“I drink infrequently”
“I drink a few drinks a month”
“I dont drink more than a few times a year.”
Nah, there are lots of ways to do this
“Why don’t you just stop drinking for good then?”
You can’t explain anything to people who will intentionally misunderstand you and assume the worse.
That would be an extraordinarily rude response to those statements and I would seek to stay way the fuck away from anyone with that obvious of a behavioral issue.
“Because my consumption isn’t problematic.”
Like the person who is only drinking a half dozen times a year doesn’t have a relationship with alcohol at all. They don’t even think about it in a regular day. The only person who would hear a red flag in those responses is someone who does have a relationship with alcohol, and it’s probably not a good one.
But that’s exactly what an alcoholic would say
I think you need to learn what non-problematic drinking is. Most people do not have a problem and your responses ITT are quite childish and ignorant
Sure, but this interpretation is almost entirely subjective to you. Most people don’t think in shades of alcoholic.
If you’re trying to justify your drinking to me after I said “Oh, I don’t drink” I’m really gonna think you’re an alcoholic because I said nothing to warrant you needing to justify yourself. I just don’t like drinking myself.
Almost every single time I have made a comment about how I do not like alcohol, I get a few replies from people trying to justify their consumption to me, as if I said I hate people who drink.
I guess I’m lucky. Since I retired from drinking no one has pushed back when I’ve declined to partake.
I think in some areas, the culture is starting to shift around that a bit. I remember the 2000-2010s era having a lot of shows that were more on-the-nose about the topic and then seeing more people talking about how to properly interact with recovering alcoholics on social media in the years following.
Purely anecdotal, of course. I just get the vibe that some areas where drinking used to be very expected, have learned to treat it as a choice
It’s actually quite simple, sounds like you need to change your friend group
I drink because I like to support local business. It just happens that the local business I want to support are breweries.
If you are in a position where you need to defend your booze consumpion, you’re probably an alcoholic.
Not really. Say you have one beer a week after mowing the yard. I could say, “If you aren’t addicted, then just quit.”
I could say, “If you aren’t addicted, then just quit.”
Did anyone actually tell you that 1 beer a week is too much? Because it’s not a real case scenario in my mind.
And even if they really did it’s probably their own problem, and you don’t really have to defend yourself for doing that.
In any other case, if a person tells you “hey, tone it down with the booze” you probably should.
Try it with opiates lol.
That’s a pretty subjective statement as it really depends on whom you’re defending it to. Does consuming any amount of alcohol make one an alcoholic? I suppose differing people will have differing definitions.
That’s the point, though. Even if you have one beer a week, defending that if challenged to quit will make you sound like an alcoholic.
But that doesn’t make sense, one beer a week is absolutely not triggering chemical addiction. At that rate you could attack any ritual behavior, or regular consumption of anything beyond nutrient paste and water
To me the important distinction is between chemical and behavioral addiction, habits and compulsions.
No one said anything about triggering an addiction, or being addicted at all.
It’s the act of defending your alcohol consumption that can make you sound like an alcoholic.
Sometimes the point of alcohol is just to get a little bit drunk.
Similarly, asking anyone to defend their position on why sobriety is superior will eventually have them sound like they are insecure and judgemental.
Alcohol is a great solvent and widely used in flavor extracts such as orange and almond concentrating and preserving the essence of flavors.
It’s use can add natural flavors to a great variety of recipes.
This sounds like it starts from the assumption that it can only be consumed for the effect, not the taste.
I drink once, maybe twice every year, and never more than 2-3 drinks. And I specifically either sip a finger of Jägermeister, a White Russian, or expensive gin tonics (Scapegrace is brilliantly rich and nuanced, for instance), because I enjoy the taste.
What I do not enjoy is getting drunk. Not only because the following two days are worse than death, but especially because I don’t like how my body slips out of my control and how it encourages my mind to drift toward the dark place.
I think alcohol like music can not be separated from its effect upon the mind. I think those effects are entirely the point we take it, I think if it was just taste you would not drink your White Russian. I think when you drink it it is because you want to visit or at least be reminded of your dark place. Like all drugs it is vital not to ignore the positive effects they can have while also being very aware of the long term negative consequences. As to answering the original question I think if you drink less than the average it is permissible to give as your reasons that you sometimes like the way it makes you feel. You drink in the same way you put on music, not because of the sound or the taste but because it takes you to somewhere else and for a little while that is where you needed to be.
