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Alcohol

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Austin Mini

Austin Mini

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Since becoming a type one diabetic in 1988 I have never ever become drunk. Not even tipsy. Not even a hang over or sore head. Is this normal? I have spoken with other type one diabetics and this seems to be the norm. Anybody here experienced this?
 
Do you still drink? Trust me, I do drink and well to excess at times. I don't find that. All depends on how much you drink, what you drink and how you drink it.
 
I also drink, and have done to excess on a few occassions. I tend to make sure that whoever I'm out with know I'm type 1, and carry medical I.D on me. And I always eat something before I go to bed.

Vicki 🙂
xxx
 
Oh yes, being ex Paras and Merchant Navy I like a drink or two but cant get tipsy no matter what.
 
I am fully able to get stupidly drunk which is why i am now not drinking... well i should say not binge drinking, i will have a drink once a week with sunday dinner but that is now my limit.... nice not to get hangovers or drunken injury anymore and means i can concentrate on my training too 🙂
 
I fail to see what pleasure there is in deliberately trying to get drunk, I've heard people say, "I had a good night last night, got drunk and cant remember a thing" How do they know it was a good night if they can't remember, it just becomes a burden on others.


John.
 
I've been T1 since age 13 so never known what it's like to be a non-diabetic drinker.

I've not very often set out to get drunk, have always felt rough and always had a hangover next day.

For the past 8 to 10 years, I've barely drunk and can now get pretty merry on a couple of good beers or glasses of wine.

If you regularly drink a fair bit it probably desensitizes you to the effects. I can't think of any connection to the diabetes, but it wouldn't be doing you liver any good.

Rob
 
Thats the problem, I dont seem to get merry even. Christmas day with the whole family having drinks at 11.00am all day long still nothing. Now before I was diabetic no problems at all when we went out dancing and partying, whats happened?
 
100 percent agree John,been drunk once in my life at 17 and i cannot stand been near anyone who is drunk.off topic I know and im type 2 but hay ho
 
Austin Mini said:
Thats the problem, I dont seem to get merry even. Christmas day with the whole family having drinks at 11.00am all day long still nothing. Now before I was diabetic no problems at all when we went out dancing and partying, whats happened?
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could it be because alcohol is a depressant?
 
I don't drink much so find two glasses of wine with my dinner will make me tipsy/happy and then give me a raging thirst.
 
I don't understand why anyone would want to be drunk? What is the attraction, what do you think you are missing out on?
 
The only reason I can think of for not feeling the effects of alcohol is de-sensitisation.

Rob
 
cherrypie said:
I don't understand why anyone would want to be drunk? What is the attraction, what do you think you are missing out on?
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Some people drink to self-medicate for depression, which doesn't really work as it tends to make it worse, but maybe losing a few hours of not feeling bad (or perhaps anything much) seems the only way to handle it. Peer pressure, removal of inhibitions, addiction... :(
 
Northerner said:
Some people drink to self-medicate for depression, which doesn't really work as it tends to make it worse, but maybe losing a few hours of not feeling bad (or perhaps anything much) seems the only way to handle it. Peer pressure, removal of inhibitions, addiction... :(
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If kids were taught assertiveness at school, there'd be a lot less need for alcohol. It does help people to be who they want to be, or feel they are expected to be. It also enables free expression of emotions or feelings that are otherwise difficult to express. And of course, it's perfectly acceptable within British culture. Sad but true.

Rob
 
I asked the question to get a response here.🙂
I have nursed many alcoholics over the years and have come across many reasons that are put forward. Previous traumas, Peer pressure, Poor Relationships, Financial worries, Depression, the list is endless. Many alcoholics do not even know why they drink other than they "enjoy" the social aspect. Many alcoholics do not drink at home, they need the stimulus of a crowd.
The percentage that recover is quite small and the resources that try and help are expensive.

If you need alcohol to enjoy yourself then it could be the start of a slippery slope.
 
Interesting thread and views - a great mix.

I've not been drunk as a non-diabetic (as diagnosed when I was 10), and I have been drunk on numerous occasions in my earlier years!

I don't drink with meals, nor just have the odd '1 or 2' as I find the effect on my sugars and just me in myself is just not worth the hassle, and I just don't like the taste. So when or if I do drink, I drink to get drunk...so I surpass the feeling like cr/p because my levels are high or having 1 or 2 and then feeling like I want to be asleep.

It is a very rare occasion I will get drunk now - probably once or twice in the last 4 years. But I did go through my mid twenties going out a couple of times every week. So I've kind of lived both ways.

Drinking is a personal choice. And it does depend on how people become on drink as well as to whether there's an appeal or not. I'm quite a self-conscious person but having a few drinks just gives me a bit of confidence to shake my stuff on the dance floor...I couldn't dance sober. I wouldn't get drunk, for example, if it made me violent or abusive. I also don't suffer from hangovers so I'm not putting anyone out the next day either.

But back to the original post - I agree with Rob that it's probably nothing to do with your diabetes having an effect on you, but more that your body has got more used to alcohol than it was before.
 
ukjohn said:
I fail to see what pleasure there is in deliberately trying to get drunk, I've heard people say, "I had a good night last night, got drunk and cant remember a thing" How do they know it was a good night if they can't remember, it just becomes a burden on others.


John.
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I agree with you John.
I don't drink at all, haven't done for years. I have drunk alcohol in the past and I remember being tipsy, but that was such a long time ago. I may not drink ( honestly I don't like the taste) but I haven't given up being alive. There's more to life than getting absolutly drunk that you don't know what's happening to you, but that seems to be the norm nowadays with what I have read and seen on television, also having an ex partner who is now so critically ill and fighting to stay alive and is going to leave our 11 yr old, plus my dad, who in the past has caused me a lot of pain and heartache because of excessive drinking. My heart sinks. Sheena
 
Austin Mini said:
Since becoming a type one diabetic in 1988 I have never ever become drunk. Not even tipsy. Not even a hang over or sore head. Is this normal? I have spoken with other type one diabetics and this seems to be the norm. Anybody here experienced this?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't think this is type 1 specific, I get drunk all the time, and I am a big lad who can handle it........
 
I was 22 on diagnosis, only paralytic once, pre D. Tended to by my b'f's mama since he didn't DARE bring me home. And needing assistance once after D. Peculiar set of circumstances the first and second time and that amongst friends who looked after me well. Never again I swore, and I haven't. But I've certainly been 'silly drunk' shedloads of times up to about 15 years ago but since then and especially in the last 8 or so years, I hardly drink - hence my capacity for metabolising (or whatever the correct word is) alcohol has got less and less and I will be 'mellow' after one glass of vino. Instead of three.

I felt quite sloshed last summer when 4 of us shared just one bottle of well chilled (damned fine) rose before dinner one evening - and again a few days later on two glasses of kir after dinner. I had a couple of glasses of Buck's Fizz on Xmas day and not had any since.

There are 14 (very dusty) bottles of wine and 3 bottles of champagne on the rack on top of our kitchen cupboards. There are over 30 assorted bottles of spirits and liqueurs in the 'sideboard' next to this desk. There's certainly some bottled 1664 in the 'big fridge' outside - the garage. (that's great if you keep it 12 months by the way - tastes just like draught)

Think I'll have a Viking funeral and they can float my longboat away on a sea of alcohol, will burn a treat .....
 
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