Alcohol Would be Perfect...if it didsn't destroy your body

[quote]...if it didsn't destroy your body

Or your typing.

[quote] Also I am very outgoing and usually I'm an extreme introvert.

Why is being an extrovert necessarily better than being an introvert?

You need to read the introduction to "Quiet" by Susan Cain, which destroys that myth,

It's not better, R2, but it's not worse either. Sometimes each one wishes to be more like the other, it's perfectly natural.

OP, alcohol won't kill you and it won't wreck your body. Who told you that? If you're drunk in the gutter every night then yeah, it's going to destroy you in a lot of ways but normal social drinking is fine. Get a little buzz on, be a bit more outgoing when you want to, it won't hurt you.

Let me introduce you to the Wonderful World of Benzos, OP.

Specifically, klonopin.

I agree OP--I'm more relaxed, friendlier, more engaged when I've got a good buzz on.

When I'm sober I'm always so *aware*...of the time...and the money I'm spending...and the chit chat I'm making. I'm thinking of what I have to do tomorrow and stressing about my job.

I need the mini vacation I get from booze.

But R4--noooo. No benzos...welcome to the world of rehab!

R4 is everything that's wrong with datalounge

Shouldn't this be in one of the AA threads?

Ugh, you may think you're a charming social butterfly when you're drunk, but I'd wager other people see you as that weird sloppy guy who talks too loud.

If you only like alcohol as a means to an end - being friendly - then figure out some way to cut out the middleman. Socializing, like anything else, takes practice. Spend some time figuring out what makes you so uncomfortable when you're sober.

Unclench, R6.

Let me guess, you're in "recovery."

God.

Have a glass of wine or a cocktail and relax, OP.

Drinkers age so much worse in every way. I hate that I can't drink anymore. The hangovers get more severe with age and it takes so little now to trigger one. I get buzzed a few times a year at most.

If you exercise strenuously and regularly at the gym (both cardio and weight training), the effects of alcohol are reduced, if not entirely negated.

I'm actually extremely mean when I'm drunk. I'm inherently just a terrible person though.

Get some sleep, hon.

Baby, you are preaching to the choir. I gad fresh squeezed lemonade from dinner, that I mixed with Vodka. Stop...Hammer time. Plus some kush cloudiness too? I'm supposed to be watching/catching up on DVR'd episodes and movies. Summer vacation almost over. Enjoy OP... Call AA after New Year's. :-)

Hey, OP, a Stolli-Bolli with an E?

I decided to quit drinking this past Monday. I couldn't/wouldn't stop at one glass of wine or G & T or whatever.

It's been 5 days and I feel great. As soon as blood pressure comes down, I'll start mild jogging to get cardiovascular rate back and lose the belly and saggy jowls.

Here's what made me stop apart from health and 'vanity' considerations:

1. Next door neighbours, both retired and busy people with volunteer activities and island cottage they go to most of the summer (M/F 67 and 57 respectively) are sober by day but she mostly gets on the rum and pot practically every night and becomes incoherent basically. He has the belly of 9-month pregnant Kardashian (pick one), varicose veins on legs, on blood pressure medication. Neither are in tip top shape. By day, the woman is a horror to be near (imagine a prison warden in a super max prison if you can) but becomes a 4 year old blathering nonsensical child by night. They stay in their home alone evenings thank goodness.

2. Met a 50 year old woman (through acquaintances) last week. Slim but has the body and health of a dying 90 year old. Has COPD (chokes ever minutes but rescued by expensive puffer) and consumes maybe at most 200 calories a day and the rest is......booze.

3. Another Neighbour's wife has intestinal cancer. She's at home receiving "end of life care" as I write. No clue about them. Likely not booze. But a wake-up call of another sort.

4. Neighbour behind me. Female, 59 with full-time job, divorcing and in an on-line relationship. She just returned from holiday so she SHOULD be relaxed. Dropped by her home 3 nights ago with 2 out of the oven blueberry muffins as 'welcome back' gesture. Found her in darkness on the phone, agitated, moaning about money spent on holidays, money spent on other things. Drinking to call her nerves but depression and anxiety through the roof.

I cite not so much for *direct* effects or correlation between booze and lifestyle/mental outlook. But it was coincidental the week I decided to kick the habit you open your eyes to what is around you.

As stated, I feel great. Calm. Rested. Upbeat. And as mentioned, starting the back-to-fitness regime shortly.

I am NOT a big Mick Jagger fan here (horndog ways etc) but I remember reading 2 years ago that he cut out alcohol ages ago as it was "debilitating." His words not mine.

This is just my world. Offering this as another perspective.

Lord give it a break R17. Nothing to get born again about. Do it or don't. You're a very nosey neighbor. Mick Jagger gave up heroin some time ago also. Try not to get hit by a bus today. God Bless.

r17 Don't get too fanatical. Fanaticism never lasts.

r17 lose the belly and saggy jowls.

God, how much were you drinking?

Think about your liver. Alcohol kills liver cells.

A certain amount of regeneration is possible. However, once you have gone past a certain point (depending on how much you have drunk in your life and how long or short a time you took to drink that amount) there is no turning back. But by all means wait until your pathologist gets you up on the table and opens you up.

OP, go to therapy. Your view of every point you raised is entirely fucked up.

No, you're not better when you're drinking. You're just numb. The biggest adjustment to me when I stopped drinking was feeling emotions again. I cried at the slightest provacation like a baby almost every night for about three months.