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America has a drinking problem

theatlantic.com

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#191

Post by root_axis »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #153

It's hard to reduce the US to a single culture. Alcohol consumption habits vary greatly from region to region, or even city to city depending on where you live. I've noticed that heavy drinkers tend to cluster with other heavy drinkers. The more you see your friends and coworkers binge drinking regularly, the more you feel it's an acceptable and even common behavior. Likewise, non-drinkers tend to cluster with each o…

Nice comment. I also want to emphasize that your point about regional variance is true in Europe as well, this without even mentioning several well known European drinker stereotypes.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#192

Post by jodrellblank »

handrous wrote: post #75
paxys wrote: post #31

When we are no longer restricted by resource limits as a society, everything quickly becomes an addiction. Food, alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, sex, drugs, gambling, shopping, TV, video games, social media. I'm sure people a lot more qualified than me will be able to talk about it in scientific terms, but I feel like a certain category of species (maybe all of them?) simply never ran into limiting excesses as part of…

I have some similar thoughts about this. Take Internet media streaming: am I happier being able to watch any of 10,000 things with no effort, rather than having maybe a couple dozen at hand and the ability, with some time and effort, to acquire one or two more if I really want them enough? Or is the ability to select exactly a certain thing to watch with low effort just scratching an itch that only exists because I c…

Two of my favourite TED Talks are Barry Schwartz and the Paradox of Choice, where he says "in the past, you went to the store and there was one jar of peanut butter or one pair of jeans, and you bought them. If they weren't good, well, you had no choice. You demand choice. Now you go to the store and there's 30 jars of peanut butter or pairs of jeans - chunky, smooth, sweet, plain, large, small, organic, popular brand, niche brand, imported brand, etc. Now whatever you choose, you will have doubts, and if it isn't good, well there were so many choices it must be your fault, so you feel bad".

And Dan Gilbert on Happiness, demonstrating with studies that no, you are not happier with more choice, you are objectively, measurably, unquestionably, happier with no choice. 10,000 films that you can stop watching and change for another as soon as you are unhappy -> unhappiness. 1 film you have to watch all the way through and have no other -> you'll grow to like it. You become happier with things you're stuck with, and that even applies to people who are disabled, missed out on fortunes, got imprisoned for crimes they did commit, and for crimes they didn't commit, as well as for everyday people who bought something they can't return vs something they can return.

Via PJ Eby, you care about what you care for. People have it the other way round - "I'm not maintaining my car, but if I had a Lambo then I would care about my car". Noooo, if you start cleaning and maintaining your car, then you will care about your car because you're investing time and effort into it.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#193

Post by ragona »

hervature wrote: post #85
soperj wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if you regularly drink much more than that.

Yes, obviously weight also plays a big role in my previous statement. But the statement is still true: given that over half the population doesn't drink daily, if they decide to drink 10 drinks, it will have drastic physical effects. For what it's worth, the modern day description of "tolerance" is merely the individual's ability to mask their inebriation. There is a big difference of not being affected by something…

I think you’re incorrect about a few things.

First, tolerance to substances is more physiological than simply learning to hide it.

Second, consider one drink an hour ten eight hours. You’d barely be inebriated. It wouldn’t be particularly drastic.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#194

Post by Jarwain »

agumonkey wrote: post #76
trts wrote: post #29

I decided to give up alcohol for a year. That was three years ago and doubt I will ever go back. Aside from having better sleep than at any other point as an adult, I truly enjoy the activities I partake in just as much, if not more, than when I still paired them with alcohol. It took about 6 months to stop feeling like I was missing out, and now I feel like everyone else is. Anxiety in general is noticeably lower (t…

> Anxiety in general is noticeably lower you were more anxious when you were drinking ? that's a first not to look naive, but there was a period of my life having a beer [0] was really the only way for me to exist outside my bedroom walls, i wasn't even tipsy.. I was just able to sit in a room without crippling dread. [0] I didn't drink, but the few times I did at parties I realized how drinking a bit was lifting me…

There's a bit of a rebound effect. Alcohol can decrease anxiety while drunk, while increasing baseline sober anxiety.

This is, of course, in the absence of other factors that may influence an individual's anxiety

Re: America has a drinking problem

#195

Post by paulgb »

matwood wrote: post #180
paulgb wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've replaced the beer in my fridge with Athletic Brewing's non-alcoholic beer.

How do you like it? I like the taste of beer, and often want something more than water at night. But, I don't typically have alcohol except on the weekends (my wife and I joke about 2 beers and things are getting crazy lol). So during the week I often drink milk or a sugar free sports drink. Tea is also ok, but I try to avoid all caffeine late in the day.

It's not exactly the same taste as beer but they satisfy my cravings. They've completely replaced the occasional beer I have with dinner in the evening, and if I drink socially I often alternate between them and “real beer” so that I don't pay for it the next day.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#196

Post by akiselev »

ip26 wrote: post #173
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #3

The statistics about alcohol consumption are so stunning that I often wonder how accurate they are. If these numbers are correct, the top 10% of alcohol drinkers consume the equivalent of 10 drinks per day : https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think... The unit for a single drink is a fixed measurement, so someone pouring a tall glass of wine or a very stiff drink could be consuming 2-5 “drinks” in…

It’s easy to understand when you realize that certain types of alcoholics can’t bear to be sober. That is to say, they are drinking around the clock. An all-day buzz would take ~16 drinks a day to maintain. One of the “tells” of this class of alcoholic is drinks stashed all over the place to facilitate this round the clock buzz.

Even those are at the extreme end of the extreme. It doesn't take long to develop a tolerance that allows one to function the next morning with 10-15 drinks/night, which is two to three wine bottles. I've seen several people fall into that trap out of desperation due to insomnia, since the never-ending hangover can be preferable to chronic extreme sleep deprivation. That's easily 3500+ drinks a year and all it takes is one of those per 9 teetotalers to get 1 drink/day average.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#197

Post by heavyset_go »

ryantgtg wrote: post #128
altcognito wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conditions like GERD where stomach acids come up into the esophagus can be mistaken for anxiety or panic attacks. Alcohol can make GERD type symptoms a lot worse.

Interesting. If I get drunk two nights in a row, there are high chances that I’ll wake up the night with a panic attack. I grew up with panic attacks, and they were random and I had no clue what was happening to me until college when I first learned of the phrase (prior to that I just referred to it as “the chaos”). I can control and fight them off them now. But if I drink too much, then my mind and body are weakened…

This is actually quite common because alcohol consumption effects GABA and serotonin levels in the brain, as well as the sensitization of GABAergic and serotonergic neurons, and both neurotransmitters are involved in anxiety and panic. It can also be the result of a very light kindling[1] effect.

The colloquial term seems to be "hangxiety" if you want a term to search for.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindling_(sedative%E2%80%93hyp...

Re: America has a drinking problem

#198

Post by floatingatoll »

ADHD folks, I'm pretty sure (but I don't have hard science) that alcohol depletes your precious and limited store of dopamine. For normal people, the hangover is just "my head hurts" and such. For ADHD people, the hangover also includes "my willpower is reduced", potentially for days while the brain sloooowly replenishes dopamine.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#199

Post by globular-toast »

trts wrote: post #29

I decided to give up alcohol for a year. That was three years ago and doubt I will ever go back. Aside from having better sleep than at any other point as an adult, I truly enjoy the activities I partake in just as much, if not more, than when I still paired them with alcohol. It took about 6 months to stop feeling like I was missing out, and now I feel like everyone else is. Anxiety in general is noticeably lower (t…

The last time I had a drink was a beer festival. I used to drink beer a lot in my early 20s and beer festivals were something I looked forward to. I slept terribly that night and felt awful the next day. It suddenly dawned on me that this happened every time and I realised alcohol does nothing good for me at all. It's expensive, unhealthy, slows my senses, makes me less funny, makes me worse at sex, makes me sleep worse and often ruins the next day.

I don't plan to ever drink again. It is necessary to have the confidence to order something non-alcoholic and be straight with people if they question it. I don't drink. If they ask why (which is exceedingly rare), I ask why they don't smoke. That usually gets the message across.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#200

Post by qeternity »

Dah00n wrote: post #165
qeternity wrote: post #146

As an American who’s spent most of their adult life working outside the US (Europe and Asia) I find this pretty hilarious. I mean, it may be true…drinking damage is absolute, not relative. But if America has a drinking problem, a huge chunk of the rest of the world are outright alcoholics. Of course I think all of this is alarmist. Alcohol is one of those great traditions that has transcended centuries and generation…

I think this is missing the point a bit. In my experience, while some countries in Europe have a higher intake of alcohol on average, I have never met anyone who drink to cope with stress, work, etc. outside full-blown alcoholics. Americans do this a lot . In my opinion those are two different discussions: one about the effect of too much alcohol on your system and one of the tendency to drink in ways that is normall…

I live in London and pre-Covid, a good chunk of people I know have drinks after work 3 days a week. I’m not trying to nit pick (I like the UK drinking culture) but it just seemed like a very Ameri-centric view from someone who hasn’t spent much/any time outside the US.
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