> I keep it to a single drink and can go weeks with them in my fridge without taking a swig.
Are you me? But really, in my experience, (and I’m nearly double the legal drinking age) we are the minority. When I was college age (even though I didn’t do the standard US 4 year stint, but was adjacent to it and all the fraternity etc shenanigans that come with it) it was about rage bingeing. Now amongst my professional friends and colleagues, some of whom are parents, I am the _only_ one either not drinking or stopping after just one. I prefer driving myself everywhere because inevitably someone wants another round when I want to get back to my kids before bedtime, or we’re on the way home from a remote trip and I don’t want to ride with someone that’s already sloshed and wants to bring a “road soda” with them. I kind of dread work trips because while I do like many of my colleagues, there is way too much alcohol consumption, like, late nights every night for a week straight.
People become skilled at hiding their inebriated state, and like pathological liars, believe themselves that they “aren’t that drunk”.
I do hope it’s just the bubble I grew up in because I want to think there’s a pathway to teaching my kids there is a responsible way to enjoy it without making it a competition, identity or escape. But it’s hard for me to believe my experience is very far outside the norm.
> excess drinking is more often a symptom of other problems (stress, anxiety, depression, social pressure, etc.)
I believe it.
> Getting rid of symptoms does not heal the problem.
Looking the other way while people are actively hurting themselves with the wrong medication or dose doesn’t help either.
I’m not saying we need a teetotaling prohibition. But I actually am grateful that there is a two drink limit at the breweries where I live (even if it was installed for the wrong reasons) because it cuts down on the bs I described above.
Like many things I’m sure it comes down to education, not to mention other cultural things like religion and puritanism, paired with youthful rebellion breeding dysfunctional coming of age.
And finally, like with anything else it’s the dose that makes the poison, and not a binary question of allowed or banned, but where a sensible limit can be found.