To think alcohol affects me so much worse now I'm older

[Disillusioneddaisy]

Ok so I'm only mid 30s but I cannot handle my booze like I once could. I suffer from the most horrendous hangovers that literally make me lose a day or more sometimes. I drink and feel fine for ages and then bang it suddenly hits me. This never happened to me when I was younger. I thought tolerance would increase with age but it feels like I've gone the opposite way. It only seems to happen when I'm out and not really concentrating on moderating the volume I'm drinking. A few glasses of wine at home with dp is never a problem.

In the new year I want to drastically reduce my alcohol intake but that's going to mean making some social changes too - either not going out as much or trying to stay teetotal when I am out which will be a challenge in itself. As much as I enjoy a few relaxing drinks at home and the buzz of having a big night out (at the time at least) I really feel that alcohol is not good for me mentally or physically anymore. In drunk states I tend to embarrass myself, talk utter shit, argue with dp....it's just not worth it.

Bit of a rant but has anyone felt similar and cut down because of it?

Oh hell yeah, it's not just age it's lack of opportunity - I could put the drinks away all night ten/twenty years ago, now I have to moderate carefully or I'll be down and disabled by 11pm. And then there's the two-anna-half day hangover.

Sucks. I've taken to gapping my drinks - one booze, one or two softs, one booze etc. Or volunteering to be the driver.

@SpoonBlender I'm actually embarrassed about how bad I am at moderating. Before I know it I'll have sunk a full bottle of wine and felt no effects until I walk outside and the fresh air hits me. By then it's too late.

Boxing Day I had a vile hangover and was sick. It's just not pleasant and I hate wasting my days feeling tired, nauseous and riddled with anxiety. Really need to get some control of this in the new year.

Half a glass of wine it's likewise taken sleeping tablets. It just knocks me out.

I appear to have found my people oh dear... the beer fear is horrible

After a big binge I almost always wake up at some ridiculous hour of the morning still half pissed in a state of panic wondering what I did. If I offended anyone. If I did anything stupid or embarrassing. If I posted any shit on Facebook or text anyone embarrassing rubbish. It's the worst.

I hardly drink at all now mainly because I just couldn’t cope with the combo of hangovers and toddlers. I recently went out ‘properly’ drinking ( i.e lunchtime start) for the first time in years and I was done after 4 glasses of wine - had to swap to soft drinks at that point as I felt so drunk and I didn’t much like it.

I just offer to be the driver now - which has the added benefit of people not being able to give you a hard time about not drinking!

You could be me. I'm planning on making big changes to my social drinking in 2020. I'm fine at home, but once I'm with other people it's game over and I make a complete twat of myself.

I used to be very sociable, loved a party, loved to get pissed and could drink most people under the table.

These days, I seem to have lost the ability to get drunk and I certainly don't get a buzz from it because I just want to fall asleep. I can't drink more than 2-3 and I lose all interest interest in talking to people and just start fantasising about going to bed.

I'm experiencing this right now. Recovery time much longer now. Late 30s

I stopped drinking because of the hangovers. In my youth hangovers were oh so hilarious with plenty of anecdotes about the night before.
Later in life they became full of anxiety, insomnia and feeling too ill to move.

I'm older but have had to accept that it whilst it still takes around a bottle of wine to get me tipsy, half a bottle will spoil the following day. It's just not worth it any more.

I know of lots of men who’ve switched to mid-strength beer in their fifties. Their Alcohol tolerance has gone down.

Same! Haven't actually gone out drinking properly since 2013 because it's just not worth it and it gives me anxiety. I still enjoy a nice whisky occasionally and will have a glass or two at a wedding etc, but anything more than two drinks will now give me anxiety and make me ridiculously lethargic in the morning. I was pissed off about something on Boxing Day and ended up having a couple of large whiskies and woke up at 3am and could not sleep because I was thinking about things that I have said and done a million years ago. I used to be able to inhale a bottle of rum 10-15 years ago but just can't handle it anymore, which is a shame because I have always enjoyed feeling pissed. Never mind eh!

So I felt like this recently. I started the book "the easy way to stop drinking for women" by Allen Carr. I haven't actually finished it yet but it really had changed my mindset and made me want to stop in a way I didn't before.

I get horrendous hangovers now. I worked out how many days I reckon I've wasted over the years feeling like you did on boxing day and I reckon I've lost several months of my life at least, that's depressing isn't it?

The thing that made me want to change was hearing that a bottle of wine is as bad for you as 10 cigarettes. I always think of myself as quite healthy yet I am taking this risk with my health every time I drink.

I would really recommend the boo, one of the things it has helped me to do is not see giving up as depriving myself but as freeing myself!

Hi

This was me, I gave up drinking 9 months ago. Best thing I ever did.

Decided to have a couple of drinks over Christmas and it just reminded me why I gave up. No big nights or binging but still felt like shite the next day.

I'm glad I did try it again as it just clarified to me that I don't need alcohol in my life and have stopped again by choice.

Read This Naked Mind.

Incredible book about the affects of alcohol, why we drink and becoming alcohol free.

Do it you'll feel amazing!!

Good luck xx

Can I join too? Late 30s and the same-one or two glasses of wine used to be my max out in pub and I was ok if not tired the next day and craving a takeaway on the same night.

Now I find if I’m stressed or tired I crave going out but it’s making me fat, tired and I can be a bumhole to my husband the next day because I’m in a shit mood.
Had a good few weekends in Nov/Dec caning it as a bit of a swan song but I’m now the owner of a Fitbit, joining the gym and knocking boozing on the head-mentally and physically it’s just really bad for me 🙁

And yes the morning after when you have to check your phone calls/message/twitter/Facebook are horrendous.

Is wine your drink of choice? I’m not knocking age and tolerance and your new found desire to reduce your intake, as I’m in exactly the same boat as you, but I did read an article about white wine and females over a year ago which showed how it made them argumentative/ aggressive drunk due to chemicals.

I also can’t mix drinks at all or it’s game over. I’m going to do a dry 100 days starting Jan 1st but may continue it further, I’m hoping to recalibrate my poor drinking habits since my DH died in March. I’ve been using wine a bit too much 😢

I feel like I've lost my immunity to it! I spent several years in my late teens and early twenties building up a resistance to alcohol but three pregnancies over ten years and it's gone. I feel like I don't know when my cut of is anymore. I'm fine, fine, fine, gone.

Also hang-xiety is awful

Been through all that. It gets worse with age. Now opening a bottle of wine is enough to give me indigestion all night.

I always behave impeccably when drunk 😆 mostly because I get relaxed then fall asleep so I don't get the fear but my word, the hangovers are awful. Can relate to wasting whole days then being cross with myself about it. Definitely cutting down in January

@Balibabe1 yes I do enjoy wine but too much of it and I become an arsehole. Argumentative and aggressive is quite right. But then if I'm at home savouring a few glasses over the course of an evening watching a film then it's fine and I enjoy it. It's just no good to binge drink.

Thanks for book recommendations. I have read the unexpected joy of being sober which was good but I found it hard to relate to as she was a self confessed alcoholic and while I enjoy a drink, I'm certainly not addicted. Just a terrible drunk.

Definitely going to knock it on the head next year. I've got a night out with a bunch of friends and partners planned for NYE and I really want to cancel because I don't want to start the new year on a hangover....

@Balibabe1 sorry to hear about your DH too - it's understandable that you'd use alcohol to help ease your pain but sadly it can cause more problems than it solves

I'm the same. I'm 29 and get the worst hangovers ever constant vomiting and banging headaches, it can take me 2-3 days before I feel normal again.

10 years ago I used to go out Thursday- Sunday and go to work the next day having barely slept and back out after work. Now I go out once every 2 months or so because I can't face the hangover.

A couple of months ago I went out 3 times in the space of 4 weeks (this is lots for me I've never done this since I had my oldest 8 years ago). 1st week thought I was dying the next day probably the worst hangover I've had. After the 3rd I wasn't hungover at all so I think its my body not being used to alcohol that makes me suffer so badly.

I had one vodka and lemonade a couple of weeks ago and a couple of hours later I was in my bed with a headache.