Alcohol and drugs as you get older?

[Aschleigh]

Do you find that your tolerance for alcohol and drugs are getting less or more as you age?

My tolerance has gone down to zero lately. I can hardly drink a beer with out feeing groggy the next day.

I know people my age ( 31) whose tolerance seems to going the other way, they tolerate more now. They are drinking more , mixing it with pills ,etc..

I can hardly function like that, like I used to at 22.

Am I getting old?

How do you find your alcohol , drug tolerance as your age?

Particularly people in their 30's and 40's?

[just M.E.]

Tolerance builds when you do it more often.

 

When we mature and have more responsibilities we indulge less but some move more into addictive behaviors. For many the hard party drinking of their 20's is the alcoholism of their 40's and 50's.

[littlestar]

I think it depends on the individual and how used to the alcohol and drugs they are.

[D_Lish]

When I was younger I was a big drinker and because I was out most nights...

These days and since my mid twenties, I don't drink....it no longer appeals to me.

I've NEVER taken drugs....apart from a ciggie and a paracetamol for a headache.

[Ahhh]

I enjoy a few beers on the weekends, sometimes a few too many. I noticed that I cant do Friday and Saturday nights like I used to. I really need a full day to recover, and it's like you wasted the day cause you're hungover. When I was younger, I could function after a long night of boozing it up. As I get older (and my friends get older) we try to save the heavy drinking nights for the special occasions.

[thejigsup]

I am in my fifties and so is my bf. We neither drink nor do any kind of drugs. Neither do any of our friends. At a certain age, you realize how stupid and expensive it is. We have our fun with lots of sex (everyone's kids are now grown), travel, or eating out at our favorite restaurants. As you age, what you consider fun changes and if you don't drink anymore, your tolerance completely disappears. We were not saints when we were younger, either. We all did our fair share of partying (we grew up in the 60s and 70s (you shoulda been there, wild!). Still, as you get older, different things float your boat.

[PixelPusher]

Yep, tolerance goes up the more you use. That's why you see so folks who move from beer to wine to hard liquor and from "entry" drugs like pot and slowly move on to harder drugs. It's because they don't get the high from them as much and have to do more and more to get buzzed.

 

But your body does start reacting differently as you grow older. It's much more difficult to bounce back from a night of craziness. Not that I was EVER a party person, but I have noticed that the next morning, I feel a couple of glasses of wine much more than I used to do when I was 21.

[KiCkiT]

Like everyone said, your tolerance simply goes up the more that you use.

 

When you put poison (alcohol) into your body, your cells produce more smooth endoplasmic reticulum, the organelle in your cells that detoxes you and metabolises the alcohol. The more poison you put into your body, the more smooth ER is produced. Thats why tolerance goes up. On the other hand, the less poison you put into your body, the less ER you have to detox it, so you feel the effect more.

[Traveler27]

"When you put poison (alcohol) into your body, your cells produce more smooth endoplasmic reticulum, the organelle in your cells that detoxes you and metabolises the alcohol. The more poison you put into your body, the more smooth ER is produced. Thats why tolerance goes up. On the other hand, the less poison you put into your body, the less ER you have to detox it, so you feel the effect more."

 

Yikes! What's all this talk about poison? I wouldn't consider drinking a nice glass of wine with dinner putting "poison" into one's body. In fact, drinking certain types of wine in moderation is actually quite good for the body.

[KiCkiT]

yeah, red wine can be beneficial because of the flavanoids in it...but thats only really if you have it in moderation.

 

But alcohol IS poison...That's why your body reacts the way it does when you put it into your body and that's why you get a hangover the next morning (hangovers come from both the dehydration as well as withdrawing from the alcohol)

 

And drinking a glass of red wine slowly with dinner is a lot different than getting trashed on hard alcohol...

[jcrisph]

yeah, red wine can be beneficial because of the flavanoids in it...but thats only really if you have it in moderation.

 

But alcohol IS poison...That's why your body reacts the way it does when you put it into your body and that's why you get a hangover the next morning (hangovers come from both the dehydration as well as withdrawing from the alcohol)

 

And drinking a glass of red wine slowly with dinner is a lot different than getting trashed on hard alcohol...

 

 

I never get hangovers from drinking greygoose.....you get hangovers and poisoned from drinking that big plastic bottle of garabage vodka that all the 16 yr olds buy that cost like 8.99

 

I cant remember the last time i threw up or had a huge handover and im a heavy drinker.

[KiCkiT]

I never get hangovers from drinking greygoose.....you get hangovers and poisoned from drinking that big plastic bottle of garabage vodka that all the 16 yr olds buy that cost like 8.99

 

I cant remember the last time i threw up or had a huge handover and im a heavy drinker.

 

It's different for every person. What gives you hangovers is different from what might give other people hangovers...

 

and the fact that you added in at the end that you're a heavy drinker and don't get hangovers (aka you have higher tolerance because you drink a lot and often) further proves the point I was originally trying to make.

[just M.E.]

Both views are correct, technically alcohol can be a poison but in moderation (half ounce to one once daily max) it can have healthy effects.

 

I rarely drink and it would actually be healthier if I had a drink or a glass of wine every now and then but I have never acquired a taste to have a drink alone, I reserve it for a social situation and I still am moderate.

 

I will comment that at my age, I see the toll that addictive behaviors take on a person. It seems that all the bad of these behaviors come home to roost somewhere is the mid 40's to 50's. It is sad to see decent people, destroy their lives. I think they never believed it could happen to them.

[jcrisph]

It's different for every person. What gives you hangovers is different from what might give other people hangovers...

 

and the fact that you added in at the end that you're a heavy drinker and don't get hangovers (aka you have higher tolerance because you drink a lot and often) further proves the point I was originally trying to make.

 

because I agree with some but not all

[Batya33]

I have more tolerance for alcohol then I did when i was younger, probably because I weigh more. When I was younger, my limit was half a glass of wine or half a beer. Now I can almost finish a glass of wine. I've never been drunk and never tried an illegal drug.

[KiCkiT]

because I agree with some but not all

 

hehe fair enough

 

 

and traveler, the reason I kept saying poison before was because I was also referring to drugs, not just alcohol

[Aschleigh]

I find that when I'm drinking a lot ( more than a glass of wine a night) it is when I already feeling depressed or I am avoiding feeling at all.

Also being drunk often makes it harder to make good positive decisions about anything. A certain about of sobriety is important to being fully present and aware.

Drinking alcohol is so prevelent in our society, I wonder what we could be like if more people were making sober decisions. I like clarity.

[Batya33]

I enjoy an occasional glass of wine and I've never been drunk - drinking alcohol is not the same as getting drunk.