A drinker ponders.
Another Monkey see/Monkey do sort of day. Oh WHEN can I get back to lollygagging about at my leisure and not need spending time interacting and -worse- listening to real live breathing people? It's ghastly I tell you, I don't know how anyone else does it. I mean confound it, I have an office now, and I'm hardly ever in the blasted thing it seems.
I did however take time to peruse the papers this morning and guffawed over the demise of the PDs. So long suckers, take Harney with you.
However I'm bored to tears of politics at the moment, it's all a bit samey is it not? And as for the doom and gloom merchants, sweet cheeks of a ginger, too much.
So lets talk drink instead. Yes, lets.
Because I'm honest to marmalade still planning to run the marathon next month, I have been practically sans drink. This is a lie, I have been imbibing grape milk in limited quantities, but ixnay on the rum, and practically nada on the beer front as well. This is quite okay by me, I'm off the sleeping tablets too and sleeping soundly. If I can stay without sodding colds and sore throats for a few more weeks I might just pull this off.
But drink! Let's see.
An interesting article in the Telegraph caught what passes for my attention.
The british Department of Health has apparently identified 9 types of drinker.
Observe.
'- “De-stress drinkers” use alcohol to regain control of life and calm down. They include middle-class women and men.
- “Conformist drinkers” are driven by the need to belong and seek a structure to their lives. They are typically men aged 45 to 59 in clerical or manual jobs.
- “Boredom drinkers” consume alcohol to pass the time, seeking stimulation to relieve the monotony of life. Alcohol helps them to feel comforted and secure.
- “Depressed drinkers” may be of any age, gender or socioeconomic group. They crave comfort, safety and security.
- “Re-bonding drinkers” are driven by a need to keep in touch with people who are close to them.
- “Community drinkers” are motivated by the need to belong. They are usually lower middle class men and women who drink in large friendship groups.
- “Hedonistic drinkers” crave stimulation and want to abandon control. They are often divorced people with grown-up children, who want to stand out from the crowd.
- “Macho drinkers” spend most of their spare time in pubs. They are mostly men of all ages who want to stand out from the crowd.
- “Border dependents” regard the pub as a home from home. They visit it during the day and the evening, on weekdays and at weekends, drinking fast and often.
I'm not sure where I fit into that particular grouping. I am currently a 2 glasses of red in the evening sort of drinker. Does that make me a habit drinker? De stress? Not sure exactly. I DO find it relaxing to have a glass of wine at around nine, a second one forty minutes later and then bed. I find it lowers my usual twitchiness to an acceptable level, at least for me to go to bed and actually sleep.
Of course if I was on the other side of the marathon I would a different drinking pattern, namely a fair smattering of beer/rum on ginger day and possibly cocktails the day after, maybe bucket loads of wine on a sunday and nothing at all during the week.
Perhaps people are people and cannot be quantified or corralled into groups. Or perhaps you can see yourself in the above groups? I'll plonk myself into the de-stress group for the moment.
How 'bout you? Perhaps you're not in it at all. Maybe you're a whole other category!
I did however take time to peruse the papers this morning and guffawed over the demise of the PDs. So long suckers, take Harney with you.
However I'm bored to tears of politics at the moment, it's all a bit samey is it not? And as for the doom and gloom merchants, sweet cheeks of a ginger, too much.
So lets talk drink instead. Yes, lets.
Because I'm honest to marmalade still planning to run the marathon next month, I have been practically sans drink. This is a lie, I have been imbibing grape milk in limited quantities, but ixnay on the rum, and practically nada on the beer front as well. This is quite okay by me, I'm off the sleeping tablets too and sleeping soundly. If I can stay without sodding colds and sore throats for a few more weeks I might just pull this off.
But drink! Let's see.
An interesting article in the Telegraph caught what passes for my attention.
The british Department of Health has apparently identified 9 types of drinker.
Observe.
'- “De-stress drinkers” use alcohol to regain control of life and calm down. They include middle-class women and men.
- “Conformist drinkers” are driven by the need to belong and seek a structure to their lives. They are typically men aged 45 to 59 in clerical or manual jobs.
- “Boredom drinkers” consume alcohol to pass the time, seeking stimulation to relieve the monotony of life. Alcohol helps them to feel comforted and secure.
- “Depressed drinkers” may be of any age, gender or socioeconomic group. They crave comfort, safety and security.
- “Re-bonding drinkers” are driven by a need to keep in touch with people who are close to them.
- “Community drinkers” are motivated by the need to belong. They are usually lower middle class men and women who drink in large friendship groups.
- “Hedonistic drinkers” crave stimulation and want to abandon control. They are often divorced people with grown-up children, who want to stand out from the crowd.
- “Macho drinkers” spend most of their spare time in pubs. They are mostly men of all ages who want to stand out from the crowd.
- “Border dependents” regard the pub as a home from home. They visit it during the day and the evening, on weekdays and at weekends, drinking fast and often.
I'm not sure where I fit into that particular grouping. I am currently a 2 glasses of red in the evening sort of drinker. Does that make me a habit drinker? De stress? Not sure exactly. I DO find it relaxing to have a glass of wine at around nine, a second one forty minutes later and then bed. I find it lowers my usual twitchiness to an acceptable level, at least for me to go to bed and actually sleep.
Of course if I was on the other side of the marathon I would a different drinking pattern, namely a fair smattering of beer/rum on ginger day and possibly cocktails the day after, maybe bucket loads of wine on a sunday and nothing at all during the week.
Perhaps people are people and cannot be quantified or corralled into groups. Or perhaps you can see yourself in the above groups? I'll plonk myself into the de-stress group for the moment.
How 'bout you? Perhaps you're not in it at all. Maybe you're a whole other category!
posted by fatmammycat at 8:16 a.m.
17 Comments:
The DT (!) forgot one - scared drinkers. You know the score, alcoholics littering the family tree. And alcohol is fun, isn't it. It is,it is. Ever watch an alcoholic drinking? Scary.
All of the above.
I'm in the category of never has more than one because he hates feeling out of control and suffers horrific hangovers if he has more than two.
However, it wasn't for the hangovers far outweiging any possible enjoyment I'd have probably become an alcoholic
I love coming home and climbing into a glass of wine - it's a treat. Is there a 'Because they like it' category?
I'll join you for a demi of the finest de-stressoir. Cheers.
Emm it is hard to know, I would normally have an odd glass of wine or beer at home but not whilst there are babies here. I think I am a social drinker when two or more people socialise there will be drink involved.
I was donating blood a while ago and they asked me how many units of alcohol I drink per week. I didn’t think I drank that much. Thursday we meet after work have 2–4, discuss work, how good quality bed clothes/towels can add so much value to your life it is amazing how we coped before this revelation, we also natter about the state of the economy. Friday we go out without men, = 8-12 unidentified illumines objects-ish, somebody crying, maybe a bitch fight, a lost shoe but mostly lots of laughing. Saturday dinner + men = 2 bottles of wine, tears, drunken promises and make up sex. Sunday dinner with friends/kids/family = 2 pints of Bulmers, pledges to never drink again, hiding from mother, discuss the pros and cons of Denby, 3 more pints of Bulmers, become abusive and say think like “ Cleopatra can lick my balls, Egyptian cotton is for losers”. Kids running wildly about the place and suddenly their laughter turns to relentless wails of distress and overtiredness. Single adults make haste to pub for just the “one”. Consume vast quantities of Bulmers, point blankly refusing to drink anything else as you claim to be just “taking it handy, work in the morning”, fall out of pub at closing. Vomit in flower beds, call your neighbours a shower of moany cunts and go to bed.
I am a binge drinker apparently. My liver will collapse when I am in younork with no drinking pals.
Nonny
I fit none of these categories. They all come off so negative and desperate, like they're all a form of self-medication.
I think LK has it right with the 'because I like it' category. WHere's the 'mature adult who likes a glass of wine with dinner or a few beers with his mates on occasion' category?
Okay, I admit I binge once in a while when the mood strikes, but that's just cause the first one tastes so good and goes down so nicely - and once you're in, it's not like you're going to get anything else done. Once you hit the third one, the rest of the day is free.
Probably closest to a community drinker, tho it's just another attempt to categorize individuals. I head out fri and sat with a big group of mates, maybe a few quiet pints on sunday with the siblings, and very rarely drink during the week.
I am told by an ex that I was close to having a dependancy during uni, but I think that it was more habit than real need.
I'm no fan of small minded little pencil pushers who wish to shove folks into easy categories or stereotypes:
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSed1K-QNMc
If you dont find this entertaining-check for a pulse
I'm more of a Drinks himself into oblivion with close friends a handful of times a year - and nothing outside of that.
At the moment, I'm seriously considering the move to Protest Drinker - a raging drunk who maintains a constant alcoholic stupor, following the Minister for Justice everywhere he/she goes, for no reason other than to disprove the current, ill-informed paradigm which suggests the ills of the country can be solved by severely reducing the availability of alcohol to citizens who can already drink responsibly
i'm with the ambassador. for example, i rarely drink... however, tonite there are big plans to finish a bottle of wine as it's my birthday, and i just realized how close i really am to 30, which seems impossible....
i might go out once or twice every three months, if that, with a small group of friends. and generally i overdo it and swear off the alcohol until i forget how bad the hangover was. wash, rinse, repeat.
I have had two glasses of cava and two Belgium beers. I AM A BINGE DRINKER!
And it hardly past six of the pee em, you drunken hussy!
Oh lordy, twenty to eight?? I need to lie down, cup of hot chocolate STAT!, ( but right after I cut down a climber and rewire it on the back wall)
I'm habitual ie one glass of wine per day because it is my due and right and proper. This deviates slightly when we have family or friends or when I feel I deserve it, but the days of really socking it back as one used to, are over. Mind you the glass tends to be brimming. Bugger the bouquet.
I dare say my own two glasses are pretty healthy measure too Pat.
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