Why do you drink (Alcohol)? | Vital Football

Why do you drink (Alcohol)?

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Villan Of The North

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Since moving to Norway I noticed a big difference in the drinking culture, what people drink, how much, why and when.

Norwegians are binge drinkers who drink hard to get drunk, something that I believe is a result of the tax/health policy hear that makes the price prohibitive - they either don't drink at all or they go big and get smashed. Even mature adults in their 50s and upwards drink at home on "cheap" supermarket bought beer to get drunk before they hit the restaurants and bars.

Both the UK and Germany have a history of social drinking, most often beer. They may get drunk but rarely is that the intention (unless you are 15) it's just the effect when they get carried away or overdo it a little.

The southern European countries have a similar culture with wine, even watering down the wine for a drink with lunch, as to avoid the effects of too much alcohol.

Personally I have been "tea total" for the last 14 and a half years. I say tea total but I don't actually drink tea either :40: Interestingly though, I can only remember one occasion in my life where I have actually drank with the intention of getting drunk, on all other occasions it's just been a natural consequence of drinking socially.

So why do you drink? You can chose more than one and/or add your own options.
 
I try to avoid alcohol as it might lend to somewhere I don't particular wish to go!
 
Social reasons.

Albeit I don't drink very often these days, especially after the last health set back. I don't like to have just one pint and I usually drive.

Had a pint and a half (mad mad times!) of Guiness Extra Cold the other week that did go down well I must admit, I then regretted driving as I wanted more!

But yes, social reasons.
 
I used to drink a lot. There was definitely a drink culture at work, indeed we were tasked with taking large groups of customers out on the lash.
Today I very rarely drink. I've gone 18 months teetotal before.
Currently I had a drink 2 weeks ago but prior to that it had been about 8 weeks.
I drink when I feel like it.
 
Ian I think you have it all wrong about the drinking culture in England it really is all about binge drinking over here the last 20 years( and I don't know any stats just going off what I have noticed over the years so could be wrong)I would say alcohol related deaths have risen sharply.Would say the reason for this is the choice of drinks people choose are far stronger than the old pint of beer which was once the Brits favourite tipple.Now it seems to be all about Cider,Vodka and Shots.But as for just going out for a social drink and a game cards that's the rarity.
 
Yup, you see it up and down the country every weekend in the towns and cities, people getting obliterated, far more women legless these days as well.

Not a pretty sight!
 
That's interesting. I left the UK 14 years ago and my abiding memory is one of all but "the kids" drinking socially. Teens have always been idiots!

If things have changed, like you say, then I wonder if it's like here in Norway, prices are put up so people revert to the supermarkets and then go OTT.
 
Sometimes it can be nice though J when you see some fit bird with a short skirt legs akimbo.
 
The Fear - 8/8/2013 10:53

Yup, you see it up and down the country every weekend in the towns and cities, people getting obliterated, far more women legless these days as well.

Not a pretty sight!

That reminds me of a very crude joke....let's just say that there must be a lot of s"slug" trails around. :10:

 
I don't as the majority of you know! I am what I prefer to say today is 'I am a sober alcoholic' meaning I don't live as an active drinker.

I never particularly liked alcohol. The active drinking was over about 3 years and essentially I was a evening drinker and what I call today a functioning drunk until the end. Drink became my solution.

I drank to numb the way I felt, on pain and stress of a dysfunctional childhood (though I didn't realize how dysfunctional at the time) and a recreation of my childhood in adulthood to the ex. Ex is also alcoholic though not in recovery. He is still like me an evening drinker.

It all came to a head in 2003. I had laid off the booze for 9 months without a problem. When I picked up again, it was for 6 weeks and it darned near took me over. I did the thing I swore I would never do and that was pick up the morning drink in the last 2 binges in January 2003. That is what led me to A.A.

Essentially today in modern terms my drinking was called 'stress binge drinking' Very very common. My amounts were minuet in compare when I first went into A.A. I found out it is not what you drink, or how often it is what happens when you drink. There is a fine line between a heavy drinker and a alcoholic. How do you tell the difference? It is not easy!. An alcoholic ha stepped over a line of where they can take 1 drink safely. 1 is too many and a thousand never enough, kinda of analogy. The 1st drink sets off a craving.

A heavy drinker can moderate or stop. Someone who has stepped over the line can't without intervention. The majority of alcoholics don't get well. Recovery and A.A helps me remember where I never need to go again.

As Skeggy said, which I agree with, I don't know where drink would take me and neither would I be prepared to try it after 10 and a half years of sobriety. Too many out there that come in and out of the rooms who have done the research for me.

It's 1 thing in the world I can't do safely, is take a drink. Not a massive thing in the scheme of things really. I would never risk what I have today for a drink.

It's about 1 in 13 that get into long term recovery.

I put teetotal how I don't drink tea either. De-caf coffee for me and a cup of herbal tea a day, is my drink of choice. Oh and plenty of water with cordial
 
Villan Of The North - 8/8/2013 09:57

That's interesting. I left the UK 14 years ago and my abiding memory is one of all but "the kids" drinking socially. Teens have always been idiots!

If things have changed, like you say, then I wonder if it's like here in Norway, prices are put up so people revert to the supermarkets and then go OTT.
It's exactly the same mate I know people who never go out or very rarely just drink in each others houses getting smashed I go to the paper shop every morning between 7&8 am and regulary there will be somebody buying drink pissed because they ran out because of a all night session.Personally I very rarely drink in the house I go out when the football season is not on Sunday and Monday and always end up pissed and when I go to the Villa I end up the same way and so does everybody else I drink with.
 
Russia has the worst problem with alcohol, followed by the Scandinavian countries and the The U.K.
 
There's been a spate of binge drinking incidents in Italy. Kids meeting up in parks and getting lashed on the cheap stuff. Local authorities are very worried they're inheriting the 'English problem'...and blaming it on the recession...
 
Gazgecko - 8/8/2013 14:27

There's been a spate of binge drinking incidents in Italy. Kids meeting up in parks and getting lashed on the cheap stuff. Local authorities are very worried they're inheriting the 'English problem'...and blaming it on the recession...

Interesting, it does seem that there is a very observable link between binge drinking and affordability of product. I wonder if this is the preference for the politicians who put the taxes in place to encourage people to drink less in countries like the UK and the Nordic countries.
 
I actually don't agree that the binge drink culture in the UK covers the majority of alcohol drinkers or that it is the huge social disease some claim. Yes there are people who go out to get absolutely trollied but I think the vast majority are out socialising first and foremost. Also the vast majority do not end up unconscious in the street. Like so many things I think a lot of horror stories about drink are exaggerated to sell papers to 'outraged of hampshire' Daily Mail readers or so MPs can further tax us in the name of 'it's for your own good'.

Drinking and British culture are joined at the hip and I love it. Can't imagine living anywhere without a good quality local where you can just pop in, at any time, and you'll know someone in there.
 
Norwegian cities seemed very strange to me (although not been to Oslo). Sunday-Thursday the streets were completely dead. Not a soul. On Friday and Saturday night the streets were full of completely bladdered people. And, I mean completely bladdered. Never seen anything like it before or since.
 
I used to be an alcoholic now I mainly drink socially. I occaisionally drink at home. On certain occaisions I drink to get drunk. I have always been a big drinker since I started at 14 years old.
 
Beovilla - 8/8/2013 15:48

Norwegian cities seemed very strange to me (although not been to Oslo). Sunday-Thursday the streets were completely dead. Not a soul. On Friday and Saturday night the streets were full of completely bladdered people. And, I mean completely bladdered. Never seen anything like it before or since.

And I used to drive them round in a 16 seater taxi. That is one part of the job that I really don't miss.
 
I'm starting to wonder about this more and more often recently. I've never really been a huge drinker, I rarely drink at home and will usually only bother when I'm out with friends or work, at which point there's usually no stopping me.

But recently, if I have just one or two beers, I'll find myself with a spitting headache an hour or two later.

If I go out on a session and drink steadily on the other hand, I'll be fine... until the inevitable stinking hangover costs me half the following morning. Which really wakes me wonder why I bother at all.

Then I see the next door neighbour cracking a new can of lager literally every 10 minutes, every evening in his back garden, and wonder a: how the hell he does it and b: how the hell he can afford it.