Anyone else "outgrown" drinking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who are these fools arguing over drinking and hangovers? Get a life.

After 50, I turned the alcohol way down. Now mid-50s, I nearly never order a drink or finish one handed to me. I order mocktails and 0% beer when I want something other than water. Feel much better and I think it's made a difference in my skin.

My Mom still drinks wine daily, a deeply ingrained habit. Wish she'd quit but it's unlikely to happen.

The problem is your body changes and you adapt, that's it. Getting on a soap box about it is embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Idk how the Real Housewives (most of them) drink so much so often without feeling absolutely horrible. With age I've lost any capacity to drink much at all. I'll have a single cocktail every few months if it sounds interesting while out at a new restaurant, but that's it. Wine doesn't taste that great to me and I can't handle even one glass without getting a headache so I just turn it down when invited.

[Anonymous]

Ive noticed it goes one of two ways after 40. Half my friends became pretty big drinkers. They seem to tolerate it fine. I am talking dozens of times I have seen parents out at night at a gathering downing 4-6 drinks, acting fine (sometimes loud/annoying but nothing major) and I see them at 8 am AAU tournaments the next day perfectly fine. This has lead me to believe some people truly can handle it and feel nothing or very minor effects. Unfortunately I am in the second category where each decade my tolerance goes way down. I am a 1/2 drink per event person. And lots of times the 1/2 drink is just something to hold because OTHER people get very self conscious if you aren't drinking. Its hard to explain but it pops up in multiple social situations across work, parenting, long term friends and family...drinkers dont like to be around non drinkers so I at least hold something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who are these fools arguing over drinking and hangovers? Get a life.

After 50, I turned the alcohol way down. Now mid-50s, I nearly never order a drink or finish one handed to me. I order mocktails and 0% beer when I want something other than water. Feel much better and I think it's made a difference in my skin.

My Mom still drinks wine daily, a deeply ingrained habit. Wish she'd quit but it's unlikely to happen.

The problem is your body changes and you adapt, that's it. Getting on a soap box about it is embarrassing.

I did reduce drinking and also avoid certain types of alcohol to avoid side effects in perimenopause. But I also hate holier than thou attitude and lecturing about drinking from people who do this for very personal reasons (maybe they have problems with alcohol addiction or allergies or whatever). Luckily quitters aren't insufferable like the PP you are replying to. I do notice the trend of more and more middle aged women quitting alcohol altogether. I also wonder if they are hitting other substances or certain prescribed mood medications.

[Anonymous]

I feel you op. I stopped drinking alcohol about a month ago when I realized even 1 drink made me feel kind of sick immediately and so sluggish the entire next day. I'm glad I no longer have any desire to drink because I used to chase a buzz and then regret my one drink the next day. Now I don't even get a buzz.

[Anonymous]

47. I stopped almost two years ago. First to cut calories, then I started to realize how awful I slept and felt after even one glass of wine or cocktail. Like waking up in the middle of the night with sweats, raging hangover symptoms. After just one drink. Totally not worth it. I miss it sometimes but not enough to wreck my already messed up sleep even more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ive noticed it goes one of two ways after 40. Half my friends became pretty big drinkers. They seem to tolerate it fine. I am talking dozens of times I have seen parents out at night at a gathering downing 4-6 drinks, acting fine (sometimes loud/annoying but nothing major) and I see them at 8 am AAU tournaments the next day perfectly fine. This has lead me to believe some people truly can handle it and feel nothing or very minor effects. Unfortunately I am in the second category where each decade my tolerance goes way down. I am a 1/2 drink per event person. And lots of times the 1/2 drink is just something to hold because OTHER people get very self conscious if you aren't drinking. Its hard to explain but it pops up in multiple social situations across work, parenting, long term friends and family...drinkers dont like to be around non drinkers so I at least hold something.

+1. People are different. Personally, my body deals with alcohol just fine, as it always has, and I'm 50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:46 year-old woman here. I used to love going out for cocktails and enjoying a nice buzz.
Now? Not worth it. I do not enjoy it. It messes with my sleep, it makes me pee throughout the night, I wake up sweaty or tired...the short-lived buzz doesn't outweigh the longer-term after-effects.
Anyone else? I feel like an old lady!!

Yes. Can’t do it. Feel horrible next day with even just a little.

[Anonymous]

20 years ago older people would tell me they would have "a" beer or would rarely drink alcohol, and at the time I thought that was weird. Now I totally understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ive noticed it goes one of two ways after 40. Half my friends became pretty big drinkers. They seem to tolerate it fine. I am talking dozens of times I have seen parents out at night at a gathering downing 4-6 drinks, acting fine (sometimes loud/annoying but nothing major) and I see them at 8 am AAU tournaments the next day perfectly fine. This has lead me to believe some people truly can handle it and feel nothing or very minor effects. Unfortunately I am in the second category where each decade my tolerance goes way down. I am a 1/2 drink per event person. And lots of times the 1/2 drink is just something to hold because OTHER people get very self conscious if you aren't drinking. Its hard to explain but it pops up in multiple social situations across work, parenting, long term friends and family...drinkers dont like to be around non drinkers so I at least hold something.

I’m convinced that it’s because these people built up a tolerance long term

[Anonymous]

After 50 I barely want one drink a week.

[Anonymous]

I can't remember what age - 51? One drink - fine. 2 drinks - everything is fine till 2am when I wake up for 2-3 hours with a stomach ache and then very low grade hangover the next day. One drink - why even bother.

If I drink frequently, which I do in summer. I can build my tolerance up to two drinks and the slightest slightest buzz with no repercussions.

I do 1-2 beers or two very watered down cocktails - TONS and TONS of ice.

Anything more and, no.

My parents kept drinking till their 70s - 3-6 beers or glasses of wine a night, every night No idea how.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ive noticed it goes one of two ways after 40. Half my friends became pretty big drinkers. They seem to tolerate it fine. I am talking dozens of times I have seen parents out at night at a gathering downing 4-6 drinks, acting fine (sometimes loud/annoying but nothing major) and I see them at 8 am AAU tournaments the next day perfectly fine. This has lead me to believe some people truly can handle it and feel nothing or very minor effects. Unfortunately I am in the second category where each decade my tolerance goes way down. I am a 1/2 drink per event person. And lots of times the 1/2 drink is just something to hold because OTHER people get very self conscious if you aren't drinking. Its hard to explain but it pops up in multiple social situations across work, parenting, long term friends and family...drinkers dont like to be around non drinkers so I at least hold something.

Those downing drink could be alcoholics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ive noticed it goes one of two ways after 40. Half my friends became pretty big drinkers. They seem to tolerate it fine. I am talking dozens of times I have seen parents out at night at a gathering downing 4-6 drinks, acting fine (sometimes loud/annoying but nothing major) and I see them at 8 am AAU tournaments the next day perfectly fine. This has lead me to believe some people truly can handle it and feel nothing or very minor effects. Unfortunately I am in the second category where each decade my tolerance goes way down. I am a 1/2 drink per event person. And lots of times the 1/2 drink is just something to hold because OTHER people get very self conscious if you aren't drinking. Its hard to explain but it pops up in multiple social situations across work, parenting, long term friends and family...drinkers dont like to be around non drinkers so I at least hold something.

I’m convinced that it’s because these people built up a tolerance long term

I agree with this. The folks I know in their 40s-50s who are still able to drink like this are the ones who drank heavily in their teens, 20s, and 30s... I never drank much, and now at 50 can only handle 1 drink without next-day consequences. I still enjoy a glass of wine or a a good cocktail, but I can only have one...

[Anonymous]

Turning 50 soon and one glass of wine per week with a nice meal is all I can handle. As others have found, more than one snd I wake up feeling miserable. My stomach is also becoming increasingly sensitive. I feel like I’m becoming my 75-year-old mother, who won’t eat or drink anything at a restaurant except a glass of water and a simply grilled piece of fish.