I've Given Up Drugs and Alcohol

[incog]

I usually break my resolutions, so I made a resolution to give up drugs and alcohol just for the month of January. Hope I make it. Anyone else trying to cut something out in '07?

[TheQuietPlace]

Best of luck to ya!

Quitting smoking is just too hard for me...so I didn't even bother with that one..But I did decide to quit smoking marijuana indefinitely about a month ago as part of my new years resolution...got a head start on it lol

[StolenName]

Nothing at all. Mine WAS going to be find a partner that's not as crazy as my preivous ones, and someone less jealous of my friends (who are FRIENDS) but I've ditched it in favor of not having a partner for a while and just chilling without the headfuck of having to explain myself and give a shit about anothers feelings. Too long thinking of others over myself!

So yeah, I'm out to do what the fuck I want this year

[xssve]

I hope you make it too incog, best thing I ever did, it turned out that just being sober felt pretty darn good, instead of up and down all the time - the highs don't really get higher, the lows just get lower, in fact the whole frame of reference just sort of shifts downward.

[Morning Glory]

I hope the world ends this year. not to sound emo or anything, I just think that would be pretty cool. shake things up a bit.

[StolenName]

Really? I don't often feel down no matter what I do .. and when I'm hungover it's usually at work, a place I don't really want to be anyway. If anything, my obvious pain and suffering at work just makes things more entertaining for customers! My manager is normally high anyway.

That said, Best of Luck as well and sorry for not mentioning it before. I've done it a few times to save money and after a certain incident involving 7 bottles of wine and a certain ex. It was a messy evening resulting in months of sobriety.

[StolenName]

I hope the world ends this year. not to sound emo or anything, I just think that would be pretty cool. shake things up a bit.

Haha. The earth would most definately be shaking.

We could start and argument up here about what would happen post world destruction. I'm guessing nothingness but I'm sure there's plenty of variations!

[xssve]

Really? I don't often feel down no matter what I do .. and when I'm hungover it's usually at work, a place I don't really want to be anyway. If anything, my obvious pain and suffering at work just makes things more entertaining for customers! My manager is normally high anyway.

That said, Best of Luck as well and sorry for not mentioning it before. I've done it a few times to save money and after a certain incident involving 7 bottles of wine and a certain ex. It was a messy evening resulting in months of sobriety.

Yes, but Aussies, like Englishmen, are pretty much all at least half drunk half the time, in my limited experience, so there aren't as many barriers to communication as there are in America between the altered and the sober which can create any number of headaches all on it's own.

Our culture is not designed from the ground up to cater to the perpetually lit - no offense if this seems like an unfair stereotype, but I think there are distinct cultural differences at work, which are even alluded to in your post, i.e., at work hungover, with your boss high - not too many jobs in this country where you can get away with that for very long outside actually working in a bar.

It really wasn't untill I was sober for several months that I began realizing how much better I felt - I've had maybe 3 headaches in the last ten years, that alone is enough to keep me from getting back on that particular hamster wheel.

[KilLAtomiK]

i quit alcohol on my 21st birthday last november, and so far so good

[a_small_death]

right now keeping up with res to drink more than in prev years

[Toe Cutter]

I'm giving up trans fats.

[StolenName]

Our culture is not designed from the ground up to cater to the perpetually lit - no offense if this seems like an unfair stereotype, but I think there are distinct cultural differences at work, which are even alluded to in your post, i.e., at work hungover, with your boss high - not too many jobs in this country where you can get away with that for very long outside actually working in a bar.

Haha. Nah I only get away with it cause I'm cute I work in a service station and I only graduated University a few months ago. I'm not keen to look for full-time profressional work yet so I've given myself about three or four months relaxation and muck-up time before I get to the serious stuff. That and I'm already producing media content for about four different places anyway, so I'm still busy as hell and HOPEFULLY working towards a future in the creative industries.

It's true that the majority of people in Australia drink, it's kinda like a pass-time, like getting large is in Texas (if the media serves correctly haha). Drugs are taken by many people, though the most common is probably weed, the state I live in supplies the cheapest and best quality for the most part so MOST SA youths, young adults (even alot of adults), stone it up pretty regularly.

The other reason i can get away with drinking at work is because i work, unfortunately I know the job inside out and could probably do it with my eyes closed, I never start a job with the view that I can rock up pissed, in fact I've held many jobs (concierge at ***** hotel being one) where I had to look impeccable and be on the ball. I should mention also that my manager is a dying breed of bogan/trash and picks up a can of bourbon to and from her way to the bank on shift to drop off the cash, and shes been known to put a line away sitting at her computer. She does her job, though shes not the best role model haha.

Note: I'm not into much but alkeymahol and weed. E is a very special thing and I don't touch anything else.

[GnArKiLL]

I hope the world ends this year. not to sound emo or anything, I just think that would be pretty cool. shake things up a bit.

maybe not END but some nice multiple natural disasters would be pretty cool

[StolenName]

maybe not END but some nice multiple natural disasters would be pretty cool

The back to back 40degree celcius days down here are well good enough thanks mate!

[xssve]

It's true that the majority of people in Australia drink, it's kinda like a pass-time, like getting large is in Texas (if the media serves correctly haha). Drugs are taken by many people, though the most common is probably weed, the state I live in supplies the cheapest and best quality for the most part so MOST SA youths, young adults (even alot of adults), stone it up pretty regularly.

It was much like that here back in the Seventies with weed - some friends of mine got pulled over with a QP of dirt weed they'd just scored during a drought, it was just sitting on the seat - the cop looked at it, and asked them how much they paid for it. They told him, and he just laughed, threw it back and told them they'd been robbed. The Chief of Police was one of the bigest dealers in the county back then.

Same with coke in the Eighties, it was hell trying to find a bathroom when you had to go, you'd wait for like fifteen minutes, and finally Three or Four people woul dpile out of a one toilet bathroom, faces red, pupils dilated, rubbing their noses.

In both cases, there was a certain amount of culture wide "looking the other way" involved that doesn't apply these days, and driving under the influence has recieved particular scrutiny - you simply cannot survive in this country with out a car, unless you live in a very densely populated urban area with public transportation. A couple of DWI's can really play hell with your whole life, you'll likely lose you licence, and they've even started confiscating your car in some places. There are just too many cars on the roads these days.

Both drug and alchohol abuse tends to be higher in the rural areas, not as many distractions I suppose.

Currently, meth is the drug of choice, and while it's probobly more of a concern for law enforcement than either Mojta or Peruvian marching powder, it seems less of a concern to business - it keeps poeple awake, and actually probobly makes them more productive, and it's probobly the ideal drug for the fast paced, do-the-work-of-three-people ethic that's prevailed in business since the Eighties.

I don't care too much for it myself, never have, the crashes are particularlly draining, but I basically quit doing everything after my second son was born.

I still drink a beer now and then, I just don't do it like it's my life's work anymore, and like I say, I can't even imagine going back.

[StolenName]

We're having issues with ICE down here, in that people really are becoming more and more violent at night clubs. There's two places, Rapture and HQ that have hired alot more security just to deal with those that are uncontrollable. I speak to one of the DJ's alot and he said since the stuff on ICE has appeared in the media, people are taking notice and he reckons its the first time the news crews have actually nailed down on something dangerous.

We have a huge problem with teens in rural areas drink driving and our road toll is highest in outback areas. However, in the city it's weed and beer that gets most people. The drugs of choice for the gothic crowd down here are meth and E, acid is the drug of choice for a lot of the alternative "hippie" crowd and the "hardcore" kids stay away from most stuff.

There's huge campaigns down here to prevent DUI and we've just been hit with about three different alcohol AND drug testing units in south OZ, which is the first time it's happened. Fucking tests take 10mins and it sucks having to wait when you get pulled over for it. I've got no problem with them trying to stop those driving high, except the focus is on marijuana and not other drugs such as E or Meth which IMO are more dangerous than a bit of weed.

Best sign we have in our state is above one of the free way bridges with "Drive high, people die" with a dude driving smoking a HUGE blunt with this cheesy ass grin as the passenger next door is screaming. It's hillarious.

I like to drink, but that's mainly because it's my main form of socialising. I just finished university in December so I'm making a little party for myself, was about the same time I broke up with my ex as well and I've got a bad case of "drowning my sorrows" in times of crisis. That said, it normally only takes me a days hard drinking to make me realise how stupid I am when I'm in pain the next day. Also, there isn't SHIT to do in our town. Gigging is how I spend my free weekend time, and drinking with the local punk/rock/metal bands is a huge part of that.

[xssve]

Ah well, conmmon sense isn't nearly as much fun when you're younger, I had very little myself, but it does take start taking it's toll eventually.

Hanging can definitely become a problem, drunks are much funnier if you're drunk yourself, and I got into drinking again before the kids were born mostly because my wife and all my friends and her friends were drunk most of the time, hardcores, and I had to be drunk just to take them.

The now-ex is still a wino, I took the kids, and about the only time I can get out is when she's sober enough to take them for a day or so - hell on my social life, but still worth it, I dunno what I'd do without my kids.

Most of the old crowd are now either dead, or ambulatory dead, while I think I'm prettier and in better shape than I was when I was in my Twenties.

[Morning Glory]

are you two the same person?

something just seems fishy to me about these guys.

[xssve]

Nah, you're just seeing double - SN is a woman (I think) from Australia, I'm a man from the US - which administators can tell from IP addresses - while your intro is lost somewhere in the distant database past - you are?

[xssve]

I have probobly smoked more Mojta than most of you have probobly ever seen, and back when I played the guitar, it put me in the proper frame - now that I draw, it discoordinates my spatial perception which is why I don't smoke it anymore - practical, rather than any moral considerations.

But from the perspective of my advanced age, I have witnessed how experimentation turns into full blown research, and that, degenerate into simply bad habit and lots of legal and other expenses.

Believe me, I'm not trying to preach, but it can be hard to break a Jones, easier not to get one you can't manage - drying out once in a while at the very least cannot kill you.

[StolenName]

Nah, you're just seeing double - SN is a woman (I think) from Australia, I'm a man from the US - which administators can tell from IP addresses - while your intro is lost somewhere in the distant database past - you are?

Motherfucker! Read my intro haha. I'm a guy from South Australia. Haha. Joking, I got no offence.

In any case, I don't mind 'drying out' but it's gotta be for something good. For instance I need to get together a $1000AUD to get my fricken PS3 when it's FINALLY released here in March. Bloody sony.

Best way to do that is to NOT drink for a while. I'm good with it out, I just end up home earlier.

[xssve]

Oh, sorry, actually I did read your intro, but failed to make the connection, you are a guy, and a handsome devil to boot. Bit slow today, I tried to glean it from your profile instead, so it wasn't intentional.

I'm basically curious as to what is fishy about us, or more fishy than usual.

[Mr Karl]

I quit drinking on dec 1 just so that on jan 1it was a month just so I wouldn't have to make it a new years resolution...anyway despite what people thought it was really no problem

[Morning Glory]

I'm basically curious as to what is fishy about us, or more fishy than usual.

just that you seem to always reply or post one after the other and ahve pretty much the same post count and seem to say a lot of the same things. not that it's a bad thing, it's cool if there are two people that met on here that have a lot in common.

you can never tell, this board get's the wierdest spam.

also there's been a lot of discussion about people with multiple identities in my circles lately.

[StolenName]

Craziness. Nah, we're different haha.

In any case, I've decided after a fairly messy evening last night (which resulted in me awakening in a random house AGAIN), I'm not going to be drinking as much. I'd like to say at all but I'm really not sure I can stop completely.

So I'm imposing limits, but not too sure what would work.

i was thinking like Maximum $20 out a night (enough for four beers or three base/mixer). Drinking only twice a week. Not drinking at home, ever unless there's mates over and it's a thing. And I've decided to stop smoking completely.

Anyone got any other suggestions?