A New Life

It's been three months since I last had alcohol. I am doing one of these "life hacks" to see if there is any difference, to discover if alcohol was a positive or a negative in my life. Was it bringing good things or bad? It definitely made evenings with friends more eventful, but is that a good thing, to enhance relationships with drugs? Cocaine makes for a fun evening, but I'm not going to bring it to a six-year old's birthday party so why is it acceptable to bring alcohol? If I asked, is abusing drugs a positive thing? you would likely answer no, it's definitely a negative, and yet we accept alcohol as a part of our lives. We don't even think of it as a drug, as something we consume to alter who we are. Is that a good way to live? A vacation becomes a time to drink in a new location. At the center of every evening out with friends, there is alcohol. What is that? How did alcohol, a drug, l become such a central part of our lives? 

After 90 days of no alcohol, it's time to think about what I want to do with this new me, this person that doesn't consider the use of a drug to enhance any experience. I don't need to use alcohol when I am feeling timid among my friends. I don't need to use it to alter my mood because some event came into my life either good or bad. But does alcohol really help in either case? Is it helpful to abuse a drug to enhance or dull anything? It can't be a good thing. It's been a part of every weekend of my life for so long. The weekend, Friday night, became a time to drink. Not always to excess, of course, but with the latest use guidelines, binge drinking is the consumption of five or more drinks within two hours. How did it come to pass that alcohol became such a central part of everyone's social lives? 

Some small amount of irony here in that this blog was named almost 15 years ago. Alcohol is indeed for external use only.