Drinking Habits - Your Choice: Hale and Hearty Or Ale and Anguished

Drinking alcohol is legal for those over the age of consent, it is a social pastime enjoyed by millions the world over, but what do your drinking habits say about you? Are you hale and hearty or ale and anguished?

Legal but with the potential for addiction:

It is very important for those who enjoy a drink to understand just how easily it is to get into the habit of regular and excessive drinking.

The opportunities and temptation are clearly there. There are countless outlets serving alcohol. Social meetings are very often arranged around one of the local bars, restaurants or clubs in your locale.

Then you have the licensed shops and supermarkets that stock anything and everything alcoholic. It is very easy to slip into a routine where you make your local store a regular stopping off point on the way home from work.

The more regularly you drink the more chance you have of ‘getting the taste’. Once this happens you will gradually build-up your tolerance to alcohol.

Hale and hearty or ale and anguished – What alcohol does to you:

When alcohol is consumed it triggers the release of endorphins. These neurotransmitters give feelings of pleasure, excitement and satisfaction.

The relaxed, content feelings many receive from a glass or two of their favourite tipple leave them feeling happy, talkative and inhibitions are lowered, the downside of alcohol is that if you begin to drink regularly your body and mind not only tolerate what you are giving them, they hanker for more.

This means that where one or two drinks used to satisfy your needs, more of the same is required to reach the same levels of satisfaction. Continue drinking and you will need yet more, and so the cycle of dependence spins ever faster.

Hale and hearty or ale and anguished – Positives and negatives:

Here are just 3 situations where alcohol consumption can give positives and negatives:

Bright and bubbly or boorish and bad mannered:

Moderate drinking can enhance a social gathering. With friends you feel relaxed and more outgoing, and at more formal events it can help break the ice when being introduced to strangers.

The opposite must be said of those whose regular expectation of alcohol is to get roaring drunk.

They are often far louder than they need be, self-opinions can be expressed rather more forcibly than necessary, slurring and unsteady feet are part of their make-up and many turn aggressive.

This heavy drinking can harm in more ways than one. The health consequences of regular, heavy drinking are frightening, and continued drunken behaviour will see their social circle shrink as acquaintances avoid them rather than put up with such a boorish manner.

Exercise and reasonable diet:

Your drinking regimen coupled with the amount of exercise taken, and the diet you eat play a large part as to whether you will remain hale and hearty or ale and anguished.

Keeping yourself in shape and eating a balanced diet coupled with an occasional drink or two is the sensible way to go.

On the other hand those who do little or no exercise, major on junk foods and regularly consume too much alcohol are asking for trouble. They are leaving themselves open to a whole host of health problems.

Sexual thoughts, feelings and performance:

Looking forward to a night of intimacy with your partner can be enhanced with a couple of drinks beforehand. This is because a reasonable amount of alcohol helps lower inhibitions.

Conversely, having too many drinks before sex may get the brain working overtime, but it does the opposite in terms of performance.

Many women find natural lubrication a problem, men on the other hand often cannot rise to the occasion. If either or both partners find themselves regularly struggling to become aroused or perform this can cause relationship rifts that will get wider unless alcohol consumption is reduced.

Hale and hearty or ale and anguished – Everything in moderation:

It is vital that you keep your alcohol consumption to reasonable levels. If you do over imbibe on occasions then please leave 3 or 4 days before your next drink, and make sure that drink is kept to sensible levels.

Dependence upon alcohol is a very easy trap to fall into. If you feel yourself being drawn to alcohol on a regular basis, or are starting to think about the need for a drink on a regular basis it is important you seek help and advice sooner rather than later.

Those who know deep down they have a drink problem, but are currently in denial, please stop fooling yourself. You certainly are not fooling those closest to you.

It is absolutely vital you seek the help of professional rehab services. The longer you delay this effective helping hand the deeper your dependence will become.