Does anyone else drink most evenings?

[SandraOhh]

I do. Wine usually, a couple of glasses. It's how I unwind. I do skip some nights. I know it's not great for you but everyone has their vices. It helps me cope and feel happier and more able to 'do' life.

It is not normal to drink alcohol every day. As much as people on this thread, (and people like my MIL, who can't move for Laithwaites boxes in her utility room) would like to claim it's "civilised" and "relaxing" and not a sign of alcoholism, the reality is it's not the norm, and it could be impacting on your health.

But as ever, on threads like this, there are enough people insisting its fine to normalise the behaviour and make posters who may well have an alcohol problem think they have nothing to worry about.

No - I have probably only had two glasses of any sort of alcohol over the past couple of years! Just not a drinker.

How many of those saying they have a bottle a night still have small children at home? We have our nearly 3yo at home with us and we would just never consider it.

It genuinely isn’t the norm to have wine and food most evenings, so say 5 out of 7. Wine is not not the usual accompaniment to food most days by any measure

It genuinely IS the norm for huge numbers of people. We're not all English, you know! It genuinely is the norm for millions of people to have wine with dinner every single night. And sometimes at lunch.

Yup. Glass of red. Just the one, and it's a stingy small pub measure. I'm rarely ( once a month?) tempted to have a second glass. I have two nights off ( Monday and Tuesday) a week.

It genuinely IS the norm for huge numbers of people. We're not all English, you know

Exactly - we're not all English! Millions of people across the world never ever drink wine at all, let alone with every meal. What's your point, that the French drink even more than us and therefore it's fine?!

I go through phases of relying on alcohol for pain relief when my GP has fucked around with my repeat prescriptions again*. I am brutally honest now about it with my consultants and the HCPs at the GP surgery.

It's interesting the different responses I get, but they're certainly not completely unsympathetic or critical.

*Long tedious story

It genuinely IS the norm for huge numbers of people.

There is a big difference between saying 'It is the norm' (full stop) and 'It is the norm for me/my friends/lots of people' though. 'It is the norm' means the majority of people in tge world do it. 'It is the norm in the the UK' means the majority of people in the UK do it. And I don't think eitherof those is true. Do you? Is it the norm for 'lots of people' though? Yes, absolutely.

My neighbours easily get through at least one bottle of spirits each night. At least! Probably best described as functioning alcoholics.

A friend of a friend was found dead on Saturday afternoon. You could call it slow suicide by alcohol. His home had dried pools of vomit everywhere, empty bottles strewn all over the place, puddles of piss. The water had been disconnected because he didn't pay the bills, so the bathroom was... 😷 It's terribly sad, yet at the same time those who knew him are just amazed he lasted as long as he did considering his daily intake (starting every day for well over a decade with a bottle of vodka).

I go through patches of heavy drinking (by MN standards, not by this guy's standards) and patches of being really healthy. I can't seem to sustain either for long, and usually muddle through somewhere in the middle. But when I start beating myself up about getting through more than a bottle of wine, I remind myself how resilient the human body can be. And then I focus on healthier habits, with my fingers firmly crossed behind my back.

@Alcemeg

A friend of a friend was found dead on Saturday afternoon. You could call it slow suicide by alcohol. His home had dried pools of vomit everywhere, empty bottles strewn all over the place, puddles of piss. The water had been disconnected because he didn't pay the bills, so the bathroom was... 😷 It's terribly sad, yet at the same time those who knew him are just amazed he lasted as long as he did considering his daily intake (starting every day for well over a decade with a bottle of vodka).

I go through patches of heavy drinking (by MN standards, not by this guy's standards) and patches of being really healthy. I can't seem to sustain either for long, and usually muddle through somewhere in the middle. But when I start beating myself up about getting through more than a bottle of wine, I remind myself how resilient the human body can be. And then I focus on healthier habits, with my fingers firmly crossed behind my back.

I didn’t think it was legal for water companies to disconnect water? They can take you to court but they can’t cut off your supply…

You cannot have your water cut off for non payment. It is a blatant lie to say that happened.

I didn't know that! I'm just repeating what I was told.

@lazylinguist

It genuinely IS the norm for huge numbers of people.

There is a big difference between saying 'It is the norm' (full stop) and 'It is the norm for me/my friends/lots of people' though. 'It is the norm' means the majority of people in tge world do it. 'It is the norm in the the UK' means the majority of people in the UK do it. And I don't think eitherof those is true. Do you? Is it the norm for 'lots of people' though? Yes, absolutely.

You missed out both my next line and the comment i was referring to, which stated it was abnormal to have glass of wine with dinner even 5 nights out of 7, and that wine is not the usual accompaniment to food. At which I refer you to France, Italy, Spain, and most of Europe, including many people in the UK.

You missed out both my next line and the comment i was referring to

You misquoted the comment you were referring to. It said that having wine with dinner was not the norm (i.e. the majority don't do it). Not that it was 'abnormal' (which generally means weird or unusual).

In any case, drinking habits are changing, even in countries like France and Spain. According to this article, only 16% of the French now drink wine daily.

study here

13% in Spain: here

In fact that last link has a table of what proportion of adults drink daily in European countries. Highest appears to be Portugal, and even that's only 20%.

@lazylinguist

In fact that last link has a table of what proportion of adults drink daily in European countries. Highest appears to be Portugal, and even that's only 20%.

I am Portuguese, and I suspect this is one of those things where the statistics only tell part of the story. That figure strikes me as suspiciously low.

There will be a few teetotallers or very rare drinkers, usually women, and a few abstaining on doctors' orders. There will be many more who opt out of drinking one or two days a week, perhaps because they are professionals on call or - much more likely - because they've gone out for dinner and in many places drink-driving laws are very rigorously enforced. Others have taken the health messages on board and have a weekly dry night.

But the idea that 4/5ths of the adult population aren't regular (4/5/6 nights a week) drinkers is utter nonsense, certainly in my home town. There, even the police have a brandy with their evening coffee in public, in uniform, guns strapped to their belts.

Exactly. When they say they aren't daily drinkers, it often means they will have one night of the week when they don't drink. The other 6 they do for sure!

I don’t. I just feel a lot better when I don’t drink regularly. Happy to have drinks with friends or at a meal out etc, but drinking every day would leave me feeling really sluggish and fuzzy.