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Wellness Wednesday for February 28, 2024

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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The other replies are exactly what you'd expect.

Absurd to pretend like food and TV isn't sometimes improved with alcohol. Or that the ballmer peak of sociability doesn't exist.

Or that drinking until you're hungover is a requirement? All these supplements, when a pickle, 2 cups of water, and ibuprofen, will completely solve your problem.

How does that solve the long term problems, i.e. significantly increased risks of all sorts of illnesses?

I think drinking 2-3 times a week is absolutely worth the cost, from all the articles I've read.

I make the same decision about Philly Cheesesteaks and fast food.

If you're maximizing longevity of life over quality, that's a valid decision, but I've never been interested in that.

Fair, but I'll just add: Longevity is likely to affect quality, too. Low quality years marred by sickness are likely to come sooner and take up more of your lifespan if you haven't respected your health.

I agree with you there, too.

Alcohol is the opposite of a wonder drug. I've drank it 5 days a week and 0, and the latter is preferable. Especially as I age, I see it's role as far more minor in my life.

All that being said, some of the best nights of my life have involved it as a central theme. The best relationships have had it greasing the skids. The most delicious foods have been complimented by some form of alcohol. Those of you who are eschewing it completely while your body can handle the downsides of the toxin may be missing out on more than a bit. I don't think a drug lasts this long and has such a stranglehold on our species for 0 reason.

IDK man. I drink occasionally, and I disagree that it actually makes food taste better or makes relationships better. I drink because I enjoy the taste of some drinks, not because it actually enhances other things.

Red wine with chicken parm, and white with piccata? Bourbon with Conecuh or steak? A beer before barbecue? Margaritas and burritos? We're talking about our individual palates at one level, but these are classic pairings.

For relationships, alcohol is an intimacy accelerator. When you only have one night to get someone's attention, it's incredibly valuable. Most people aren't capable of talking deeply about philosophy or what they need from a relationship within 5 minutes of meeting you, in fact, it's creepy unless you've had a drink or two.

I mean... wine and beer both taste horrible imo, so those aren't going to work for me. But yeah even with drinks I actually like, I have never found that alcohol enhances food.

edit: forgot the other half of your comment

I don't personally find that anyone is incapable of having deep conversations about philosophy or whatever even if they don't know you well. If they found it creepy, as you said, then they obviously aren't someone I'm going to ever get along with. I fail to see why I would want to try to use alcohol to make us get along in that case. There are lots of other people to hang out with, if we don't click it's not a big deal.

I fail to see why I would want to try to use alcohol to make us get along in that case.

Discarding people because they can't have deep conversations quickly is a mistake. You need to invest effort into relationships, as a rule. Alcohol allows you to be more effective per unit of time. Some of the "deepest" people are those who aren't comfortable dumping their trauma on you once you've met them, and frankly that shouldn't be a controversial statement.

That's just my opinion after knowing many of these people. If you don't have any issues with your breadth and depth of relationships, then you've done what you want. I do know I am less "picky" than average.