used in a mo…

Haha, yes. Also "alcohol and sex" - it always went like "you don't drink, so don't like sex either". I even started to suspect that some people have never experienced sex in a sober state, hence the link.

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#152

Post by npteljes » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 1:34 PM UTC

divan wrote: post #145

npteljes wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I knew how it works I doubt that, given that you never tried it, nor drugs. No shame in not knowing, though. Benefits are definitely exaggerated, the addicts, when not on the thing, or on the way to their next hit of the thing, love to apologize for the thing. I'll be frank with my motivation to drink, it was to kill myself, and self-expression of that I'm so miserable that I'm killing myself. And getting drunk felt…

> I doubt that, given that you never tried it, nor drugs. By knowing I mean "understanding". I.e. I understood the concept of addiction and realized that I'll probably "like" alcohol too. Sorry to hear you had to experience that. I think there is a theory in psychology that explicitly asks this question - how to let people reach their maximum potential in wellbeing and flourish (which, of course, also means not wanti…

I see your point on the "understanding", I have a similar view on most drugs. Thanks for the recommendation on the SDT, it sounds like something that would benefit me also.

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#153

Post by maria2 » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 1:38 PM UTC

slenk wrote: post #127

archagon wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure, but they are inherently carcinogenic, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t be.

I am genuinely curious - what part of BBQ? We know red meat can lead to an increased risk of colon cancer, but you can still have it safely.

Smoked meats have high levels of carcinogens. The carcinogens are created when food cooks at a high temp. For smoking, in particular, they are created when fat drips on to the heat source and then the resulting carcinogens end up in the meat [0].

Cured meats contain nitrates or nitrites, both of which have been associated with an increased risk of cancer.

0: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/is-smoked-meat-bad-for-yo...

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#154

Post by boppo1 » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 1:52 PM UTC

more_corn wrote: post #110

Cloudef wrote: post #22

Alcohol helped me to gain social wisdom (did not drink before that at all, which I think is the reason I got bit outcast from people)

It’s possible to gain social wisdom without alcohol. Here’s one for free: Surround yourself with people you like. Be the friend to them that you’d want for yourself. That’s all the social wisdom you need.

>Surround yourself with people you like.

This can be exceedingly difficult in many areas. If you're in a big city it's probably no problem, but elsewhere it can be challenging or impossible to find people you really enjoy sober.

I don't mean that I can't get on with just about anyone while sober. But I find I'm 'faking it' and simply giving them the idea I'm having a good time. People who I'm genuinely excited to spend time with are few and far between.

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#155

Post by _noxd » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 1:55 PM UTC

Short answer: because alcohol is alot harsher on the body than eating pot.

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#156

Post by deathclassic » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 2:46 PM UTC

divan wrote: post #60

I never tried alcohol and never felt compelled to. As a kid I wondered what's happening with those drunk people I had a chance to see. So I read some books in library about alcohol (my mother was librarian, so that was my internet back then). It all just made sense and I decided that don't want to even try. I was asked to try alcohol by parents and relatives, I was ridiculed and insulted by classmates (drinking someh…

You're really not missing anything skipping the booze. If the stuff was invented today it would be seen in the same light as huffing paint for fun. I definitely don't like when people sober-shame others for not partaking in the stuff, even as someone who drinks from time to time.

However, not all drugs are poisonous in the same way alchohol is. Caffeine is a drug and in moderate quantities is probably pretty good for you. Weed is probably far less toxic than booze if used in small amounts by adults that don't have certain genetic markers for schizophrenia. Mushrooms aren't toxic at all. There are tons of psychoactive drugs used for medicine and fun that arguably cause more harm than good.

Anyway, people have a natural impulse to alter their consciousness, be it through extremely harmful ways like booze and coke, or through less harmful ways like mushrooms or meditation. I don't see it ending anytime soon.

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#157

Post by deathclassic » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 2:49 PM UTC

TheFreim wrote: post #72

divan wrote: post #60

I never tried alcohol and never felt compelled to. As a kid I wondered what's happening with those drunk people I had a chance to see. So I read some books in library about alcohol (my mother was librarian, so that was my internet back then). It all just made sense and I decided that don't want to even try. I was asked to try alcohol by parents and relatives, I was ridiculed and insulted by classmates (drinking someh…

Nice to find another life-long teetotaler. One of the most infuriating things is how confused people get when they hear that I don't drink, I have had people ask me how I am "able to have fun" and other similar things. I don't understand why people need to be in an altered state to have fun, I have plenty of fun and it seems like alcohol brings a lot of trouble. I'm not against alcohol, I think it can be used in a mo…

Even as a person that drinks sometimes, I find it annoying when people try to pressure me to drink if I don't want to. It's polite to offer but if someone says no than just ignore it.

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#158

Post by patrick451 » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 3:41 PM UTC

divan wrote: post #148

allarm wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol and heroin are not even close in terms of danger and having had a friend who I lost to heroin it sounds odd that someone makes that comparison.

Sorry to hear that. But I actually see this comparison a lot in the literature. Both heroin and alcohol are dangerous, but as alcohol is socially acceptable and widely available in a different forms, the perception of the danger differs. It's not a question for which drug we lose more people per year (alcohol is by far the clear winner here). It's a perception of these losses are different, and makes us believe that…

Is the literature comparing alcohol and heroine with actual data? Along what metric(s) is alcohol worse than heroine?

If this is actually true, the real takeway is that heroine is not nearly as bad as we've been led to believe and we should all go experiment this weekend.

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#159

Post by slenk » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 3:43 PM UTC

thefz wrote: post #138

slenk wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in vogue because people are realizing they are actively consuming cancer juice... Much like cigarette users had to realize they are actively inhaling cancer smoke... You kind of act like people that don't drink can't go out, have non-alcoholic drinks, and still focus on eachother...

A lot of people also like to signal virtue for fake internet points. "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog"

I hope that's not how I am coming across as

Re: On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties

#160

Post by patrick451 » Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 4:08 PM UTC

> My drinking was never outwardly a major issue, in fact, in Australia, it probably wasn’t even noticeable to anyone else around me and would’ve been considered pretty standard early twenties behaviour.

It seems rare for people to claim that their homeland doesn't have a heavy drinking culture. Reading through these comments, you see it claimed of the United States, New Zealand, Ukraine, South Korea.

In general, I can only remember hearing of Italy having "healthy" drinking culture. What are the others? I also wonder the extent to which the British empire spread the drinking culture of the British isles to much of the rest of the world (e.g., USA, Australia, New Zealand etc).