Sara9009

How socially acceptable is drinking in your country?

I have noticed a lot of different threads that depending on the country the mood can be totally different.

In my experience in the US.... It is acceptable at family functions. Definitely not acceptable at lunch where I have worked. Never really went out with co-workers to drink. Then again can count on one hand how many times I have been to a bar. I like to drink at home. I rarely drank in front of anyone else so I am definitely not a typical model of the US Drinker.

GlassPrisoner

Most of the alkies I know were isolated drinkers, including myself.

miss communicat

me, too. home drinker all the way

CarolD

Hmmm.

My family are non drinkers as their religion dictates.
No family celebration involves alcohol...

I seldom drank at home or alone...
I wanted the bar scene with other drunks..

Sooo for me...drinking was a social activity.
Now I have social events with non drinkers...

I may not be a typical American
either drunk or sober.

mike_mass

Started my drinking alone and stayed that way for the majority if my career.

Jfanagle

Drank in "all the right" bars for 20+ years, expensive both in bar tabs and ultimately alimony and houses. Phase 2 was when I began drinking alone as well as in the bars, that lasted about 4 years, the last year was almost total solitary drinking. Phase 3 was my walk into an AA meeting. Phase three has yielded the best results of the 3 phases!

Jon

Mar13

In Spain alcohol is acceptable all the time
Of course this alcoholics there and here and everywhere
But there everybody drinks a lot haves fun and does not worry about if you drinking to much
Because you are with family or friends
I go to lunch and have beer or wine
You ask for wine of the house and bring you the whole bottle out and you drink what you want
Charge maybe half
After the meal you have a coffee with anise its so good
And a chupito it means a little snack liquor sweet and i don’t like liquor but i can drink a few of those because it’s sweet
Then it’s not a big deal there
Always with control of course

pixel

in holland it's just a part of life. we have pub lunches on fridays and people have 1-2 beers with their lunch, no one gets drunk. sometimes people go out during the week and do the same though, but no one cares.

and the kitchen is always stocked with crates of beer and different wines, after work sometimes people hang out on the terrace and have a couple before heading home. it's completely normal here, this is my first job in this country and apparently other companies are similar, at least in my field (i work for a media company that builds websites) - i've asked colleagues about this because when i started working there it seemed odd, and they verified that it was the same at their prior companies.

also - note that no one drives either, we work in a busy part of amsterdam where it's easier to either bicycle or use public transportation, so there have been no drinking & driving accidents in my company. the worst i've heard of is someone falling off of their bike (you're not supposed to ride your bike drunk though, you can lose your automobile license if you ride your bike drunk. the dutch take their bicycling very seriously!).

of course some colleagues drink far more than others, but if they do it's after work hours. in general everyone is pretty casual about it. it doesn't affect people's work.

oh - i did have to go to sweden for business and at the swedish company they had beer on tap in their cafeteria for their employees to have for lunch any day of the week. so i guess it's pretty acceptable there as well.

in general i think that europeans have a very much more relaxed view on alcohol, the drinking age in holland is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for hard liquor, the only people i've met here that don't drink are muslims, as it's forbidden in their religion, but they do smoke a lot of weed!

of course there are the full-blown alcoholics that i see at central station every morning drinking wine straight from the bottle, so the country is definitely not free of alcoholism. it just seems much less than what i've seen in the u.s.

i have heard that in the u.k. the drinking is a lot worse, but i can't really comment on that because i haven't actually been there. brits have a really bad reputation in amsterdam though for being drunk, loud, rowdy troublemakers.

dave47

Customary for people to drink lunch times and after work without any raised eyebrows in England.Most of my drinking in the last few years has been at home,and certainly more than anyone realised. Over here,most towns and citys are a nightmare at the weekend with drunken behaviour.The licensing hours were extended recently to make us more continental,but with the binge mentality over here it has caused more problems.

CarolD

Well...
I know drinkers from everywhere
and I also know non drinkers from everywhere.

I don't think it matters one whit.

If your drinking is causing you a problem
any problem
then the answer is to quit drinking.

Aristo

Are you kidding me ?? ha ha

Here in Australia - Drinking is a way of life. There is not one function that you can go to that there is no alcohol (unless it's an AA function ).....

It's socially acceptable to drink - a lot of people think there is something wrong with you if you don't. Well, this has been my experience anyway.

There's a bit of a culture surrounding the hardened aussie bloke that can drink like the rest of them.

I have heard often how when we aussies go to other countries - we end up drinking the the "yanks" or the "poms" or whoever - 'under the table'. Probably more bar talk thank anything.

Since being sober - and watching how other people drink I wouldn't be surprised if 20%-30% of our population are alcoholic.

Having said that - I did go to an Armenian wedding - there were bottles of Johhny Walker Black - on every table , and they kept coming - boy did I get pissed that night... he he.

That's not me now though.....

I actually have a cousin's wedding coming up - and it's on a boat - there will be lots of relos there getting pissed - and no-where to escape for me - Not looking forward to that one..........

justjo

Aristo, Im from Aust too! I think socially accepted drinking here has gone too far. I would say its like this in most countries. With four males in the house watching Bathurst Racing yesterday I am amazed at the alcohol advertising. You know dont drink while you drive but its ok to advertise it in car racing. I went to the SA trade show last week and the booze companies had your blonde bimbos running around with trays of it for people to sample. What a joke, starting at 10am.
Apparently here, drinking starts at 10-12 years of age and drugs too. Its so readily available and accepted.
The female gender here drinks more than the males. Problem with that though, men are seen as ockers! (know what I mean, MEN) Women are seen as weak and slutty.
My sister has been in rehabs here many times and I think it is twice as hard for the women. I hate to think what society will be like in even ten years. Its time the government did something about it. We need more funded rehab centres and they are closing them down here.

Shaneo20

I likewise think there should be a reduction in the advertising here in Oz. I also think that there should be far more campaigns warning people of the dangers of alcohol and how to identify if you have a problem and where to get help. Drinking is so accepted and openly encouraged on television that it is hard for people to view any occasion not having alcohol.

This may be ok for the "normals" but the potential alcoholic is doomed while the grog companies get rich off of peoples misery and put nothing back into solving the social problem of alcoholism. I don't want to see alcohol banned but more awareness about the social harms is needed. I've seen a policeman say on TV that 90% of their work relates to problems caused by alcohol.

When I'm at a social event and people notice I'm not drinking I appear as some sort of an enigma. It isn't that they look down on me it is just that it is so unusual for a man in his 20s not to be drinking that I really stand out. And funnily enough I'm only not drinking because I've found out I can't stop drinking when I do and social events are far less social when I'm drunk.

Hopefully one day there will be a greater public recognition of the damage alcohol causes, perhaps in a similar vein to smoking. After all I certainly think it produced more harm than my smoking did. Smoking affected my health and I'm glad I quit but alcohol did that plus I hurt so many others plus I lost my spirituality. It turned me into a different person and I know people would rather smell the stench of cigarettes than swallow the garbage I spouted when drunk.

justjo

Totally agree Shane. Its crazy, in Aust smoking is legal but you can only buy it in dedicated cig/gift shops and in the freak! section of a supermarket at top dollar. No advertising of smoking is allowed whatsoever. But motor sport yeah lay it on. Marlboro on cars, dedicated females to advertise. Every packet of cigs has a warning with a visual picture of how it CAN affect you.
Why not do it with alcohol too. Kids are starting way too young here, is normal!! accepted and cool. Just like cigs were 40 odd years ago. My boys go out on weekends and drink because thats what they do, you know. It worries but I did it too at their age.
Now the hospitals are talking about no giving medical attention to smokers first because of the advertised dangers. How ridiculous, what about the government doing something about alcohol warning of dangers. We do have TV adds warning of drink driver but thats it.

Tazman53

Where I am from in the US drinking acceptably is okay, business lunches many times involve drinking.

When I started drinking it was social.

Next it was social and at home.

Next was social, at home, and alone.

Then it became anytime I was not working, mainly alone in my garage.

AA was my final and most joyous phase of my entire drinking career.

barb dwyer

butte is a mining town that throws some of the wildest parties in the us. that's why my little sentence under my avatar szys what it does.

miners - work hard. play hard. drink harder. every day above ground - is a good day.

so here - NOT drinking is the unusual.