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Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

#41

Post by swombat »

vegancap wrote: post #38
swombat wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not make it explicit to your friends that they are welcome to drink even if you're not drinking? I was at a BBQ yesterday, everyone was pissed, I just drank water... that wasn't a problem. Just don't rub your non-drinking in people's faces, and let them drink as much as they want.

Well, they'd come to visit me on a Friday night for a drink, but when I wasn't drinking, they'd ring another friend that was going out for a drink if you see what I mean. I think they were afraid that if they came to me, they'd have to drink tea and watch youtube video's all night or something.

Simple solution is to invite them round, give them some beers, and sit down with your orange juice and be your usual self :-)

Not drinking doesn't mean you can't have a well stocked drinks cabinet/fridge!

Re: Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

#42

Post by vincentmilliken »

GuiA wrote: post #31
vincentmilliken wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be interesting to see a poll on smoking weed, I would say a lot of people who do smoke weed would not drink alcohol that often, if none at all.

They've been done before. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=509614 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8021822 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7594543 Search Google with "site:news.ycombinator.com marijuana ask hn" and variations thereof.

Awesome thanks!

Re: Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

#44

Post by dspillett »

noinsight wrote: post #26
untothebreach wrote: post #6

Wish there was a category for "Former drinker, now teetotaller". There are only so many times you can ask your friends to clean up your puke, talk the cops out of arresting you, and drag your passed-out-ass back to the hotel before you wake up and say, "maybe I shouldn't drink anymore"

Also there's no option for "never drinks but is not a teetotaler". I don't have anything against drinking, I could if I wanted to, but I don't. Teetotalism implies rigidness/preaching.

I know a few people who are total themselves, but don't preach. In fact one or two are happy to join us at the pub (though my regular circles are not "silly drinkers" so that might change if we were).

Re: Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

#45

Post by untothebreach »

noinsight wrote: post #26
untothebreach wrote: post #6

Wish there was a category for "Former drinker, now teetotaller". There are only so many times you can ask your friends to clean up your puke, talk the cops out of arresting you, and drag your passed-out-ass back to the hotel before you wake up and say, "maybe I shouldn't drink anymore"

Also there's no option for "never drinks but is not a teetotaler". I don't have anything against drinking, I could if I wanted to, but I don't. Teetotalism implies rigidness/preaching.

I never thought it implied that. I have certainly known some people who didn't drink, and were preachy about it, but they have been the minority. The vast majority of people I know who don't drink tend to be pretty cool about it. Though, being a sober person around a bunch of drunk people would try anyone's patience, so I tend to just stay away from places that I know will be filled with drunk people.

Re: Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

#46

Post by morganvachon »

Zirro wrote: post #24

I am in my early twenties, and I have yet to drink my first alcoholic beverage. I made a decision a few years ago after weighing the negatives and positives of drinking against each other, and concluded that drinking alcohol provided very few benefits in comparison to the potential risks.

Late thirties here, and I've never drank, not once. Not for any religious reasons, but exactly what you said: I weighed the positives and negatives as a teen, and decided I'd have more fun watching my friends get drunk and making sure they got home okay, than ending up in the same mess as them.

Re: Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

#47

Post by chvid »

On a side note; the distribution of alcohol habits in humans matches that of monkeys showing that our liking of alcohol is determined mostly by our genes. For more insight into this, watch this video from BBC Worldwide:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSm7BcQHWXk

Which may also the best 3-minute video on youtube ever.

Re: Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

#48

Post by lportion »

diggan wrote: post #3

I wouldn't say I'm a heavy drinker since I mostly drink one beer per day but since it's the only option for me, I guess I'm a heavy drinker according to this poll.

I'd like to be able to do this. If I have just a single beer I can get quite tired/sleepy, so when I drink I tend to have a few. Actually, I was talking about this recently with a friend and quite often a hangover can be more intense if I have, say, 3 beers than if I have 6. Really strange.

Re: Poll: Are you a drinker or a teetotaler?

#50

Post by untothebreach »

dspillett wrote: post #34
lmm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't asked my friends to do any of those for >5 years, but I'll still have five or six drinks several times a month. It's very possible to learn where your limits are, and use alcohol to enhance your socialising without having to hit the bad stuff you've described.

Some people really don't have that sort of self control after a little drink, so their only path to not being ill is to not have the first one. I've not been ill through drink since a certain point in my early 20s when I was not in a fit mental state for a while (unless you count the occasion when I stupidly went out for a couple on an empty stomach after giving blood that afternoon). My body gives me advanced warnin…

I definitely fall under the "some people" group you referenced.

My biggest problem is that I eat and drink _very_ quickly. It is just a habit, my dad blames himself for inadvertently teaching us to eat and drink quickly.

This creates a problem because, while socializing, I can easily plow through a handful of cocktails before I feel the effects of any of them. Combine that with a not-great tolerance for alcohol, and I can be blacked-out before I knew what hit me.

I recognized this problem, and tried to correct it by drinking more slowly. But like I say elsewhere in this thread, I didn't _always_ remember to do that, and so would still have a "bad night" often enough that it came to affect my relationships.

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