For about 12 years, I worked in places where there was a big drinking culture. Every lunchtime was 2-3 pints or glasses of wine, and the same again after work. And that was on an ordinary day, on a stressful day we'd go to the pub "for a quick one" straight from work and often be there till closing time. I dread to think what my weekly units were.
I cut down a lot when I changed jobs, but my ex was a big drinker and we'd do early doors on a Friday, always on the piss on a Saturday and Sundays we'd start at lunchtime but come home early to pass out and sober up.
I'm eternally grateful for the fact that, following a 3-day migraine, I was left with a mystery stomach problem that made me throw up if I drank alcohol or ate rich or fatty foods, and gave me excruciating stomach pains if I ate anything fibrous, like cabbage or cauliflower, or very spicy.
I had every test under the sun and they never found any reason for it. My liver was fine, no ulcers or anything, nothing wrong with my gall bladder, just inexplicable. After 3 years of eating nothing but boring, bland food and not drinking more than half a bitter, I slowly got better. I could manage to drink enough G&T to get merry, or a bottle of white, but I've never properly got my drinking boots back.
I miss a good piss-up, but I'm also very grateful. Ten more years of drinking like I was would probably have made me very ill by now, I reckon. I lost a dear friend to liver disease, and have seen several clients drink themselves into an early grave, and it's a bloody awful way to go.