kicking the booze for good

FTA69

frank reynolds wrote: »

i drank very heavily up til' recently. i dont miss it at all. i smoke weed and have never been happier. i know a few friends who switched to the green stuff after giving up boozing and they smoke a cheeky one on a night out and a red bull and it's a WAY more fun buzz than drinking. you're chattier, no hangover, can actually put up with the drunks cos they just become a funny thing to laugh at/with.

i find that drinking takes away the "happy" feeling after the one too many whereas you'd be laughing the night away otherwise.

Nothing worse than a smug stoner. Most people I know are boring as sh*t when they get stoned. People zonked out of their heads are no more better company than people who are p*ssed.

yourdeadwright

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Iv only had one night out in the last month and only had five beers and feel great for it,
Have a 30th to go to next weekend so ill have a few but i think i could easy stay off it and will be for the entire winter, In summer there's always better days out where a couple of beers are nice,

To contrast that I've been drinking (varying between a serious all day session or two and just one or two drinks, with loads of in between amounts) on about 13 of the last 18 days (I included today as I'm going for a few after work) and I'm feeling pretty good today too.

Wattle

FTA69 wrote: »

Nothing worse than a smug stoner. Most people I know are boring as sh*t when they get stoned. People zonked out of their heads are no more better company than people who are p*ssed.

I'd prefer a smug stoner to a violent messy drunk any day of the week.

April O Neill

Wattle wrote: »

I'd prefer a smug stoner to a violent messy drunk any day of the week.

Just as well not all drunk people are violent, so!

Wattle

April O Neill wrote: »

Just as well not all drunk people are violent, so!

Have you ever seen a stoner get violent?

Wompa1

Wattle wrote: »

Have you ever seen a stoner get violent?

Yes, my brother is prone to them when high.

Wompa1

Left Ireland a year and 4 months ago. Have only drank twice in this country. Did drink a few times when back in Ireland but no need when over here. It's not as much of a social focal point here.

April O Neill

Wattle wrote: »

Have you ever seen a stoner get violent?

Nope, but I rarely see a violent drunk either. Messy maybe, but I'd consider different drug-takers to each be "messy" in their own way/

Serenity G

If Alcohol cost you more than money maybe it's time to quit. :-)

SV

April O Neill wrote: »

Nope, but I rarely see a violent drunk either. Messy maybe, but I'd consider different drug-takers to each be "messy" in their own way/

Realllllllly!?

Alcohol seems to bring out the violence in people I've found.

Heartland

I live in Temple Bar. If you wanna see a violent drunk come over to my apartment any night of the week. It's non-stop around here. I have yet to see anyone get violent from smoking weed. Your brother is a very unique exception to the rule. Stoners might get boring but messy is not a word i would associate with smoking too much weed. Vegetative? maybe, messy? not so much.

TeddyTedson

I find it very hard to kick. I wish I was able to have one or two but I can't. It's embarrassing really.
I hope I eventually give it up altogether.

Sunnyisland

lufties wrote: »

Hi All, As a 31yr old, i've had alcohol pretty much every week for the last 14 years, with the odd exception here and there. in recent weeks have cut down a lot and focused on other things, now i'm determined to kick the auld booze for good ,as its done me more harm than good overall.

The only thing is it might involve refraining
from pubs altogether as the temptation might be too much.This to me is the most daunting aspect, facing social isolation.

Any thoughts/experiences are welcome

Be kind and patient with yourself lufties, and in my opinion to stop drinking and drugging we have to get away from people places and things that make us want to use alcohol. Counselors call this “getting into an adequately controlled environment.” If you keep hanging out with people who are drinking your chances of staying abstinence are nearly zero. To break the cycle of destructive alcohol use you need help & support. You need to put yourself around people, places, and things that will encourage and support your abstinence and help you to learn a set of specific skills to keep yourself from drinking even if you feel like it at that moment.But it can be done as proof by the increasing amount of people who are posting here :-) (to give one example)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1015

Wattle

April O Neill wrote: »

Nope, but I rarely see a violent drunk either. Messy maybe, but I'd consider different drug-takers to each be "messy" in their own way/

I think you're just being argumentative for the sake of it. Check out reports of assaults, murders and public disorder. The vast majority are carried out by drunks. I've never seen anyone get violent having smoked a joint and those who do have usually been mixing it with booze.

Bruthal

Super-Rush wrote: »

Can't you just drink less than you did?

Yea, quitting would require that alright.

Heartland

If you've got a smart phone Lufties you can download the Meetup app. There is a Dublin Sober Social group that do weekly meetings (it may even be a sober singles, but not dating group). It would be one way to try the "different people, different environment" approach. There's actually loads of interesting groups on that Meetup app that don't do activities focused on the pub.

April O Neill

Wattle wrote: »

I think you're just being argumentative for the sake of it.

I'm really not. I can't really understand your defensiveness, TBH. It's a characteristic common to many regular weed-smokers, for some reason. It doesn't take long for people of this subset to start yelling about research papers and stats, even the person they're yelling at has shown no signs of being anti-weed. My comments were pretty throwaway. And one earlier had nothing to do with mary jane, it was addressing the violence of drunks.

Recap: I never said people who smoke weed were violent, I responded to someone's point that drunks were violent.

Yeesh.

Heartland

Sorry, are you actually trying to say that "many" regular weed smokers get violent? You are living in a parallel universe to me then.

April O Neill

Heartland wrote: »

Sorry, are you actually trying to say that "many" regular weed smokers get violent?

No!

Where are you getting that?

What part of the following sentence do you not understand?

April O Neill wrote: »

Recap: I never said people who smoke weed were violent, I responded to someone's point that drunks were violent.

If you think that's me saying stoners are violent, then I can't help you. It really couldn't be clearer.

Seriously !

Heartland

April O Neill wrote: »

I'm really not. I can't really understand your defensiveness, TBH. It's a characteristic common to many regular weed-smokers, for some reason.

The above made it seem you were saying that many regular weed-smokers were violent. Apologies if I misunderstood.

bogwalrus

Drink non alcoholic beer. The placebo effect alone will make you feel tipsy with only a small quantity of alcohol being consumed (.5% i think in most non alc drinks)

April O Neill

Heartland wrote: »

The above made it seem you were saying that many regular weed-smokers were violent. Apologies if I misunderstood.

No, I mean that many weed-smokers seem to quickly get on the defensive.

Sam Kade

xzanti wrote: »

Funnily enough I don't mind clubs so much.. once it's a nice place.. I love music..

The odd time myself and my OH will take a drive into Town (Dublin) and go for dinner and maybe hit Dandelion or somewhere.. He still has a few drinks socially.

It's so nice to be able to walk by the taxi queues and hop into the nice warm car

What are you doing in clubs then

RossFixxxed

Plenty of people are able to drink responsibly, even a little recklessly and be no harm to anyone (except poor defenseless kebabs and burgers). I am not one of those people, so the responsibility is on me to not get drunk, and not be a complete dick. So I don't drink, and if I do it will only be one or two max. That's about it really. If more people knew the difference we'd be ok.

_Kaiser_

I was never a big drinker anyway but I did go out on the mad sessions when I was in my 20s too, but for me there were several factors that just seemed to naturally change that:

- My friends started buying houses all over the place and settling down and having kids so getting people together became increasingly harder (these days it's at the point where people need about 8 weeks notice to agree a weekend everyone can be free)

- I got a job outside Dublin and moved down the country where a lack of buses/Nitelinks or readily available/cheap-ish taxis meant that more often than not I'd have to drive if I wanted to go out which means no drinking

- The price of drink and the inevitable hangover that just gets worse and takes longer to recover from when ya get older meant it just wasn't worth it

- I was never one for drinking at home.. always preferred the social aspect of a pub more than the alcohol

So now I'm back in Dublin and I do go out occasionally but most of the time I'll still choose to bring the car so I can drive home and not have the hangover anyway.

I'm jealous of people who've given it up and are happy with it.. I swear my hangovers are ten times as bad as they were two years ago.

Cienciano

Having kids is a big factor is people quieting down on the drink. Even if you have a babysitter, chances are you're going to have to get up at 7 or 8am if they're young.