• @[email protected]
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    453 days ago

    If a 12 oz can at 5% ABV once per day makes you feel liver pain, there’s probably something wrong with your liver, and maybe the drinking life isn’t for you.

  • Zagorath
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    1373 days ago

    For the non-Americans in the audience, what is White Claws?

    • bbbbbbbbbbb
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      1353 days ago

      Soda water with vodka and a homeopathic amount of fruity flavoring

      • @[email protected]
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        243 days ago

        I keep seeing people make fun of it online but that sounds like something I’d enjoy. My drink of choice for a few years now has been the depressing combination of whatever carbonated water is available with whatever better-than-rotgut-but-only-just vodka is available.

        Rotgut-tier is also fine in a pinch. But the bad stuff here will make you blind.

        (I’m also a fan of “give me your sweetest, fruitiest, girliest drink”, which was great fun back in uni when all the dudes around me were ordering bitter beverages they clearly didn’t enjoy. By trying to project masculinity to the girls around us, they were actually betraying an underlying insecurity about it - and by ordering my girly drink I was gently lampshading that idea. Fun times.)

        • @[email protected]
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          133 days ago

          They’re delightful. I personally prefer whiskey and when I want carbonated alcohol I tend towards a beer or a bourbon spritzer (or it’s wine sibling), but they’re easy and refreshing.

          And yeah, as a chick who likes neat bourbon, it’s amusing seeing men who are clearly uncomfortable with the fact that they don’t like stuff like it. Like dude, just order what you like

        • @[email protected]
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          13 days ago

          If you’re drinking for a buzz, then that’s the best way. All the calories you’re getting are only from alcohol. If you drink other cocktails or beer/wine, you’re drinking a lot of sugar, which adds up over time.

          Source: my beer gut because I love the taste of craft beer

        • @[email protected]
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          13 days ago

          I really enjoy a white claw or the various similar brands. I don’t know what it is but if I drink a lot of those I have a “lighter” feeling of drunk. It feels nice, and I never get hungover from these drinks. I’m sure it’s possible of course

      • Sundray
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        13 days ago

        Sounds good – my go-to drink at my local is a vodka and soda with a lime wedge. (Occasionally will get a vodka and tonic with a twist if I’m feeling daring.)

        • bbbbbbbbbbb
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          12 days ago

          No hate, its just a drink for me. Other people enjoying it doesnt hurt me

    • @[email protected]
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      683 days ago

      A can of carbonated water with a shot of vodka in it.

      Just as much flavour as a typical flavoured carbonated water too

      • @[email protected]
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        213 days ago

        Just to clarify at least original White Claw gets its alcohol from fermented sugar. It’s basically a gluten free clear beer with no hops and fruit flavor added.

        High Noon and anything labeled Vodka soda use actual distilled spirit. Those are more expensive and taste better, especially after a few.

        • @[email protected]
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          23 days ago

          Depends on the state, no? Many states will tax distilled spirits higher than just fermented beverages, even if the end product is essentially just a 5% 12oz can.

          We need these laws to change, imo.

          • dadarobot
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            13 days ago

            it does not depend on the state, white claw does not have vodka in it. high noon does.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 days ago

          It actually says “beer” in small print on the can since it is according to the legal/regulatory definition.

      • RaivoKulli
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        113 days ago

        It’s honestly really refreshing during summer to drink vodka + carbonated water. If it’s really hot (or I’m super full of food) I don’t want much taste and carbonated water does a good job of hiding away the vodka taste.

        It’s a common drink in Finland, Koskenkorva vodka and vichy (water)

        • @[email protected]
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          53 days ago

          Sounds like the water provides the freshness and the alcohol is around only to get you drunk. Just order carbonated water.

          Why order vodka if you don’t like the taste? If the goal is get drunk, just choose a drink that you find pleasant.

          • RaivoKulli
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            33 days ago

            The alcohol is there to relax me.

            Why order vodka if you don’t like the taste

            It’s cheap and does the trick. And it can be pleasant, ice cold or in say carbonated water/vichy. Maybe it’s a cultural difference but just seems amusing to explain this.

            • 𝕛𝕨𝕞-𝕕𝕖𝕧
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              13 days ago

              idk where the other guy is from but your take is the norm here in america, also sitting here mildly perplexed at this requiring explanation… maybe OP isn’t a drinker?

            • RaivoKulli
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              23 days ago

              It’s a matter of taste but out of hard liquor not flavored after I think brandy can be genuinely tasty. Ice cold good vodka can be refreshing. Sauna and ice cold vodka is worth trying out

        • @[email protected]
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          43 days ago

          Summer drink is a Gin and Tonic.

          Nothing is better after mowing the lawn than a shot of Pin-Sol with lime.

          • RaivoKulli
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            3 days ago

            I would think they are but they’re not familiar to everyone (actually just had to explain the drink in another reply hah)

    • @[email protected]
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      213 days ago

      White claw is a drink that comes in vaguely energy-drink looking cans, tastes bad (if it has any flavor at all), and has a slight alcohol content.

      In fairness, my opinion of flavor should be taken with a grain of salt (lol) because I really dislike the taste of alcohol and am honestly surprised anyone could drink even a low percentage without recognizing ethanol’s horrible flavor.

      • @[email protected]
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        153 days ago

        Huh, you may be surprised to hear, but I actually LIKE the taste of ethanol in many drinks.

        • @[email protected]
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          53 days ago

          Another thing that is relevant to my opinions on this topic: I don’t get drunk.

          My watch confirms that my heart rate and breathing are affected, but apart from the burn going down (and a headache if I drink more than a few shots), I feel no other effects. So unlike most people I don’t have the same source of positive associations with the taste.

          That being said, from a strictly flavor perspective, Jin isn’t horrible. Juniper is one of the few flavors that doesn’t clash with ethanol as much as others. Grapefruit also fits with the taste of alcohol pretty well, but apart from those… I think I’d rather a capri sun than a cocktail lol

          • AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)
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            23 days ago

            I wonder if you and I are similar. I wouldn’t say I don’t get drunk; if I drink enough I get all of the non-fun things like being unsteady on my feet, and I wouldn’t be safe to drive. On the other hand, I don’t get any of the fun things people talk about like being more relaxed, getting uninhibited, whatever a “buzz” is, etc.

            • @[email protected]
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              23 days ago

              If I drink a lot I’ll also get slightly dizzy and like feel like my vision is slightly delayed, but I’m still able to keep my balance and focus. I’ll also sometimes get sick to my stomach, but food helps with that.

              But yeah I don’t get any positive effects either. No buzz, no happiness, no reduced inhibitions.

              Also turns out you and I aren’t the only people like this. Everytime I bring it up on lemmy some other person seems to comment that they feel the same.

              Do other drugs like weed or stimulants not work too? and are you ADHD?

              • AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)
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                23 days ago

                I never really did much in the way of drugs. When I was a kid I was given morphine in the hospital, and that made me hallucinate like crazy. When dentists used to use Novocaine, they always had to give me twice as much as they normally would. I only tried pot once, (well, twice, a day or two apart) about a dozen years ago, and I didn’t notice any effect.

                To my knowledge I’m not ADHD, though I’m not sure how I’d know if I was.

                How about you?

                • @[email protected]
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                  23 days ago

                  Ditto to the dentists and the weed. And I’ve not done any opiates that I can remember but my cousin, who is similar to me, said morphine did nothing for his broken leg but make him feel sick to his stomach so he just wouldn’t take it.

                  I am ADHD. Methylphenidate (Ritalin) helped my focus but made me like physically anxious and sick to my stomach, amphetamine (adderall) typically feels like nothing though it helps with executive dysfunction and sometimes I feel cold or sleepy.

                  The reason I asked is because some of the others who shared my sentiment about alcohol mentioned the same thing about weed and painkillers and had ADHD. Some of them also mentioned having red hair, but I don’t really fit that category.

                  Not feeling the “high” of drugs does sound like it would be related to adhd since it would imply abnormalities in reward pathways in the brain, and from what I can tell, the weed and painkiller issues seem more like dysfunctional opioid receptors. Then again I’m not a doctor lol

        • @[email protected]
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          13 days ago

          Some people I know call anything 5% or below “bitch beers” because it’s a slight amount of alcohol.

    • Captain Aggravated
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      63 days ago

      “Hard seltzer.” fruit scented fizz water with a little booze in it, marketed mainly to women.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 days ago

        with a little booze in it

        I’ve never heard of this drink before, but I’ve looked it up and it’s 5% ABV. That’s not “a little” booze; that’s the same as a premium beer.

  • @[email protected]
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    743 days ago

    In the 19th century all kinds of “snake oil” mixtures were sold as pain killers and energy tonics. The vast majority were just something suspended in alcohol. Alcohol dulls pain and makes you feel a rush of euphoria. So people thought it was “medicine.”

    It continues to this day. My wife was convinced that a certain kombucha was benefitting her gut microbiome in some profound way because it made her feel so great to drink it. Turns out the brand got in trouble - their process was letting through 1.5-2% alcohol (yes my wife is a lightweight).

    • @[email protected]
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      93 days ago

      We like to talk about drugs like there’s this clear delineation between something that is and isn’t medicine… but it really comes down to the situation and the dosage.

      For much of history and in most places, liquor was the most effective painkiller available. More recently, fentanyl started as a synthetic, medical grade painkiller. It’s still widely used across hospitals for that. Before synthetics, it was opium (otherwise known as heroin), derived from poppy plants.

        • @[email protected]
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          63 days ago

          It’s derived from petrochemicals but it works on the same receptors. And 50 years ago people were screeching about heroin, a completely unnatural man made synthesized drug far more potent than opium (which is roughly 10% morphine, heroin being around 2-3x stronger than pure morphine), in much the same way they are screeching about fentanyl now. “It’s a scourge, it kills people, it’s destructive” etc

          All of those things can be true and fentanyl is absolutely far more dangerous given its potency (though giving someone with 0 opioid tolerance heroin isn’t necessarily safe either).

          The real enemy is addiction, and the real real enemy there is a lack of resources and empathy. A lack of supports, a lack of housing, a lack of meaningful jobs and supportive welfare, a lack of healthcare, a lack of a society that doesn’t focus on punitive incarceration efforts over rehabilitative treatment and equitable respect

          But keep focusing on the fentanyl boogeyman. Or tranq. That’s the problem. Just get that off the streets and it’ll all go away

          • @[email protected]
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            12 days ago

            A lot of people got sold what they thought were prescription pain pills, but were actually fentanyl. Some died the first time they took. No amount of empathy is solving that, you need the drug and dealers off the streets.

            • @[email protected]
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              53 days ago

              Yes I’m aware. fentanyl (it’s in my post) is derived from petrochemicals but still acts on the opioid system. The whole “being derived from petrochemicals” thing is what makes it “fully synthetic” which is just a creepy spooky nonsense weasel word that anti science nutjobs use to promote shit like anti vaccination. The fact that it is synthetically derived doesn’t make it any more or less dangerous, the fact that it’s significantly more potent does, but even with that to an experienced user it’s just a far more intense heroin, which is similar to how heroin is a far more intense morphine

              Tbf I could’ve probably used the noun instead of “it’s” but I feel like the context is pretty clear if you read past the first sentence

          • @[email protected]
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            23 days ago

            The real enemy is addiction

            With Fentanyl it’s different. It can be lethal the first time you try it. We might say addiction is one problem but lack of regulation and predictability in dosage is also a problem. Much of what’s dangerous about illicit drugs is not knowing quite what you are getting.

            Heroin addiction can also be immediate, so I’d say the mere availability of the drug is a problem. It’s not just that sometimes an addiction develops and then there’s a problem.

            I agree with most of what you said, just not this one part. It’s an antiquated point of view from rosier times with less dangerous drugs on the street.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 days ago

              Heroin can be lethal the first time you try it. People were dying of opioids because of heroin long before fentanyl was on the streets and people were dying from oxycontin too.

              Does fentanyl kill more? Yes, because again I am not disagreeing that it is far more powerful, that there are scumbags who mislabel supply or purposely adulterate drugs to make them seem more potent, etc

              I’d just argue that your point of view is a war on drugs bullshit take that only started to give a shit about the addiction crisis once vice and youtube dummies starting making fentanyl a buzzword. It’s overly myopic and ignores the systemic factors that drive people to use.

              So you regulate supply. Then what? Fentanyl is already regulated. It still doesn’t address the fact that 95% of the people on the streets in Kensington are seen as utter trash and society is waiting for them to die. It still doesn’t address that someone on their way to that place has no real support if they don’t come from a rich family (and honestly even then it’s not great?)

              I do absolutely agree with you that safe access to regulated drugs is absolutely necessary. If addicts could get pharmaceutical grade heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, etc it would ensure safe reliable dosing in a monitored site that could support overdose if it occurs (remember that overdoses are not inherently fatal), it would essentially completely disarm the cartels (unless they fully shift to avocados or whatever), and it would allow you to regularly connect with addicts to encourage treatment and connect with resources like housing and welfare

              But whenever these programs get trialed (just the clean needle stuff, no way the dea lets the drug part happen) the conservatives go nuts and the libs let out their inner NIMBY conservative so they get their funding cut and often shut down, even when data supports their existence

  • RaivoKulli
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    3 days ago

    I did the same almost, bought weird new energy drinks, was about to drink one at work, looked at the can better, 5,5% alcohol. Whoops.

    Drank it on the drive home instead, naturally

      • Ricky Rigatoni
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        353 days ago

        If god didn’t want us to drink and drive then why’d he invent those nifty beer can hats?

            • dadarobot
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              13 days ago

              yeah i got one of those and my wife got really mad at me. i mostly just drove 5 blocks to work in a 30mph residential road. if i got on the highway, i’d take it out and put the belt on

              • @[email protected]
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                82 days ago

                I don’t understand why you’d put the burden of that extra step on yourself rather than just wearing your seatbelt

                • dadarobot
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                  12 days ago

                  its not an extra step. 9/10 trips were short trips in a neighborhood, and saved the step of putting on the seatbelt. 1/10 trips on highway with an additional step. saved me 9/10 steps.

              • @[email protected]
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                22 days ago

                My friends complain about the seatbelt alarm going off because they don’t wear their seatbelt. Instead of wearing their seatbelt they defeated the safety mechanism, problem solved!

          • @[email protected]
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            2 days ago

            Dang! If I still talked to my parents I’d have just found the perfect Christmas present!

        • @[email protected]
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          43 days ago

          Don’t even have to stop driving to top up. I couldn’t find a picture for the one I’ve seen with bait, liquor, and ammo sold in the drivethru.

      • @[email protected]
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        143 days ago

        If they get past a 0.07 with 1 white claw, I envy their lack of tolerance induced financial burdens and I hope they have a great time where nobody gets hurt but I also hope they know their limit and never drink and drive because we all share the road and a drunk driver probably won’t end up killing the person who doesn’t understand that the left lane is for crime that really ruins the buzz on my drive home.

      • RaivoKulli
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        123 days ago

        I had already opedened it, what else was I supposed to do, pour it out?? How wasteful smdh fr

  • @[email protected]
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    503 days ago

    One of my American colleagues in Japan once got written up because he didn’t know chūhai was alcoholic. It came in a can with colourful fruits on it on a shelf next to the coke.

    • @[email protected]
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      243 days ago

      Be glad you don’t live in the UK then. You have to be able to prove that you’re over 16, or 18 - I forget which. Luckily I don’t have to worry about that being 27, but it does get annoying when I forget about it and take a monster through the self checkouts. Normally I have to wait maybe 5 minutes for the overworked employee to notice me and authorize the purchase.

      • @[email protected]
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        153 days ago

        They did this in Sweden too. Then people stopped buying energy drinks, because most people self checkout and you had to wait for an employee to come check that you are an adult. And swedes being swedes, they would rather die than go through that.

        Now they have a permanent employee checking from afar with a tablet, approving people without any intervention or interruption. I wouldnt be surprised if the energy drink brands partially pay for them.

        • RaivoKulli
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          3 days ago

          I’d be awesome PR for them if they were paying for it because waiting for an employee to check your ID for a damn energy drink while you’re trying to get on with your day sounds annoying as shit

          I tolerate it for alcohol but energy drinks would be too much

      • @[email protected]
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        113 days ago

        Energy drinks are pretty bad for you though. Probably should do the same thing in the US.

      • Kairos
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        113 days ago

        Honestly caffeine should be age restricted to like 15+. Its a very addictive psychoactive drug.

        • @[email protected]
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          63 days ago

          Energy drinks are 14+ in my country. No idea whether it’s enforced though. Only became interested in the during uni.

      • @[email protected]
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        13 days ago

        Why do people have to be ID’d for an energy drink? We don’t have to be ID’d for them here

        • @[email protected]
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          22 days ago

          There’s no legal minimum age, but some retailers voluntarily limit sales of high-caffeine drinks to under 16s.

          UK retailers also mostly operate a “challenge 25” policy, which means for any age-restricted items (alcohol, tobacco, blades etc.) with an 18 or 16 limit they ask for ID from anyone who looks under 25, to make sure they’re catching people who look old for their age.

        • @[email protected]
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          43 days ago

          hmm, there’s gotta be some agreement or contract that makes them.

          no business is going to willingly get in the way of their own profits like that. no companies id for alcohol because they’re concerned for your health lol. if there isn’t a law or legal incentive for them to do that then they have credible evidence that there will be if they don’t.

          you can’t survive as a business in 2025 if you willingly do things that could show down sales for something silly like “health and safety”

  • @[email protected]
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    213 days ago

    Do people not read the package at all for the food they consume? It says right on the front the alcohol content.

    • @[email protected]
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      133 days ago

      Put it near enough to the energy drink case in the convenience store, and this kind of mixup seems plausible.

    • Cousin Mose
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      63 days ago

      Yeah that’s kind of insane. I kind of get it if you’re seeing it for the first time and someone else is holding it, but to actually buy it and not realize it’s alcohol is a completely different level.

      • @[email protected]
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        93 days ago

        Assuming this is real, maybe the wife bought them for herself and hubby thought, “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I started snagging these bad boys”. She notices that some are missing, asks about it, and we have our reveal.

  • Beesbeesbees
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    153 days ago

    Watched my boss drink one of those and a red bull at the same time. Regular thing for her apparently.

  • Evil_Shrubbery
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    3 days ago

    Is this an ADHD meme?

    (Smol amount of alcohol to focus the mind a bit, deal with normal amounts of ADHD anxiety? Still, not reading the labels is weird.)

    • @[email protected]
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      13 days ago

      Hangover also great for ADHD. Slows down the mind. Quite productive unless you buy in to the idea that you can’t do stuff while hungover.

      Pity alcohol is so bad for you.

    • @[email protected]
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      23 days ago

      Wait is this a thing? Sounds like a horrible way to manage but I’m down to try anything.

      • Evil_Shrubbery
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        3 days ago

        It only kinda is, it’s more of a partial indicator really (not on it’s own, a distant personal clue that fits more puzzles), doesn’t last long & is easily overruled by other shit (a bad/worse focus day, emotional things, adrenaline, etc).

      • @[email protected]
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        12 days ago

        It’s not really a thing. ADHD is usually medicated with stimulants, not depressants. Counterintuitively, ADHD brains suffer from a lack of sensitivity to dopamine and similar chemicals, and stimulants flood the brain with these giving ADHD people an experience closer to neurotypical.

        Alcohol as a depressant does the exact opposite thing that an ADHD brain needs, and will make core symptoms worse.

  • Ephera
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    33 days ago

    Conversely, we had a small event at work with three different drinks, of which two were lemonade and the third looked like just another flavor of lemonade, but was actually an energy drink. You basically had to read the ingredients to find out.

  • @[email protected]
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    53 days ago

    Let’s be clear here, calling white claws an alcoholic beverage is… Technically true, but it’s literally %2.5, I wouldn’t put it past someone to not notice they’re drinking with that weak sauce