Binge Drinking! ~ Moose Calls Time!

thestaggy said:
Going back to your youth, were you ever capable of having fun without the dop?

I haven't had a drink in 7-days now and I have been thinking quite a bit about it. I am essentially incapable of having fun without drinking. And the more people there are and the louder the music gets, the more I drink.

I bought premium tickets to two FIFA World Cup games in 2010. If not for the photos, I wouldn't remember too much about them because I was blitzed.

Family braai? Hammered. Braai with friends? Hammered.

Heading to the bar to meet friends and watch a band? Get drunk as quickly as possible. Get to the club for a night of dancing? ''Two shots and a double vodka and Red Bull, please'' as soon as I get there.

So my trigger seems to be anything social.
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How old are you?
 
thestaggy said:
Going back to your youth, were you ever capable of having fun without the dop?
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It was the culture I grew up in, mining and Scottish, Glaswegian at that, my parents played a lot of folk music and there was always drinking..

I use to sail a lot on the Orange RIver and a pan up here...... that was fun, but always after you would hit the Yacht Club bar...

Later on in life, I realized that my mood would pick up and I would get excited if I knew I was going to be drinking later...

I am a very sociable person and do not need booze to talk to folk and I enjoy talking to strangers, not shy to initiate a conversation. I also have the gift of the gab and can speak in public and can make folk laugh. In all honesty my favourite spot for making folk laugh is at funerals..... :X3:

So no, I do not need dop to be social and I do recall days where I had fun without dop, although at the end of the day It always turned into a drinking session....
 
Mortymoose said:
It was the culture I grew up in, mining and Scottish, Glaswegian at that, my parents played a lot of folk music and there was always drinking..

I use to sail a lot on the Orange RIver and a pan up here...... that was fun, but always after you would hit the Yacht Club bar...

Later on in life, I realized that my mood would pick up and I would get excited if I knew I was going to be drinking later...

I am a very sociable person and do not need booze to talk to folk and I enjoy talking to strangers, not shy to initiate a conversation. I also have the gift of the gab and can speak in public and can make folk laugh. In all honesty my favourite spot for making folk laugh is at funerals..... :X3:

So no, I do not need dop to be social and I do recall days where I had fun without dop, although at the end of the day It always turned into a drinking session....
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I can relate to that. Play a bit of sport on a Sunday morning, go rafting, then the talk of going for a beer afterwards and that easily turned in to a day session.

Maybe cannot have fun without the booze is a statement too far, but definitely knowing drinks were on the cards made everything better.
 
I started drinking at the age of 5 or so (under parental supervision).
Parental unit A = Portuguese (drank like a fish)
Parental unit B = South African (refuses to touch alcohol)
 
Sounds like you're too far down the road for a complete 180 there. You need to replace the booze with something else, problem is you've damaged your life-vehicle, so you'd need to create radical change for starters. Alcohol is socially acceptable and thus perhaps you might have missed the part where your body sees it as a toxin. Difficulty is now for you to replace these triggered moments with healthy solutions, and all of them, require discipline, a lot of it.
I'd say, personally, it's a bad move to quit something outright. I'd rather moderate, and be discerning about where and when you drink. Save it for special moments. Fill the rest of these voids with other things; running, gym, a hobby. Weed could help you too, even just to stop the feedback loops that are causing these binges. Good luck
 
itsme2 said:
Sounds like you're too far down the road for a complete 180 there. You need to replace the booze with something else, problem is you've damaged your life-vehicle, so you'd need to create radical change for starters. Alcohol is socially acceptable and thus perhaps you might have missed the part where your body sees it as a toxin. Difficulty is now for you to replace these triggered moments with healthy solutions, and all of them, require discipline, a lot of it.
I'd say, personally, it's a bad move to quit something outright. I'd rather moderate, and be discerning about where and when you drink. Save it for special moments. Fill the rest of these voids with other things; running, gym, a hobby. Weed could help you too, even just to stop the feedback loops that are causing these binges. Good luck
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We each have our opinions but I think its harsh to say he is too far down the road to change.
i think stopping out right might be the right choice here, at least for now. It is so easy for 1 drink to become 5, to find that grove again, to convince yourself this isnt so bad or tell yourself, you have been so good, you deserve this.
I have told myself a lot of lies to justify what I have done.

Totally agree on filling the voids, I cling onto exercise now, to the fact that I will wake up not feeling awful.
Sometimes I have a trigger and I know I am screwed, on those days, and this may sound insane to some people, I take prescription sleeping tablets almost immediately. It almost removes that tension, that feeling that I have that I need to abuse substances. In 20 minutes Im asleep and when I wake up I am grateful as hell I didnt do anything stupid.

Once you have defined yourself with a certain lifestyle its hard to find something else. I mentioned that in an earlier post as well and I think it is an issue for a lot of people. If they arent the outgoing, party animal who likes a drink or whatever, then who are they in a social situation.
 
I hear what you okes are saying but bear two things in mind.

All the years that I have been drinking, I was doing some form of sport, up until 18 months ago I was swimming 45 minutes everyday, for the past two years I play badminton for at least forty minutes a day six days a week...... this has been my saving grace, I should have been rife with diabetes or some other lifestyle disease.....

Secondly this is day 38 of no booze and in all honesty, my head is clearer, I am more active and feel great..... the big thing is , I still braai, still socialize and badminton and bowling club and have no urge for suiping anymore....... I think it is my age that has actually caught up with me, let's say I am maturing.... :X3: Long overdue in the English HO's books.....

I never use to drink until 16, one day in the back of a school bus taking boarding school kids back to Namibia I was invited to the "cool" part of the bus, coz the leader "A" of the crowd was the son of family friends..... He enticed me to have my first drink..... they had stashed five liter pap sakke behind each seat..... thats where I first learnt to drink , ironically it was also the first time I got touch a woman (two years older than me) down stairs, being drunk she forced my hand into her panties and showed me what she wanted ...... Gee! this is all coming back to me and now I digress.....

The point I wanted to make, last night "A" was in town, he owns a mining services company and was in the store last night, I see him from time to time, My Gawd, his face looks fecked, like an 80 year old from all the drinking.,
My butchery manager kuiered with the gang last night, he looked fecked also this morning, tired and run down....

No Thanks! I have done my time, got the stories (busy writing these down) and want to have my last three decades to enjoy....
 
Mortymoose said:
I hear what you okes are saying but bear two things in mind.

All the years that I have been drinking, I was doing some form of sport, up until 18 months ago I was swimming 45 minutes everyday, for the past two years I play badminton for at least forty minutes a day six days a week...... this has been my saving grace, I should have been rife with diabetes or some other lifestyle disease.....

Secondly this is day 38 of no booze and in all honesty, my head is clearer, I am more active and feel great..... the big thing is , I still braai, still socialize and badminton and bowling club and have no urge for suiping anymore....... I think it is my age that has actually caught up with me, let's say I am maturing.... :X3: Long overdue in the English HO's books.....

I never use to drink until 16, one day in the back of a school bus taking boarding school kids back to Namibia I was invited to the "cool" part of the bus, coz the leader "A" of the crowd was the son of family friends..... He enticed me to have my first drink..... they had stashed five liter pap sakke behind each seat..... thats where I first learnt to drink , ironically it was also the first time I got touch a woman (two years older than me) down stairs, being drunk she forced my hand into her panties and showed me what she wanted ...... Gee! this is all coming back to me and now I digress.....

The point I wanted to make, last night "A" was in town, he owns a mining services company and was in the store last night, I see him from time to time, My Gawd, his face looks fecked, like an 80 year old from all the drinking.,
My butchery manager kuiered with the gang last night, he looked fecked also this morning, tired and run down....

No Thanks! I have done my time, got the stories (busy writing these down) and want to have my last three decades to enjoy....
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All good. I'd say just be careful of having expectations that could make you feel like you've let yourself down, and end up in a loop again. If you've had gout, then you've already done damage. Alcohol is hugely damaging and yes, drinkers age fast. It's better to train yourself to have discernment in all things. Discernment = Discipline. If you apply this to everything it will lead you to better things and moments in life. It will also allow you to enjoy things moderately.
 
I'll say good for you.

I suppose my average of 10 hours of cycling per week does help a bit, but I never drank anything but beer, champagne and brandy until well into my late 20s. So I did not drink a lot. However then I started with wine and diversified and I drink purely for the enjoyment thereof. If I don't feel like drinking, no matter what other people drink or do - I won't. That said I know I drink way too much based on the norm - and I won't stop.

While I do take a clean stint every now and then for a few reason, like loosing a bit of weight, ensuring I am not totally dependent on alcohol etc... I won't ever stop.

My dad is turning 69 this year and being a wine farmer he has always had a drink or two. I seldom recall times when he was drunk, but I never recall a time when he not had some wine. He does not drink hard as often as I do, but he is still working and still joins me on various cycle events. To be honest, he is the one that got me into a fitter lifestyle just before I turned 30.

With all things in life there is balance, and balance does not have to be perfect. You just need to find a balance you are OK with.
 
Rouxenator said:
I'll say good for you.

With all things in life there is balance, and balance does not have to be perfect. You just need to find a balance you are OK with.
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Spot on. If you can do do a glass or 2 of wine a day, and maybe a bottle once a week then great. But a lot of people can't do balance. Or tolerance builds up over time and over 20 years of drinking that 1-2 per day becomes a bottle a day or more just to get the same level of relaxation.
 
I am at the stage were I can do with no booze for a week / a box a week (that is 4 bottles) / even kill off a box in one night.

You should not use a substance to alleviate your day to day challenges and their tolls - yet I do - many others do too.

It works for me but I know I am in control and not the other way round - I think that is the main problem people worry about. But really - if you need booze to function, is that so bad?

People need oxygen to survive - what does that make you? Human?

Not ashamed of any of those either.
 
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