It’s been over four chunky weeks since I started my little kick aaaaand i’ve gotta admit that i drank at a festival here in Melbourne called Midsumma. I drank some brandy. Not a huge amount but still.
I’ve found it really easy most of the time and actually looking back over the few weeks I have realised how much I would have drank if I was drinking normally. A lot of it seems pointless. Even going out for lunch with the girls i’d have a glass of something, but thinking about it. Why? It puts weight on, it costs more and one glass really doesn’t do a lot for me anyway. That one drink here and there constantly adds up in cost and weight on my body that really isn’t needed.
Yeah, its nice but is that more of a psychological thing than a physical thing?
Let’s talk about health and alcohol. It’s a toxin. It’s a drug. A legalised and socially accepted one but nonetheless a drug. How many times have you woken up feeling really shitty and unable to move, had a banging headache, were sweating and feeling nauseous?! Nevermind thinking about the crazy nights where we wake up the morning after with a bucket of shame waiting to jump on us as soon as the memory floods.
Our body is a beautiful vessel that loves us, supports us and constantly provides us feedback to what is good for it and what isn’t. I know what’s good for me. Eating well is good, doing yoga is feels good, getting into nature is the best thing ever! We know this because it feeeeeeels good..hence our internal guidance system telling us what is best. And there isn’t a come down to any of these.
Currently, we are the most drugged up and depressed we have ever been as a society in the history of our existence and alcohol isn’t better than any other drug as far as I’m concerned. That might be quite a controversial statement but i believe it’s true.
Whilst doing some research I found out that in 2010 in Australia, 5,554 deaths were caused by alcohol and 157,132 hospitalisations.
Now when it comes to ice (methamphetamine y’all) in Australia in 2010, there were 88 deaths and this has continued to increase.
I’m not saying that ice is better because it causes less deaths.
I understand the difference between the two. I have seen ice addicts and it is horrible what it does to the mind and body. But I have also seen what alcoholism does to the mind and body and it still wastes you away…. Just differently.
My point here is simply to show that we have come to normalise a drug so much that even its high percentage of deaths has become normalised. It seems we have become numb as a society. Or have we as a society become quietly addicted ourselves that even we need a bigger hit to wake us up to certain issues?
Its like anything, once exposed over a period of time, the body needs something stronger. It happens with medicine, with exercise, with ads on tv etc.
At the beginning when we were exposed to kids starving in Africa, it was a shock and i’m sure people jumped on the bandwagon and donated. Years later after constantly being bombarded with ads, it no longer has the same effect. We have become anesthetized and now we need something stronger. Such is the nature of our biological system.
I was talking with a friend the other day after lunch and after coming back from the toilet and looking at all of the drinks on the tables when walking past, I wondered. Why alcohol? Why is it ok to have alcohol on the table and not a line of coke? In spite of weather i have had a few drinks of alcohol or a couple of lines of coke in the past, i still feel seedy when its coming out of my system. They both still affect my cognitive functioning.
Here’s something thought-provoking. The definition of a drug is this:
A drug is any substance other than food, that when inhaled, injected, smoked, consumed, absorbed via a patch on the skin or dissolved under the tongue causes a physiological change in the body.
YET!! When researching, there more often than not seems to be a separation between alcohol and drugs as if they were different. According to the definition of a drug…alcohol IS A DRUG. So, why has it been legalised and other drugs have not.
The thing about alcohol is this…..
Alcohol, in its purest form is a clear liquid and cannot be consumed raw as it could cause coma and death. (Oh please, pass me a drink will you?!)
‘Alcohol also has other uses such as industrial solvent, car fuel, raw materials and hand sanitizer. Ethanol can also be used for medicinal purposes in the form of an antiseptic to disinfect the skin before injections. Alcohol is also used in order to preserve specimens in scientific fields. Though certain types of ethanol alcohol are good for the body such as wines, excessive amounts of alcohol can cause damage to a person’s body and become addictive. However, studies show that moderate drinking of alcohol can reduce risks of dementia, stroke, cancer and other various health problems due to being rich in antioxidants.’
Industrial solvents?? Car fuel?? Why the fuck are we consuming a substance used in industrial solvents and car fuel? More importantly, why is it legalised and other drugs aren’t? AAAAND if it is beneficial because it is high in antioxidants. I could label about 10 foods that come to mind right now that are also high in antioxidants and have none of the ‘side effects’ that alcohol do!
By the way..that’s a whole other blog post! SIDE-EFFECTS are not SIDE effects. They are simply effects and the term used is a psychological trick in the pharmaceutical industry that allows us to accept them because they are simply ‘little symptoms at the side’, therefore reducing their importance. I call bullshiiiit!
Here’s my answer speaking from experience and as I have said, i love alcohol and i have loved drugs so i’m a sucker for being human and loving the pleasure we get from these drugs and other things in life.
But here’s one perspective to why I think alcohol is legalised.
It keeps us dumbed down.
It keeps us from questioning the nature of reality unlike other drugs such as cocaine, LSD, speed and ecstasy.
When I’m drunk, my brain is not functioning. My responses are slowed down and i become an idiot.
But when I have been on other drugs, all of a sudden i start looking at reality, questioning my existence and looking at society and the planet i live on. I consider alternative dimensions and life forms. And in doing this, I empower and alter myself.
Could it be possible that the few who govern the planet and who have legalised alcohol have done so because they know that it keeps us in low states of consciousness, never questioning our own power because we are too distracted with getting high after work on a friday? Could it be that they know our biological weakness and have preyed upon it for some reason?
At the end of the day. Who actually gets to decide what’s right for us and what’s not? Who gets to say that it’s ok for me to have a shot of tequila to get inebriated but a line of coke isn’t?
Who sits at the table and says yes and no? Who is above that person? Who is at the peak and what are their values and beliefs about life and the nature of reality that we are experiencing?
This is all simple questioning and I am aware that ALL is not absolute. There are many more variations and opinions to this subject and i respect and appreciate them all.
Even knowing all of this I still love a beer and although i don’t take other substances these days, there’s still an old part of me that misses a line of coke. I will after this year have a beer and most likely continue to drink alcohol on the very odd occasion but i can tell you that it won’t ever be the same. I already feel the same way that i did with meat when i gave it up. I have never wanted it in the same way since. Although i imagine a beef gravy dinner tasting nice, I no longer want to actually eat it because my perspective, values and belief systems have changed.
So, for those of you that this resonates with and who are thinking about cutting down the alcohol or even giving up. I encourage you to do so, because what’s on the other side is much more rewarding that any fleeting moments of pleasure.
Embody Her 