I had my first alcoholic drinks tonight ... ever!

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Hello,

Definitely don't beat your wife, or your kids, or murder/rape/rob/assault/vandalize/hack into the DoD/sell national secrets/commit usury/vote Libertarian if you've been drinking. These are clearly areas where Mr. Whyme has had trouble accommodating personal responsbility and drinking alcohol. Once he's had a drink holy Jesus-shit-on-a-Philistine he can't help himself but to commit a crime!

Avoid Mike's Hard Leomonade at all costs!

V/R
Dr. Cam

[_keithb]

Hello,

Definitely don't beat your wife, or your kids, or murder/rape/rob/assault/vandalize/hack into the DoD/sell national secrets/commit usury/vote Libertarian if you've been drinking. These are clearly areas where Mr. Whyme has had trouble accommodating personal responsbility and drinking alcohol. Once he's had a drink holy Jesus-s***-on-a-Philistine he can't help himself but to commit a crime!

Avoid Mike's Hard Leomonade at all costs!

V/R
Dr. Cam

I don't think that I'm going to have problems with any of the above things ... except beating my non-existent wife.For some reason, when I get a little liquor in me, I just want to start slapping women.

[_sock puppet]

keithb,

For some people, alcohol can make them beligerent and abusive. For others, it can merely make you loosen up and be more gregarious (your first experience). For yet others, it can mellow you out; it is a stress reliever.

If I was one for whom alcohol rendered me beligerent or abusive, I would never had another drink. Before I reached 35, alcohol was recreational. I did it for the buzz, to be looser, to be asking for a waitress's telephone number.

I drink much more moderately today. At the end of a stressful day, a drink or two takes the edge off, relaxes me, and makes me more affable and pleasant to be around socially. If I come home from work still wound tight from the the stressors of the day and my wife senses I am a little short and snippy with her, she will suggest I have a drink before dinner. It does the trick every time.

I love the taste of an ice cold, light lager on a hot summer afternoon. Other times of the year I need the sharper taste of a dark beer, preferrably a stout that almost has the consistency of maple syrup (the pure kind).

Better yet at relaxing me is a good Bourbon over ice, as Hades said, or a good single malt Scotch over ice. Let the drink chill on the ice for about 5 minutes and then take 20-30 minutes to drink it, just sipping it so you get all the flavors.

For me, the taste took no more acquiring than did learning to like broccoli rather than french fries. Kids like Kool-Aid and soda pops. Adult tastes run towards coffee and alcohol. You might also liken it to advancing from milk chocolates to the delightfully tasting dark chocolates. Or when you stopped using catsup on scrambled eggs, and began enjoying the taste of the eggs.

About once a year I will have a 12 oz Coke--and I get one of those bottled in Mexico made with real cane sugar rather than corn syrup that is used as the sweetener in the U.S. One a year is about all I can handle. Even Diet Coke is simply too sweet.

[_EAllusion]

Alcohol is addictive because of the feelings it gives to people.

Alcohol is addictive because it indirectly raises dopamine sensitivity in the nucleus acumbens through an adenosine modulator. I'm pretty sure the specific chemical pathways have been understood since the early 2000's. You don't get to just make up stuff. For contrast, MDMA is significantly less addictive than alcohol despite giving the typical user a better euphoric experience. What makes a substance addictive is only loosely related to what you are describing.

[_RockSlider]

So how are you doing with the guilt? It took me years to openly drink coffee in front of others who were active and knew my situation. To this day, my 4 cup coffee maker and grinder sit in my home office as these have no place in our Kitchen (I'm the only "less active" one in the household).

On the rare occasion that I head to a bar to listen to some live music, it's still a huge battle where it's known upfront that forgiveness is easier and permission.

[_sock puppet]

So how are you doing with the guilt? It took me years to openly drink coffee in front of others who were active and knew my situation. To this day, my 4 cup coffee maker and grinder sit in my home office as these have no place in our Kitchen (I'm the only "less active" one in the household).

On the rare occasion that I head to a bar to listen to some live music, it's still a huge battle where it's known upfront that forgiveness is easier and permission.

Hey Rockslider. All of my acquaintances, friends and family know that I imbibe. But when with them, I frequently do not. For example, if my wife and I go to dinner with her parents, I do not have a drink. It's not like I am hiding it. But it makes them uptight, tightlipped on conversation, and downers to be with. That's not why I go out to dinner socially, and it is certainly not why I drink. If as part of a larger gathering involving the in-laws, such as at a pizza parlor where there are others in our group having beer I have a glass. My joining in while others in the grouping are already having a drink does not make my in-laws more uptight than if I did not. But if I am the only one that will be ordering a drink, I will not.

Ironically, my in-laws also know that it chafes me and my wife that a blessing is said on the food and we thank the skypilot for it, when according to Genesis he has specifically made it hard, that we get the food by the sweat of our brow. Yet when there is a large in-law family gather--which gets the count about an equal number of active Mormons and us non-Mormons--my father-in-law insists on there being a prayer said before we can eat, even if it was KFC that I bought for the whole group. I think they should be thanking KFC and the entire food production chain, and saying so despite the Old Testament god having made it hard for people to get food, as compared to the luscious free fruit provided in the garden of eden. During the prayers, I keep quiet, my eyes open, and smile and make hand gestures at my young nieces and nephews who have their eyes open and are looking around too.

Supposedly my in-laws and the other active Mormons in the group are the ones following a creed to make them more respectful of others. However, they do not refrain from an activity that makes me uncomfortable, even though they know that I do refrain from an activity because it would cause them discomfort. (My mother-in-law tells me that she and my father-in-law never bless the food before eating at their home when it is just the two of them. Only when it involves others there. So I wonder just how much of a show it is--by one active Mormon to others in attendance or by active Mormons despite the disbeliefs of non-Mormons.)

My point is that I can not enjoy a drink or coffee if it puts a damper on the activity, and I would not want to put one on them. After all, unlike posters and readers who come here to read about others views of Mormonism and for which I will thus give my views, my in-laws invite my wife and I to dinner to have a pleasant evening.

Contrary to why me's broad brush strokes, I am able to enjoy a meal with others without having my "addiction" compel me to drink even though I have 5 to 7 drinks a week.

[_malkie]

Note: I speak only for me - no judgement implied for anyone else.

One of the good things that becoming LDS did for me was to get me off 'the drink'.

My father, my sister, and one of my two brothers had/have a problem with drinking - possibly some or all of them are alcoholics. If I had not joined the LDS church I might have found out that I also couldn't control my consumption of alcohol. I haven't touched alcohol for over 40 years, and have no real wish to find out if I might follow the path of my family members, although there are times when I think that a nice cool beer, or a glass of wine, would be a fine thing.

(Incidentally, the LDS girl who introduced me to the church was a much more accomplished drinker than I ever was - it was definitely a 'do as I say, not as I do' situation.)

[_RockSlider]

...

Sure, totally understand and agree. I meant to address keithb. I was remembering how hard it was for me.
The Church and its members put so much weight on one's adherence to the WoW. Maybe more so in the "Corridor" as has been spoken of in other threads of late. It seems to totally outweigh any and all other aspects, including the most basic, like a belief in Jesus Christ himself.

I also remember waiting for the other shoe to drop. Darkness of spirit and mind, as well as total loss of all prized possessions and family was a given for the apostate and WoW sinner.
Maybe it was just me (I took it all very literally).

[_sock puppet]

...

Sure, totally understand and agree. I meant to address keithb. I was remembering how hard it was for me.
The Church and its members put so much weight on one's adherence to the WoW. Maybe more so in the "Corridor" as has been spoken of in other threads of late. It seems to totally outweigh any and all other aspects, including the most basic, like a belief in Jesus Christ himself.

I also remember waiting for the other shoe to drop. Darkness of spirit and mind, as well as total loss of all prized possessions and family was a given for the apostate and WoW sinner.
Maybe it was just me (I took it all very literally).

Hey again, Rockslider. The WoW, followed by the wearing of garments, are the two most visible, outward markings of Mormon adherence. If the Mormon culture taught members to take each other at their word, they would be much more concerned about the fellow member who has publicly stated his or her concerns about beliefs in Mormon 'policies' than whether he or she is spotted having coffee at a local diner or a beer with friends at a local pub. But the membership is imbued from the hierarchy to be on the look out for those who may be 'slipping' and to report it to that person's priesthood authority. How do I spot the embryonic apostasy? Seeing someone who is wearing shorts while shopping, and obviously not wearing his or her garments. Discovering someone has a coffee maker in his or her kitchen. Heaven forbid. So much more grievous than the fact you've noticed a tea-totaler, self-professing Mormon never lift a finger to help a neighbor unload a new refrigerator or haul off the old one. The Mormon corridor really preaches/teaches an odd set of priorities.

[_just me]

keithb, a hearty congratulations! I partook of my first alcoholic beverage about three months ago...at the tender age of 34. I feel like I finally own myself....own my choices and actions. I no longer blindly follow the arbitrary rules made up by elderly white men.

I'll never know what kind of person I could have become, the potential I could have realized, had I taken my first sip on my 21st birthday. Without the influence of the LDS church I could have believed myself to be more than just a uterus waiting to give birth and raise babies. I could have finished college and had a lot of fun socializing at parties. I could have become independent.