Harms you physically, sure. But a night out socializing and making memories with friends, the psychological benefits can last a long time, which often positively influences the physical.
Maybe. The last time I ever really drank on a regular basis was my early 20s, circa turn of the century, and I had two best friends from high school, Mike and Lisa. We went out together almost every night at times, definitely every weekend. Club 80s. Some theater in Hollywood that did John Waters double features with a drag show during the intermission. Pre-gaming with $5 1.75 liter bottles of Popov in the parking lot. We really did make some great memories. It's probably still the best time of my entire life and the closest friendships I ever had.
Lisa died in 2016 from alcohol withdrawals. Mike was a speed addict for nearly a decade but eventually recovered.
My wife is an alcoholic, unfortunately. She's been in the ICU twice in the time we've been married, both times for acute vitamin deficiency and liver failure. She told me once on the way to the hospital that she saw a tunnel with a light at the end and our cat floating in it inviting her to come. The ER doc said she would probably have died within a day if I hadn't brought her in. When Lisa died, it was because her roommate was out of town and there was nobody to notice, care, and bring her in. When she was found, she's already been dead for three days.
I don't know that I have a point. Just be careful. Not you specifically, but everyone out there. If you're 50 and successfully practiced moderation for decades, I guess you'll probably be fine. But if you're a teenager trying to make your parties more thrilling, you're flipping a coin with your life. You don't know which person you'll end up being, the one who can stop or the one who can't.
Just because alcohol is deeply ingrained in Western culture doesn't mean you should feel guilty saying alcohol is unconditionally bad for society, when it took your dear friend and almost your wife, twice. There are other, healthier worldviews and cultures out there. The particular one I'm living in being called Islam.
That it's not required is the fun part, and really is necessary for it to be a good idea at all. See GK Chesterton:
"Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But drink because you do not need it, for this is irrational drinking, and the ancient health of the world."
Drinking during celebrations are some of my favorite memories. Its like we're all already happy and high on good news, think weddings or big sales news or getting a big project completed. And then we drink because the worries of the world are behind us, now the happiness is uninhibited and jovial. I like to think those moments add time to your life.
Absolutely not, but maybe there is a reason why we have used it for centuries? If you watch videos of people travelling to remote villages one of the first things that old timers do is offer them a drink.
There is a value to a social lubricant. People get more passionate, or philosophical. People are less likely to discuss the cost of drywall impacting their bathroom renovation.
Sobriety is merely one state of conciousness, and there is no saying it is solely the best.
One of the reasons we've used it for centuries is that in the days before treated water it was safer to drink. Microbes in water had the potential to make you very sick or even kill you. Even today, if you're traveling to a location where the water supply is suspect, it's safer to drink beer instead of water.
This is a popular misconception according to the askhistorians faq. I don’t think you’ve ever had beer either, thinking that you could possibly replace water with it.
Depends, where? If you go to a village in India they probably offer you some food so delicious you could never imagine. But in the west alcohol is all people know.
Not saying you have to do it, but it's part of European cultures for centuries. There is no need to be dismissive of it. My partner is Indian, doesn't drink, and Indian food is no more or less delicious than genuine European food.
I have no problem with people not drinking, just the smugness of those who make it a personality trait.
this isn't super crazy different across cultures, just the beverage is. In Europe it is beer because that is what is locally most present. Often it's coffee or tea where that is more locally available, and honestly even Europeans offer coffee or tea as part of hospitality.
coffee actually used to be considered as, or more sinful than alcohol when it came to being a social lubricant. (it did not help that coffee houses became known as hotbeds of revolutionary thought in Europe.)
For most of history, humans were optimizing for calorie shortages. It is only relatively recently, and only in some locations, where food has become consistently abundant.
Kids spending too much time on TikTok? Won't do their chores on time? Try the ancient and time honored tradition of beating them until they behave as you would like! /s
I would say it's having a collective purpose. For example you wouldn't think to drink while trying to meet a tight deadline with your team at work. That same scenario would play out everyday but at a way more real and absorbing level, even if you're prosperous. This is exclusive to nomadic living because as soon as you are settled your collective purpose wanes and specialization kicks in... (then as your population balloons you need to patch together things like religion and politics to maintain collectivity)
Although I guess you may drink for leisure or on special occasions if you have access, my point is more that dependency and using alcohol as a "social lubricant" is tightly tied to settled living
No, but it certainly helps. Alcohol makes me a better listener. A better father. A better husband. A better friend. Less selfish. Less judgmental. More caring and more generous.
I drink cautiously because I know the health risks. I limit myself and most of the time do not drink at all. But I would be lying if I said alcohol doesn’t make me a better person.
Do what you want of course, but that better version of you already exists without the booze, and you don't need to give alcohol credit for it. And because it already exists, it is very much possible to learn to let out that seemingly better version of yourself without a drug. Not saying you "should" or whatever, just wanted to convey that it's an option, that's all.
> Alcohol makes me a better listener. A better father. A better husband. A better friend. Less selfish. Less judgmental. More caring and more generous.
Not biochemically, it doesn't. It slows your reaction time. It doesn't make you do or think anything you otherwise wouldn't, you just get there a little slower.
For all I know, you still become all those great things when you drink, but you might as well said it about taking a smoke. It might be just as true then. It's not the substance doing it.
Whatever bro, I trust your self judgement. But statistically, I would bet that alcohol makes worse parents, worse listeners, worse friends. And quite often it makes outright terrible parents.
I can definitely sympathize with alcohol improving me in some situations. When I'm at social gatherings sober I'm in my head a lot, overthinking. A couple of drinks in though and I'm not using my analytical brain, I'm using the part that is good at improv, and I have much better conversations because of it, and usually comes away from those events more positive than sober.
From the perspective of the genes, having kids but being unhealthy is better than being a healthy loner. And this is good health in a larger, cross-generational, perspective
Could have gone the other way and cost you a family in a DUI accident, or cost someone else's theirs. Hopefully you were wiser than taking such chances, and things worked out well for you (divorces not withstanding).
In the aggregate and with better public transportation and mental healthcare maybe it can be a net win for everyone. Yet I have doubts.
Bullshit. Sober people go out socializing, their way to socialize is just different, and they have no trouble finding partners. If you had decided to go without a drink, you would have found a partner, just a different one from different social circles.
Alcohol is absolutely not required. It's the Western culture. I live in a country/social circle where nobody drinks and it's plain out funny seeing Westerners thinking alcohol is some absolute necessity of life.
The interesting thing about Islamic culture is that for all their sobriety, those societies are still prone to outbursts of political/religious rage. No external intoxicant needed.
There's no evidence showing Islamic societies have more outbursts than others. The two parent comments seem to be talking about some imagined reality. Meanwhile, while being only partially related to rage and outbursts,
> Alcohol is involved in more homicides across the United States compared to other substances, like heroin and cocaine. In fact, about 40% of convicted murderers had used alcohol before or during the crime.
listed among other crimes such as robbery, sexual assault, aggravated assault, intimate partner violence and child abuse[1].
And in many Muslim countries, drinking is a big part of the culture notwithstanding the religious dicta (or even legal penalties). Iran loves its wine. Indonesia loves its arak.
I'm really glad that I've given up alcohol and it improved a lot of things in my life including sleep and anxiety, but it was also one of the single most isolating things I have ever done. I have lost more friends over my not drinking than any politics/life choice/etc. I was not some kind of alcoholic before, it was just very normal for my social circle.
Even for my friends who are still friends, it took them many months to realize it was fine to drink around me and sometimes they still feel awkward about it even though I bring my non-alcoholic alternatives.
For me, I have found some new social circles where alcohol doesn't play such an huge role. I'm also in good terms with my old drinking buddies, but of course it is not the same thing any more.
You're not wrong, but the jury's out on if not socialising versus socialising with a couple of beers or glasses of wine is healthier. But my bet is on the latter
Yea I thought that was the whole reason. But I guess there was a lot of chasing of physical reasons that wine and other alcohol would be beneficial. I usually heard about antioxidants being cited as a positive.
Stress is generally bad for the body (but note: I am not a doctor), and a little alcohol can be a social lubricant and reduce the stress of social situations or just your life problems in general. If the only real benefit of alcohol is from social lubrication, then its probably an almost impossible thing to find causation, just too many factors to deal with.
There was a big study on the antioxidant vitamins (A, C, E) to see if they helped against lung cancers. It turned out they made it worse, not better. Cancer cells are under oxidative stress, and immune cells using oxidizing substances to help kill their targets.
