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vin_petrolI'm aware I have an affectation for calling it "ethanol" (C2H5OH), as I did enough chemistry to learn "alcohol" was a generic term. However, I'll call it "alcohol" here.
Hangovers
Eventually, it was this that ground me down. I don't subscribe to the "they get worse with age" theory at all. I've always suffered from terrible hangovers. I can clearly remember my teenage years. Central television used to show Airwolf on a Saturday afternoon at 1.20 PM. I would watch it lying in bed, hungover, with a bucket next to the bed for throwing up in. I would generally take the end credits of that program as my prompt to finally crawl out of bed.
I suspect that different people suffer from the after effects of alcohol to different degrees. I know plenty of people who can drink similar amounts to me and suffer few ill effects. Good luck to them, but it doesn't help me.
A few years ago, for some reason I didn't drink at all one Friday night. I woke up early the next morning, but the sun was shining and I felt refreshed enough to get up. I had a wonderful morning, wandering around, reading the paper, surfing the web and drinking tea alone. The thing was, I felt I had more fun being unpoisoned that morning than I would have had being drunk the night before.
Someone once said to me old people get up early 'cos they know they don't have much life left, and they want to cram it all in. I similar thought hit me. I didn't want to get up early per se, just not to have to write off huge chunks of my life to feeling like shit, and being unable to do anything constructive with it. I just wanted to wake up to sunlight and think "how pleasant" rather than "aaaarrrgh".
It's a common concept that people say "never again" when very hungover, but resume drinking shortly afterwards. The feeling a hangover gives you seem to fade from your memory. I found this wasn't happening to me anymore. I could almost taste and smell the pain in the head and the throwing up, in the drink. If I get a nasty hangover now, it puts me off drinking for months.
Logistics
Life is so much easier if you don't drink. You can drive anywhere you want to go. Once more, the niggles of organising trains and taxis ground me down over time. I just got to a point where the idea of hanging around for a taxi in the cold and rain became too depressing an experience to contemplate. I just couldn't be arsed with it any more.
Loss of inhibitions
I never really needed alcohol to make me any more outgoing...
Staying Awake
Alcohol makes me sleepy. That's just the effect it has. I know people who say "it keeps me awake". It utterly doesn't do this for me. After a few drinks I want to go to bed. This isn't compatible with going out for any length of time. Various people have probably seen me fall asleep at dinner parties, with me making drunken claims that it's "performance art". I don't think I've ever managed an "all day drinking session" in my life. I can either do the afternoon, or the evening, never both.
Staying Straight
I often prefer to do things in the evening that require me to be pretty sharp. I don't really miss the fuzzy feeling that alcohol gives me. I prefer to read straight, or use my computer straight. That's just my personal choice.
There are better drugs
Alcohol does have the advantage of being readily available and legal, but my personal preference these days is for other mind altering substances.
Musical Events
There is one remaining time I do sometimes drink. At places like Whitby Goth Weekend and InFest, where my accommodation is nearby and I can stay in bed for a while, I do sometimes drink. I do quite like to take the 'edge' off my perception with some alcohol. So you may still see me with a bottle in my hand at these events.
Hangovers
Eventually, it was this that ground me down. I don't subscribe to the "they get worse with age" theory at all. I've always suffered from terrible hangovers. I can clearly remember my teenage years. Central television used to show Airwolf on a Saturday afternoon at 1.20 PM. I would watch it lying in bed, hungover, with a bucket next to the bed for throwing up in. I would generally take the end credits of that program as my prompt to finally crawl out of bed.
I suspect that different people suffer from the after effects of alcohol to different degrees. I know plenty of people who can drink similar amounts to me and suffer few ill effects. Good luck to them, but it doesn't help me.
A few years ago, for some reason I didn't drink at all one Friday night. I woke up early the next morning, but the sun was shining and I felt refreshed enough to get up. I had a wonderful morning, wandering around, reading the paper, surfing the web and drinking tea alone. The thing was, I felt I had more fun being unpoisoned that morning than I would have had being drunk the night before.
Someone once said to me old people get up early 'cos they know they don't have much life left, and they want to cram it all in. I similar thought hit me. I didn't want to get up early per se, just not to have to write off huge chunks of my life to feeling like shit, and being unable to do anything constructive with it. I just wanted to wake up to sunlight and think "how pleasant" rather than "aaaarrrgh".
It's a common concept that people say "never again" when very hungover, but resume drinking shortly afterwards. The feeling a hangover gives you seem to fade from your memory. I found this wasn't happening to me anymore. I could almost taste and smell the pain in the head and the throwing up, in the drink. If I get a nasty hangover now, it puts me off drinking for months.
Logistics
Life is so much easier if you don't drink. You can drive anywhere you want to go. Once more, the niggles of organising trains and taxis ground me down over time. I just got to a point where the idea of hanging around for a taxi in the cold and rain became too depressing an experience to contemplate. I just couldn't be arsed with it any more.
Loss of inhibitions
I never really needed alcohol to make me any more outgoing...
Staying Awake
Alcohol makes me sleepy. That's just the effect it has. I know people who say "it keeps me awake". It utterly doesn't do this for me. After a few drinks I want to go to bed. This isn't compatible with going out for any length of time. Various people have probably seen me fall asleep at dinner parties, with me making drunken claims that it's "performance art". I don't think I've ever managed an "all day drinking session" in my life. I can either do the afternoon, or the evening, never both.
Staying Straight
I often prefer to do things in the evening that require me to be pretty sharp. I don't really miss the fuzzy feeling that alcohol gives me. I prefer to read straight, or use my computer straight. That's just my personal choice.
There are better drugs
Alcohol does have the advantage of being readily available and legal, but my personal preference these days is for other mind altering substances.
Musical Events
There is one remaining time I do sometimes drink. At places like Whitby Goth Weekend and InFest, where my accommodation is nearby and I can stay in bed for a while, I do sometimes drink. I do quite like to take the 'edge' off my perception with some alcohol. So you may still see me with a bottle in my hand at these events.
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no subject
Can't you just drink ~less~ so as not to have a hangover? Or do you get very bad hangovers on very small amounts?
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Yes, but it has to be a lot less. Just something to take the edge off things. Maybe 3-4 units.
Or do you get very bad hangovers on very small amounts?
Recently, this has been the case :-(
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no subject
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Hmmm. Yes, I do sometimes drink the odd bottle of lager. It has to brewed according to the German purity laws though, to avoid any nasty hangover inducing chemicals. I don't mind paying the extra!