Controlling drinking

LegacyUser

Okay, first of all, let me state this: I am not a big drinker. I'm 19 and if anything, I drink way less in college than I did in school. I rarely go out to bars and clubs anymore and usually have no problems controlling my drinking.

But on Saturday night, I got really drunk. I don't think it was the amount I drank, more the speed at which I drank it. I had maybe 4 double vodkas and lemonade, and 2 large glasses of wine, in the space of about 3 hours. Basically, I woke up on Sunday morning not remembering a thing about the night before. According to my friends, I didn't do anything stupid while I was with them, but I left them at about half 1, apparently. I don't think I got home until about half 2, and I wasn't far away from home.

I have vague images in my head of me attempting to get into my old apartment building, which is by the pub I was in. I couldn't get in, so I asked the guys in the bottom apartment to let me in. I then remember being in their kitchen with them asking me why I thought my keys would work when I no longer live there.

As far as I can tell, I must have walked home on my own, which was stupid enough. However, I seem to have done it barefoot too. I only have one shoe and (bizarrely) also lost the belt of my jacket. I have a cut on my foot from where I must have stepped in glass.

Anyway, none of that is the point. I'm completely freaked out by the fact I can't remember anything and I can't believe I was stupid enough to get that drunk. What I'm really looking for is advice on how to control my drinking so that doesn't happen again. I'm not a bad drunk, generally, but it does seem to affect my memory a lot. I can't stop thinking about it and berating myself for being so stupid. I don't want to say "I'll never drink again", because I know I will. I really enjoy having a glass of wine with my meal when I'm out for dinner or something. On average, I consume alcohol about once every 2 weeks. But how do I stop myself from getting that drunk again? By not drinking often, my tolerance has gone way down, but I forget that as soon as I have a drink.

Any advice is appreciated!

Beruthiel

Embarrassed wrote:

But how do I stop myself from getting that drunk again? By not drinking often, my tolerance has gone way down, but I forget that as soon as I have a drink.

You say you don't drink that much but yet you're drinking double vodkas?! :eek:
I like my vodka, but would never, ever order a double, that's just asking for trouble. I suggest cutting that habit out straight away.
Also, drink water between each drink. Mixing your drinks will also add to the problem. Having a meal before going out will also help with soakage.
If you cannot control yourself, then you should be asking questions.

Hagar

As Ber said never order a double, it's suicide. I'd also agree that mixing is madness.

If you drink shorts have a full Coke or whatever mixer you fancy with each drink. It will help you pace yourself as it makes a bigger drink that lasts longer. Don't get caught up in rounds if you can help it as they tend to be bought at the pace of the fastest drinker. If your the fastest drinker you have a problem. If you do end up in the rounds game there is no law that says you must have a drink every round. If people try to force one on you let them buy it but leave it on the table, don't touch it. Some other person will gladly take it from you as the night goes on.

Lastly, if you can't cut it down, cut it out.

seamus

Everyone who drinks, scares the **** out of themselves at one point or another. Chances are, you won't do it again, or at least won't get as rat arsed again.

I used to drink a lot of vodka when I went out, and initially it was fine. It was just like any other drink, I drank at the same pace as everyone else, and ended up about as drunk as anyone else.

Then gradually it just started having a worse effect on me. Towards the end of the night, I may not be as drunk, but my balance would be affected. I would start becoming seriously tired to the point of almost falling asleep - this is not normal for me, I can only sleep in bed. The next day I would wake up and my head would be badly spinning till well into mid-afternoon, even if I hadn't drank that much.

So I went back to Guiness. Spirits can be tough, largely because you can sometimes drink too fast, and there's a much greater tendancy to mix.

Black Swan

Binge drinking! Rarely, then all at once! Heard of a sorority girl that died at a frat party that way. Well, think back. Why did you drink so much that night? What prompted you? Whatever it was, it was not in your best interests, so remember it before the next time could happen!

It happened to me and my flatmate once last year at the beach. She had broke up with her b/f and we were celebrating. Neither of us drink much either. We both drank 22 oz Adios Madre drinks that tasted like fruit juice and came in small fishbowls. We were Adios Madre! Couldn't remember how we got home in my flatmate's two seater car (over 5 miles away in busy traffic)! We promised ourselves not to do it again, and to ride shotgun on each other to make sure it didn't happen.

BeardyGit

2 glasses of wine and 8 (or maybe 10) vodkas in 3 hours would be enough to put a great many of us down and out for the night.

If you really must drink spirits, take Hagar's advice and mix one short with a full sized mixer, not one of those Schweppes mini-mixers.

If you really want to be sensible about it, drink Guinness if you can manage it. I can get a bit pished (merry) drinking Guinness, but can never drink enough of it to fall to pieces, as it's just too 'heavy' to go to town on it.

Beruthiel

Embarrassed wrote:

I don't think it was the amount I drank, more the speed at which I drank it. I had maybe 4 double vodkas and lemonade, and 2 large glasses of wine, in the space of about 3 hours.

Gil_Dub wrote:

2 glasses of wine and 8 (or maybe 10) vodkas in 3 hours would be enough to put a great many of us down and out for the night.

OP
You say you don't think it was the amount you drank, but when you look at the way Gil broke it down for you, that is a huge amount to drink in 3 hours. Most of us would probably have about 1 drink an hour on average while out for the night.

Miss Fluff

Yep, that's a lot of drink to put away in such a short space of time. You drank your weeks' recommended amount in the space of 3 hours.

http://www.drinkaware.ie/howmany.php

From your post I think you should be counting your lucky stars that the randomers in that apartment didn't take advantage of you. You were obviously out of your tree so I'm glad you've posted here, it should be a learning experience for you. I think lots of people here can say that they have drank themselves into oblivion and taken unnecessary risks at some stage, the choice is yours now whether this will make you cop on or not.

Each alcoholic drink should be alternated with a glass of water. It is important that you eat beforehand, and DON'T LEAVE YOUR FRIENDS.:eek: :eek: :eek: Make sure you all go home together.

If you are not capable of doing this then you may then have to address the possiblity that drinking is a problem for you.

Read this and stick to it
http://www.drinkaware.ie/hints.php

Sangre

There is no trick. You just need to drink within your limits. There is no way we can click our fingers and help you do this. There is no alcohol patch.

No doubt this is a lesson learnt, every regular enough drinker over does it at one point or another.

Stark

We've all been there at some point. (Damn 21st. Damn 2005 Hallowe'en party). Learn from it and move on. Remember, vodka is trouble. You pretty much have to have your full mixer and pace yourself with every shot or you'll end up ****ed in no time. Pints are much safer. You might see people around you managing insane amounts of pints and shots but no doubt they've built up a tolerance over years of heavy drinking. Despite what these people might say to you, you don't want to build up this tolerance, it's a sign that your body is succumbing to damage from alcohol abuse. It also makes for a more expensive night out

LegacyUser

'

Miss Fluff wrote:

Yep, that's a lot of drink to put away in such a short space of time. You drank your weeks' recommended amount in the space of 3 hours.

http://www.drinkaware.ie/howmany.php

I haven't clicked on the link but the normal recommended limit is 21 units for a man in a week, each glass of wine is one unit and a single vodka is one unit so 2 glasses of wine plus 4 double vodkas is 10 units.
Personally over 3 hours I wouldn't think that drinking 2 glasses of wine and 4 pints (the equivilant of 4 double vodkas) is heavy drinking, must be OP has a very low threshold. When you see how little a single spirit measure in a pub is (before they add ice and lemon) you see how miserly the measures are!'

LegacyUser

'If you drink to excess these are the results you'll get. Stay with your mates if you're going to get ****faced.

I drink double vodkas, so do all my mates. Young people do this, so aside from what alot of the posters above said (average age of about 46 id say :P), you are not alone.

Just pace yourself, don't drink wine, start off with a few pints, space them over a few hours. If you're going to drink double vodkas, ask for them in a pint glass. That way there's alot more mixer and they take longer to drink. Also if you're in a nightclub and someone bumps into you, it's less likely to get all over your clothes

Don't worry about it, i've had plenty of nights where i don't remember, im not encouraging it but just trying to asure you that it does happen! Learn from it, look back and laugh '

craichoe

Ehhh .. the doubles they serve in the pub are tiny ... Hence why people get trollied at home alot more than when their out ...

Have you ever poured a "measure" at home ?

dame

A measure of vodka might be tiny but people forget that it's 40% alcohol and the fact that you're drinking so much alcohol in such a small volume of liquid means it gets absorbed quicker than having the same amount of alcohol but drinking it as part of a much larger volume of liquid (ie drinking a pint). That's why you get drunk so quickly on it and that's why it's so easy to drink.

The advice about drinking water between each drink and pacing yourself and not getting caught up in rounds given so far is all good advice.

The people who try to reassure that people get so drunk they can't remember stuff happens all the time are just fooling themselves in my opinion. You're right to have been shocked and to be trying to not let that happen again.

A lot of drinking does go on at college but that doesn't mean you have to join in with every drink. If you really don't want to be reasoning with other drunks that you don't want another vodka - you could just get yourself a coke in a glass. They won't know the difference and will stop trying to force you. That's the easy way out though. You'd be better off sticking to your guns and not giving in to peer pressure.

daithimac

Its a thing you have to control yourself and after a few pints the temptation to go onto doubles is massive factoring in the lack of will power you now have. your memories of previous drunkenness wittle away and before yyou know it your well and utterly dead to the world. make a vow never to go on doubles again and leave yourself a note i your wallet to remind yourself when your inhibitions go down the drain. this is waht I did after haveing I'd say near a dozen Blackouts ( i really can't handel my spirts)

sunnyjim

Man, don't worry about it. You got a scare because you got drunk too fast, and you did a few stupid things. As long as that doesn't happen to much, you'll be fine.

cornbb

I agree with sunnyjim. From your post it appears that that night was a one-off and you know it was stupid and why it was stupid. A shocking number of Irish people binge drink like that at least once a week and somehow don't realise how dumb and wasteful it is. Its easy to get caught in the moment and start drinking way too much on a night out. In future just try to remember what happened last time and don't let it happen again. Theres no shame in not keeping up with the group. You'll have much better nights out getting mildly, pleasantly drunk, or staying sober, but I'm sure you know this

Leon11

just pace yourself in future, it happens to most people every now and then. Sometimes u get caught up in the moment so just learn how to slow down when that moment is coming

Sangre

Also never do rounds or group shots.

Anti

Consider what you did a lesson. And not to do it again.

Still what you drank wasn't much at all. Or over the time period. So you obviously have a very low tollerance to alcohol.

Beruthiel

DoubleVodkas wrote:

I drink double vodkas, so do all my mates. Young people do this

Nobody denies this happens. Just because you and all your mates do it, doesn't mean it's clever or it 'should' be done.
All of us have done things we have regreted while under the infulence, it normally teaches us a lesson.
If you are female, it's even more important that you are smart in your drinking habits or you could get yourself in serious trouble.

(average age of about 46 id say

And a better age to be than a silly 16 year old with no cop on

*Tripper*

Same sort of thing almost happened to me the other week in town.
Started drinking pints first had 3 or 4 then moved onto the spirits, 3 Jagerbombs and 3 double vodkas in about 2 hours. It was just as the last vodka hit the rest of the alcohol hit me and i realised that i better ease off for awhile so drank some water and took it easish fir the rest of the night and was grand.

But those jagerbombs, eughh not hard to drink but red bull just gets your heart pounding like a mad thing!

princess.nettie

Sounds like something that happened me a couple of years ago, took me two hours to get 10 minutes from the nitelink stop to my gaff, the next morning I swore I'd never drink whiskey again. (I even lasted a month or two before I went back to my good friend Jameson) But I think most of the suggestions to space out your drinks are best, and if, when you have a couple in you, you decide to get as drunk as possible as fast as possible, it might be best to cut it out altogether.
I thought I was fine if I smoked hash when I drinking whiskey, but after a couple of months of that I ended up with a bit of a heroin problem. Now I just smoke silk cut blue and stay outta the pubs. It's easier than trying to control my drinking.

chuci

chalk it down to experience my freind cut out the double vodkas and try to maybe stick to the same drink for most of the night. i have a friend who cant drink vodka at all makes them go a bit crazy so they have stoped. maybe if you changed from vodka to like beer or something it may not have such a profound effect

LegacyUser

I think the lesson can just take a long time to learn. I'm 23 and between now and 17 I've had a variety of bad nights, ranging from just being and idiot, to throwing up to really getting dangerously drunk and putting myself in dangerous situations. Lots of times I swore of the drink but always found myself back on it.

Spending time abroad, away from Irish people about six months ago I decided that I do drink too much and I stopped. I guess I finally had the will power. And now I just don't drink very much, a big, big night out for me is four bottles of beer! Which I see is a bit over the top according to drinkaware.ie

I think everybody has those I'll never drink again mornings, but it's good at least that you question your relationship with drink. There are plenty of people I know who are jerks after a couple of drinks and the never realise it.

I'd suggest going out and just drinking beer the next night and try to find your natural/comfortable limit and stick to it.

anti

A lot of Irish people drink too much. It's not fine or grand to do this.
Just drink less, that's the short of it.
And the advice about drinking water and no rounds is good too.

anti wrote:

Still what you drank wasn't much at all. Or over the time period. So you obviously have a very low tollerance to alcohol.

2 glasses of wine and 8 (or maybe 10) vodkas in 3 hours...

You must be joking, anti?!

The Sweeper

I agree with bluewolf. Any one who thinks that 13 units of alcohol in three hours - when the weekly recommendation for women is 14 units total and men is 21 units total - is "not much at all" is just a fool.

But hey - if you drink like that, keep drinking that way.

FYI, Alcoholic Fatty Liver is the precursor to cirrhosis and/or hepatitis. And it doesn't just happen to people in their fifties who drank like George Best all their lives.