Control

[asterroc]

A couple of my students recently have asked me ... well, they said, "you know what it's like to drink a lot, you were a college student." And my answer was no, I don't know what it's like. "C'mon, you have to have drunk." "Yeah right, of course you drank." And no, I didn't. I didn't really drink anything until grad school, and even to this day the most I've had in a night is three. I think I've done this on three separate occasions, and one time I really thought I was going to puke and fall over with just that little.

So the question is why not? And reading through some literature on binge drinking, I figured it out. There is exactly one thing in the world that I can control: Myself. I am not willing to give that up.

Comments

[ayashi.livejournal.com]

I've felt the same way :) also hearing people in my classes talk about how they can't even remember anything about the previous night is very scary to me. I can't imagine waking up and not being able to remember what I'd been doing!

[spazzy444.livejournal.com]

Amen!

I RARELY drink and the most drunk I've gotten was on my 21st B-day and I was at the point of slurred speech but thats it.
I don't like the feeling of being drunk, mostly because I don't have the control over myself that I'd like (ie: walking straight, I don't lose my morals)

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

Me too! I've never been a "drinker," even in college, and I've never had more than a few drinks at one "sitting" (i.e. party) either.

For me, the question is not, "Why not?" It's, "Why do other people drink so much? And why do they think it's a universal experience?" (Maybe the second question is the answer to the first...)

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

That's a good point, and I think I had it as a reason at some point, although I've forgotten it.

Mine:

1. I feel that if something isn't fulfilling or pleasurable without having to filter the experience, it isn't an experience that is worth having. There are so many things I can do that make me much more content LEGITIMATELY then through artifical control of my emotions. (However, using substances to filter out a necessary but unpleasant and unfulfilling experience seems perfectly fine to me.)
   
2. The risks (expense, hangovers, alcohol poisoning, doing thing you regret later, vomiting) far outweigh the rewards.
   
3. I think i actually combines several reasons into the first one
   

I think you're right about control though, and I admit it may the most fundamental reason of all for me, even if it is buried in my subconscious.

I will indulge myself in Uno's Wildberry Lemonade though, just because it is so damn tasty! Mmm!

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

Having read (and been surprised by) the comments your other friends made, I want to offer an alternative reason why you don't drink to excess: Your friends don't. The control reason makes a certain amount of sense to me, but I don't think it a coincidence that the vast majority of the people who responded avoid alcohol completely or almost completely.

I enjoy an alcoholic beverage from time to time, usually beer, occasionally something harder. If I had money, I'd wake myself up every morning with a shot of single malt Scotch [or maybe I'd do it right before sleep... i haven't decided yet ;-)]. But I don't think I've ever had more than two beers in an evening when on my own. But when I've been out with friends, celebrating something or saying goodbye to someone or observing some other occasion, I will consume far more than that.

[xoder.livejournal.com]

I've never partaken. I don't like the idea of psychoactive materials at all. Hell, I avoid caffeine unless I know I have to stay up past by what my body wants by at least 4 hours. And, as I have a family history of alcoholism, I'd rather not chance it.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I hardly ever drink alcohol, although I used to be a lot more dogmatic about it than I am now.

I've tried to get drunk twice, in the spirit of experimentation; it only worked once.

The first time my stomach started to tell me that it didn't want any more malt liquor coolers; at that point I'd drunk about two of those and > half of a fifth of bourbon, and had yet to feel any significant effects.

The second time I went through about a fifth of tequila. (I am apparently not a particularly cheap drunk.) It was while I was touring with a US choir in Mexico. From the inside, I didn't seem very different to me, although my physical coordination was definitely affected. I asked one of my fellow singers what his impression was (and in particular if I'd turned into a jerk or anything), and he told me that as far as he could tell, all it did was (a) make me somewhat louder [and my voice already carried pretty well...] and (b) make my Spanish better (which I found both hilarious and plausible).

That said, I think that one of the other commenters had a point: most of my friends drink either little, or not at all.