This sums up my own feelings towards drinking very well, except that I generally tend to stand my ground and not keep up, which usually leads to dull situations where everyone appears to be getting increasingly hammered while you stay moderately buzzed.BlueNote wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:16 amThe problem with "social" drinking for me is the other people. They'll tend push you to drink more if you're not keeping up, it's hard to resist. It's hard to go to a party or bar where everyone is drinking like crazy and you just have one or two because at some point you'll feel like you're an intruder in their drunken bubble. Occupying the left or right tails of the drinking frequency curve at a social gathering often leads to not getting invited again. I will have a social drink or two on occasions where I know the other people aren't going to be getting blitzed.
I've never been a heavy drinker. For most of my adult years, in any given year you could count the number of times that I was drunk on one hand. I think the longest amount of time that I went without having a drink was a couple of months about five years ago, but that was purely due to working on losing weight and not really given any other significant health concerns.
At the end of the day, I do enjoy getting a light to moderate buzz in social situations as it greatly helps me relieve tension and anxiety. It just seems that whenever alcohol is involved in a social situation, it turns into heavy binge drinking which I don't find enjoyable.