In mid 40s it is getting harder and harder to enjoy alcohol

[Elizo]

I've always enjoyed a drink, not too much, but a nice glass of wine or beer or two, I also like pubs. It is getting to the point where I can virtually feel the hangover coming as I drink the drink. More than 1 drink is too many. Annoying that this pleasure is being taken! Has anyone else experienced this? I read that at mid 40s the body becomes much less able to absorb alcohol...

YANBU - same for me
YABU - I can still drink fine

I think I've given up. I say 'think' because I do enjoy a drink but I hate the way it makes me feel afterwards. I'm 52 and it ruins my sleep, gives me palpitations and a hangover is a real waste of a day. I'm not sure whether I can officially say I'm a non-drinker until I can reconcile my enjoyment with having a drink with my hatred of the after effects though.

Up early with a banging headache because I said yes to ONE G&T last night.

DH made it. He'd put the ice in first so it was hard to tell how much gin there was but probably a large double. Topped up with more tonic - and only drank half - but still feel grim.

He had 3...

I am very ill with this flu bug doing the rounds at the moment, I couldn't face my lovely red wine last night and I was so annoyed!
I am 41 and under normal circumstances can drink like a fish....I have been in training my whole adult life though 😆
One of my friends is mid fifties and she can out drink me, not sure what her secret is as she is (by her own admission) very menopausal right now.
I think a lot of women cut right down on alcohol when they have children and their tolerance naturally reduces but then once the kids are older they almost expect to be able to drink like they did back in the day, menopause hits and it's a double whammy and that's the end of big drinking for a lot of women.

Poor form but quoting myself for those of you who haven’t read the whole thread. (It was a bit of a zombie.)

I’m beyond my fifties and was able to drink my full quotient of excellent wine over Christmas. Eye bags, maybe, and a not unpleasant sluggishness the next day or two - but honestly none of the worst effects of lesser wine.

Not really I think it's Ozzy Osbourne who said, drink like a teenager in your 50's your either quit at 50 or you will be dead by 60. Being able to drink a lot in middle age isn't a great sign really....

I started off in my late 40s with much worse hangovers on less and less alcohol, then rapidly escalated until I actually passed out from a glass of wine. My other half who is a health care professional was with me and said allergic reaction. She said I went red in the face then white then lights out!
Pretty dramatic, so that was that. Alcohol is after all a toxin so I guess not surprising really.
I found it hard at first not drinking but I don't even think about it now. But I am grateful I had to stop it's so damaging for so many people.

What is it?!

Yes, it's depressing.

I've found that I can just about manage a light drink - so dry white wine or a G&T/vodka and something. I also do better with cocktails so more pure alcohol.

But I have the same issue. I'm 42. I had a sherry yesterday evening to use up the last of the Xmas bottle and I had a headache before I'd finished the glass which quickly turned into a full migraine. It's so boring.

@theriseandfallofFranklinSaint :

"Just to buck the trend, I'm 48 and drink like a fish when I go out. In fact all my friends do and 75% of us don't get any more side effects than we did when we were younger. Maybe we're the lucky ones...?"

Same. All my friends post 50 still like going out, eating a curry, or a Turkish meal, sharing wine.

No side effects, don't feel tough, generally.

@Disturbia81

"they have drank all their lives and will have built a tolerance up. The negative for them comes later when they get illnesses and diseases from it."

I don't think I do drink that much. But I've always been very tolerant right from a uni student, I never really got hangovers nor felt rough.

So what diseases are people going to get?

I'm late 30s and not so good with wine anymore. Especially red wine can quickly give me a headache if I'm tired. Usually fine with spirits though.

I still drink but have less of an appetite for it than I did in my twenties and thirties.

Last night I was home alone. In years gone by that would have been excuse for several GnTs or a bottle of wine with a film.

I treated myself to nice hot bath and a G&T and planned to have a couple of the nice beers we have left over from Xmas with dinner while I watched a trashy TV series. When it came to it, I just didn't fancy it and had some lemonade instead.

From just my family there's been deaths from heart failure, cirrhosis, diabetes and kidney failure.

A friend of mine in her early 50's liked a drink "to be social" but never got really drunk. So not drinking to excess at all.

One ordinary day she was returning from a food shop, had an episode at the wheel going downhill and crashed the car straight into a wall at the bottom of the junction and died instantly. Luckily, (!) there was no one else involved.

She hadn't been drinking that day but it was the cumulative effect of alcohol and occasional smoking that was blamed for the event. I think with many alcohol related diseases, you don't know you have it until something serious happens. 😢

That’s terrible. Sorry for your loss. Do you mind me asking what the actual illness was? She’s wasn’t under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash? So what caused the ‘episode’?

"cumulative effect of alcohol and occasional smoking"
that was to blame? For what? A heart attack? Me thinks not.

@Disturbia81

Drinking cases : "heart failure, cirrhosis, diabetes and kidney failure."

Really?

Diabetes? Really? I think not. Please provide a link. (Drinking heavily may cause weight gain, which can contribute to chances of getting type 2 diabetes). But that's not the same thing you claimed.

"Alcohol doesn't cause diabetes but...."

(I've been T1 diabetic my whole life so that's not an issue to me!)