The Feeling of Being Drunk
What’s it like to be drunk? Do you enjoy being drunk? These seem like crazy questions to ask, especially to someone who regularly drinks. If they’re getting drunk all the time, they must really love the feeling of being drunk! If you’re anything like most people though, you might haven’t asked the question and honestly tried to answer it. It might be a more complicated question than at what first meets the eye.
Do you remember your first drink? Most people remember not liking it. Why do people keep coming back? Societal pressure perhaps. Drinking is ingrained into our culture and society globally. The feeling of being out of control while slightly in control is just that – intoxicating. If you sit down and really think about it though, is it a feeling that you want to have? Is it something that you really want to feel like?
Put it in Perspective
Let’s drop all confusing language about alcohol. What does it do? It’s a depressant. It slows your body down, reduces coordination, mental function, breathing, heart rate, and among other things, it greatly reduces the individual’s ability to make clear or good decisions (though they might feel like they are good decisions in the moment)
If I had medication to give to you that gave you no positive effect besides those just mentioned above, would you take it?
Medication that made you sad, unable to control your emotions, unable to think clearly for yourself, unable to drive a car or do things that are otherwise menial tasks.
Medication that increased the risk of heart disease, cancer, kidney failure, made it so your speech was occasionally incomprehensible.
If someone offered you this medication, you’d be extremely hesitant to take it. “But all of my friends do it, it’s the only way that we can go out and have a good time!” Put that scenario this way, and it seems a little silly that you’d say no. There’s no reason for you to say yes, just stick to what you believe in (if you are someone who isn’t alcohol dependant, in that case you might want to see a specialist and get real help)
With all of alcohol’s shortcomings and none of it’s benefits, it seems unlikely that you’d ever choose to get drunk. So why do it?
Take back control of your life and start on the road to recovery now.
Why Is Drinking So Normalized?
Alcohol is the most tolerated drug on the planet. Call it what it is, don’t mince words. It’s a drug, it does very little to actually help you (if anything. Those few things you could possibly argue for in favor of alcohol are few and far between, and at the end of the day just bad excuses to drink)
Around the world, kids grow up around alcohol. Many try it far before the legal age for them to be allowed to, also. It’s seen as a rite of passage for many, though it could be a rite of passage right to something that they can never get themselves out of.
Kids are brainwashed into thinking that alcohol is something normal to consume, that it should be something that everyone can have and that if you don’t you might be just a little weird. Society does this to us, it’s not our fault for falling for it, but it is our responsibility once we realize how dangerous it is to stop using it and advocate against normalizing the use of it across the globe.
Part of the problem for rampant alcohol use is the language that we use when we talk about it. For many drugs, we call getting high “getting your next fix”, “using”, etc. These terms are used and are generally looked at in a negative light. With alcohol that’s not the case. You might just be going out with your friends, getting a little tipsy, feeling a little happy, in a good place, among many other things that really downplay the excessive effects of alcohol all together.
The words we use shape our reality. It might seem like no big deal, but if we really put into perspective what we are doing to our bodies every time we drink, we might just hesitate a little more every time we go out. This is the goal, to get everyone to just think about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.
What You Can Do
Here’s the good news: if we can convince ourselves that alcohol is fun and good for us, we can also convince ourselves that alcohol is the drug that it really is. We can change our language, change our perspective, change what we understand about alcohol.
What are the alternatives? Being drunk limits the things that you are able to do, not expands them. A worthy alternative to being drunk should be being sober – though for some people that might be too much to ask for. Hopefully, with time, this will be the normal thought process. It might be too much to ask for right away, but to get some to think about their actions and how they could reframe their mindset shouldn’t be too much in the long run.
If you can believe that it’s fun to be completely out of your mind, confused, slow, unable to do basic tasks and incomprehensible yourself sometimes, you can believe that having full autonomy and control over your own body is just as fun – if not even more liberating.
Learning to have fun with what you’ve been given, learning what it means to take care of your body and to keep it in shape and in the best working order you possibly can is the best thing you can do for yourself.
If you or a loved one is struggling with alcoholism or overuse of alcohol, reach out to us at ecosoberhouse.com. We want to help you and we have the tools that you are looking for to get your life back on track. If you want a community that you can live in that makes it not only easy to stay sober but the normal way of life, reach out to us or any of the sober houses around the states. You can get the help you want, there are people out there for you.
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