Did anybody see the Panaroma about binge drinking last night?

[Orangelight23]

Real eye opener for me. Women in their 30s being diagnosed with liver disease. I must admit I have myself been drawn into wine culture and drinking wine to relax.

It's made me have a real think about my alcohol intake to be honest.

There is NO denial on this thread

There are:
Posters tripping over each other with how little they drink
Posters saying happily they drink

Nobody cares.

So what about The French paradox?

It doesn't surprise me. I was a heavy drinker from as soon as I started at 15, and by my early 30's my drinking was problematic, and I realised I am an alcoholic. I haven't had a drink in nearly 12 years now, stopping completely was the only option for me, I would never be able to have "just one". My younger sister has similar drinking habits as I did when I was younger, but because she has a "serious" job, and no kids, she doesn't seem to think it's a problem. I do worry though, and I know our DM does too.

I have 2 late teenage DDs, the eldest tried alcohol, didn't like it and has decided it's not for her (I'm so relieved... for now, at least!) and the younger is terrified of the thought of making an idiot of herself, so has only ever had one drink at parties.

I do think a lot of people would be shocked by their poor liver function tests if they ever got them checked. I think many women especially find it hard to think of themselves as a "heavy/binge drinker" or an "alcoholic", although many more than you would expect, are.

If you feel you need to cut back, do. After it gets more & more frequent the wine starts telling you there's no need to cut back, in fact why not just open the next bottle, you know you love it ...

The answer to yours and the PP's question isn't the one you want. Stopping drinking is boring, it does feel kind of flat. There are things you can do - distractions (have sex on the sofa?) or meditation, exercise and the like. In rehab we ate a lot of biscuits and drank full-fat colas; it helps because alcohol is a very readily-available source of sugar.

The brutal point is that if you feel like you can't face ordinary life without that lift, you aren't actually coping with life. And the bottle's winning 🙁 You just have to get used to a bit of flatness. Or, you know, drink your way to full-blown dependence - but once you're there, it stops giving you the lift. So you may as well fight it while you're able to, and while you're still getting the payoff from the days you do drink.

@mrsmiawallace3 there is a lot of evidence now that the French Paradox isn't a thing, isn't real. France also has a big alcohol and health issue.

This paradox was also known as the J shaped curve for alcohol consumption which suggested that those who consumed alcohol moderately had lower mortality risk than those who were abstainers and those who heavily drank. More recent and better research shows this isn't true either.

movendi.ngo/news/2021/06/08/understanding-frances-alcohol-burden-high-alcohol-mortality-requires-urgent-action/

https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-023-02911-w

Most interesting. Thank you.

That's really good advice thank you.

It's so much more useful to say yes it might be a bit boring and it's just one of them things as opposed to saying you shouldn't need alcohol to enjoy yourself.

I gave up drinking about 15 years ago.

Just realised I'd never enjoyed it.

I've never enjoyed the taste. I always just "drank to get drunk" when out with friends. But "drunk" was actually just feeling dizzy and sick.

When I realised I just didn't enjoy it, I stopped.

But i often wonder what would have happened if I had enjoyed it.

I don't think I have good self control. I am overweight because I am greedy and I like chocolate too much. I would like to lose a stone, maybe two, for health reasons.

I have often thought thank goodness I don't drink because for starters I'd be even more overweight than I currently am due purely to the calories in wine.

If I enjoyed alcohol I would find it incredibly hard to give up.

100 per cent

My exhusband was an alcoholic. His postmortem showed no evidence of liver disease. He'd been an alcoholic since the early 90s. He died this year. His drinking caused the end of our marriage, his subsequent marriage ended in divorce. He lied,cheated, stole hundreds of thousands because of alcohol. By the time he took his life he was estranged from his exwives,his 3 children ( 2 adults,1 teen), his grandchildren.He had taken money ( many thousands) from his mother and 2 sisters. He had no job, no home, no friends. He was good looking, well spoken, educated. If you met him in a social situation you would have no idea that he was an alcoholic. His liver was just fine .....so alcohol's fine ...right?

Yeah, and your liver might be fine but the alcohol causes cancer instead!

Not worth it.

This was alcohol related

It raises the risk of certain cancers.

If it was straight up alcohol causes cancer then all alcoholics would have cancer and no teetotallers would. Only that’s not the case. Because risk is complicated as is cancer.

Yes, and breast cancer is one of the cancers increased by consuming any amount of alcohol, so that link should be taken more seriously than it is.

I didn't say that, did I? I said the person in the comment I replied to might avoid liver damage but might get cancer instead.

What my Dad? Well I would prefer if he didn’t but 1in 2 people get cancer and he’s mid 70s..

I love wine and drink over the recommended units some weeks.

I don't eat a lot of unhealthy food, don't smoke/vape, I walk a lot and just have joined the gym. Also, not overweight.

My younger Brother was killed at 18 in a car accident. Through no fault of his own.

I will probably not drink much at all after the New Year as planning to stay in and save money whilst it's cold.

I will take my chances.

Bowel cancer is a real worry. I know of quite a few who have died of it under the age of 50 now too. I do a FIT test every year and have done since I turned 40 as I don't want to wait until the NHS start screening at 60. It seems too late to me.

My MIL died of bowel cancer at 65. Hardly ever drank.

Yes the people I know who died of it weren't drinkers.

I found an AF cider or beer a nice placebo in the early days. Now I rarely bother. As time goes on all the connections I had to drink eg as a relaxer, stress relief, celebration etc all just disappear.

Chastised ? or told about the risks ? Heavy bordering on hazardous drinking is normalized to a dangerous degree in the UK..

Oh come now, I have worked on liver units, the vast, vast ,vast majority of those with lover disease have because of their alcohol consumption, not paracetamol for a headache or sore throat. That sort of attitude just demonstrates ostrich degrees of denial.

It’s not been as bad on this thread, but it’s interesting in any debate about the negative effects of alcohol that so many still get defensive about alcohol and their drinking habits being fine. I don’t care about anecdotal evidence that your uncle Fred lived to 90 and drank from morning until night, neither do I care about your arguments that it makes you feel good, of course it does, it’s a drug, that’s what it’s designed for, drugs make us feel good.

The I’m alright jack attitude of drinkers that have been lucky enough to so far come out unscathed by alcohol is so irritating, and you may indeed stay unscathed, but many who genuinely were not looked at as problem drinkers do suddenly get caught out with a rainbow of ill health outcomes and NO they were not always being secretive about how much they drank.

The ill effects of alcohol are very varied. Everyone is still stuck on the only problem being the liver, but it’s so much more than that, the list is absolutely huge, I mean REALLY HUGE.

Yes we all have to die of something, but to any drinkers going along, let us just have this debate about the negative effects of alcohol and stop being so smug that you’ve had luck on your side so far, I hope it continues and for many it will, but these unexpected things have to happen to someone, many of us other ‘normal’ people end up statistics of ill health when least expected. If you want to appease other alcohol supporters, go over to the alcohol support moderation threads, lots of you spurring each other on that drinking alcohol is fine, and let these debates about the negative effects go on.

You won’t like it, and yes I know alcohol has been consumed since the dawn of time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean humans should, science is proving more and more just how harmful it is to us now, if you want to live like there is no tomorrow, that’s fine, but there’s a growing movement showing it’s not, let it be debated, also don’t worry, no one will take your drugs.

We can always try not injecting ourselves with drugs and poisoning our faces as well as no wine 🤷‍♀️
Life is just as good 😉