Drink or not to drink

I got idea for this post from the discussion with my wife, if we can be teetotalers. We don’t drink much but at certain times I would be missing nice glass of wine or a beer.

Alcohol is a truly western world part of life. I am coming from eastern Europe where Czechs, Poles or Russians seem to struggle with it a bit. So I would like to share my experience.

I have started drinking beer with the friends in the park at about 16. We sourced the drinks through older mates or fake ID’s. Drinking age is usually 18 at that part of the world. Parents did not know about it until much later. Then we started going to parties, pubs and clubs. Before going to clubs we often stayed in a pub for 4-5 beers as the drinks there were much cheaper. Also I would like to highlight that “a beer”means in my country 0.5 liter. Usually on weekend night we drank up to 10 various drinks each and often got quite drunk. Sometimes we did silly things, but never anything crazy like drink driving, smashing property or starting fights. We thought that’s normal and everyone is doing it. Plus it was heaps of fun and I was quite shy then, so it made me more sociable.

Uni binging

By the time I was in Uni I was partying or at least drinking about 4-5 times a week out of which couple of times I would get drunk to be hangover next day. Then I started working but partying continued with colleagues during the week (sometimes during the work time with bosses) and with mates on weekend. After that I moved to Sydney to share house. Drinking continued as it was what everyone else in my sharehouse was doing. Luckily for me, my wife (then girlfriend) was not drinking and I slowly started changing my life from partying to be bit more domesticated. And my drinking decreased up to the today’s level when we drink bottle of wine two of us whole week.

Health impacts

This was the time when I started realizing that my drinking used to be quite troubling. Not everyone drinks to this level, you definitely damage your health by it, it doesn’t make you any fitter and you can be on the slippery slope to full blown habit. The addiction can be just one negative life event away. There are plenty of examples of people who partied themselves to addiction, loss of job, divorce, cirrhosis and death. I have seen few of them in our tiny village. Also quite a few of my friends and family members seemed to have hard battle with booze, not always winning it. Serious health damage usually did not stop them. I have seen few acquaintances being total slaves to grog. It was awful and I realized the power of alcohol over person.

I have seen factory workers having their morning (5am) shot of spirits before going to work, standing outdoor in sub zero temperature. Then I saw some of these workers coming back at 5pm unable to walk. Some of the addicted turn to zombies who are able to function if they are on the grog. At the same time they are mostly disrespected by their peers, colleagues, friends and families and as they sink deeper and deeper, they find themselves alone. Sometimes they get freed by death which often comes already by early fifties. And no, unfortunately they do not put this true side of the grog on the commercial. But they should as this is not the rare result.

Take it easy (or maybe don’t take it at all)

I am extremely happy that I have let go drinking before it would cause serious damage or before I would get hooked. Now I really just enjoy glass of shiraz or cold pale ale and it must have been a few years since I had more than 2 drinks and over a decade since I was drunk. And guess what? I am definitely not missing it. But to be honest I had a lots of fun and I do have to be careful not to slip back. I can imagine that situation if I was not paying attention. Also it sits bit at the back of my mind I could have done some damage to some of my organs through my late teens and twenties. I just hope I will not have to pay at the old age for the foolishness of my youth.

Advertising

It actually makes me angry to see the breweries and distilleries promoting their products in many different sport codes, targeting often teenagers and young adults. Making various types of drinks to sound cool and iresistant. Trying to sell something which is just a booze, which makes you drunk, sick and dumb, as something higher, special and desired. Sad. Biggest offenders are “boutique distilleries, breweries and wineries”. They are still selling addiction for many, trying to package it as something higher and luxurious which we should do to feel about ourselves better. I have a bit of idea of marketing (from Uni), production (from winery in Tuscany where I worked few times at my Uni holidays) and bad impact from personal experience.

They say “fire is a great friend but terrible enemy”. I don’t think Alcohol can be great friend. Maybe unnecessary company and awful enemy. Take care.