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America has a drinking problem

theatlantic.com

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#221

Post by thaumasiotes »

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…

> Note that the median US alcohol drinker consumes less than 1 drink per week.

The article says something else:

>> the median consumption among those who do drink is just three beverages per week.

You might get less than 1 / week by including non-drinkers, who are (according to the article) at least 30% of American adults. But they're 0% of American alcohol drinkers.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#222

Post by czbond »

MattGaiser wrote: post #104
ksd482 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just grew up hating alcohol by looking at grown ups acting stupid and mistreating their wives and children. That's why I never developed a taste for alcohol. I sometimes drink socially but that is very rare: 3-4 times a year, 1 or 2 drinks each time. That's about it.

Basically why my Mom's side of the family barely drinks, myself included. My great grandfather was a drunken gambler who managed to drive the family into poverty to the point the only things the family owned were two chairs.

A version of this caused my grandfather and father to never touch the stuff - and acted like it was kryptonite when I grew up.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#223

Post by BrandoElFollito »

I am French and only drink very occasionally with friends or family. About a beer or two per month, and maybe a glass of wine or two a month as well.

I do not like alcohol in the long run. I like the first few sips and then it becomes a burden. Friends look at me as if I was crazy when I pour the remaining of my glass to the sink.

I learned to taste alcohol that way, for the taste and not the effects. My children are now teens and since they have seen me doing that a lot, they are not even drawn to alcohol. I let them taste in the past when they wanted to try but the taste was horrible for them and since they saw that I am not a big fan either they do not see it as a taboo thing.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#224

Post by lotsofpulp »

namdnay wrote: post #92
r00fus wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who doesn't drink more than 2-3 per week and have in the past been in the 2-3 per day category, perhaps it's related to age and/or kids. When kids were tots, I couldn't afford the time to socialize, and now I'm older, consumption has dietary/sleep impacts and I can't afford that too much. Also weirdly I simply don't enjoy the buzz as much.

I think having children limits serious partying, but what do you drink when you’re eating your evening meals? Only water? Maybe it’s a southern European thing, but I can’t imagine eating a heavy meal without the acidity of a red wine, for example.

I can’t imagine drinking anything but water 99% of the time. Or milk if you’re a kid.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#225

Post by bitcurious »

leifg wrote: post #56
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…

Genuine question: what do you drink instead? Do you stick to water or do you order any kind of soda/lemonade (or something I’m not thinking about)

Usually seltzer, coffee, tea. Recently I discovered Hoplark “hop teas” which (to my tastebuds) separate the best parts of beer from the alcohol.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#227

Post by watertom »

I stopped drinking at 25, that was 30 years ago.

I just decided that there weren't any benefits but a lot of negatives, so I stopped.

When I tell people I stopped drinking they assume I had a problem. I laugh and say "No." Then I tell them I just did a pro's and con's evaluation and realized there were zero pro's and a whole lot of con's. I know 6 people that quit drinking after having a the pro's and con's discussion, they went off and did their own evaluation and realized that drinking wasn't providing anything positive. All the positives are imagined. The, "one or two drinks" have a positive effect is all nonsense.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#228

Post by roywiggins »

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…

Alcohol can reduce anxiety in the short term, but it can bite you in the ass in the mid-to-long term by making you even more anxious the next day.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/27/hangxie...

Re: America has a drinking problem

#229

Post by ardit33 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #206

Reading Europeans' comments on threads like this leaves me wondering who is more ignorant about America, me (as an American...) or them. I don't know anyone who goes out drinking to get drunk. I know people who socialize with friends and drink alcohol while doing it. I know some people who have a glass of wine or two with dinner. I myself drink a couple microbrews once a week with friends. But what I'm getting from o…

Selection bias, of where they stay. If you come as Tourist in the US, and stay in the center of any large city you are bound to see hordes of drunk people in the weekends... usually on their 20s.

But that's not what most of the US is though. 3rd ave in Manhattan, from Lower East Side, to Murray Hill turns like a zoo, (pre covid), around midnight, with drunken 20 something acting like it is spring break.

The rest of the areas of NYC are not like that, but tourists are more likely to stay near these places, rather lets say, somewhere sleepy in UES, UWS, Brooklyn, or Queens.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#230

Post by panzagl »

adventured wrote: post #185
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the median American really doesn't drink much - our Puritan values run deep. For many of us, it's not about Puritanical values. We simply choose healthier behaviors. It's true that the median alcohol drinkers in America doesn't drink much at all. The vast majority of alcohol is consumed by 10% of the population. Drinkers tend to cluster with other drinkers, and non-drinkers tend to become less interested with a…

The parent is entirely wrong about it being puritan based. The US long ago lost its puritan influences as a primary. The US is a very different place today vs the 1960s or 1980s culturally. Puritanism is a small fraction of influence in the US at this point culturally. The reason Americans drink less alcohol at the median, is due to how American populations are heavily distributed in housing developments, in suburbs,…

Anti-alcohol movements have been a feature of the US since the 1800s, I doubt a social historian would have difficulty drawing a line from the Puritans, to the Women's Temperance League to MADD. It's MADD's lobbying for laws against drunk driving that put the nail in the coffin of 1960's Mad Men style 3 martini lunches and 1980's high school ragers.
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