Post #35162 by Trader Woody on Wed, May 21, 2003 3:36 AM

Indeed, it's a topic worth exploring as it affects a lot of people on the board.
Tiki Central is undoubtably drink-fuelled, be it our social events or even home-posting
at times.

I think it's important to make a distinction between alcoholism & binge-drinking. Hopefully the most anyone will suffer from here is the latter, but both can have their own serious consequences. My father-in-law is an alcoholic and will go on 'episodes' where he drinks heavily from morning to night for days on end. This kind of drinking is serious bad news as it's difficult to stop and probably will kill him if he doesn't stop. Binge-drinking has it's own problems - risk of injury (both internal & external), risk of doing something Incredibly stupid, and if it starts to happen too often, the risk of ending up as an alcoholic.

I have to be careful myself - I tend to drink too much when I'm enjoying myself. Too much talking leading to dry mouth leading to more drinks and so on until I'm riding the booze-scooter home. (That's the mysterious device that somehow gets you home without you having any recollection of it). As I've got older, the hangovers take more time to shake off and I've noticed feeling mildly
depressed the day after. (After all, alcohol is a depressant). I try to tackle it by buying drinks that I really enjoy and savour the taste of, in the hope that I'll drink more slowly. I can't quite get to grips
with the whole 'drinking water' thing, but by avoiding shots completely and having a weaker drink here and there, I'm halfway there.

Trader Woody