Drinking alone

[CommonKnowledge]

“Deep down in his private heart, no man respects himself much" - Mark Twain

So I've been thinking about this for a while now and wondered what CFC had to say about it. Personally I don't think drinking alone is a big deal, yet when I tell people that I do they react as though I've just let slip that I'm Hannibal or that German guy who advertised over the web that he wanted to eat someone.

Drinking alone seems to have a real stigma about it as though if you start doing it then next thing you know you're that guy on the park bench drinking something funky out of a brown paper bag at ten in the morning.

Another thing I've found about drinking alone is that I'm free to actually enjoy the process of drinking itself rather than focusing on getting inebriated as I would when with friends. A few years ago I would never have put myself down as a beer snob but since then I've been almost exclusively ordering from local breweries as it makes me realise how much I was missing by drinking that dish water on tap - but that's just an aside.

Anyway, what's your thoughts on solo drinking?

 

[Kyriakos]

I never was much of a drinker, and haven't drunk alcohol in nearly a decade now (used to drink a couple of vodka shots at the uni bar). Being intoxicated is an interesting phenomenon, but i read that people who become pathological drinkers do so out of the (false) hope they will chase their problems away with the drinking. So as long as you do not aim to do that, you should be fine. I do not see any stigma attached to drinking by yourself anyway.

 

[holy king]

what amounts are we talking about here?

 

[NetGear]

I only pretend to drink so I csn legitimize my loose actions.

The real drinking happens at home. Its safe to dance naked there

 

[emzie]

It's an issue of context. How often are you drinking alone? What are you doing? How much are you drinking?

If you get home every night, pour yourself half a glass of whiskey and then chase it with a half dozen beers while watching TV (eg: yer my dad's dad) then I'd say you have a drinking problem. If you drink a few beers while playing Civ on a Friday night, that's fine.

 

[CommonKnowledge]

what amounts are we talking about here?

Couple of pints usually, In terms of units I guess 12. I grew up with beer around the house as my dad brewed it meaning I could just help myself so perhaps my tolerance is higher than that of my house mates who get plastered on a glass of wine.

 

[holy king]

well, how often a week?

 

[CommonKnowledge]

well, how often a week?

I only ever drink Friday and Saturday since the rest of the week I'm too stressed out about getting work done to consider wasting an evening configuring a ZX spectrum emulator on Linux.

 

[sophie]

Well I would consider drinking alone to be the point at which someone could possibly be an alcoholic. Would that make me an alcoholic? Oh yes.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Hardcore mode: drinking red wine in bed, as you fall asleep.

 

[Tahuti]

I do it often, usually when I run out of coffee and soda and I resort to beer as an alternative.

 

[Zelig]

If you get home every night, pour yourself half a glass of whiskey and then chase it with a half dozen beers while watching TV (eg: yer my dad's dad) then I'd say you have a drinking problem. If you drink a few beers while playing Civ on a Friday night, that's fine.

So as long as I play civ rather than watching tv, it's cool. Got it.

 

[NovaKart]

If you are binge drinking it's probably safer to do it at home than out in public.

I can't imagine drinking beer as an alternative to coffee and soda since it has the opposite effect and makes people sleepy.

 

[Zelig]

I can't imagine drinking beer as an alternative to coffee and soda since it has the opposite effect and makes people sleepy.

The primary effect of soda is delivering unhealthy amounts of sugar.

 

[Save_Ferris]

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessman slowly gets stoned
Yes they're sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it's better than drinking alone

I take each and every opportunity to quote Billy Joel.

 

[Janig]

Drinking and then writing about your experience on an internet forum isnt exactly drinking alone, and if your drinking buddies notice you are gone then again youre not really alone because theyre thinking of you and vice versa. Being presumed dead as a missing person, finding a cave, living in it, and then drinking alone suggests you got problems.

My life has only got better since I ditched my drinking buddies. Lead by example.

 

[LucyDuke]

Hardcore mode: drinking red wine in bed, as you fall asleep.

I recommend sippy cups.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

I recommend sippy cups.

Sippy cups are god mode. Not fitting for an alcoholics final exam

 

[holy king]

I only ever drink Friday and Saturday since the rest of the week I'm too stressed out about getting work done to consider wasting an evening configuring a ZX spectrum emulator on Linux.

well, drinking alone doesnt make you someone whose alcoholism needs treatment per se.
once or twice a week alone and never in company probably doesnt require treatment (unless you want to stop it and cant do it on your own), but you should definitely be aware of the danger that it might end up so.

just watch it consciously and dont start to do it more often.


the reason why these people act all oh my god when you talk about drinking alone is that strictly not drinking alone is a pretty effective barrier to not let your alcoholism spiral out of control.
once past that point, a personal crisis might be all it takes to make you start drinking heavily everyday.
just be aware of that.

 

[azzaman333]

It's fun for the whole family.


But seriously, if you're drinking in moderation, it's fine whether you're doing it at home alone, or out and about snorting coke off the ass of a hooker.