I'm drinking a lot less. I'm getting older, and it's harder on my body.

Having access to weed and psychadelics helps, but also the alcohol-free-beers are much better than they used to be.

I still drink, but I fully support younger generations not drinking as a health choice. I suspect a lot of this is, unfortunately, not due to health concerns, but afordability.

Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults now believe drinking one or two alcoholic beverages a day is bad for one’s health

51% of US adults now dimly aware of research supporting the claim that habitually drinking poison is bad for you, actually.

Feel like this is being framed as a good thing but I want to give another perspective. Depression rates are at an all time high. Loneliness is creeping back up to 2020-era levels. People are goddamn miserable. I think about the only person I know whose life has improved since the 2010s is my sister. Even having small talk with like waitresses, cashiers in stores, you get a sense that everyone is just miserable and trying to hang on.

I stopped smoking weed and drinking in 2016 when my anxiety just became too much to bear. Those things are often portrayed as substances that take the edge off, but my experience was the complete opposite. My anxiety would just get worse. I wonder if other people are having similar experiences here and it explains the drop. Because idk when I remember the time that I used to smoke like a chimney and binge drink every weekend, it was a time when I was so much happier. Stopping doing those things was not something I did because I really wanted to, and it’s been linked to a period where I’m just increasingly miserable. Anxious and depressed. So I wonder if others have stopped drinking because of similar reasons of being miserable. Because interestingly my sister has started drinking since the 2010s. Giving support to my anecdotal hypothesis.

The teetotalers will soon overtake the alcoholics. Big Booze is at least as afraid as Big Tobacco.

We're coming for you sooner than you think, Anheuser-Busch, Phillip Morris, et. al.

can't afford that shit anyway even if i wanted to go out and be with the plague rats.

no point in drinking alone when there's weed alone

There is truly excellent beer where I live, and I don't remember the last time I bought it outside of a restaurant. Shit's expensive, I'm old enough to feel it the next day if I have enough to make the alcohol matter, and it takes up fridge space.

Meanwhile, weed is almost free. Even the people who grow it professionally give it away.

Cool, now are you going to pay us so we can afford to go out drinking?

Last week, we had a little going-away campfire for a couple of our coworkers. I brought sun tea and simple syrup so people could sweeten it like they wanted to.

Boss thought it was vodka for a second and we joked about it. But it was funny to think, we're all like 20-35 and no one seems to drink besides me. And I drink like 1-2 per month. Doesn't help that we all had to drive home afterwards and we're all reasonably responsible.

Its doubly funny because me and the boss talked about how we officially can't do anything alcohol related because of our employer's rules. Can't do a history of cider or small beer event because of town rules and/or requiring a liquor license. Plus its "not family friendly". Which, yeah, I get, but there is such a gulf between unhealthy drinking and "Here is one drink thats 2% alcohol and a history lesson about how and why people made alcohol".

Its a shame because I love learning and talking about historical alcohol/drug use. Especially the less depressing use (topics like preservation, taste, and medicine, rather then misuse).

Overall, its really good that people are drinking less. But it does suck a bit for those of us who like weird shit.

How does this compare to Europe and especially England where drinking is more common?

Once upon a time:

By 1810 the number of distilleries in the young nation had increased fivefold, to more than fourteen thousand, in less than two decades. By 1830 American adults were guzzling, per capita, a staggering 7 gallons of pure alcohol a year. . . In modern terms those 7 gallons are the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of standard 80-proof liquor per person, per week—nearly 90 bottles a year for every adult in the nation, even with abstainers (and there were millions of them) factored in.

From Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent

Speaking only for myself, I'm now old enough that having one (1) drink is gambling with being a tired hazy slug the next day, and two is a guarantee.

I tend to be sensitive in that way though, my brain is very clearly not good at homeostasis and never has been.

I was going to ask who tf is drinking alcohol every day but then I remembered growing up my parents had a glass of wine most nights before bed, guess since they weren't getting drunk/tipsy it never really "counted" in my eyes

I'm only sad it took me so long to stop. So much wasted time resources opportunities etc. Our culture pushes the "coolness" of it then people are off to the races. It becomes a cash cow for the capitalists after that due to addiction and our material conditions encouraging escapism. Pedal to the metal on depression baybay.

turns out drinking alcohol depletes vitamins needed to function without pain / headache. Recovering from drinking should include supplimenting before and after the session.

Maybe it works for some people, but for me it just feels really bad. It also makes me sad and angry.

I had two drinks last night at happy hour with some coworkers and it was kinda nice to be slightly more relaxed and smiley, but they both tasted like alcohol aka bad (cosmo and long island ice tea, which are supposed to not even taste alcoholy??) and it upset my stomach. And it cost money! And it's bad for me!

Might just retvrn to teetotaling. Save my substance bandwidth for something nicer

I had a mangonada margarita yesterday and that's cause we do our weekly splurge meal up front on the weekend. Otherwise, I try not to touch the stuff except at social functions. Everything is so fucking expensive.

extremely rare amerikan W

I thought for sure they were going to blame Islam for this.

"ALCOHOLICS FURIOUS AS HIJAB WEARING YOUTH REFUSES TO GO OUT DRINKING."

Americans just fucking suck in general so of course they'd be lame.