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Views and Opinions on Alcohol and Tobacco During Childhood

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josh338
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08 Jun 2016, 9:47 am

PrivatePyle99 wrote:
I'm 43, so this was a while ago, but I started drinking at age 14. I found I fit in much better when drinking, I wasn't so socially awkward. I actually became pretty popular in high school, I played football, but I don't think I ever attended a party or social gathering without getting drunk.

I started using smokeless tobacco (dip) at age 15, it helped a great deal with anxiety. I no longer drink, but 28 years later I'm still dipping. It's a problem, I've averaged as much as 3 cans a day, I'm at about 2 now, and at over $7 a can, you can imagine it's not a very cheap habit, but it keeps me calm and gives me something to do.

I would recommend against it for others though. :-)

Have you tried the nicotine lozenges used for stop smoking therapy? I use those now. Don't know if they'd be strong enough for you but if they are, they have the nicotine without the chemicals that cause oral cancer.



josh338
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08 Jun 2016, 10:13 am

My parents were I think good about alcohol. My mother never drank -- she was allergic to wine - and my father might have a beer during a meal. We kids were allowed to have a sip of his beer if we asked, so it was never a "forbidden fruit" to us. I remember trying some Scotch out of the liquor cabinet when I was about 10 -- and developing a lifelong aversion to Scotch as a result! I really didn't like being drunk, because I couldn't think straight and rapidly. But I didn't drink much in high school, or smoke much pot -- I'd get too bored. So they were basically social things for me.

I also experimented with smoking beginning in about fifth grade. Both of my parents smoked and I hated it because of the smell, but that didn't keep me from having the occasional cigarette when other kids did, and when I was 14, a friend pressured me into starting for real. Once I got the hang of it I really loved it because it tamed my anxiety and emotional swings, and made me outgoing and sociable. I don't smoke anymore because the health risks increase dramatically over time but I do use nicotine tablets, which aren't as effective but have some of the same effect. Looking back, I can't say that I regret having started, despite the risks. I was struggling emotionally and smoking helped in a way that nothing else did.



Last edited by josh338 on 08 Jun 2016, 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sweetleaf
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08 Jun 2016, 10:27 am

yelekam wrote:
When I was young I thought alcohol was bad. As I grew up I came into the wisdom to realize that was not only bad, it is a poison to the mind and body, and it is immoral, irrational, and self-destructive practice to consume it. That is why I am a lifelong teetotaler and prohibitionist. Alcohol gives the illusion of help through pleasure, when it is really a mechanism for misery.


So why not just don't drink it...instead of trying to have abstinence from it pushed on other people?


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drlaugh
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08 Jun 2016, 9:17 pm

Mom smoked until they took her off a ventilator the last time.
Alcohol was allowed for a taste around the parents and during religious ceremony dinners.

I haven't done either in decades.


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