Dark side of drinking

I've spent a good amount of time calling out the negative side of drinking, such as the money, the hangover, the lost time, the lack of control, ... but there is something else too.  And by the way, today I am talking about DRINKING, not having one or two, or getting a little tipsy.  I mean getting drunk, and you all know what I mean.

It impairs you physically - you can't walk a straight line or drive a car properly, your reaction time is weakened, your senses are dulled.  But psychologically something is going on too.  When I am the only one in the room that is sober, it is easy to call me out as "not getting it" because I am sober, but I get it perfectly, I just don't like it.  The fact that drinking makes a person come out of their shell and causes parties to be more fun and boring times to be more tolerable is simply a lie that society tells itself to justify running from your reality.

It's no wonder why - I would say less than 5 percent of people I know, myself included, don't have at least some reasonable level of chaos going on in their life that warrants an periodic escape.  These things can be as serious as a death in the family or marital troubles.  They can be obscure like a general feeling like you are not living the life you wanted to.  They can be trivial like forgetting to add the right name to an email, causing you to have to work till midnight to repair the problem it caused.

Some people turn to different drugs, some turn to different releases altogether.

A good friend of mine said "there isn't any problem that a little drinking couldn't make worse."  I'm not saying I am above any of it.  I was perfectly steeped in it myself.  And I don't mean that two drinks at the bar after work is running from your life, thats different.  I mean real drinking - and the way it makes people behave.  The way that it makes some men fight, and others cry.  The way it makes people do things they shouldn't do, say things they shouldn't say, and almost always say it in a sloppy way.  Hey, that rhymes.

Oh, and what does it mean for someone like me, who has just admitted to going to the dark side of drinking - where did that dark side go, how did I deal with my problems, how did I magically get over this desire to run from my problems?

You are expecting me to be holier than thou and say that I faced my demons and I slayed them.  But that isn't true at all.  The truth is I haven't gotten over any of them, I haven't changed a bit.  I would love to go out and misbehave and not be held accountable (though you are still held accountable).  Those problems are always at arms reach - but every day I tell them to piss off, because they'll never get me to take that drink.

Three months in

Well, I'm in the thick of it now.   By now, not drinking has become the norm and drinking seems weird.  Life's been a bit stressful lately, for reasons I won't get into here.  It's ok though, I need to go through some of that without having a case of beer to run to.  It's all part of it I guess.

I'm going to Las Vegas with my wife in a couple weeks.  It's funny, this will be my first trip to Vegas without a drop of alcohol.  I went there when I was 15.  I ordered a strawberry daiquiri at the pool, assuming the bartender would make me a nonalcoholic one.  I was wrong, and got the real thing.  Split with two friends, I think I only had a sip. Funny though that I will drink nothing on this trip.

Its funny, I need to start thinking about my cholesterol.  Studies have shown that two drinks per day greatly increases levels of good cholesterol.  They are quick to report, however, that three or more drinks per day greatly increases the chance of liver disease, heart failure, and blah blah blah.  Its like even the doctors are looking at you and saying "why can't you just have a couple?"  Talk about walking a fine line.  Geez.  Just figure out whatever is in the booze that is raising your good levels, and put it in a pill.  "Four out of five doctors recommend phillips brand vodka with your cereal to start your day off right."

I'll stick to exercise, thanks.