How important is alcohol?

I'd forgotten hangovers Annifrance so I definitely don't drink too much! And that made me remember I can drink champagne too with no ill effects. Does that count as alcohol?

I'm 71 and about twice a week, at 5.30 (when Neighbours is on tv), I'll have a v large vodka and lemonade - like it when that relaxed feeling wafts over me, then I'll make our meal. Never eat or take alcohol after 7pm though...and rarely drink if I'm out socialising.

Well I enjoy sharing a bottle of with with DH 3 or 4 times a week. I have no objection to a G & T or a whisky either.
I don't think I drink too much but I like the taste & it is sociable.
We have had to give up a beer when watching rugby as DH on diet but I do miss it.

We work our alcohol intake into his diet plan & I never feel woozy or that I have ' had one too many'.

I enjoy it.

Oh, meant three alcohol free days PW!!

My mam and dad were both heavy drinkers, my brother was alcoholic, I was married to a man who drank heavily and beat me up for 7 years before I found the courage to leave , do you understand why I don't drink alcohol at all? I worked in a pub part time, and the customers used to laugh at me and say I was the only barmaid they knew who was teetotal.

I rarely drink anything but wine and water. I loathe all soft and fizzy drinks. I LOVE wine, I could drink gallons of it. I enjoy it for the drink that it is and not the alcohol content. More than three glasses is migraine central and I am not good on hangovers. I have discovered that if I take a migraine pill at bedtime if I think I have had top much I don't get a migraine/hangover. I do try to have at least three alcohol days PW. I live in a remote part of Languedoc Roussillon so non alcoholic wines are unheard of! Only the local wines, very cheap and very nice. Love a chilled rose.

I occasionally like my own homemade elderflower cordial, framboise and limoncello but I reduce the sugar. Cocktails with fresh lime juice are good.

I am like you gilly - constantly worrying and mithering. I am very stressed at the moment and a couple of glasses of wine at night help to bring me down a bit. Some years ago, my DH had a very stressful job and was getting chest pains. The GP told him to sit in a quiet room at night and have a couple of whiskies. So he did (but substituted whisky for gin).

I find cocktails rather overrated - except for margaritas. I do like a good margarita.

In my younger?? days and with a well paid job where business lunches and meetings were drowned in booze I never gave a thought to what it would do to my body.I took early retirement so I believe that was my saviour as it curbed my drinking down to the odd glass of wine with sunday lunch or a very infrequent night out with friends.When I observe, through the media, pictures of the young on holiday drunk twenty four seven I fear for their health and do they realise what they are doing to themselves.

We usually have a glass or two with our evening meal but doesn't bother me if we don't. I agree it helps me to relax and I enjoy it.

I never liked wine that much, and now it doesn't agree with me at all. When out for a pub meal I do enjoy a pint of bitter shandy! Or at home, very very occasionally I'll have a licqueor or a sherry. I just don't enjoy it, I like long iced thirst quenching drinks.

On holidays abroad I do like to try the cocktails. They look lovely, taste fruity and harmless. I hate the taste in my mouth later if I've drunk much.

I've never been a big drinker, but did have a hell of a hen night! I felt so ill that night and the next day that I've been virtually teetotal ever since!
I say 'virtually' because I can go for years without an alcoholic drink and it doesn't bother me at all, but I do occasionally like an Irish Whiskey, or a drop of Tia Maria in my coffee.
My maternal grandmother was a very heavy drinker, how my lovely grandad put up with her for sixty plus years is anyone's guess. She really put her four children off drink though, one was completely teetotal, and the other three drank very little and only on occasions such as the toast at a wedding, or 'C' day!

I am not seeking pity btw. Just trying to explain (probably not very well) why some people (like me) drink alcohol.

I'm a control freak, so getting even slightly tipsy and getting that loss of control feeling is a no-no. However, I can drink spirits and do enjoy an occasional (maybe once a week) tot or two. Brandy and whisky being favourite. The trouble is that socially wine drinking is now the norm - it goes straight to my head and my stomach finds it far too acid, so I have very dilute spritzers or fizzy water. I do very much like beer though, but again it goes to my head so I now tend to drink Becks Blue for preference. I just don't like most soft drinks as they're far too sweet.

When the DC were little, money was tighter than tight and I was very stressed, my GP prescribed a tot of whisky each night rather than the magic pills. The problem was affording the whisky! But it worked!

I have said on numerous occasions that my favourite part of the day is having a couple of glasses of chilled white wine whilst cooking. DH has a couple of tins of lager we have the TV on and we talk about rhe news, our days, the family.

I had no alcohol at all yesterday and didn't miss it but I enjoy my evening routine.

gillybob (((hugs)))

I probably drink too much but I can never understand people who have a few drinks at home before going out for a night's drinking. I would be asleep!

Tastes nasty all of it................

I think that many people use alcohol as a kind of crutch . I include myself in this.

I live an often hectic lifestyle and sometimes feel like I am being tugged from every direction. I have always been a glass half empty person (excuse the pun) and use alcohol to stop my brain thinking what it wants to think. If that makes sense. I am a born worrier and I am also able to relax my worries al little bit after a glass or two of wine. I very rarely have anything much to look forward to (except my walks on the beach with save my sanity sometimes) which I suppose is my own fault . I I don't need to drink but do need to find a way to shut some of my brain off. I never ever drink when I have the grandchildren.

Not important at all - I cannot remember when I last drank alcohol; nor my OH.

I would be legless on half a pint of cider, it made me feel very sick and gave me migraines - so avoiding it was a no-brainer. OH cannot drink because of heart problems.

But we are not a cheap round at the pub - some of the soft drinks are very expensive!

If I am out and someone is pressing me to have a drink I just say that I am driving and that usually shuts them up. I do enjoy a glass of wine in the evening at home at weekends but certainly don't miss it if I don't have one.

I know many wines are supposed to mature with age (just like ourselves, of course!) but I'm sitting here in France right now having had the 'immature' local red. Oh boy....... quite wonderfully delicious. I'm a once in a blue moon drinker, by the way.

I believe that alcohol dependency is far more common than many people think these days, despite the protestations about "it's only social drinking". It seems that for many, a holiday in particular revolves around the ready availability of booze. Airports realise this, and the bars are open at daft-o-clock to enable the faithful to start their binge at the earliest opportunity. Bacon sarnie and a strong lager for breakfast? Not for me thanks, but just look at the packed bars next time you check in for an early morning departure. I'm not teetotal, and do enjoy the odd beer, but it certainly doesn't feature prominently in my life. What I do object to is when you're in company and the drinkers imply you're somehow inadequate or anti-social if you don't join them. If drinking alcohol is indeed central to enabling some people to either relax or to enjoy themselves, I find that rather sad. Cheers... ;-)

I stopped going to night outs when I was teaching as the HT used to invite everyone to his house first for drinks. By the time we got to the meal, many of the young teachers were sozzled and I then spent the entire evening looking after them and worrying how to get them home safely. There was no pleasure in it.
I do like a glass of wine, but find myself drinking much less than I used to.
During the week I was out with my retired colleagues. We meet once a month for lunch and usually look for a deal with a glass of wine included. One of my colleagues travels with me and on the last two occasions has commented that she hoped, "she wouldn't have to carry me off the train, due to my alcohol consumption!" I had one small glass of wine! She made me feel that I had an alcohol problem. because I had a glass of wine during the day.
This is the lady, who years ago, who got so drunk on holiday that she nearly missed her flight home.

I have been teetotal all my life (Welsh Chapel mother!) until I developed severe osteoarthritis. After a long day in the garden, rather than take painkillers which make me constipated, I have a small glass of marsala and the pain disappears. I only have this once, maybe twice a week and I certainly do not think I am dependant as it is not enough to make me the slightest bit tipsy, but the relief from from pain is wonderful. Nothing else works - I have tried wine but no go. I have never been able to understand how people can be dependant on alcohol but I think I can see a glimmer of understanding. I suffer physical pain some suffer mental pain and alcohol can help certainly with the physical pain.
I have nearly finished all the planting so no more kneeling down for a while. My husband usually does it but he tore a ligament in his calf a few weeks ago and still suffers discomfort.

I used to have two big glasses of wine a night. Then hubby stopped drinking altogether. Now I have about three g & t's a week. It's more of a treat. Both of us are disappointed that we didn't lose weight cutting down on the booze.