clink clink? no, thank you

I started out this post wanting to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of drinking alcohol. But then I thought it easier to just post what's on my mind rather than doing research on the Internet to substantiate my little "lecture"; that's just too much effort for the lazy me.

So.

What am I on to, anyway?

Some friends and acquaintances of mine are going out for a boozy night this Friday. As I sat there thinking whether I should make the effort to join in, I wondered if there's any point in drinking, really. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see my friends and goodness knows I need a little bit of social life, but do we really need to drink to have a good time?

I have a feeling I'm going to be called an anal-goody-two-shoes but I'm ploughing ahead with putting all these random thoughts on electronic paper anyway.

Some may have heard of the French Paradox, where people in France suffer relatively low incidence of coronary heart disease, despite their diet being rich in saturated fats. It's been suggested that France's high red wine consumption is a primary factor in the trend, where the key ingredient resveratrol have been positively linked to fighting cancer, heart disease, degenerative nerve disease, and other ailments.

Ok ok, end of lecture. So drinking in moderation (one glass for women, one to two glasses for men) has somewhat proven to yield positive health results.

But (oh, of course there's a but!) why do people abuse alcohol, drinking away till they lose their conscious selves (sometimes but not always literally), and start behaving foolishly? Not to mention the increased risk for certain types of cancer, and increased risk of accidental death and mental health problems. I'm sure we've all seen what alcohol could do to people, and witnessed a few not-too-pleasing occasions where the drunk drinkers literally pass out on the ground, with vomit coming out of their mouths... ugh! Not a pretty sight, but that's reality.

Personally I've had a pretty bad experience with too much alcohol, too fast, on an empty stomach. Flashback to 1994, University days. My friends and I took a trip down to Hard Rock Cafe for a little head-bangin' one night, and naturally, being the young 'un, I was game for a good time. We were running late for some reason so I decided to skip dinner and head on straight to the bar, downed a couple of glasses of whiskey Coke, and rocked on to the loud thumping music. After some time the gang decided to take a break, and whilst they were contemplating where to go, my vision started going red. And I mean RED, literally. It was as if the blood vessels in my eyes decided to go "pop!" and blood rushed out to block my vision. It was all I could do to grab hold of my friend's shoulder in time before they all walked off thinking I was behind them. I said quite calmly to him, "I can't see. Can you lead me out of here?"

My friend thought at first that I was joking because my eyes were wide open, but in actual fact I couldn't see anything at all except the colour red. I repeated my request, and he immediately grabbed both my shoulders from behind and led me out. I sat on the floor for a good 2 minutes before my vision slowly returned. All that time my friends were asking if I was ok, did I drink too much, etc. I answered them very sanely and soberly, "I'm ok, I just can't see. Give me a minute."

I could tell they were a little doubtful of my response, but after awhile my vision came back, and I heaved a big sigh of relief. What happened, really? I don't know. To this day I still don't know, and I've never had another incident like this, except for one really close call a few months back when after a couple of mixers, I got that fuzzy vision again, but only momentarily.

Nah, this isn't the reason why I don't like drinking. I do have my social glass or two, but I'd much prefer hanging out at cafes (the ones that serve coffee, not alcohol) than pubs. It's fine by me if you decide to have a good time with alcoholic substances. Though I've never been drunk, I don't ever want to be drunk either. Despite efforts of the others, I've always managed to stay sane if not a little comfortably numb, without going overboard. Know your limits, don't do anything under the influence you might regret later on. And that's the way it should be, no?

Just comfortably numb.

Was there any point in this post?

I hope so.


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