To rant about alcohol and the way it's normalised?

[CheapSausagesAndSpam]

It's EVERYWHERE and it's poisonous. People normalise it..."Oh...wine o'clock already tra la la!"

And all that shite.

It's responsible for thousands of deaths and injuries and trauma every year and yet it's the first thing people think of when they want to celebrate something.

Get this

3 May 2017: New figures released today show that hospital admissions due to alcohol are at their highest ever levels.

The data, summarised in a release from NHS Digital, shows that alcohol-related hospital admissions in England have increased by 64% over the last decade, with an extra 430,000 people being admitted due to alcohol-related causes in 2015/16 compared with 2005/06.

This takes the total number of alcohol-related hospital admissions to over 1.1 million in 2015/16.

And this

Alcohol is linked to over 60 illnesses and diseases, including heart disease, liver disease and cancer. Figures from the local alcohol profiles for England show that admissions due to liver disease have gone up 57% over the last decade, and that the number of people diagnosed with alcohol-related cancer has increased 8%.

How is this a lovely drink? How is this something that is ok to do in front of children and even to allow children to partake of?

People on MN often say "Oh I let my 12 year old have half a glass of wine...it's a good way to introduce it!"

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO!?

And new research points to the fact that it causes irreversable damage to stem cells, scrambling DNA and eventually causing cancers.

www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/03/alcohol-can-cause-irreversible-genetic-damage-to-stem-cells-says-study?CMP=fb_gu

Think about it. Society is not doing itself any favours.

Hungry you make a valid point there. All fine and dandy whn you are young and holding a job which keeps you busy etc. The you retire, your children grow up, less excercise and those few beers every night creep up.
Not onlt not healthy for the body but awful for the mind. Nobody is god company then...

"Even if we drink 4 days a week. Even if we need dry january. "

Drinking 4 days a week doesn't make you addicted. I eat cheese every day and I'm not addicted to cheese, I just like it. Can you see the difference between addiction and liking?

I don't need dry January, I just choose to do it.

Are you telling me that alcohola d cheese are the same thing? Really? Really?

I totally rest my case.

"I do think that they should ban the white lightening, frosty jacks type of drinks though. "

Wales is currently putting through a minimum price on alcohol so maybe that would help with those drinks.
I've heard arguments that alcoholics would just get hold of their drinks however much they cost though and spend even more of their benefits on them.

Iam, where did I tell you that alcohol and cheese are the same thing?

Do I need to go over it all again?

You claim that someone who drinks 4 days a week and needs to do dry January is an alcoholic. I say that's bullshit. I give you the example of cheese, doing something every day and having to think about giving it up does not make you addicted to it.

Yes, alcohol is addictive to SOME people, but not for the vast majority of drinkers. Why can't you understand that?

If she thought alcohol a cheese were the same thing she would have sad "alcohol and cheese are the same thing". She didnt. She said I eat cheese every day but am not addicted. People can do the same with alcohol.

Hollow are you saying that someone drinking alcohol everyday is the same as someone eating cheese everyay?

Whe did I say that someone was an alcoholic???

Hahaha iamlucy if you didn't get it first time round you won't get it now 😂

IAmLucy, you said above "There is sooo much defenssiivnes in all these alcohol threads and very little self awareness. Nobody would admit to bein even even slightly addicted. "

I took this to mean that you think some posters on this thread are addicted to alcohol.

"Hollow are you saying that someone drinking alcohol everyday is the same as someone eating cheese everyay?"

In the sense that they are not necessarily addicted to those things.
Not in every way of course.

As an American who now lives in England I thought I was use to living in a drinking culture where people justify drinking too often and too much but I was in for a shock when I first visited here 2 years ago.

I've never been offered so much alcohol in that 6 month visit then in my entire life in the US which includes going to Uni in San Francisco.

I loathe how much both my home country and this one normalise drinking, but the pushiness here to drink has at times been flat out rude.

**hollowtree
A man goes to his GP and days "doctor I want to live to be 100." The GP says "Ok well let's have a look at your lifestyle. Do you smoke?" The man says no.
"Drink?" "No."
"Engage in promiscuous behaviour?" "No."
"Use drugs?" "No."
"Eat unhealthy food?" "No." And the GP finally says "in that case I only have one more qustion: why on Earth do you want to live to 100?".
This summarises how I feel. Most people would rather live for 50 years enjoying every minute than live 100 years of denial and restraint*

Thats how i see it
Why live a life of restraint and denial just to sit in an ivory tower and tut tut people who choose different ?
Drink or dont but what others do is their choice and your no better than them for choosing not to drink, just means you have different interests

Exactly!

Gwyn- theyve been mentioning doing it here for years, ive never seen a visible difference.
the argument that alcoholics would still obtain the alcohol by whatever means necessary, i completely agree with, what my point was, and i know I didnt really make it, was that the cheap white Ciders are Horrific, literally the content of them is foul, and much more dangerous than the run of the mill tin of lager.

I believe that they should be outlawed specifically for the damage theyll cause much quicker. I dont know if there are official studies, but from speaking to people, and hearing from my dad, thats when a lot of peoples physical problems with alcohol really ramped up was when they started with these kind of drinks.

I dont think that the cost is as relevant as people seem to think either, the truly struggling alcoholic will figure out a way to use certain household products to extract alcohol from, which can be fairly cheap and would provide the same end result (with a far worse taste though!)

i was actually pondering dry january the other day, I saw it as I was walking through the hospital with DD, initially I thought what a great concept, but actually I think its probably making britians binge drinking culture worse.

i could of course be talking shite, because I very rarely drink, the only others I really discuss alcohol consumption with are recovering from an alcohol addiction, so the very opposite side of the scale,

but December is a boozy month, theres a lot of reason to drink, and I imagine there are a fair few who on NYE who are already drinking think, ah fuck it, im not gonna have a drink for a month because of dry January, why not have that few more?!

January comes and goes, with no alcohol consumption, and again I bet there are so many people who go...well thats out of the way!! lets go celebrate!! and off to the pub to get pissed.

it would probably be healthier to stick to the reccommended daily amount instead of giving the liver a good bashing come Feb.

Interestingly when ive brought up drinking on weight threads more than one poster told me off for derailing.

Reversed ...............that doesnt seem to have happened here.

Most people are in denial about the adverse effects of alcohol, as this thread shows. And I’m saying this as a regular-ish drinker.

Pointing out that alcohol is not a positive thing will get most people’s backs up.

Squeekums and Hollowtree,

While I get that joke, and it's a little bit funny and you meant it lighthearted, there are a few little problems with it (and I'm not a teetotaller).

Firstly, the assumption you can only enjoy life if you're partaking in certain activities obviously isn't true. Even in your 70s or 80s.

Second, it's a commonly repeated argument from people who smoke, drink etc that they'd rather live a short great life than a long dull one, as if they're going to drop dead of a heart attack, mid orgasm after an all night bender. The reality of course is that most people will be diagnosed with a lifestyle-related illness that will result in 5-10 years gradual decline with the last few years being pretty miserable.

And finally, excessive alcohol consumption impacts society massively: violence, driving, health-services etc. So while it's a reasonable argument to allow people to choose how to live their lives, overall as a society it's something that needs to be addressed.

What I actually think would make the world a better place is if people adopted an attitude of 'live and let live'. Don't like alcohol- simple don't drink. Don't like drugs? Don't take them. Don't like exercise- don't do it.

Not sure why you feel the need to try and get everyone to do the same as you and get vitriolic when they don't. Everyone is different - embrace that and focus on what makes you feel good.

It’s hardly ‘live and let live’ when alcohol contributes so much to domestic violence, drink driving, sexual assault and other forms of violence.

Cambodian I don't care if people want to drink. As long as they don't then turn to violent crime, drinking and driving or sucking up resources from the NHS to deal with their issues.

If you adopt that attitude you are just going to continually wind yourself up and be miserable though. You can't control what other do.

If you adopt that attitude you are just going to continually wind yourself up and be miserable though. You can't control what other do

You could say that about any major social change. Thank Christ people before us have been braver.