Featured Alcohol and it's role in our culture

[Charlie]

When I feel an itch, I scratch it. Not to make the itch go away, but because I perceive it to be an unpleasant sensation, and I scratch to cause more sensations which are not as unpleasant. Creating more sensations distracts me from the undesired sensation, and seems to make it less unpleasant. States of mind stimulates certain sensations (think of heartbreak or anger). Drinking also stimulates certain sensations (think of having the spins). Drinking can be thought of as scratching where certain states of mind (boredom, depression, anger, confusion, etc) can be thought of as an itch. The itch doesn't go away when it is scratched, but scratching it helps us forget it is there. Looking at how neurons and neurotransmitters work in a psychology book can explain this concept of scratching an itch.

Meditation has helped me become much more aware of sensations. As an addict, with this sharpened awareness, I have been able to feel some of the sensations that accompany different substances when I use them. I find that rather than focusing on the scratching as the problem, if I focus on my perception of the itch so that I don't perceive the itch as bad or good and just accept it and let it pass, I am no longer focusing on the scratching (although I crave it greatly out of habit). At that point I am simply observing the itch and how it feels, and eventually it goes away, as does my craving to scratch it.

Many say they drink to relax. Drinking is merely a means of coping (as is smoking in the same way). However, relaxation is a result of distracting one's self from what is causing tension to mimic solving cause of tension. Drinking is not a means of solving causes of tension, but merely giving more power to that tension by viewing that tension as undesirable and reacting as a means of distraction to distance one's self from tension and its cause. This creates a vicious cycle of problems and reactions. To break this cycle, it is crucial to learn new coping strategies to respond to causes of tension.

As for a twelve step program and the material covered and practiced there, some people need it more than others. My guitar instructor told me yesterday that I should consider becoming an understudy in a big band that focuses on jazz music. I have been having difficulty memorizing many chord patterns and he told me "Unless you are forced to use it, it becomes easy to become lazy and not practice it, which makes learning a much more slow, difficult, frustrating process." I think what he said could be applied to the 12 steps as well. If one has the initiative to practice those steps on their own and the insight to know what to do and how to do it, they may not need meetings. For those who need support to strengthen this initiative and insight, meetings are quite beneficial. Just as a bad habit is learned, to eradicate this bad habit requires learning as well.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

[Charlie]

This is nice, I want more discussions like this. I don't have nearly enough outlets to voice my thoughts.

 

[Art101]

Sitting here today I have over 2 and half years clean and sober. Yes indeed I am an alcoholic. I drank to the point I have damage my pancreas and done some there damage. I am not going to bang the big book here. I know why I drank and drugged and acted the way I did and yes still do sometimes even sober. Depression and social ackwardness suck, been there and its a dark and lonely place. Sitting here today its not my place to judge others. IT IS MY PLACE TO EXTEND MY HAND WHEN HELP IS WANTED. I don't think everyone is an alchoholic, some of us are just kinda predisposed I guess. That's my 2 cents and I will take another 24 hours.

 

[paxbagelhead]

well I don't drink anymore but I used to be a hardcore drunk drinking all day every day. when I was drinking it was mainly out of boredom or to have fun with my friends. with the lifestyle we live it leaves a lot of free time and drinking is a fun and cheap way to pass the time but after awhile it does get old and if you don't quit or at least slow down it will destroy your life. that's what I think anyways I've seen alcohol destroy as many lives as heroin, heroin just destroys a lot faster.

I'd have to agree with you there buddy. Too many good people i've known in my life have gone due to dope. You know what the say..."a dance with devil might last you a lifetime".

 

[creature]

i suspect that *all* drugs are just a device to place us in a comparative perceptual mode..

i mean.. if we were born, as a majority, with alcohol distilling bacteria in our gut, you can damn well bet that eating or drinking something that turned.
them off would be considered a 'high'..

right?


fucking right.

consciousness is *based on change*..
no change?
no consciousness..

play a game?
what makes the game fun?
change..
can be change in ego, can be anticipation, can be changes in complexity, finding solutions, whatever..
reading.. what makes that so great, entirely sober or not?
or perusing photographs or the news, or looking at art??

it's all about perceptual change..

i may be wrong, but i suspect that every single one of us who gets high or whatever enjoys at least the momentary reversion to nothing but unadulterated self, unless the organ the perceptual process (as opposed to strictly spiritual) is dependent upon (the brain) is fucked up..
i suspect *nobody* actually *enjoys* paranoid delusions, if they are able perceive them against what should be a normal perceptual condition.
the fact they know they are painfull, even if they cannot tell they are not real, speaks greatly of the fact that there is *something* about a way that we *wish things could be* that points to what our spirit actually is...

in any case alchohol (which i still mispell after 4 decades or more) in some ways is like anything else..


don't let it fuck anyone other than yerself, &.. well.. i would never cast a single fucking stone..

there are THREE main things to remember about alchohol..

1) acclimation *may not* be the same thing as addiction..
people like me need to be carefull, because that can be used to disguise addiction..
i *love* fucking Sake..

BUT... i NEVER drive drunk.. i never (-10x10 -4)even drive with so much as 2 fucking ounces in me, no matter *how* much i might *want* to have a swallow or two..

as long as a person can *continually* (including to the point of *stopping*, which i do quite often, despit completely & totally loving having the shit, as can be noted by my rantings..) NOT ingest the shit when it will harm ***their obligations to others*** or ****damage their ability to operate freely**** where uncompromed perception is necessary for the true safety (even *nominally*) of others (as opposed to discomfort, party affiliation, religion, judgmental inclinations or what fucking whatever..)

then nobody has bitch shit prerogative to take ANY ACTION WHATSOEVER against their enjoyment..


the same as smoking pot or jumping fucking rails..

2) alcohol is a digestible food product that has been around for millions of years..
i suspect even dinosaurs &/or early mammals got fucked up on it, BUT.. potency never went beyond about 19%, at best.. so.. that's where the cut-off is, mother fuckers.. 40 fucking proof, *without* distillation..

3) DISTILLATION
distillation is just another *direct materials* technology applied to food, like all fucking GMOs (& CRISPER..)
....Specific changes are passed to the subject genome without compatibility testing to the human genome at large, before effects are seen at large, simply because of the desire to maximize profits..

my personal advice? DO NOT ingest *any* distilled products of ANY KIND..

if you do?

40 proof is **WAY MORE THAN FUCKING ENOUGH**,
& if you need *more* than that & you can't cut back?
you are no more than the spangefucks flying signs for a fucking *living*, rather than just getting from A to B..

the fact is?
if yer brain works?

do as much as you are able, before you ask from others.. alcohol or fucking whatever..

 

[creature]

"a dance with the devil may last you a lifetime"..
strong wisdom there, friends.. thank you..

 

[PotBellyFatGuy]

it's another physical pleasure we enjoy. it's also a depressant so it's also a mental pleasure. it's cheap and available everywhere. why not? i personally hate the smell of it and won't touch it but it's a good affordable vice. i stick to sugary/fattening drinks like milkshakes. either way, we all have to die and let's be happy and live it up on our own terms. alcohol is one of those happy places we can go to.

 

[SophiaII]

I try to avoid alcohol for spiritual reasons, marijuana too. I've never been accosted or excluded because I avoid it, but I do feel expluded somewhat. I was to talk shop, but it always comes back to drink and smoke talk, and I just don't have anything to offer.

I'm one of those people who likes to work on a project with at least one other person. Doesn't make me a sheep, just my psychology for whatever reason. Sometimes I get frustrated because everyone talks mad game, but more than half the time they aren't talking, they are drinking/smoking, procuring, or are laid out from it all.

Not that I'm saying don't drink/smoke. Do what you will, but depending on your goal, you might be shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[Primitive]

I drink to have fun. I love to drink when I'm especially in a good mood as well. There's even been times when I've felt shitty and said "nah I don't feel like drinking". I love getting drunk and blasting music for on a nice sunny day!! In fact it's the only things I do, I don't do drugs or even smoke weed! I just love drinking beer! However I used to drink lots of malt liqour, since I was 12 even. But now I've begun to realize there has to be something being put in malt liqour that makes people dumb as shit. Of course its target consumer is the lower class. A 40 oz of malt liqour has always had that cool association with it, but not anymore for me. And by " making people stupid" I don't mean it makes people act "stupid", I mean there is something in it that seriously kills the intellect and critical thinking part of the brain. I can talk politics intelligently and read books while drinking regular beer often, however I start drinking malt liqour regularly instead I notice my intellectual thinking capabilities plumet dramatically. Then I go to regular beer and I'm fine again. So I try not to drink malt liqour anymore.

 

[etpyh]

BUT.. potency never went beyond about 19%, at best.. so.. that's where the cut-off is, mother fuckers.. 40 fucking proof, *without* distillation..

3) DISTILLATION
distillation is just another *direct materials* technology applied to food, like all fucking GMOs (& CRISPER..)
....Specific changes are passed to the subject genome without compatibility testing to the human genome at large, before effects are seen at large, simply because of the desire to maximize profits..

Please give me some more background information/sources for this anti-distillation thesis.
I am not that good with biology/chemistry, but from what I know I have to say that this sounds pretty much like bullshit..
I just can't see a reason why properly distilled alcohol should be more dangerous than non-distilled alcohol (leaving the quantitiv part aside), nor can I find any sources for it. All you are doing when distilling is seperating the alcohol(s) from other stuff through their different boiling point.
That's something completely different then GMO.
Alcohol is poison, but it's not less or more harmful non-distilled/distilled, just because one can be found in nature and one can't. That's my opinion at least, give me some sources and I might stand corrected.