David10

Since quitting drinking I've started to notice depictions of drinking in movies and TV shows a lot more and it's everywhere. Just watched HBO mini series Mildred Pierce which really promoted Alcohol like the way Mad Men does.

A sexy glamorous person sipping just one whiskey. Same thing in ARGO the movie that won best picture. You never see them drunk and if you do it's TV drunk not real drunk. Even that movie Flight was one long ad for drinking I found. Well anyway if your just after quitting it might be a good idea to not watch tv or movies for a while.

jscorpio

I have noticed this too. It's everywhere.

LadyinBC

Yup me too! Even in books I'm reading.

quitforme79

I hear you. It seems it's in everything. Fortunately it doesn't bother me.

Natom

You begin to zone out to the presence of alcohol in society and media. If you stayed away from it you'd never be able to leave the house. It's absolutely everywhere. The main street in my town has bars within a minute of one another. You just kinda learn to ignore it.

Natom

FeelingGreat

Actually, the drinking in Mad Men really put me off the habit. It is depicted, but so are some of the bad effects it has on the characters, especially Don. You start to see a dawning of awareness. Whenever I see one of them pour themselves a drink it's like a kind of fog rises up around them.

hypochondriac

I noticed this too when I first quit. I was really sensitive to it and I'd recommend avoiding it too. Just watch kids programs for a few months or something It becomes less noticeable though as time passes. It would be nice if people making films thought about how they portrayed people drinking, like how everything has changed with people smoking, but I'm not holding my breath.

nigey1

Yep and cant watch the news or current affairs, too depressing.

Love funniest home videos though. I know I know, my wife tells me how immature I am too.

miamifella

Depicting drinking is not the same as promoting it. Most of my friends can have a glass of wine or whiskey two or three nights a week without getting drunk and having negative consequences. I suspect this is the case for most people. There is nothing inaccurate in showing people drinking without getting completely hammered. That is the way most people drink.

Not everyone is an alcoholic.

By the way, people I work with who are not alcoholics say that that they like how Mad Men depicts functional alcoholics going through life with continually impaired judgement....so I am not sure how glamorous it looks to non-alkies.

Nattythreads

I'd agree with that. Life goes on. That liquor store on the corner by your rehab facility is still going to be open when you come out............

bigsombrero

...and don't even get me STARTED on the television advertisements we all have to sit through! I have been watching NCAA basketball this week and every ad is for Bud Light, Guiness "Black", or some other damn fool beer. The commercials actually make me laugh - they show people at a bar together all happy and enjoying a beer in moderation. Gimme a break...the bars I went to none of the people looked like that! Even the "trendy" places I used to go would routinely have a girl in a pretty dress falling over herself and puking on her shoes.

I don't mind watching it on TV right now, but I think I did early on.

avocado

It doesn't bother me. On the contrary, I find I can enjoy it. I still read Bukowski and still listen to the Pogues. A good film is a good film and a bad film is a bad film. Hangover part 1 ius still funny to me, whereas Hangover 2 is completely lame.

David10

I've never meet a moderate drinker ever in my life they are as rare as unicorn teeth. I bet your friends get hammered when they go home. Everyone who drinks alcohol does it to get drunk.

Nattythreads

I'm sorry but that's just so so not true.........

ArgentOfSilvae

My partner occasionally drinks and yes sometimes he does get drunk usually on social occasions. But on the most part he has no problem with alcohol as I do, he has on many many occasions opened a bottle of wine had one glass with dinner and put it away. This is one example of course but I have never seen an example of unicorn teeth...

On topic ;

Actually I have always been aware of drinking in tv/movies, take The Big Bang Theory which is one of my favourite shows, there is barely an episode that goes by without a bottle of wine somewhere. I think we just take more notice when we know we cannot have any.

miamifella

David 10--

Why do I think of the line "He who is dizzy thinks the world spins round."

Maybe it is because I was a teetotaler until I was nearly 40, but seriously, most people do not get drunk and shun those who do. I know that when I started drinking, I met more drunks. I think people who drink heavily or alcoholically tend to know others who do the same, just like moderate drinkers tend to spend time with other moderate drinkers.

But my oldest friends may have a glass of wine with dinner on the weekends, but rarely more than one or two. Recently one said that they hate one restaurant since wine can only be purchased there in bottles since that is obviously way to much for two people. I had to laugh knowing that for many folk, a bottle is not enough for even one!

FeenixxRising

I disagree, I've known many moderate drinkers. I was one for 2 and 1/2 decades. I'm not promoting alcohol use in any way, but my experience with moderate drinkers is much different than yours.

FeenixxRising

I agree with just about all your observations; however, I disagree strongly about the film "Flight". The movie was about finally owning up to one's addiction problem, redemption, and freedom from addiction.

Even the title, "Flight" has a double meaning IMO, 1) the aeronautical meaning and more importantly 2) the description of what the main character had been doing for a very long time--taking "flight" from and denying his addiction.

The ending was incredibly poignant IMO, and I believe every recovering addict should watch the film, but with one huge caveat. If depictions of very heavy and graphic alcohol and drug use is a trigger, skip-it. Unfortunately, the important part for addicts come at the very end of the film, until then it's one very long and rough ride (much like we've all experienced with our addictions)

FeenixxRising

That's how I am right now, my emotions are just too raw.

I've been using the television to keep my mind off of alcohol, so any depictions of alcohol use or beer advertisements turn my thoughts back to drinking. So I've been using Netflix, NatGeo and other networks to watch documentaries, they tend to contain few if any alcohol or drug references (assuming I'm not watching a documentary that specifically addresses alcohol or drugs). And I might learn a thing or two.

Aborigine

The show "intervention" affected me profoundly, I was in shock. But I also learned that you can drink in the morning to postpone withdraw. It changed my life, before that I would just go home after the bars closed and nurse a hangover the next day. Maybe take a few days off until I felt better. Now I binge for days needing detox for withdraw.
I know how dumb this sounds but it's good to get it out.