I Can’t Drink Now Like I Used to a Few Years Ago (26M), is that Normal?
During college and a few years after (maybe til 23/24) I drank almost weekly and don’t get drunk that easily. In terms of beers, maybe I get tipsy at about 6 and give up at 10.
But now, I drink 2 and I get tipsy, and maybe tap out at 4/5.
Is that normal?
It catches up with all of us eventually. One day you find you just have to start cutting back.
In my 30s here. I spent my 20s getting shit faced drunk almost every day. I can’t drink anymore. The hangovers are just too severe. I would rather be sober and deal with all the boringness that comes with it than get hungover. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.
Is that normal?
Yes
It could be that you’re drinking 6-10 natty lights and now you’re an adult so you don’t buy piss water any more.
As well as the medical effects, there’s also the realisation (age varies when this happens) that going out in order to get drunk is not a good time.
Yes, I have the same thing.
Having read your post, I’m thinking of giving up alcohol. I’ve just consumed my tenth drink and yet, surprisingly, feel no effects.
It’s fairly normal to suddenly find hangovers are a big problem as we get older… it feels like one day you’re able to go out, knock back a hideous amount of booze, then bounce back the next day ready to do it all over again… and all of a sudden those two pints of beer create the hangover from hell.
Not sure about tolerance though. What country are you in… is it easy / cost effective to get a liver test done? It might be down to lots of perfectly natural factors… if you lost weight; if you have a different diet (some foods ‘soak up’ alcohol better than others and cause it to be absorbed more gradually, if you’re drinking on a salad instead of say, pasta you’ll see a difference); you could be drinnking different beers.
Also, if you’ve had significant weight gain, this causes your liver to get fatty, which puts a strain on it; I’m not a medical professional but would think that could have an effect too.
Just an aside:
Fatty liver disease is so associated with alcoholism that it’s the default!
the other term is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease :)
Both come from an overabundance of carbohydrates in the diet. Alcohol is converted very efficiently into blood glucose which is interesting. Before diabetes became super common, most people only got their excess carbohydrates from drinking.
/End aside
Interesting, thanks. My mum has it (FLD), but she rarely drinks, just quite overweight unfortunately (cue the mum jokes lol). My dad has a condition I call ‘microliver’, he went through years and years of blood tests then liver biopses before a surgeon opened him up for something more than a core sample… and in his words “laughed at how small the liver was”. He gets drunk exceptionally quickly!
So genetically I’m double-fucked. Starting to get the same ‘weird’ gamma GT levels in my blood tests and being told I’m an alcoholic (as my dad did for 2 decades in the air force before they discovered what’s up), I do drink but prob about once a fortnight. I’m much taller than him though so maybe I just have a miniliver instead of a microliver :)
If you’re worried about developing fatty liver disease, you might want to look at a ketogenic diet. But I don’t want to get preachy, I’m happy to give you more information if you want it.
Reducing the carbohydrate load, reduces the amount of visceral fat stored in organs, which makes the liver more performant and healthier.
I am in a constant struggle atm to lose weight. Am 6’ tall, but 94kg so definitely technically overweight (and it’s fat, not muscle, do they make bras for men? Cause I’ve got hairy tits right now).
You’re right, last time I cut down on carbs combined with drinking green tea the weight melted off (though I was also doing a lot of pushups daily which also helped). cries in love of pasta
I’m a big advocate for the ketogenic diet (when followed correctly), but even just cutting down carbs is a great way to reduce weight and lower your A1C. Cutting down sugars from a typical diet can lead to withdrawals that are almost as bad as cutting smoking. We eat too much sugar as a species.
Am in the final stages of buying a house (hopefully), landlord evicted me over repairs so I’m temporarily living with my dad… he’s a bit of a feeder, I did make the point to him last night that if he puts food on a plate in front of me I’m going to eat it (brought up to eat everything I was given, ‘starving kids in Africa’ etc) and he agreed he’d stop offering me food all the time. I’ll defo make an effort to eat more protein & less carbs, thanks for the headsup!
Going keto can be hard. But you can try eating clean keto for two meals, and then having a normal carb meal socially. That limits your carbohydrate intake to a small window per day. Your body processes it out of your system and three or four hours. So most of the day your body’s working in keto.
It’s hard to do, because you’re constantly going to be craving, but it’s more socially acceptable especially when you’re living with a feeder.
I really like metrics, so I got a keto mojo, and I can measure my blood ketone levels everyday. Helps me stay on track. If you like data that might be an option for you
“Yo momma so fat she has fatty liver disease” just doesn’t hit the same.
hahahaha. Yeah it’s a bit too on the nose.
I did gain about 15 to 20kg.
I should just tone down on drinking.
I’d say that’s significant. Your liver is probably kinda creaking under the combined strain.
Have a serious think about your drinking, as if you are actually alcoholic / addicted then it could be harmful to go cold turkey instead of reducing gradually. I know from experience it’s really hard to say no especially if your social life revolves around pubs / bars & clubs. But it’s certainly not impossible, you’ve got this.
Wait til you hit your mid-30s and a single hoppy IPA keeps you up at night with heartburn, and an imperial means a headache in the morning.
My first two beer hangover was a real bummer. They still are, too.
normal… but you can practice drinking and get better at it. a couple years ago after I’d stopped drinking I tried to pick it up again and noticed that I couldnt handle my liquor at all. but through practice and perseverance I was eventually able to enjoy various rums and whiskeys without passing out after 5 or 6 ounces. eventually got tired of it again so now I just enjoy a beer every few weeks.
Tolerance isn’t a positive effect. I’m so confused at all the drinkers who act as though tolerance is a good effect there’s literally no other type of drug user who’d consider it to be a tolerance.
I’ll speak from experience: I used to like having a tolerance because it allowed me to “hang” with people that were heavier drinkers than I was. All this ended up doing for me was pave the way for alcoholism to set in.
That’s why it’s bad.
Agreed. I would not recommend this line of thinking
Your body builds tolerance to alcohol, which means you can drink more and not feel the effects as much.
When you stop drinking or drink less and more infrequently, your body’s tolerance lowers, so you’ll feel the effects more than when you were drinking heavily.
I remember, long ago, going to breakfast with a group of people that partied HARD the night before and laughing that “we’re paying for last night” as we ate and laughed only to go do it again that night.
Now I drink two whiskeys and need 3 business days, four Xanax’s and a metric ton of Pedialyte to even raise my head from the pillow in bed. I’m in my late 30s. It’s usually better - for me at least - not to drink at all. Mileage definitely varies.
It is not only rare but a red flag if you can drink like a 21 year old in your 30s and 40s. If you can drink like that in your 50s you probably have ascites.
Go see doctor. Changes in how your body reacts to alcohol can be serious. There was a dude who posted on reddit a few years ago that beer started giving him a big rash. It was lupus or something. You could have fatty liver or something that means you’re starting to do damage. At 26 it probably isn’t permanent yet, but either way, doctor. Get blood draw. Have liver levels check.
Do not waste the doctors time. If you start getting a rash get checked out but an increased sensitivity by itself (which is the only symptom mentioned) is not a cause for concern.
Mid-50s chiming in. In grad school I’d have 4-5 pints at the grad pub and then go downtown to go drinking lol. Those days are long gone.
I have a 2 drink limit now and will switch to water or soda. Otherwise I can’t function the next day. Hangovers are exponentially worse than they used to be.
