why people are alcoholics?

@Oportunist said in #9:

Its not the taste of it why people drink.After drinkin a certain amaunt of alcoholic beverages you get drunk and that feels very good.And its not the smell why people smoke,smoking relaxes you and you get a little high from it.become calmer and taking the smoke in becomes joyfull thing after a while.But too much of both drinking and smoking eventually can cause very bad results for you.If you are a disciplined person and can manage to drink once or twice a week only.and not exagurate it.only enuff to get you a little drunk,you are fine.If you smoke not more than 5 cigarettes a day.if you can keep that number.you are fine but Its harder to restrict yourself than you think.once or twice a week drinking becomes everyday thing after a couple years.5 cigarettes becomes a pack after a coouple years.It is best to not start at all if you havent started yet

In the recent past, I think the consensus was that a little alcohol was good for your health. I've seen that starting to change; More people (including me) are starting to take the position that any amount of alcohol is bad for the body. Regarding smoking, I think the universal opinion is that any smoking is bad. And while excessive sugar consumption isn't really on most people's radar yet, I think it soon will be. (It's the fructose in sugar that's the big baddie.) I think people will soon realize how bad sugar is for the liver and how addictive it really is.

#1:

alchohol doesn't even taste good

That is quite a sweeping statement, given the staggering variety of alcoholic beverages in this world. (They have a million different tastes; I bet you haven’t sampled but a few.) As well as the wide range of quality in every category. (No two drinks are alike; and some are so complex, they present many flavors at once, or unfold them sequentially as they linger on the palette. Just read the tasting notes for a fine wine sometime.)

Have you ever had top-shelf liquor of any sort? For example, a high-end Pinot noir or single-malt Scotch? . . . Nothing on earth tastes better. By definition — else people wouldn’t invest decades aging these libations, and spend hundreds (or even thousands) to procure them. And of course some drinks are meant to be mixed with others, or can only really be appreciated when paired with certain foods. So if you’re sipping some bitters or a liqueur by itself, you’re not getting the full experience.

As for alcoholics. They don’t drink for the taste, but the effect. Which means they tend to grab the cheapest booze they can find — so it may indeed taste foul, though they won’t care because they just gulp it down. ;-( But I submit to you that’s the wrong reason to drink, entirely. I myself consume alcohol regularly, but moderately — a little bit is all I require or desire, and I savor rather than swill it. It’s been many years since I consumed enough to even tell I’ve had a drink. (I learned my limits early on, and know how to avoid getting buzzed, let alone drunk.) ̄_(ツ)_/ ̄ I actually drink purely for the taste — hence I beg to differ with your bold claim! You can only be so casually dismissive because you haven’t even smelled the good stuff. ;-) Its aroma alone would make your mouth water. . . .

The problem is that some people’s brains are “wired” differently than the rest of ours, such that they easily become addicted. Alcoholism is similar (indeed related) to compulsive gambling (ludomania) and compulsive stealing (kleptomania). And make no mistake: it is likewise a medical condition / mental disorder, which afflicts some people regardless of whether they partake. (Drinking is just one possible trigger.) In short, despite the name we give those with this condition (“alcoholics”), alcohol isn’t really to blame for it, but is merely one of many substances / behaviors such people are genetically prone to abuse. :-/ Thankfully, that genetic quirk is rare in the population as a whole. So if you don’t already have an addictive personality, you’ll never need to worry about becoming addicted. Even as I have no trouble moderating my intake. (Though it’s also true that some people can “hold their liquor” better than others. This has to do with age, body weight, etc. Simple experience can even give you some “tolerance” for the effect.)

Interestingly enough, psychedelic mushrooms (psilocybin) have been used to cure alcoholism, with great success in clinical studies. Lookup one Dr. Roland Griffiths. His work at Johns Hopkins is quite fascinating and encouraging. It appears the cure for addiction to a “soft” drug may actually be exposure to a hard one. Who’d have thunk it?

As for the question of health benefits. I know a man, Dr. Iain McGilchrist, who has literally read every study on the subject ever written. He assures me that those who claim teetotaling (i.e., never drinking) is ideal have misread the data in every case, because it is very clearly not. Moderate drinking is key to optimum health, there is really no question of it at this point.

Cheers!

@xDoubledragon said in #1:

alchohol doesn't even taste good, and I'm like 20 years old.
I don't get the appeal, only time it tastes good is:
mixed with cola or some sugary drink with alcohol.
rest tastes badly
Have you drank alcohol before!?!?!?!?

@xDoubledragon said in #1:

alchohol doesn't even taste good, and I'm like 20 years old.
I don't get the appeal, only time it tastes good is:
mixed with cola or some sugary drink with alcohol.
rest tastes badly
I agree I drank plum wine in Japan and it tasted like soap and mouthwash

Drugs are bad mmkay?

Because alcohol helps people who have suffered. Alcohol causes their thoughts to go elsewhere and for them to be unable to think about their pain. In Finland it is a huge problem with veterans all becoming alcoholics since they don't get recognized for their service as veterans as people do in the US, since in Finland everyone is a veteran since all males serve in the army, no matter what.

#15:

Drugs are bad mmkay?

Again, that is quite a broad a claim, given how many different things may be considered drugs. For instance, music can be a drug — even an addictive one, for some genres and some people — but are you really going to say that all music is bad for all people all the time?

Don’t be a puritan, mmkay? Life isn’t just black and white; it’s also grayscale, plus the rainbow, the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums, and beyond. . . .

As St. Paul said, “All things are permissable, but not all things are profitable.” I simply urge people to use moderation when cultivating and enjoying the many and varied substances naturally occurring on this (mostly) beautiful planet. :-)

All things in moderation including moderation.
Socrates

They drink a lot of alcohol.
If you drink a lot of Fanta, you're fantastic.

@pawnedge said in #17:

#15:

Again, that is quite a broad a claim, given how many different things may be considered drugs. For instance, music can be a drug — even an addictive one, for some genres and some people — but are you really going to say that all music is bad for all people all the time?

Don’t be a puritan, mmkay? Life isn’t just black and white; it’s also grayscale, plus the rainbow, the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums, and beyond. . . .

As St. Paul said, “All things are permissable, but not all things are profitable.” I simply urge people to use moderation when cultivating and enjoying the many and varied substances naturally occurring on this (mostly) beautiful planet. :-)

I tend to agree with the OP. While you can definitely claim there are a variety of tastes with alcohol, the fact is they all contain alcohol, and it fundamentally tastes bad - at least to most people. Like you can mix olives with many different foods, but fundamentally the taste of the olive is going to be the key feature, so I don't think it makes that big of a difference. Like Rum and Coke for instance, in theory very different and a kind of fancy liquor, but yeah...honestly saying, I would rather just have coke.

So that's the weird part of it. If alcohol is so bad for your health, then why drink it if it just tastes bad? If its for social purposes, why not drink something else socially? If its just because you want to get "wasted" (and so do your friends), then why go for any high-end alcohols?

I think the answer is, its almost entirely a social thing, at least at first. But then, later on in life, there is this bizarre phenomenon where adults actually deliberately go out and buy alcohol, and they seem to drink it for the taste. Like they just buy a 6-pack of beer at the store right? This is extremely common. I think what happens is, socially they got used to the bad taste of alcohol in their youth, and then over time, their brain sort of gets rewired, and they seem to actually enjoy it. Similarly with wine. It just has this "status" of being the kind of thing fancy people drink, and possibly at some point, their brain starts to enjoy the foul concoction :P. Olives make a little less sense because there's nothing fancy about eating them. Probably people just had nothing else to eat :P.

But you know if you're one of the people who really loves the taste of alcohol, and you always did, then that's totally ok. I just don't think many people would. But I could never imagine sipping on rubbing alcohol for instance, and enjoying it. It just doesn't make sense (and please no one do that, its extremely dangerous).