Reality check
Sep. 25th, 2012 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brainofckI'm not a teetotaler, or anything, but I drink maybe two-four glasses of wine a year, and that's it. Husband is same and has been our entire marriage, though I don't know if he drank more heavily as a young man before I knew him. I have never known anyone in my immediate family - husband, brother, parents - to be drunk. My friends and social circles are for the most part made up of people who did not drink heavily, and I do not believe I have ever associated with anyone who I ever witnessed being drunk - though I think a few of my close friends have had benders when I was not with them.
I have never been drunk, though with my (non-existant) alcohol tolerance, if I have my annual Christmas Party glass of wine without eating first I can get pretty warm and happy.
Drunk people make me uncomfortable.
I have known people who were alcoholics, so regularly drunk or drinking heavily. But that was a state of being for those people. I *expected* them to be drunk whenever I interacted with them.
In my entire life, I have only closely associated with ONE person who drank to reduce stress. Like, I'm feeling miserable, let's get drunk, kind of drinking. Or, I have to do this stressful thing, I'll have a drink first, kind of drinking.
Am I unusual in this respect? Because in fiction, lots of people self-medicate for stress in this way. And I have never ever in my life thought, wow, I wish I could get drunk or have a drink or whatever because of something unpleasant in my life. Is this a tool writers use to manipulate characters? Or is this a part of reality that I just don't get because of the life I have led?
I have never been drunk, though with my (non-existant) alcohol tolerance, if I have my annual Christmas Party glass of wine without eating first I can get pretty warm and happy.
Drunk people make me uncomfortable.
I have known people who were alcoholics, so regularly drunk or drinking heavily. But that was a state of being for those people. I *expected* them to be drunk whenever I interacted with them.
In my entire life, I have only closely associated with ONE person who drank to reduce stress. Like, I'm feeling miserable, let's get drunk, kind of drinking. Or, I have to do this stressful thing, I'll have a drink first, kind of drinking.
Am I unusual in this respect? Because in fiction, lots of people self-medicate for stress in this way. And I have never ever in my life thought, wow, I wish I could get drunk or have a drink or whatever because of something unpleasant in my life. Is this a tool writers use to manipulate characters? Or is this a part of reality that I just don't get because of the life I have led?
no subject
Date: 2012-09-27 09:01 pm (UTC)I can remember a few times where I really did set out to get drunk, because of something that had me upset. In the end, I'd get distracted by something else that occupied my brain pleasantly, and wind up hardly drinking at all. *g*