How much do you drink? Honestly!

I've been teetotal for years now. I was a terrible binge drinker in my 20s and 30s and got myself into bad situations when I was drunk. I really would much rather have a nice cup of Earl Grey these days.

Not a drop for the last 5 years. Menopause meant it stopped agreeing with me and I wanted to improve my health anyway. Haven't missed it at all. Prior to that never at home, but fairly frequent social drinking.

Depends on the week. This week I have a regular (weeknight) social event and a party - I’ll have 1-3 small or medium glasses of wine on the weeknight event and probably a similar amount at the party. Next week I have no social events and probably won’t drink, though. Some weeks I’ll have a couple of glasses on a Friday or Saturday at home, but not every week.

Same here. As soon as I hit my 40s even one glass of white wine would make me feel bloody awful- lethargic, knackered and headachey.

Therefore I dont drink any more and honestly - it's been great. I wake up with so much energy, my sleep is amazing, I really dont miss it.

I have had some comments about "dont be so boring" etc but I dont see what is remotely interesting about feeling like utter crap the next day which is what happens to me now, no matter how little I drink. Why on earth would I make myself feel like shit for the sake off a few drinks.

I used to drink a bottle or two of Prosecco a week. As I hit peri I found it disturbed my sleep and I felt very tired next day. So I decided to give it up and life is so much better. I will have one glass of fizzy on Xmas day to join in,

but often I don’t finish it.

I used to drink a lot, binge drinking mostly, most nights I would be a bottle down and weekend with cocktails and shots, and wine with dinner on a sunday afternoon. It was part of my whole life and personality. But since having kids it's got less and less and now I am early 40s and drink a couple of times a year. I don't drink on a weekday or weekend in a usual week. Literally only special occassions, like a birthday party.

Honestly. 0. I grew up with an alcoholic parent 🤷‍♂️

Yes, good point. As you say, survey answers don't account for all the alcohol bought (people under report) so it's scaled up. It's not perfect but probably not too far off

A summary from Chat GPT about how it's worked out;

🔹 1. National surveys of drinking behaviour

• The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Health Survey for England regularly ask large, representative samples of adults about their alcohol use.
• People report:
• How often they drink
• How many units on a typical day
• Frequency of heavy/binge sessions
• From this, statisticians estimate weekly and yearly consumption per person.

• HMRC and market research (e.g. Nielsen, CGA) track alcohol sales by volume (beer, wine, spirits).
• Comparing survey data (what people say they drink) with sales data (what’s actually sold) helps check for under-reporting (which is common).
• Typically, surveys account for only ~60% of the alcohol actually sold, so analysts apply scaling factors.

Nothing. I've had about three alcoholic drinks in my whole life - I hate the taste and hate the idea of it affecting my behaviour. And find drunk people frightening.

Also, I'd rather spend money on other stuff.

Most of my friends drink very little/nothing too, although most drank a fair bit at uni.

Hey OP - Im currently on soberoctober to have a reset after summer when I was drinking most days with the lovely weather, being on holiday etc. What I aim for is to only drink on Friday and Saturday - and the other days are alcohol free. I then have about 1.5 -2 bottles over this time.

I have gone through 3 bottles over a weekend like you, one a night, and to cut this down I told our Sunday as a drinking day. I also "enjoyed" the bottle a night, like you over the same time period, but it is way over the units we are allowed.

I might allow myself up to 1.5 bottles of wine over Friday and Saturday night when I end this month of abstinence .

The NHS website says that a bottle of wine at 13.5% ABV is 10 units.

So 3 bottles would be 30 units, more than double the recommended weekly amount.

Nothing at all for a few years. Peri menopause seems to have made me completely intolerant to any alcohol.

Before that, I’ve had times where I’d drink every Friday and Saturday and times where I’ve only had a drink a few times a year.

I drink fairly regularly but not huge quantities. There’s no way I’d drink a bottle of wine in a night! Half a bottle would be my limit and I’d consider that excessive and would probably be tipsy.

I buy a bottle of wine sometimes with the weekly shopping and my attitude is “when it’s gone, it’s gone” so if I drink it all in two days then great, but there’s no more coming that week. I’ll sometimes have a glass of wine after work/out on a Friday night also. I am a very occasional drinker of spirits and beers. But no real pattern to how often I drink.

I've been tea-total for 28 months now, but I was quite a big drinker. About 4-5 drinks a day (G&Ts, or glasses of wine, beers, etc.) every single day. Spread over a few hours, and I wasn't drunk, but definitely had a problem. Deciding to stay sober has been the best decision of my life.

But where did AI get it's info? Doctor's know most people lie about how much they drink. Many people answering a survey will put down what they want people to think about their drinking not the actual truth. If you don't actually measure what you drink you may not even realise how much it is, home measures tend to be glug, glug, glug not 25cl.

I drink when I’m out. So Saturday that looked like 2 pints of bitter and 5 double gnts. Went out with my husband on Tuesday and had 3 pints of bitter. Might go out on Saturday might not.

we go out to a lot of gigs and weekends away which means day drinking. I drink guiness by the pint not sure how many I have in a day but reckon that counts as food.

i suppose I’m a binge drinker but don’t much care. I’m 56 and loving life at the moment lots of very loud music dancing and drinking.

I'm not really a regular weekly drinker at all. I do like a glass or two of wine if I am out for a meal and am not driving or if we are having a special meal at home but that isn't more often than every 6-8 weeks. Often it is much less frequently than that.

Only time I drink a little more is at Christmas when we go away for a few days on a Hotel package/ meet up with family over the Christmas season. But even then it isn't a lot.

I only drink - and then just one glass - on high days and (some) holidays. It averages out, according to my quick calculation on the back of a beer mat, at about 2 glasses a month.

Probably 4-5 units a week.

About two bottles of wine a week, and I have 3 alcohol free nights. I've cut down thus far, and honestly have no plans to cut down further right now- I just enjoy it too much.

I sometimes have an alcohol free month. I've just started a low carb diet, and often have a few weeks off the booze when I do that, but honestly? Right now I don't want to. I will switch to vodka and diet tonic though.

I've thought in the past I was lucky not to get bad hangovers but now I think it's a curse because (as you say) I'd probably drink a lot less if I did!