Reply to What is a "normal" amount of drinking for a mid-30's/early 40's parent?

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[quote=Anonymous]I used to drink a lot more and cut back a ton in my late 30s/early 40s (I now basically only drink socially and then only if there will be food served -- drinking alcohol without a meal just makes me ill at this point). This coincided with becoming a parent but is only incidentally related -- I found that when I started drinking again post-pregnancy, my tolerance was really low. Also, I had a rough pregnancy with a lot of health issues and once it was over, I mostly wanted to just feel well in my body. I didn't have a strong desire to feel tipsy and I definitely didn't want to feel hungover. So that really changed how I approach alcohol.

But one thing I've notice going from someone who used to drink the way OP  describes and no longer does -- people who drink like this are more impaired than they think they are. Since my DH and most of my friends still drink this way, I just notice it in a way I never used to. No one is falling down drunk or even visibly tipsy most of the time. But I now notice how often people don't remember details from a recent evening. I also notice how some people become more argumentative or less logical when they are drinking, even after only a couple drinks. I never noticed any of this before. It doesn't bother me but it is a reminder that even people with high alcohol tolerances who seem very civilized when they drink are impacted by it. And there are situations where it leads to negative situations, because consistently failing to remember details from events and becoming more conflict-prone and less reasonable on a regular basis can have a real cumulative effect on your relationships. You wind up seeing how some of the marital discord or diminished friendships actually might be due to drinking even thought the drinking doesn't seem like that big of a deal. It does change how people behave.[/quote]

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