What is this need to drink water constantly? Even in 'intimate moments'?

[taratiaras]

Provoked by an item in today's Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jul/31/you-be-the-judge-should-my-boyfriend-stop-drinking-from-a-water-bladder-during-sex

I was reflecting on what is this need some people have to drink water almost constantly and the whole performance of carting around containers for this water even if they will be away for a short period. Growing up in the 1980s and 90s I dont remember this at all and we largely survived!

By all means carry water when away hiking in rural areas but going to the shops, a short walk or similar there is surely no need. Even my children going to school where there are water fountains in the playground seem to feel the need to take a metal bottle with them.

As regards the Guardian question this looks a bit pathetic -at home you are never more than a two or three minute walk from the tap! I think the boyfriend clearly has too much time on his hands and a 'building fortresses' need - clearly spent too much time playing Minecraft and similar when younger?

Yeti wanker solidarity 🤣

Straw or chug?

I have a Stanley, I bought it on sale though so 35 rather than 50! I love it, Stanley products are always ridiculously good quality dh has one of their lunch boxes that is ridiculously old.
and I love to drink water steadily throughout the day , it’s not effecting anyone else and it makes me feel much better.

I think some people don’t feel thirsty. Just like some don’t feel hungry a lot.

I rarely drink. Dd is identical. I think we are just 🐪 really.

Chug - cannot be assed cleaning straws 🤣🤣🤣

Its an age thing - ppl under 35 I would say are the water bottle carriers.
If I'm at work I will get a glass of water from the watercooler but wouldn't cart round a bottle.

Ppl even bring bottles to put at the edge of the pool (leisure centre pool, they are doing lanes). Does seem ott.

I didn't see your post before I posted.

Absolutely agree. See my post re my daughter with an eating disorder.

When asked why she felt she needed in excess of 6/7L per day, she said that she felt it became addictive and the more she drank, the more she wanted to drink.

She was flushing out any goodness she had in her and water intoxication is a real thing. Damages the kidneys. She has kidney damage as a result.

We won't suffer any ill effects at all, if we just drink when thirsty. There are some minor exceptions e.g. very elderly people may not realise they are thirsty. But these are exceptions. For most of us thirst is a perfectly reliable guide.

Must people get a lot of fluid from food. You don't actually need to drink to get fluids.

Yes it's important to drink water BUT (hard hat on) what used to piss me off was kids in class, on any day, cool, freezing, whatever, performatively chugging bottles of water every lesson(i was a cover supervisor so often saw the same kids in consecutive lessons) , then needing a wee a minute later. They are not going to dehydrate on a normal day after 50 minutes. We all knew it was a distraction technique by some kids so they could put off working (for whatever reason) then spend ten minutes wandering back from the loo. And God forbid you suggest that they put them away! And the crinkling!

I’m another camel who forgets to drink. But also I’m still haunted by the memory of seeing little creatures swimming around in the clear plastic water bottle I’d been lugging around for weeks when I was interrailing a million years ago.

So the only time I take a water bottle is when I’m at a particular exercise class, or if I’m on a hike. And I’m scrupulous about washing them after every use. The kids get a clean one to take to school every day and I won’t buy the type with straws or any complicated mechanism that can’t be properly washed. I still find them a bit revolting and always prefer to drink from a nice clean glass or mug.

I’m by no means a germ freak; I wash my bedding and towels far less than MN standards regard as acceptable, and I have no problem with loo brushes. But water bottles - yuck.

Agree
I laugh my head off at people getting so riled
They also never see people eating, it's always gobble or slurping instead of drinking
Jaysus get a life!

Yes and a lot of people are trying to lose weight and having less food so less food. Hence water.

And the bottle flipping🙄

Drinking water doesn't annnoy me at all. Claiming that most people don't drink enough, that you need to drink x amount, that dehydration is a real issue in UK, thirst is a sign that you are aready dehydrated, etc, these claims really do annoy me because they are just made up out of thin air. But drinking water per se, that's a pretty standard human thing that doesn't annoy me at all.

carrying water saves money and plastic from buying a drink when you’re out and about. Sensible to save money if you ask me.

Agree a bit daft if you’re just going to the corner shop!

I hardly drank tap water until I was away at university in the 1990s. Probably vicious hangovers started it!

But these days we know that kids having a load of fizzy drinks, coffee and tea and squash isn't a great idea, hence water.

I'm sure my dentist would have thanked me for it. DDs have far fewer fillings than I had.

What funny things people find to be pissed off about. "It never did me any harm". Well 10% of adults over 50 have type 2 diabetes, so maybe it did.

I think it is an addictive thing. The more you drink, the more you feel thirsty. DH is a water bottle wanker and I have to admit it does annoy me and I'm aware that's slightly irrational!

It's not water bottles that are the issue, I like my own insulated Chilly's bottle if I'm out walking for the day or not going to be near a tap for hours. It's more DH's constant need to take it everywhere we go and to cart around this massive bottle that's never out of his hand.... even just for a quick trip to the shops or a 30 minute car drive. I don't get it! If I'm at work I will go and get myself a glass of water every so often, if we are out shopping we will usually stop at a café at some point and can ask for a glass of tap water there. We won't die of dehydration if we have to do the food shop and can't have a drink until we get home.

I do worry about how hygienic they are too. DH used to have a bottle with a straw until I spotted the straw was full of black mould one day. He'd been merrily swigging from it 🤢. A glass of water feels much more hygeinic and I won't let DDs have water bottles for school that have straws or bits that are hard to clean. They need to be easily cleaned in the dishwasher.

I have sjögren's syndrome so I am one of those wankers who carried my bottle around with me constantly. Though mine is from Home Bargains...

@UrbanOasis but the OP suggests that people 'carting' around water is performative and people don't need to drink constantly.

No of course they don't, but if they want to how on earth does it remotely affect the OP's day?

Even as a side note, why do these claims bother you so much? It's just water! It's not like you're being told to down a bottle of wine at breakfast. Drinking water has virtually no negatives, unless you're drinking litres and litres a day. How can an over-hydrated population have any downsides?

And for the record, I carry water. I don't cart it, I'm not a horse.

Maybe there is pure vodka in those water bottles 😉Now THAT I could get behind.

I would love to know what show that was.

There was a great BBC documentary series in the early 2000’s called The Truth About Food and one of the episodes was about the whole drinking loads of water debate. It was concluded that drinking gallons of water had no benefits whatsoever. Also that drinking tea and coffee counted towards our daily intake as the diuretic effect is minimal.

My wee is clear, except when I get up in the morning, so I know I’m getting enough liquid. My skin isn’t old and wizened as a pp suggested might be the case with those of us from the seventies who weren’t endlessly chugging vats of water. In fact at 58 I don’t have any wrinkles. My facial scaffolding has collapsed and my neck looks a bit scrawny, but no wrinkles🤣

But everyone's doing it. Everyone doesn't have sjögrens syndrome.

Therefore, most people do think they need to be drinking constantly when they actually don't.

That's fine - I'm not criticizing people for drinking or buying water. Really my point is that we don't need to buy water or constantly carry it around. It's fine if people want to (I do buy bottled water because I like the fizzy stuff) but I don't like the commercial pressure and misinformation.

I usually have a water bottle with me because I drink far more water (and have fewer headaches) if I have a drink at hand. It also stops me from buying drinks in one use plastic bottles if I get thirsty.

I find it comically strange how offended some people get to people taking a drink out with them. No one is asking you to carry it for them, just don't worry about it.

I understand what you saying, but I just find anti scientific claims hugely irritating. I get similarly annoyed at homeopathy, woo stuff, anti vax etc. It's the willingness to state and believe stuff that has been disproved over and over, alongside a complete unwillingness to stop and have a think about the evidence that bothers me. I know it shouldn't, but it does. In real life I generally keep my views to myself (on the whole), this is a safe space to let them roam free!