Americans who say they drink alcohol remains at record low, survey finds

You can stop. I won't give unsolicited advice, but dm me if you want to talk about it

Word. My Friday evening beer math:

I always try to stick to one beer. These days I manage to not exceed a couple.

Hollywood needs to stop using it in every fucking scene. Two characters cannot have a conversation with beers to scotch, no cop comes home without cracking open a beer.

I've met a lot of wonderful people through this organization that has helped me immensely:

https://smartrecovery.org/what-is-smart-recovery

It isn't easy at first, but the pivotal moment is merely wanting to stop. You may not believe it yourself, addiction has this way of convincing you that you can't, but it gets easier with time.

It's been three years or so, but my life has turned around so much it's astounding. Highly recommend believing in yourself, and pushing through the tough days.

Stay kind to yourself friend

Keep wanting to quit, I think that’s the most important thing, keep the desire to quit alive. Especially when you stop. I’d put money on you pulling through brother!

Alcohol never had any sort of attraction to me thankfully. I don't really like having an altered mental state in the first place, and I never found a beer that I liked until I was 23. I'm 45 now and I've been drunk 3 times in my life and each time I was just wishing the effect would wear off. But I do have addictions, just other sorts of things. Wish you luck and strength in your journey.

They don't care if you live or die. They care about if their rich buddies are still getting your money.

I believe in you.

I stopped drinking and it has been very worth the effort. It's hard, but I believe in you

Yes alcohol, sugar and automobiles are the big killers that we seem to just accept in an “oh well” kind of way. We came a long way on smoking so I’m optimistic about alcohol. “Record lows” doesn’t impress me as a phrase because I know how high the historic highs actually were 🤣

You can do it, dawg!! It's not something that can be done easily, but it can be done.

Try GLP-1s or ketamine treatment

Joke solution: Convert to Islam.

Serious solution: I have no idea.

Why dont you stop drinking yourself and not outsource your decisions about your body to a brutal police state?

I am not tirelessly working to ensure you must be forced to drink every day, why would you do the opposite to me?

You can stop right now.

Edit: You guys are right. It’s better to resign yourself to doom and give up. I guess my case was miraculous. Self control wasn’t a factor. No one has ever quit drinking successfully.

So, yes, a complete ascetic chasing immorality may not want to drink

Either you're missing a 't' or you're chasing immorality the wrong way.

scientists told people that 1 to 2 drinks per day is better for your health than 0 drinks per day.

One lab from one country, heavily promoted by the California wine industry. In Europe, this is confused with the fact that historically people drank weak ales because it was safer than water due to cholera.

Another scam with wellness influencers is resveratrol from wine -it does fuck all.

Great insights thank you

how much they drank, and then asking about their health

this kinda read as if they asked them about there health while they were drunk :) Would have made for an interesting curve.

Ethically because of the known dangers of abuse, no medical professional or organization should recommend alcohol consumption. It is NOT a safe drug to use by anyone's level of evaluation. It runs a similar levels of risk as driving a car, another activity that no health professional should recommend.

That being said, for those that are genetically predisposed to heart disease and diabetes, the proper dosage and timing of alcohol consumption helps to regulate cholesterol and insulin. This is backed not by surveys which are prone to the errors you described, but blood draws etc. aka testable evidence.

Genetically 3 out of 4 of my grandparents had diabetes and 4/4 had high blood pressure/heart disease. So when my blood tests started coming back with screwed up cholesterol ratios and my blood pressure started increasing in my 30's I read a shit ton of the scientific papers.

So I started having around 1.5 drinks per night. Within 1 year my cholesterol and blood pressure normalized. They have remained so for the past decade. My one glass of wine or whiskey after dinner is acting as a very enjoyable medication.

Yup. There's a reason ABC and Total Wine have a whole isle dedicated to THC drinks. People don't not use drugs anymore, they just found a cleaner drug.

Weed is legal in more places than ever.

I will say from experience though that long term, chronic, heavy use of weed comes with its own problems, though. Probably not as bad as alcohol, but pretty unfun still.

Conversely, I do amphetamines (legally, prescription) and still occasionally drink. At the height of my drinking I'd have 3 drinks in a night (usually more like 1-2), maybe 4-5 nights a week, but the rule has always been that I would only drink if I felt safe to do so, had something else to do (while drinking), and most importantly, am not in any negative mood or depressed. These days I only really drink for celebrations, and looking around there isn't much left to celebrate. I still drink occasionally, but it's been down to like 1 drink every other week, with company (and only mead, my body can't handle beer or even wine anymore).

I keep wondering if “just weed and occasional hallucinogens” will actually be an available path for the next generation. I think it’s reasonable advice but I don’t know what’s out there and available to them. It seems like a broader spectrum of shit than ever and things get mixed together. Can you still just buy an 8th of weed in a sandwich bag anymore? Can you get a paper tab of acid without worrying what else is in it?

“Apathy had to make out of body the status quo” -Clipping (Daveed Diggs)

Covid accelerated my drinking. Still haven't come back down

Also, who has money for $15 beers. If going out means spending more than $50 it's not worth it. And the dating scene is trash so most male singles I know are avoiding traditional meet up spots like the plague.

I agree with most of what you said. For me however, Covid was when I learned how to mix cocktails. I figured out a very simple drink I like and now I have 2-3 mix drinks a week, almost never more than one drink per day though.

My secret ingredient is St. Germaine, thank you to The Expanse for introducing it to me!

Also in addition to what you and others said, I wonder if realizing why liquor stores were essential businesses put some people off from drinking as much or at all.

The worst part is that I don't even feel any better since quitting.

I think people recording antics on behaviors of drunks also kind of reduced a psychological thing nobody talks about: alcohol has always been a low-key social lubricant to allow for out-of-bounds behavior. Alcohol historically provided not only disinhibition, but also a socially recognized excuse for disinhibition. Either through "liquid courage" or "it wasn't me, it was the tequila." Now, people can be held accountable for their actions.

One of my deejay friends got riled up after drinking by a group to go out and beat the shit out of some guy who made a homophobic slur about him. My friend was gay, pride and proud, and this other deejay said some stuff about him that ended up on social media (I never heard what was actually said). My friend was going to "let it slide," but after a few rounds of a flask, his friends group were like, "let's go to the club and GET HIM!" THANKFULLY, before they got there, the venue had actually shut down due to an unrelated medical incident (a puke chain) and nobody was allowed in. So they went home.

The next morning, my friend brother's woke him up and said, "I think you should see this." And it was cell phone video of him drinking, letting his pals rile him up, and the pure rage her was coaxed into. Then the mob going to the venue, but then being told it was closed for the night, and all of them frustrated in rage unfulfilled. My friend had NO MEMORY of this, but there he was, drunk and angry on video. His brother sat with him and said, "I think you need help." And he got help, quit drinking, and a lot of health issues dissipated over the next year. But that video scared him. "I don't know that guy. I don't know Mr. Rage. That terrified me. Drinking would kill me if I kept going like this."

And while that's an extreme example, I think some people being shown, "Hey, Rachel, you go so smashed last night. Here you are confessing you have the hots for Jessica's little brother even though he's sixteen. It's on Tiktok, along with you saying you didn't care who knows." Maybe that wouldn't scare everyone, but a good portion might think twice about getting drunk, or drinking at all, knowing that alcohol wouldn't be the shield that it was.

Totally different feeling. Weed for some people is anxiety train to nightmareville. Booze is anxiety begone (for some time) and happy dumb bliss.

Weed just doesn't do it for me and I don't have the problems you described with alcohol. Last bad decision I made I was stone sober.

Ah, well. At least they can't tax the air.

As a recovering alcoholic, I don't understand this "it's expensive" talk in this thread. Are you talking about drinking at bars and restaurants? Because I can get blackout drunk for less than $10, I promise.

That sounds like withdrawal

The problem is not that you shorten your life by 5 years and are healthy up until death. It's that the last 10 years of your life is spent with medical / hospital admissions because of the liver failure, heart disease, brain disease etc due to alcohol, smoking et cetera

I'm there too. Being in the Southeastern US with all these people who hate everyone who are not like them and who also want to destroy everything certainly has made me reprioritize my own survival. Also, generally all the war and greed. Our species is sick. I'll drink if I want.

drinking here and there =/= enjoying life

The only alcohol I drink even with friends is various ciders, because they actually taste nice and the alcohol content is low enough for me to handle.

Recombinant alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme has changed the brewing industry. Zero alcohol beer no longer tastes like shit, and is the single largest growth sector of the industry. But, they are charging alcohol prices for a beverage not taxed.

Turned out I was coping with massive amounts of unrealized trauma.

Me too, sister. Me too. We freaking made it, though 🫡 🥲

Alcohol is the one product that seems basically untouched by recent inflation, at least around me.. it all costs basically the same as pre-2020.

I realized that the other day and it made me very sad.

(This doesn't include dining or bars ofc)

I had a spell where I'd just make my own wine at home. Could make a couple gallons at a time for cheap, it'd just take a few weeks to be drinkable.

But now it's rare for me to drink too. So my excuse is all the wine I've made is "still aging". Perfect hobby for the lazy and forgetful.

I switched from beer/wine to Kirkland tequila because it’s cheaper

Looks like they already party hard.

Good things Bluey isn't made in America.

Yeah, I go to a place that's relatively cheap on the weekends/during happy hour and still it's pretty easy for me to drop $50 on a night out just for myself just getting buzzed. I have friends who double that. I don't know how younger people with entry level jobs would be able to afford it.

I am a statistic that says weed prevents drinking in legal states. I feel better on it, I am happier, no hang over, and its 10x cheaper for the same level of effect. I can get intoxicated for less than $5. I haven't had a drink in 2 years since starting weed.

Canada legalized weed in 2018. Overnight, every idiot with rich parents opened a dispensary. Convenience stores disappeared in every neighborhood. You could buy weed, you can't buy milk.

There was no impact on alcohol sales, but also weed sales were a fraction of what was anticipated, most of the dispensaries were gone in 2 years. It was not the Cheech and Chong moment the government thought would generate tax revenues.

If anything, alcohol sales increased.

It's pretty easy to tell you are in a room of people having fun and enjoying themselves. The last time I enjoyed going to a bar was in March of 2020. It is nothing like it was before. Prices are sky high, and the average bar is still relatively empty, in comparison dead, and the energy level is pretty non existent. The age mix skews much older than before.

For busy, packed bars that have lineup in the streets, the age is much lower, prices are even higher. After waiting in line, which feels absurd since there are so many empty bars even across the street, everyone seems most concerned with updating their social media allegedly having a good time. The DJ is there, music is loud, but the patrons aren't.
So have a couple drinks, spend 100 bucks, and wake up with a headache. Yeah, it's shit.

We are also in a pure surveillance state, everything we do is recorded so it is risky. What used to be a gaffe could be a career ending viral moment today.

Conversations with strangers is now the worst, complaining about rent, prices of everything, Trump, late stage capitalism, immigration , woke is destroying the world, libtards, investing in gold, or actually more enjoyable - an inebriated 60 year old with intentions, that constantly repeating themselves like an llm with 2 messages of context history. Until they finally make their move you see coming like a train wreck in slow motion.

And finally, the alcohol companies have lost control of the narrative, like tobacco, they spent heavily on funding studies that found alcohol has health benefits (in some amount) and rained legal threats on anyone saying what has been known for decades:

Alcohol consumption causes cancer.

This is in addition to what everyone has known forever, even moderate consumption often results in injury from falling or assault, get in a car - death (of other people), and while men don't usually think about it, sexual assault.

It's all a buzz kill.

How did it fall from 60 to 62...

I think these statistics have a bit of that going on with them. Now that weed is readily available in almost all of the US and people are more self aware due to their parent's mistakes with handling alcohol, it would not surprise me if the statistics were not completely due to financial reasons.

Here in Europe wine and beer producers are starting to panic. Representatives are seriously arguing against WHO recommendations (some of them have been doing this since COVID) and the lobbies are very aggressively trying to go against any health promoting legislation that could go against them.

The bigger producers also start to release light or non alcoholic versions of their drinks to capture the growing non-alcoholic market segment.

Yes, it's good, and we see the industry adapting and fighting for profits.

I appreciate that more places have been providing mocktail options. I just wish they didn't cost as much as real cocktails

It takes a surprisingly small amount of ethanol to inhibit cell mitochondria. This data in my lab was so incredible we had our instruments recalibrated. I stopped all alcohol intake since then.

Not drinking fuckin suuuuuuucks

I look fantastic though. With zero exercise, I lost a shitton of weight, going from beeg belly back to xylophone ribcage. It’s like magic. My tits got smaller, my butt looks amazing.

I miss every night being a blast :c

if they ban jenkem I'll have to find a real hobby

...i should probably make it clear that I'm anti-prohibition, I'm just being silly here

Cigarettes, vapes...

While i generally agree with your sentiment, I don't think the U.S. is going to do much anytime soon since they just legalized home distilling. Also homebrewing alcohol is exceptionally easy.

I don't want a ban on alcohol but slippery slope is a logical fallacy. Address each ban on its own merits.

Canada also has a secret alcoholism problem, especially in Northern regions.

The best Sangria I ever made was this one. I don't even like sangria but this was delicious.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/strawberry-pink-grapefruit-rose-sangria-recipe-2136125

Hmmm, I may differ on the "sweet" wine, it is typically made with a dry one, sweetened with sugar and fruit. (If you are ever feeling lazy, try a Kalimotxo (cheap red wine and coke) or tinto de verano, red wine and lemon soday))

No, you made the right move.

Any amount increases chances of disease.

If you had to pick either healthy or unhealthy, a drink a day would fall under unhealthy, but it also might be statistically irrelevant due to having such a small impact.

I do think its worth noting that alcohol does actually change its effects the more you drink though. The effects of intoxication don't just increase, they cascade to other parts of the brain. Someone who consistently stays under one drink is essentially on a different drug than someone who draws the line at three.

There is not a lot of nuance. No amount of alcohol is beneficial to your body's function. Any amount is harmful. Pulling out the magnifying glass looking for additional nuance smacks of motivated reasoning.

How is the concussion doing? Hopefully you feel better!

I think social media has affected this as well. Video and pictures mean people don't want to embarrass themselves as much. Also, marijuana is legal in a lot of places and doesn't mix with alcohol as well for everyone.

It's more than that. Many, many careers have been killed by office parties with alcohol. DUI is expensive.

Cocaine and alcohol is a particularly dangerous combination fyi

Yeah my old doctor had a question "how many drinks per day?" New one asks "how many per week?" which works for me. But I think you are right it should be more just "do you drink, how much, and does it affect your life?"

US tried that, it just led to a massive criminal empire with violence.

It depends. I have an occasional drink. Is it awesome for my health? No. Do I think that a drink every week or two has any noticeable effect on my health? No. Have I had problem drinking behaviors in the past? Yes. Was that detrimental to my physical & mental health. Absolutely. Moderation is the main factor here.

I wish it was not considered cool and acceptable to advertise the most destructive drug on the planet in public, in front of addicts and children; one that has taken years of life from virtually everyone's loved ones leaving us alone with regret. When Ford changed the rules so that there could be vendors at my local farmer's market shouting at people to buy their alcohol on the fucking public sidewalk, I was so pissed off. I go there because it's the only way I can afford to eat healthy food a couple days a week and I have no option to just go someplace else. Not that they have left me any place.

Its one of the few drugs that actually gets worse the more you use it. We should be more honest and strict about how much someone should be allowed to drink, especially in public. Alcohol should be given an extremely short leash.