How much do you drink? Honestly!

[Starlight1984]

And yes, yes I know there is an "alcohol support" section of MN but this isn't for help or advice or anything other than curiosity!

Just been reading on another thread about what people do and don't do which others would find unusual and a LOT of the posts include people saying they don't drink alcohol which I find insane as pretty much everyone I know drinks to some degree!

Anyway I'll start, I don't (or try not to!) drink from Mon - Thurs but on average will have a bottle of wine on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. So 3 x bottles of wine a week. I know it's above the guidelines of "normal" drinking and know I need to cut down but it's something I genuinely enjoy. DH is the same. We never get drunk. We just slowly drink 3-4 glasses over the course of the evening (from about 6pm to 11ish) whilst making dinner, sitting down to eat, watching a film / reading a book... It's just something that helps us to unwind after a busy week!

So for AIBU

YABU - No thanks, would rather have a cup of tea.
YANBU - Pour me a large one!

Same. My tolerance dropped, but I also got to the stage where I was doing things to look and feel better/healthier and still doing that one thing that has almost entirely negative impacts. And it just felt a bit stupid TBH.

Probably the same as you op. Generally nothing Mon-Thur then anywhere between 0.5 and 1 bottle of wine Fri, Sat and some Sundays. Usually have 2 dry months per year. Oh and I’m peri and it hasn’t affected my ability to drink, or my liking of it, at all 🤦‍♀️
I have found drinking spritzers (with sparking water) helps cut down the amount I drink.

I don’t drink anymore ( I can drink a wee gin and Lemonade or Vodka and Diet Coke but very rarely now) I would rather drive . I did dry January 2 years ago and Daughter was pregnant and i didnt know when I would be needed so basically stopped. I do wish bars would supply non alcoholic drinks other than Diet Coke/ Pepsi and I’m driving on Saturday night we are off out

I hate having a hangover 🤣 I’m too busy been alive for drinking alcohol

I agree with this. I think my social circles (all in our late 30s / 40s / early 50s) are far more likely to drink than 20-somethings these days!

I do wish bars would supply non alcoholic drinks other than Diet Coke/ Pepsi and I’m driving on Saturday night we are off out

They absolutely do!!! Far more now than ever before.

I'd rather have a good cup of tea these days

Zero in the last 3 or 4 yrs (maybe even longer) Don’t miss it one bit, much prefer a Pepsi or coffee these days. I drank in my younger days but from about age 35 it just didn’t appeal anymore and the odd time I would drink even 1 or 2 glasses it made me feel awful almost like I had been poisoned and the recovery was awful too.

No she's not and neither are you.

I usually have a single drink of g&t or Bailey's on a Friday and/or Sat evening.

On holiday I would probably have a glass of wine with dinner most evenings.

Over Christmas I may drink a bit more often than usual, but I seldom have more than 1 drink within a 24 hr period, and never more than 2.

I'm a real lightweight, but I'm happy about that!

A bottle wine over the weekend. Maybe in one evening maybe over two. It depends.

Normally none except the rare occasions that I find myself in a pub for lunch and don’t have to drive afterwards - then I might have 1 or 2 gin and tonics.

I'm 55 and I used to drink 3 bottles of white wine a week, sometimes 4, pretty much all my adult life. The problem for me is, that I can never resist an open bottle, so if I fancy "a glass" of wine on a Wednesday and buy a bottle intending to save most of it for the weekend, that bottle of wine will be calling me "there's wine in the fridge, may as well finish it, there's wine in the fridge, may as well finish it".

In the last year or so though, I've found it really disrupts my sleep and I just feel crap during the day after I've drunk, even if it's only 2 glasses. So, what I've found is brilliant for me, is those tiny bottles of wine that only have one glass in. I'll buy four of those instead of a big bottle and put them in the cupboard, then if I fancy "a glass" of wine in the week, I can pop one of the small bottles in the freezer and its lovely and chilled in ten minutes plus its truly "a glass", with no open bottle in the fridge calling my name. The small bottles in the cupboard tend to stay quiet 😃

This is true for me. Why is that?

Jeez no hope for me, g&t and glass of red every day😀

I haven't drunk anything at all for nearly 4 years (I'm in my 50s) but in the past I probably drank most nights, usually wine. I could easily have got through a whole bottle of wine a couple of times a week, and maybe sometimes two. If I drank lager (usually when out) I could get through about 5 pints. I wasn't very regulated with it, and it's a relief to have stopped.

@isitmyturn

My 20 something DC, their partners and friends barely drink. They had moments at uni but now they drink nothing like I did in my 20s. I assumed that was the norm for their generation.

I agree and praise the Lord for that. I was drinking in pubs at 14 (without my parents). My DD is nearly 15 and has never touched a drop of alcohol and has shown no interest in it whatsoever. I'm not naive enough to think that won't ever change and she may grow to like it. But alcohol has thankfully lost a lot of the glamour and rebelliousness it held for my generation.

I've never really had a problem with drink but I've wasted so much of my life on alcohol which would have been far better spent on other activities and I never wanted her to be wrapped up in the whole horrible booze culture.

But that said there is still a sub-section of 20 somethings for whom alcohol is a big factor in their lives. So a non-drinking 20 something would surprise me more than a non-drinking 50 something.

I didn’t drink for about 12 years when children were younger .
I now drink about 3 bottles a week. Less some weeks and more other weeks.
Edit to say my children’s generation are far more sensible and drink a lot less than my cohort in our 20/ 30s

Not very much usually. I had a double shot of brandy in some hot chocolate yesterday after swimming. One glass of red on Monday evening. Two glasses of red wine Friday evening with some pizza. That's it. 8 units in a week.

I can still put that away in an evening occasionally but that's really not very often.

Seems there is in the UK a group of teens and 20,s who don’t drink and it’s their thing not to a kind of club

This is so interesting.

I don’t drink at all, but I do use weed. It’s legal where I live.

On here I am always raked over the coals for being a bad parent because I use marijuana when needed.

I don’t get how people are drinking a bottle of wine a night and not concerned?

Do any of you have young kids?

As a mother of DCs in their 20s and 30s I'd say that the age trends around drinking behaviour have changed enormously. One DC didn't really drink at all until her 30s (and still not much), the others all had the usual going slightly mad about alcohol in their late teens, followed by dwindling to very little or none at all in their mid to late 20s. It may not be uniform across all socio-economic groups, but I think quite a lot of 20-somethings don't really drink at all. Those who do drink often drink what is basically alcoholic pop - like fruit ciders or premixed cocktails - not decent wine or beer.

My 20 something DC barely drink.
They mostly can't afford it in London.

I asked my GP about this and apparently there's an enzyme involved in breaking down alcohol which drops significantly at menopause. Plus lower estrogen plays a part. Although weirdly HRT (which raises estrogen) seems to play a part too.

The biggest thing for me is sleep. I absolutely can't sleep if I've drunk even small amounts of alcohol. I will wake multiple times in the night. I work really hard and I really need my sleep so if its a choice between sleep and alcohol then sleep wins hands down every time. I now only drink if I know I can afford a night of broken sleep. Otherwise its just not worth it.

I used to drink a bottle or two of wine every weekend, but a few months back, I cut down to having one glass once a week when we go out to eat. I'll likely drink more during December, but honestly I can't see myself going back to drinking that much every weekend. I have much more energy now.