<p>i think a lot of the people on this website would benefit from a nice drunken night or two.</p>
<p>I drink because it makes me feel like a total idiot and ignorance really is bliss. I really am alot more "normal" when I'm drunk and I can understand why people do the senseless things they do when they're sober!</p>
<p>And not remembering things? Thats a total rumor; I remember 99% of what I would expect to. I know that alcoholism effects your health, but it is not a biological addiction atleast in my case. My parents decided I was partying too much (think 60+ days straight) and tried to put me in AA. I had no revelation or epiphany then but I just stopped anyway. Boom, done, stopped. I have drank since in varying quantities.</p>
<p>I feel my ability to stop and start drinking whenever I please with no addictive symptoms is because I am not at all reliant on the drug. I've never had issues with being shy or anything of that nature. I drink really for how fascinating things become when you can't bend your mind around them.</p>
<p>Bottom line is, it's a social thing, whether it's hitting up the bars, clubs, parties, or just houseparties.</p>
<p>Some of you are delusional. I hope you make it to adulthood.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Some of you are delusional.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And for everybody else, there's Mastercard?</p>
<p>A majority of college students drink.</p>
<p>"Some of you are delusional. I hope you make it to adulthood."</p>
<p>Judging by the maturity of that post, you sure haven't. :)</p>
<p>Drink if you want to, don't if you don't. Nobody is forcing you to make a decision. You might want to look into substance free housing.</p>
<p>Why do I drink? Uh ...</p>
<p>Because it is fun. Can I have fun without drinking? Yes. But I can have fun drinking too, so I don't see the difference really.
Because it loosens me up
Because after a long week of work nothing wipes all that stuff off of your mind like getting a bit tipsy, honestly.
Because this might be the only time in my life my parents aren't around to yell at me for it, or I have a real job that I can't be super hungover for.</p>
<p>There is also the obvious: peer-pressure, but I would still drink if no one else was, I would just be that-weird-kid-who-gets-drunk instead of that-other-drunk-kid.</p>
<p>Plus, how else are you going to learn from your mistakes unless you attack the broad spectrum of mistakes that alcohol consumption easily covers.</p>
<p>So because we drink, were delusional?</p>
<p>College students are supposed to be the brightest people out there (scary though); we need an excuse to do really stupid crap that we can joke about later. (if you can remember) </p>
<p>Plus its a lesson in self exploration. The first time I got drunk and high simultaneously I found I could relatively easily sqaure 3 or 4 digit numbers in my head. </p>
<p>And it makes ugly chick acceptable and unmemorable.</p>
<p>Tsdad is right on the money.</p>
<p>I don't drink and I have not been tempted to drink. Most of it is fear of being taken advantage (I'm a young woman and I am aware of my surroundings) and it's not my thing.</p>
<p>Also, beer adds on weight, and I get most of my calories from coffee. =)</p>
<p>I don't want to get fat, and I'm not ugly.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
That is incorrect. In trying to give a general answer, you said the following:</p>
<p>Along the same lines, you tried answering the question "Why do you think people drink alcohol?" with "B/c it's appealing to them." But my point is that asking why people drink alcohol is asking why those people find alcohol appealing. You used circular reasoning.</p>
<p>Also, questions can't be stupid.
[/Quote]
</p>
<p>As I said, I restated it to show how stupid the question was. "B/c it's appealing to them" was my reasoning behind why the question was stupid, not the answer to why it's appealing. Once again, that was in the next paragraph.</p>
<p>Some things are appealing to different people, asking why they do a certain thing is obviously a question that is going to get very different answers/opinions; ones you and others obviously can't understand. </p>
<p>What I don't get is why you don't understand alcohol. If you havn't been drunk or tipsy, research it. Here ya go:</p>
<p>
[Quote]
Alcohol generally produces feelings of relaxation and cheerfulness. Ethanol acts as a central nervous system depressant. In small amounts, ethanol causes a mild euphoria and removes inhibitions.</p>
[/quote]
</a></p>
<p>Is that the answer you needed to understand why people celebrate when drunk? If it's not, read the page on the link I provided.</p>
<p>The thing is, you already know the answer to your original question...even before you made the post. I respect people's actions when they chose not to drink, but you just wanted to be an a** about it and get others to agree that alcohol is stupid. THAT'S the real reason why it's a stupid question.</p>
<p>^Good answer.</p>
<p>"As I said, I restated it to show how stupid the question was. "B/c it's appealing to them" was my reasoning behind why the question was stupid, not the answer to why it's appealing. Once again, that was in the next paragraph."
No, you twisted your answer. </p>
<p>Here was your original statement:
"This question is just like asking people, "Why do you smoke? Why do you play videogames?". Why do you think they do? B/c it's appealing to them."</p>
<p>You're taking advantage of its ambiguity by saying that the latter part of your statement is supposed to emphasize how "stupid" my question was. In doing so, you were trying to mask the stupidity of your own thinking in giving that response.</p>
<p>"Some things are appealing to different people, asking why they do a certain thing is obviously a question that is going to get very different answers/opinions; ones you and others obviously can't understand."</p>
<p>I asked for personal opinions. What are you talking about?</p>
<p>As implied by my original post, my main purpose in asking the question was because I didn't understand (and still don't) why many young people believe that drunkenness is integral to celebration. The article you cited suggests that while moderate amounts of alcohol could cause relaxation and cheerfulness, excessive drinking causes blurred vision, coordination problems, and other negative consequences.</p>
<p>How about If i ask you why you drink soda? Why do you read books? Is the answer oblivion? You like to do those things, just like why people like to drink. Opinions are opinions, never wrong nor right. But never accepting another side to your opinion is dumb.</p>
<p>I twisted my answer? How so? Why do you think my statements are split up into paragraphs? B/c they represent different ideals. My first paragraph emphasized how stupid your question was, second represented why I like drinking.</p>
<p>I gave my personal opinion, something you have yet to acknowledge or even talk about. All you like to say is how my restating the question is irrelevant to the argument.</p>
<p>Like I said in my first post, "if people knew how to drink there wouldn't be a problem". People start drinking b/c of the feeling, then they can't stop. If you have experienced this, maybe you'd understand.</p>
<p>The website I posted is just an example of why people like alcohol. The fact is, you havn't denied the fact that you know the answer to your original question. You know why people like alcohol and celebrate just like my dog does, it's called chemistry.</p>
<p>Drunkenness is the antiderivative of celebration. Why do people celebrate winning a sport? B/c they feel good about it. Get over it.</p>
<p>BTW, I typed all of this drunk... I must be a bad person?!</p>
<p>Sometimes I don't want to be aware of my surroundings. Sometimes I don't want to know the consequences of my actions. Sometimes I don't want anything to stand in between me and whatever impulse goes through my head.</p>
<p>That's why.</p>
<p>the problem w/ american students is that parents are so strict and paranoid about drinking that once their children go out into the world they go bonkers and drink like mad, you'd think that after seeing this happen over and over again overprotective parents would figure out a way to maturely introduce their children to alcohol instead of putting it on a golden pedestal and saying "do not touch". Back in the UK parents are a bit more lax, b/c that is part of the lifestyle, kids would have a sip of wine with their parents every once in a while and learn correct amounts and control unlike american kids who at the first chance w/ alcohol chug down lethal amounts. i may have had maybe 1 full glass of wine throughout my entire life and my parents knew how to correctly expose me to drinking so that now they can trust that i won't go out and drink like an ox b/c they were so restrictive.</p>
<p>not to be the crazy hippie or anything but.....</p>
<p>this thread is getting to be a little mean spirited on both sides.
could we please try to keep the hostility down a little bit :)
just for the enjoyability of people on both sides of the spectrum.</p>
<p>if this thread was really meant for people to express their opinions, there should be no reason why both sides can't be respected and people can't be safe from harassment from anyone else.</p>
<p>thanks all!</p>
<p>I finally have the answer to the question of the topic!</p>
<p>I went on recruiting trip this weekend, and went to a frat with a few people. I don't drink personally, but obviously 99% of the people there were. Not only was it awkward to be one of the few sober kids at a fun party, but none of the games made sense sober. I mean, beer pong is okay without being drunk, but I'm sure it's a LOT more for fun drinking after each score. And there was this little hook thing in the middle of the room that served as another drinking game. It was quite stupid actually, you had to swing the ring around onto this hook to score, and if you didn't you had to drink. Really made no sense, but I'm sure it does when you get hammered!</p>
<p>Of course I can't tell much about American college experiences, as I am a German, but here we are legally enabled to drink the "softer" things (e.g. beer and wine) from the age of 16 on and most start at 14 drinking this stuff. It's part of our culture, and to me alc is a good thing.</p>
<p>It's extremely difficult to drink yourself into coma with beer because most likely you will puke beforehand. At the same time, you are still (at least partly) under the control of your parents (who are generally relaxed about alc). I would not say that this prevents excesses but at least it makes them more unlikely.</p>
<p>I'm anything but a holy priest and I've had my bad experiences with alc but some things written here by the non-alc fraction are simply so untrue that it is obvious they have never even touched alc. I'd say that the chance for a blackout is maybe at 2-3 %. It's extremely rare so that you will remember (most of) the things you've done. Furthermore, you should be able to control yourself as soon as you are more "trained".</p>
<p>If you consume it regularly (this does not mean daily but weekly), you will know when to stop, how to drink to not puke and what you like. Alc itself does not taste good, but alc comes in many varieties. You loosen up - true! Most of us are afraid of making a fool of oneself being sober, but don't hesitate as soon as they are tipsy. Often, funny stories we can tell others happen at parties because everyone is more relaxed.</p>
<p>In our society, we are pretty serious, we don't laugh much and indeed, many things we do drunk aren't that funny but because everyone is tipsy everyone has a good time. Many who don't drink at parties say that they can have fun without alc, yet many of them seem not to have a good time there, which is the reason why the alc fraction doesn't like their behavious. A grief-looking person kills every party.</p>
<p>It's natural, because those who are drunk and those who aren't can't communicate on an even level. Someone drunk will have more problems expressing himself and someone sober will be piqued by the topics brought up. </p>
<p>At least here in Germany, especially those who are ugly and those who learn the whole day/don't have any friends don't drink anything which gives non-alc a negative connotation. If you don't want to drink alc - hey that's fine. Finally it is a drug (coffee is as well) and you might not have a hangover the next morning, but you must understand that the human being does not always behave reasonably. Alc is a lifestyle, a social circle you won't be able to break into and from my experience YOU are the ones who do the REALLY stupid things as soon as they try alc out. We are trained for years and you try to "catch" us within a night if you should ever try out alc.</p>
<p>From my experience, those who drink for years rarely become addicted (as they only drink because they have fun and not because they are depressed/alone) and rarely crash. We had a "study" trip to Malta with 40 guys from my school and nobody from my room puked though we had an average of 6l of beer /day and person (not included other stuff) and drank as much as 8 times more beer than water. Yes, I never slept more than 3 1/2 hours / day and I only had a hangover once (because we started drinking at 9 in the morning and finished at 5 in the morning) but still there was not a single incident which I'd call dangerous.</p>
<p>What we need is respect for the other side's decision, but we cannot expect to come anywhere near. Non-alcs and alcs don't fit together, they never will.</p>