I don’t use drugs nor alcohol, but I just turned 18 and I noticed that a lot of people younger than me (high school age so 14-17 even) use alcohol and sometimes drugs from siblings, older friends, etc.
Did you do that when you were younger than me? I don’t plan on doing so anyway.
I tried alcohol at age 16 and age 18, tasted like pain thinner. so i haven’t bothered since, am now 60.
A few times in my early 20s friends said try this or that and id have a sip but tasted so bad
Similarly with cigarettes, tried one at 17 or so and was like, what the actual fuck… and never bothered4e since.
Would like to try LSD
It looks like the other side needs a bit more representation here. I’m late 30’s. While I’ve had the occasional wine with friends and family, I’ve never been drunk and have no plans to change that. I’ve also never done drugs unless you count stuff like caffeine. I guess my rule of thumb is if a substance makes me not me, I don’t want it.
I started drinking at 13 but never much. It wasn’t until about 15 i finally got blackout drunk. My peer group drank hard in the late 90s and were the binge drinking bar crowd of the early 00s. I’ve lost a few friends to ODs combining booze and pills, accidents while drunk, escalation to heroin, and once had to be resuscitated when i drank so much i quit breathing. It wasn’t until my late 30s that i finally got sick of living like that and reigned in my drinking. Now i never drink at home and maybe go out one afternoon for happy hour and am home by 10 rather than closing out the bar every night.
Alcohol is a rough one because it’s not only an addictive substance, it has a strong social component. When you drink hard your social circle becomes others who drink hard, if you try and quit you have no friends. If you have a hard time making friends while sober but are more at ease with a little buzz, you’ll end up right back at a bar. I’ve been going to the same bar for over 20yrs and there’s regulars who were there before me still on the same barstools.
Fun fact from a psych nurse: you can usually estimate how many years a person has spent abusing substances by how many years behind they seem in their emotional development. A 30y/o who still acts 20ish has probably spent ~10 years using. It’s not necessarily contiguous, they might have started at fifteen, used for 3, got sober for two, used for 7 more then been sober for the last 3, but they’ve probably spent about ten years using in total. Abusing substances lets people avoid the psychological crises they would normally need to confront to grow as a person. When they stop using they don’t get to skip ahead, they have to pick up maturing from where they left off. It can also happen with non-substance behavioral addictions (like gambling) but it has to be real bad.
I went to university when I was two weeks away from my 16th birthday. I started smoking weed that summer, and tried alcohol when I was 17.
I smoked weed at 16, more regularly from 17 on. Didn’t have my first drunk till 18. A few beers and sips of wine here and there, but never full on blasted.
If I could go back in time I’d tell myself to stay sober. I never had any huge problems with substance abuse, but it took me to my till my 30’s to realize life was better and more fun with a clear mind.
Im german. My first time I couldn’t walk anymore was 16, first blackout was 17. Normal drunk as fuck since I was 14
Yes. But I am Scottish.
I only drank underage once at my graduation party
Started at 13, about every weekend. 0,5 l moonshine. That continued until 20, then maybe just 2 times a month. 20 years later I never get drunk but enjoy a glass or two sometimes. I don’t wanna know how many brain cells I killed.
Once I turned 16, I would have a beer with my parents once or twice a month. Despite being in the US, in my state it’s legal for parents to give their kids alcohol, so it was no big deal.
Personally, I think it can be a fairly healthy introduction to alcohol, so long as the parents aren’t just giving their kids a 30-pack and letting them loose.
Never bothered with weed, I was never (and still not) interested
I have drank in variable amounts ever since high school, so around 14 or 15yo. Alcohol should be approached with a lot of caution. It has a way of sneaking into your life and taking greater and greater importance without you realizing. Thankfully I’ve seen it happen in others and that’s kept me on my toes
I started drinking age 14. At first it was like 3 beers per friday. By age 16 I was drinking a 12-pack per firday/saturday. By age 18 I was drinking a few beers every day and got properly pissed on the weekends, about 20-24 beers and some vodka. By age 22 I was pretty much an alcoholic. By age 25 I decided I either stop or die under a bridge with my own shit in my pants. Have been alcohol free now for… I dunno, 13-15 years or something like that.
mad props. alcohol is sneaky and dangerous. I applaud you
Full disclosure: weed helped me out of alcohol. I went from heavy drinking to smoking, then that also got a bit out of hand, spent a few years daily smoking. Then I decided to see if I can get off of that as well, had a 6 month break and was fine. Since then I’ve smoked every now and then, sometimes more, sometimes less. Currently haven’t smoked anything since January 6th.
Only real addiction I have is coffee and bad jokes.
A minor exceptions, I stole a sip of my a coke without realizing there was booze in it. Felt weird, tasted gross.
0/10. Don’t recommend.
I didn’t really drink until my 21st birthday. My only memories of that night was being bought a shot of Hennessy, bartender telling me to put my shoes back on and then crying to my best friend that I totally loved her in the cab home.
Hilarious. 10/10. Smashing success.
My first time getting drunk was with 17 years old, i live in europe. I could have gotten drunk earlier, as many do, but my environment with friends and family kept me from that. I have to say I am very happy to have had my first serious contact with alcohol no earlier than 17 because i was able to judge the implications better.
