Being 21 and learning my limit....

I hate that out of control feeling a bit too much alcohol gives you. I'm someone that doesn't feel the need to get hammered to have a good time. A few social drinks are nice, a white wine or a gin and tonic on the rocks in summer. But getting drunk just to get drunk, urgh!

Alcohol dehydrates you extremely quickly, so it's imported to drink a lot of water. The one glass water to one glass alcohol is a good rule, I always try to drink the same amount of water as alcohol if I am going to drink a bit more than the odd sip here and there.


Just bare in mind - when you get drunk, most people get very loose. Both loose lipped and loose with their body. I have seen young girls (18 is the legal drinking age in Australia) walking off with revolting 40 year old men, vomiting all over the street, boobs hanging out of their top and underwear half off.
Not to mention the people I've been out with who have been shooting their mouths off about all kinds of things that they would NEVER have revealed if alcohol wasn't in the equation, and who I'm sure would have deeply regretted having spilled what they did.

Alcohol is a very ugly drug, drink it in moderation if you like the taste but please don't drink just because other people do.
As a kid, my dad was a Paramedic and would frequently come home with the stories of drunken kids he had to scrape off the street. Girls suffocating on their own vomit, needing it sucked out of their mouths, clothes soaked in their own vomit, urine and faeces lying in transportable hospital beds, in public hospital corridors screaming and crying pulling their clothes off.

Then there's the effect of the latest craze of having energy drinks with alcohol.
Bad bad bad bad very bad. Alcohol is a depressant, energy drinks are a stimulant. The energy drinks make you feel like you're not drunk, so you drink more and more until the alcohol takes full effect. So many people end up passing out very rapidly, and people have died as a result of these drinks.


Playing big bad mother figure here, but just be careful ;)

I remember getting really sunburned in Zijuatanejo , Mexico, when I was just 19, then going and drinking several Marguaritas at a bar that night with my girlfriend/roomey. Man , was I sick that night and the next day. I wanted to die! Good thing I had a girlfriend with me to keep me safe and help me back to our hotel. Good times!

When I was 21 I was actually still smart and didn't drink. I'd get teased about showing up at parties with a 6 pak of ginger ale under my arm instead of beer. At a bar I'd drink Virgin Marys all night long, nobody ever knew the difference. Then I became a professional ski instructor and started racing.......yeah.....I got into Schnapps Slaloms....that all lasted about 3 years, partied hardy from about 28-31, then rediscovered my brain and haven't had an alcoholic drink since. It's been much nicer for my head and guts. I found out I really just can't hold my liquor at all, 2 drinks and I'd puke all the next day.

So.....lots of water to stay hydrated. An oxygen tank to hit off of the next day seems to help a little too (my boyfriend was a paramedic and would stick me in the back of the ambulance for a little while if I was really bad the next day).

Then, party like hell til you're sick of being sick, forget where you left your car (yup, did that a couple times too), and then rediscover your brain and treat it nicely from then on and quit drinking. It's really not all it's cracked up to be, but you have to do it a while and abuse yourself a little while first to really get that. ;)