Apparently I don't need it anymore?
gratefuled said:
Survey question: you guys find that you're drinking more or less since ER? Ed
Way less.
In high school & college I learned to drink like a fish. My parents always imbibed in the 1960s & 70s, including a few pre-dinner drinks and several afterward. They even let me host a "drink until we're sick" party with a few curious friends. (I'm sure my father still regrets THAT decision.) By college a few six-packs a week was no struggle (even when I theoretically didn't have the access) and on weekends it'd go up to a six-pack a day. I thought it was fueled by stress & boredom, but oddly enough it tailed off when I was too busy with nuclear-power school and sea duty. (Hmmm, no stress or boredom there!) Today I think I let myself get swept along in the peer pressure.
My drinking pretty much stopped when our kid was waking us up 3-4 times/night for her first six years. But then near the end of my working days (when she was older) I'd come home and feel that I "deserved" a beer. Or we'd go out and I'd feel that I needed to "blow off some steam" with a few more beers.
But in ER it's my own fault. If I have a tough day then I don't "deserve" anything-- I shouldn't have set myself up in the first place. And when we go out I don't feel like I have to blow off the steam-- I don't have any backpressure in the first place! I've also enjoyed shedding 25 pounds so much that I can finally objectively choose to drink something lower in calories (like water). And when I don't have a drink for a few weeks, after two beers I can really tell the adverse impact on my alertness, my fatigue level, and the quality of my sleep...
So the beer is mainly consumed with tacos or with my FIL. And a six-pack lasts three or four months, even when he's helping. The tail end of the bottle usually gets poured down the sink when it goes flat.
But you can't learn to "not miss it a bit" without having gained the prodigious experience in the first place.
In a year or two we'll see if the kid & I can have a cogent conversation about
congeners. With my genes and her XX chromosomes she & alcohol are in for a tough time.