To ask you why you drink?

[UnderAWanderingStar]

thats all. I hope I'm not being impertinent with this question....

It's delicious and fun

to make other people more interesting

If I didn't drink I would get kidney failure, dehydrate and die.

I like the taste

I like snuggling up with dh on the sofa once dc are asleep with a nice glass of wine.

I like wine with my dinner a few times a week, as a good wine can really compliment the food.

I don't :) I don't understand drinking - I'd never look down on others for doing it, but I just don't personally get it. It's expensive, it doesn't taste great, it makes you feel funny and you're ill the next day. No thanks!

To escape the mundane reality of life

Because I enjoy it. I like the taste of a nice wine, or a cold g&t in the summer. It makes me feel relaxed.

Why do you ask?

IntheBenefitTrap it does taste great... to me. It makes me feel nice, not funny. And I never drink so much that I'm ill the next day.

Because it tastes nice. Not all drinks of course, but then I don't drink all drinks, only ones I like.

I do like the taste though, genuinely. I enjoy the bitter edge of alcohol which is never replicated in a soft drink. I rarely get drunk though and often deliberately drink slowly/small enough drinks so I barely feel the effects at all - I don't want a hangover and usually I'm in charge of small DC so don't want to be very impaired. I still love a glass of wine or a G&T though!

I'm exactly like Ecureuil - just the thought of a beautiful glass of wine or a lovely G&T....

Oh and champagne... I really enjoy it.

Because a life without wine is like a life without sunshine

I like the taste of the drinks I drink. I don't drink anything I don't like the taste of.

Also because I like it. It's a nice way to relax, sharing a bottle of wine over dinner or in a restaurant. It's nice to have a few too many with friends and be silly and have fun. It's nice to sit in the garden on a hot summers evening with a glass of wine and chatting. I like it, it tastes nice and it's fun.

I'm a social drinker - very rarely have anything with dinner at home, but am so looking forward to going to have a drink with friends after work tonight! It's a weekly tradition - I don't get drunk but having an alcoholic drink is more a sign of being able to relax and not be in charge for a while.

When I drank, it was a) because I like the taste and b) because it signaled to my brain that this was down time, fun time, time to stop worrying about work or whatever.

I've virtually stopped drinking now because I cut down hugely when pregnant with DC1, lost a lot of my alcohol tolerance, and found when I did drink again that I didn't actually enjoy the effect. Now I feel fuzzy-headed and a bit paranoid after even one drink, so I just don't have any. But I massively miss the taste.

Ecur - that's fair enough! I've tried lots and never found the taste of anything nice. But obviously that's personal preference. Wine tastes like vinegar and gin like perfume

I do it less and less tbh as there are more cons that pros, for me.

Cons include the cost, the fact most wine now causes me to have a racing heart and panic feeling hours later, disturbed sleep, my tolerance hasn't been the same since pregnancy and drinking more than 2 glasses is horrid, the calories, the increased risk of certain cancers, being on-call, being a mum and needing to be clear-headed, having a real fear / distrust of drunk people after growing up with alcoholic dad (now dead as result... horrid undignified death and I had to manage everything alone)

Pros: that warm feeling that makes everything a little softer, fuzzy and feel better for a bit!

To celebrate, to relax, to commiserate...I actually don't drink very often or very much really but I do think it's lovely.

I used to say all of the above... the honest truth was that I felt like drinking wine at home made an evening more exciting or special, it was the grown up, fun and 'cool' thing to do.

I haven't drunk booze since NYE and it's much nicer without - even though i was never hungover or anything there was always a little nagging voice in my head that too many units was not good for my long term health and spending all that money on wine was a waste...i'm happier without i will probably have the odd drink when i have a rare night out but i'm not drinking at home any more - no need!

Oh and I guess I like the taste of some drinks too, obvs!

Water to stay hydrated
Tea for comfort and warmth
coffee to stay awake
Irn Bru because it goes well with chips
Wine because I like it
Gin because it makes me like other people

I think that's it

I will add my reasons in a bit, it just really occurred to me today ...

Like @IntheBenefitTrap I don't drink because I have never found anything that tastes nice to me. I also don't like feeling tipsy or drunk, as I find it really disorienting. That and it makes me depressed.

A good cup of tea, on the other hand...

CainDinglesLeatherJacket the last time I had a cup of tea was 16 years ago (to be polite) and I threw up straight after. Can't stand the stuff! All I drink is water, coffee, wine or gin!