So what is the concern about someone watching television?

Instead you sit at a computer typing furiously about how it is so sad. Why not go out and do one of those things you would like to do?

No, no I do it too! I’m not sfb for god sake!

Although actually I’m out in the garden playing with my kids and posting from my phone at the mo. 8)

My concern (if that’s what it is) is just that tv doesn’t require people to do anything. It seems that fewer people read books, draw/paint, play music, go out etc when the box in corner is available. Probably just getting old 😉

Good god I am confused now. You are complaining about yourself?

I do wish I was in my garden playing with my kids though – it is a lovely day and I am stuck in the office.

I wish I was drunk.

Plenty problem drinkers offshore who go without for a fortnight at a time. 5 days off means nothing really. I’d be trying 6 weeks off.

Good god I am confused now. You are complaining about yourself?

🙂

I think if you’re trying to take time off then you’ve got a problem!
I’ll happily have a drink almost every night 😀

You really don’t have a clue do you ?
Smug and ignorant, what an intoxicating blend!

and taking drugs gives one a clue ? I wonder. One might almost think they tend to render people clueless. In fact, that may be why they do it 🙁

I prefer to remain smugly in control of what meagre faculties I possess.

In the same way I see no reason to sample rape or murder to see if they’re nice too.

Rape? Murder? Having a spliff? S’all the same innit?

Well done Mr Barnes. You’ve surpassed yourself. Possibly the stupidest comment I’ve ever read on here. Even from you

*stands and applauds*

and taking drugs gives one a clue ?

Read any books by druggies?

Oh so it’s a question of morality and legality then?

I prefer to remain smugly in control of what meagre faculties I possess.

I can see how if you were burdened with particularly weak mental faculty then the dangers of being an imbiber would be multiplied somewhat. Personally I am in the try everything once camp, with a caveat that if it is enjoyable, you should indulge it as often as you see fit.

*resists the urge to make a very bad joke in bad taste about rape being an upper or a downer, or both*

I had hoped that this thread might have died away in the same way that I wish my internet over-ride breathalyser was more effective.

I started drinking last summer as self-medicating relief from anxiety attacks. Long story of break up/depression and going through difficult times that I won’t repeat here. Alcohol works as a fairly fast way of numbing.

I’m still in a difficult situation and still drinking every evening. Last night I casually drank three pints of beer and a bottle of wine. That’s not a casual amount and I certainly can’t sustain it and have a good outcome. In lots of ways.

I’m seeking to replace drinking with cycling but so far that hasn’t been going too well.

I think I should refrain from getting involved in the creativity debate. Well, at least until after I’ve had a drink and and fashioned some constructive thought.

Ah, Kunstler, I feel for you mate, been through similar in the past and it is a difficult cycle to break.

You’ve just got to think about the situation you’re in – is it really that difficult to get out of?

I sort of agree with Simon. I think people are confusing a mental state for creating with alcohol numbing. A fair amount of artists tend to suffer from insecurities, anxieties and stresses which can reduce their creativeness, alcohol can to be used to loosen these, a bit like dutch courage. If they didn’t have the anxieties in the first place they could get to that state readily without a drink. The problem with using drink to get there is it will start to damage that state and make it more dependable.

Some artists have used other ways of getting there like meditation, putting themselves in danger and risk taking too. Others completely dry.

Imagine what the world would like like if the 20th Century’s most infamous teetotaler had got half cut (and a bit more chilled) on a few occasions….

Can’t say that total abstinence has got a particularly good press – can lead to dangerously obsessive behaviours elsewhere.

Imagine what the world would like like if the 20th Century’s most infamous teetotaler had got half cut (and a bit more chilled) on a few occasions….

Can’t say that total abstinence has got a particularly good press – can lead to dangerously obsessive behaviours elsewhere.

Yay! Godwin!

Stalin like vodka, imagine how the world would have been if he hadn’t been drunk all the time…

Wasn’t Winston Churchill almost constantly leathered? He used to drink Champagne with breakfast.

That’s class for you, that is

So what is the concern about someone watching television?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvlbZWZWz0M[/video]

🙄

Just before my divorce I was buying two bottles of wine on the way home and drinking one before he got home just to ‘numb it’ then drinking the rest pretending it was my first….. when I got the point I was doing that even if he wasn’t coming home and not feelign like I had a hangover I realsied I needed to do something.

Fact is it makes you more depressed the next day doesn’t it 🙁

Even now I still have diffcultly not just using it as a crutch when I’m feeling rubbish about stuff.

Sending big hugs and hoping you find somethign else to occupy you now its coming lighter at night

OP, knock it on the head for a bit like others have suggested. Send all the booze in your house to SFB.

Blimey. You really think a pissed up Hitler would have been a good thing?

S’all the same innit?

no, I meant that there’s no need to sample a behaviour in order to determine if it’s a good idea.

no, I meant that there’s no need to sample a behaviour in order to determine if it’s a good idea.

Still a totally spurious and ridiculous thing to say, I’m afraid. In fact, its utter twoddle

I think about 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999% of the population would agree that rape and murder probably aren’t that good an idea?

The figures would suggest no such consensus on drug use

Still a totally spurious and ridiculous thing to say

I wasn’t comparing drinking and murder, only suggesting that you can often tell if something might be a bad idea without doing it.

I’m going to just start adding more alcohol to my cooking to make me feel better about the whole thing, some of the alcohol evaporates when you add it to food, right?

What wine for muesli?

suggesting that you can often tell if something might be a bad idea without doing it

Yes, often you can. However, often you can’t.

Blimey. You really think a pissed up Hitler would have been a good thing?

Nope…

Teetotal was catastrophic. Hitler was an easy / lazy example.

What wine for muesli?

Now there’s a thought – has to be amaretto surely??

For Muesli, peach or apple schnapps, gets one of y’ five a day in as well.

Sorry Mr B. Its still a completely stupid analogy. Mainly as it doesn’t work as one.

My ever-growing collection of scars and injuries would suggest that throwing myself down steep hills on a mountain bike wouldn’t tend to be up there with the best ideas I’ve ever had. I still do it. Mainly because my life is richer and more fulfilling as a result of it. You’re just going to have to accept that a lot of people feel that way about using various substances. No matter what your own personal opinion is

Back on the original topic (sorry, someone had to do it), I decided that I was probably drinking a bit too much, so I stopped drinking at all during the week.

That still means I can drink on a Friday or Saturday night, and frequently I do. Thing is though, I don’t really want to; I’m sleeping so much better without the booze that although I’m happy on the weekend to have a glass of wine or maybe a beer, that’s about my limit now.

Makes taking the recycling bins out much easier now, let me tell you.

I suppose Hitler would probably have been killed in a bar brawl if he’d been on the booze before he could get up to no good.

I regularly drink on my own, I finished work last night and really fancied a pint, so I want and had a few don’t see what the big deal is pub was rammed with Celtic supporters anyway. Oh and I do this regular on my own and with mates.

According to some on here Ringo, you need drastic help.

I know yeah its so laughable, for the record I don’t drink at home but I like being in a boozer and probly go in one 4-5 times a week 😀

I came on here a couple of months ago asking for the opinion of the forum on much the same thing, not about drinking on my own but regarding a habitual drink or two most evenings.

I was told that I was 10 years from death and that I had a very serious problem. To be honest I kind of regretted asking, lots of effort went into in fighting and petty squabbling and you have to remember this is a forum full of healthy types and puritanical arses.

If you suspect that you are getting into trouble, you quite possibly are but it also displays a degree of self awareness that may serve to act as a regulator. As AA say, the hardest bit is admitting you have a problem, if you are not averse to admitting that you might have a problem I would suggest you are in a strong position to act in a way that improves your life and your helps you do the things you want to do, not just the things that habits draws you towards.

FWIW, I have stopped drinking altogether on school nights, it has been relatively easy and I have lost some weight and saved some money but only a modest amount of each. I do look forward to letting my hair down on the weekends which I am sure some people will interpret as me having a serious drinking problem but I stay sobre more often so I am in good shape to ride my bike, apparently I have a serious biking problem too!

Good luck in whatever you do, if it gets too bad I can put you in touch with some very good people who can help depending on where you live. Email is in the profile.

Back on the original topic (sorry, someone had to do it), I decided that I was probably drinking a bit too much, so I stopped drinking at all during the week

That’s been pretty much my tactic – particularly after Christmas when it’s easy to find yourself drinking pretty heavily nearly every day of the week.

There’s a great Horizon documentary about drinking (Do I Drink Too Much?), well worth watching, quite thought-provoking and definitely not puritanical.

My father-in-law told me once that he has had a drink every day for the last thirty years. He often goes to worh with empty beer cans hidden in his briefcase and one time we were down for dinner and my missus went to get a bottle of wine out of the rack and the bottle was empty. He’d arsed it and put the lid back on the bottle and into the rack. That’s a drink problem, right? He also used to habitually drink-drive and on occasion drunk-drive. He stopped that since I told him I’d knock him out if he ever had my kids in the car and he had a drink.