This is a very simple poll. Do you drink, and how much? Please feel free to post and explain in more detail your drinking habits. If not, please explain why not. I am very curious as to how some of my fellow Nexians feel about alcohol.

Lately, I have been drinking semi-regularly in medium-small doses (less than 5 drinks per night, no more than 3 nights a week).

I try to periodically assess my relationship with any substance that I use regularly, and determine whether or not a substance is helping or hindering me. I am currently in the process of doing this in regards to alcohol, for the first time in a year or so.

Please forgive me if this poll has already been done. I searched around for a while and did not find anything. Thanks!

I too think about this regularly. I always talk about how our culture values drugs such as caffeine and nicotine to stimulate a productive assembly line fine tuned machine to work their precious, precious lives away during the week. On the contrary, we allow drugs such as alcohol to be consumed on weekends to help people completely forget about their lives in a very unorganized, and almost mindless (not in the way psychedelics make you mindless, mind you) manner. This contradicts a lot of personal beliefs of mine and the main one is that I value my intelligence much more highly than a lot of other virtues I carry. Now onto my drinking habit. I can honestly say that I NEVER drink liquor. I think it tastes horrible, it gives me horrible gas and stomach discomfort, and to me is just horrible. But to each their own. I however, DO like the taste of beer, quite a bit.... especially light beers. They almost refresh me in a way. I drink maybe two to three times a week and I never get drunk. The most I'll drink is about 6 pints in a day. This level of intoxication helps me open up and not be as socially awkward and anxious. Integration is an important concept that I like to apply to all my drug experiences, but I'm having a hard time applying experiences with alcohol into my daily life Just my soup of words.

It doesn't apply to me, but where's the "No" option?

My sentiments exactly.

Precisely.

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Very rarely. Nothing against it, something against loud, drunk people.

I enjoy the taste of some of the alcoholic drinks, but I don't like the effects so much; I get mild depersonalization from it, dislike the ataxia, and after little more than one glass of pretty much any alcoholic beverage, I stop being able to think in pictures for the duration of the intoxication, which is annoying.

Also listening to others becomes a lot less important than just shoving my opinion in, and aggressiveness goes up.. together with lowered inhibition and dare I say, lowered intelligence.


So in general I stay away from it, but with the right people, in the right place, and if I don't have to drive.

The higher-consciousness-generating substances (psychedelics) are a much better fit for what I want out of altering my consciousness. But sometimes it's nice to have a beer with friends and laugh at my sudden inability to play ukulele in time..

I very, very rarely have a beer. And not your commercial fizzy piss beer. I enjoy very intricately crafted artisan beers. The ones that are like $12 for a pint.

Like coffee, I enjoy the process and care needed to create something. It's like dark room work with photographs, a lot of care must go into making something optimized like a high end beer.

So, I voted rarely and in small quantities. I probably dont even drink more than a six pack per year. If even that much, thats how infrequently I partake.

I drink sporadically. Sometimes have some friends over, sittin round the fire. Usually during those times I'll consume enough to just get drunk but not debilitated.

Sometimes I'll have one or two when I'm feeling like relaxing and doing nothing but that happens randomly. If I consume enough to get drunk it usually ruins the next day. My hangovers make me feel tired and lethargic.

well then...

I like a nice IPA after work. Partial to the Ninkasi Total Domination right now-a Eugene, OR brewery.

Really though, $12 a pint!?!
If I drank that after work, Id need a real job!

I drink when I want to drink, and dont when I dont want to drink.

I used alcohol for a crutch for many years. I became aware of my own limitations/debilitations and took a 5 month period where I refused to drink.

One night, I decided that abstinence was another limit that I had set for myself, and another crutch- clinging on to a sense of "purity"... Clinging on to a fear that I HAD to have some kind of crutch.

So, now i am more confused, and less. More crutches, or less. Is life a crutch? What are legs, anyways?

No, I never do, except if there is a celebration and I have to... I don't want to draw attention of not drinking and take a sip from the champaign glass.

I never did, in the past and don't like it, same goes for marijuna, like why do I want to be in the fog?

hahah I was just over-exaggerating. Some can get crazy, but I dont really go that crazy. My favorites are Weihenstepahner Vitus, Erdinger Dunkel, Mothers Milk Stout, and Lindemans Pomme Lambic just to name a few.

He mistakenly put that option as the poll title

I'm another no.
Brewing or growing the mundane drugs can be fun, and using them is briefly fun in a mind befuddling sort of way, but they dont lead anywhere for me so I just cant be bothered.

Yep. I drink Alcohol. Every now an then. Sometimes a beer on weekdays. Sometimes several beers + shots on weekends. But not like...every weekend.

No, because ethanol is highly addictive and is metabolized to acetaldehyde, which is assumed to be carcinogenic. This substance has a poor benefit:cost ratio imo. And I don't like its effects anyway.

I drink regularly but not everyday. At the moment my favourite drinks are vodka or red wine. Beer is ok but tends to bloat me and the consciousness altering effects are more foggy. With vodka i am both clear headed and drunk at the same time. It is a good drink.

If one is intelligent about their alcohol consumption it can be a positive experience. Try not to mix the grape and the grain, get to know the various synergies of your alcoholic beverages and know your limits. This takes time, patience and dedication.

Alcohol is a useful tool and a social lubricant. The country that i live in at the moment does not speak my native toungue but, when we all imbibe in the bar together, language becomes easier. We enter into a ritualistic consciousness altering state and laugh, sing and dance and have philosophical conversations that those on a more baseline mental plane would never understand. The local barman is a shamanic figure who has a deep understanding of his craft. He has many deep and philosophical anecdotes about alcohol written on posters behind the bar and provides a safe setting where the laws and social constraints of modern society hold no sway.

I always try and bring something from these sessions back to conscensus reality the following day, whether it be a piece of wisdom, a remembered personal connection or something more material such as the contents of my stomach.

I'm so sorry my friends, I was in such a hurry to get to work (where I do most of my drinking, by the way), that I forgot to add the "No, never" option... I could have swore that I included that, but apparently I did not. If any of the mods would be so kind as to add a "No, never." option, I would greatly appreciate it. It would appear that I am unable to add more poll options, even if I try to edit my original post.

Lately, I have been drinking a lot more than my "default setting", so to speak. I have been considering the option of quitting ethanol all together lately, like I have done for long(ish) periods in the past (2 years). It is worth mentioning that as I type this, I am quite intoxicated. I have just gotten home from work at 4:30 AM my time. I have recently come to realize that it is quite difficult for me to work in a bar and pass on drinks when someone is pouring up a round of whiskey for all of the employees on the clock at that particular point in time. I think this might have to do with the whole aspect of fitting in and being part of the group. I think I have some serious topics to reflect/meditate/explore my mind about this weekend. Thanks you all for reading and responding to this thread. I love all of you so much

Keep the responses coming! I hope one of the mods will be kind enough to add a "no, never" option, as that is obviously a crucial part of this poll.

Much love and respect to you all.

Yes, rarely and in small doses. (small doses still get me inebriated).

I try to only drink moonshine when I do drink, but approximately 3 times each year I'll drink a beer or two.

i have quit alchohol for almost 7 years now.

It's not that i've pursued it. Before quitting i was occasionally drinking with friends. But one hot summer i returned from a couple-of-days-seaside trip and didn't feel like drinking with my fellows anymore. It was a rough ride during my latest high school years. Though it was fun, i have to admit

They've been calling me party pooper but i don't care. Even my family considers it strange that i don't even want to take a sip for a toast when we gather along on a lunch.

Along with alchohol i quit meat too. And i've been feeling better and better since.

Doing sports on a daily basis (running roughly 90 minutes a day is my personal method of Kinhin, sometimes mountainbiking and swimming), not having any alchohol, meat, or any food i consider unhealthy or bad has helped me a lot during these years.

Besides from that i smoke a lot of cannabis, eat a lot of sweets (chocholate mainly) and have become pathologically introverted along with the circumstances stated above.