Drinking, alcohol tolerance, questions...

[xcountryprincess]

I just had a couple questions about drinking and realised i could glean from your wealth of knowledge, lol.

 

Alright, so i've always been a very clean cut, straight laced girl though a lot of my friends (like most teens), drink, do drugs, or have sex. I've always never done these things because my parents are obviously against there teenage daughter engaging in these activities. I'm a senior in High school now, and it occurred to me that though i've never done these things i've never asked myself why? why don't I personally want to do this?

 

Irealised it's always been "you don't do this because you're not 'supposed' to" not that i had any honest issues with drinking. Now i'm not talking about drinking till you're legless, i think thats ridiculously idiotic, especially for a teenage girl. And personally i've decided the whole drug thing isn't for me, it's unnecessary risk that i don't need to take.

 

However, i decided that i don't really have an issue with drinking, and so tried it as a friends house this weekend. Now i'm from europe but living in the States so my parents don't have an issue with me having say a bit of wine with them randomly if i ask. (they hardly ever drink, so it's like once in a blue moon). Anyways, this time i had more "hard liquor" i guess you would call it.

 

I had about 4 shots, didn't wanna go crazy with it, but i did get quite a buzz. I felt lose, more care free, it was a great feeling. My question is, how do i know the difference between just feeling buzzed and being drunk? Also, is it natural to want another shot after you've had one? I took the first one and it was harsh on my throat, but after getting over that i felt a little like buzz and felt like i wanted another? Is that bad?

 

ust a couple of questions, hope you can help...

Anyways, i woke up and i thought i was fine but as i started walking around and stuff i realised i had a bit of a headache, nothing intense, just annoying, i was still feeling a little lose (i had the shots at like 1am-2am went to bed a little after and woke up at 7am), was i still buzzed?

[LostInMyThoughts]

There really isn't a difference between "drunk" and "buzzed." Once you feel the effects of alcohol, you are intoxicated. Depending on your Blood Alcohol Level, you may be legally intoxicated before you ever feel a buzzing feeling.

 

4 shots, is the same as drinking 4 beers, is the same as 4 glasses of wine. If you haven't done much drinking, I would be pretty confident in saying that after 4 shots, you were drunk.

 

As for wanting another shot being bad. Well it's not bad, in the sense taht you enjoyed the fun feeling of drinking, and you wanted to either continue it, or you wanted to make it stronger. I think thats okay. When it becomes bad when you continually want more and more, even though you really should stop. I don't see that as being the case here.

 

Finally if you had a headache, you were probably starting to be hungover. Thats definitely a sign that you were drunk last night. The fact that it was mild and you still felt a little tipsy meant that you were still intoxicated a bit.

 

As for whether you should drink, and reasons to avoid it, well all I can say is, with alcohol comes responsibility. Drinking is fun, i love to have drinks with my friends and have fun. Sometimes I go out and get rowdy. Thats okay. Drinking to escape feelings, thats the first sign of chemical dependancy. Drinking and driving is bad as well. Alcohol is known for lowering your inhabitions. Even if you want to abstain from sex, after a few shots of "liquid courage" you could find yourself in a situation you might not necessarily be in, had you remained sober.

 

Sorry for the lecture, I just want you to remain safe, while you enjoy yourself.

[DizzyDoris]

Good advice Lostinmythoughts!! Its normal to experiment with alcohol during your teenage years, and from my experience i often didnt realise i was intoxicated until it was way too late!! You'll know when you've had too much to drink as its not a nice feeling and the room starts to spin and you'll probably be sick! I know the age laws are different in america, so i would advise just to be careful, stick with just a few drinks, dont overdo it....hangovers are NOT nice. And dont drink because you feel any peer pressure from your friends. Also as above, be careful you dont get taken advantage of by the boys when your under the influence. You dont wanna be waking up with a hangover in the morning, regrets AND a reputation! Have fun and take care x

[xcountryprincess]

Yeah, thanks for the advice, and that was no lecture LostInMyThoughts it was great advice I know i need to be in a safe environment and around people i trust if i'm going to drink. This was a small gathering, at my friends house, only 5 of us, and i knew everyone there. Plus 2 of them didn't drink so there was someone sober in the house. I don't drive yet which is good in this case i guess. I've never understood why people would want to drink or how it would help people who were "lost in thier sorrows." But after trying it i get how that works. Either way, i'll be sure never to drink when i'm depressed as i'm sure thats a recipe for disaster...

[JynX]

I don't see anything wrong with drinking every now and then with friends. I've done my experimenting with alcohol not too long ago, and had many of the same questions occur to me. The best advice I can offer is know when to drink and when to stay away from it, know when to relax and loosen up or when to stay focused on other tasks that are more important. Basically; be careful with it.

[Daddy Bear]

well, LostInMyThoughts pretty much covered everything i wanted to say, except that if you drink a glass of water or two before going to bed drunk you're much less likely to have a hangover, since they are caused by dehydration of the brain tissue while you sleep.

 

actually, i'd also like to mention that there are two kinds of drinkers: social ones and alcoholics. how to tell the difference? a social drinker can have one or two and then shine it on without a thought, and the alcoholic (even one who may only drink on occasion) cannot stop after just a few. if you (meaning whoever) fall into this second category, it's wise to avoid drinking altogether unless you enjoy the thrill of vehicular manslaughter and/or really like prison food.

[Striker17]

I was exactly like you, up until my senior year of highschool, I hadn't done anything. There was a party several months before the end of school, so I decided that I might as well try drinking, my parents also drinked rarely (on holidays, and sometimes my dad would have 1 beer when he had friends over), so I didn't feel like my parents would be that against it, but they are very against drugs.

 

Anyway, I bought 40oz of strong Canadian beer (8%) and had it at the party, and before I knew it, I wasn't walking straight, but I was having a great time. After that, I started drinking regularly, anywhere between once a week to once a month, it changed depending on what was planned, and who I was hanging out with for the weekend.

 

After drinking, I usually wake up with a feeling of me being a little dizzy, and with cotton mouth. Sometimes I have a some uneasyness in my stomach, but it's nothing that skipping a meal can't fix.

 

Just remember that you have to learn your limits. After my school's prom, there was an afterparty at a club that my grade rented, and we were given an open bar. I had 17 drinks that night (I'm a big guy, so it wasn't that bad), I was still walking, and didn't make an idiot of myself. I still even managed to remember the whole thing. The only downside was that I had really bad stomach cramps, and I was in pain for a good portion of the night, but it's a lesson learned.

 

Don't go by people's words when they say that 2 drinks should be enough, if you want to have 4, go ahead. The first time you drink, the alcohol hits you a lot harder, so your tolerance will probably build up pretty quickly.

 

Another thing to make sure is that if one of your friends drive, take their keys from them before they start drinking, they may never even think about driving drunk when they're sober, but once they've had some alcohol, they might change their minds.

 

My post is a little unorganised, but just remember that drinking can be fun, and there's nothing wrong with it. If you ever get worried about drinking too often, try and limit it to when you've had at least a 24 hour warning. That way you won't drink impulsively, and you'll be able to plan the evening out and make sure you won't be stuck in the middle of nowhere at 3 in the morning with no idea how to get home.