I'm guessing you're teetotal as well BN?
This is a difficult one to answer but I'll try seeing as it's relevant to understanding my argument, which at least a few of you have done. Apologies in advance for being excessive and self-indulgent so please feel free to ignore from here on in.
I'm not against alcohol totally and I wouldn't describe myself as a non-drinker. However, I'm certainly not what most of you would describe as 'normal' when it comes to alcohol. In the past, I did drink socially and sometimes to excess. I've also experimented with a number of the other things that I linked in that article earlier in the thread. I've never had any kind of 'problem' with alcohol or anything else though.
Over the years, my use of alcohol has substantially reduced for several reasons* and, in the last 18 months, I've only had two alcoholic drinks. One was a pint of lager with a curry because I fancied one and enjoyed it and the other was a glass of champagne on Xmas day which was foul and gave me a headache. On many, many other occasions where alcohol has been prevalent and thrust in my direction, I've opted not to. I may have a drink tomorrow but I doubt it because I now prefer how it feels without it. It's extraordinary and fascinating just how hard it is for some people to handle this viewpoint. Especially when they are drinking themselves.
In addition, my view of alcohol is definitely skewed by personal experience of people dying directly or indirectly because of it. And the resulting destruction it can cause. But I'm really no prude about it and fully understand that it has few obvious issues for many people in moderation.
* Even small amounts of alcohol tend to mess up my sleep patterns, mood, energy levels and emotions. I find that this is masked when it is done regularly and causes me to turn to other things like caffeine or sugar to compensate, which I'd really rather not do in this way. Alcohol is also highly addictive so drinking it tends to make you want to do it again. I just don't like being controlled or have my thinking dulled by anything nowadays.
As someone that now tries to avoid things that negatively interfere with my brain chemicals, it is truly remarkable just how powerful they are. So, for example, I now don't drink caffeine very often, much like alcohol, but when I do, I can only compare its effect to taking an amphetamine. When I drank caffeine daily, it had little perceptible effect. Now the rush is incredible and a little bit scary. So I avoid it because it's quite powerful really.
I believe that whenever you indulge in something that effects the brain significantly, you're borrowing against yourself and will need to pay it back. So, for example, if you drink to excess, this causes all kinds of mini-explosions in the brain, leading to a short term high before an eventual depressant mood. To compensate, you may have a couple of strong coffees the next morning to lift yourself. I think this endless cycle of artificially propping up your brain is bad for your mental health and, eventually, will tend to catch up with many people.
Nowadays, I find something like mindfulness to have the same effect as alcohol on my brain in terms of relaxing it positively without any of the downside. In the coming decades, we'll learn much more about how the brain works and how it really should be treated with more respect.
Hopefully, if anyone is still reading, they can see the link between this and the point about professional sportsmen using alcohol. Especially when mental and physical well-being is considered so important. I really do appreciate the benefits of celebration but cannot see choosing to do it with alcohol as anything other than primitive and ultimately potentially damaging.
For every occasion where drink causes someone to put their arm round a team mate and tell them how much they love them, there will be an occasion where the guard comes down and petty squabbles or personality clashes come to the fore. I don't see it as a good thing for them psychologically or physically. And I'd be very surprised if any expert worth the title said different.
