Got back from family vacation, got on the dreaded Facebook, found out the woman who was my first gf 12 years ago, and subsequently a friend I talked to pretty frequently, had died of liver failure at 33 years old.
Looking back on it, when she was drinking 12 years ago it just seemed like a fun time. I didn't know she sustained that pace for a decade plus. Some other things took a toll too, like an eating disorder.
Anyways, I am fuckin sad, fuck alcohol, it's as bad as heroin but capitalism gotta make that $$$$$
In my experience they straight up don't know how to engage with you. Typically they get defensive about their own habit after you say "no thanks".
Wife and I drank casually (but still too much) and stopped last year. We lost weight and our baseline sense of well-being is much higher. Once you get far enough away from drinking, it becomes alarmingly clear that people are straight-up poisoning themselves, and have no idea how to socialize without it.
I work in the live entertainment industry which means I'm often sober working in a room full of drunks and it truly is like watching everyone slowly become brain-damaged
this feels very similar to how people often perceive it as a personal attack when someone at the table says they're vegan