A Relationship with Alcohol

Leaving school is where the "parties" start, well house parties. Makeup is put on and few less clothing items have been chosen. You get taken into the plunge of what everyone is doing and fitting in trying things for the first time.

There's an instant thought as to when you turn eighteen, you can automatically drink because legally you can, which becomes the main focus of this milestone in UK culture. “First round is on you” is the joke of the night. With this you feel older and more freedom has been unlocked. 

Really the decision is up to you, how you have a relationship with alcohol. You don't realise that you open one up from that first sip. Drinking to fit in and numb the noise of the world. It can be a night out thing at the weekend or a bad habit during the week after work.

Two complete opposites. Everyone's relationship is different. Some have it as their release and some take it too far leaving every Sunday laid in bed hanging from the night before. 

Growing up most people get lost in the night life and open themselves to parts of themself that they didn't know. Alcohol almost makes you vulnerable without control. Parts of your personality come out or are enhanced. Worst of all you can become unrecognisable, being a new person. 

Some love it, some people hate it. I can't say I have ever felt pressured to drink but I know in the past I have had a few and I will want more which will make me do things I wouldn't normally do.

I get louder and more gigglier which isn't a bad thing but the next day I wake up and think who was that person? It becomes confusing, almost like an identity crisis. Questioning myself always makes me feel uneasy, which I don't like. As someone who feels secure in himself not knowing what this other side was unsettling. 

Everyone is different but I always say to myself that it is not worth the hangover and most of all hangxiety. Hangxiety is a whole different ball game. Hours of overthinking every conversation and most of all uncovering whatever memory loss is there. That feeling of rope wrapped around your chest, makes me feel like it's not worth the drink and as I have got older I have realised my relationship with alcohol has changed.

I don't add it into my routine every week but every now and then I have a few cocktails when I go out to suit my own anxieties.Making memories with friends and family, don't forget the holidays too. 

A lot of people take it too far, it's a common thing and not a bad thing, it's having fun. Letting your hair down, we have all done it. Saying you are living your best life in the clubs and pubs is normalised but can be easily glamorised making you feel like it should look and feel a certain way. The pressure of growing up in the world of alcohol can make you feel you need to go to these places, to only be disappointed. It is not like in the movies. It is a bunch of sweaty people listening to the same music every week. 

I have had some of the best nights but sometimes I've got to the bar and thought what am I doing here. It could be a mood thing or essentially I don’t enjoy being in this environment. 

It's about not feeling this pressure to be everything and do everything because people around you are doing the same. I love a good cocktail with my girls and having a boogie. It's so fun and sometimes what I need after a long week because it's not about the drink, it's the time I spend around people. That's what I came to realise over time. 

Moving to university opened my eyes to what the lifestyle there is like and I loved it at the start but over time it got boring and repetitive. Balancing and prioritising what's going to make you feel good at that time and never pressuring yourself to have a drink. Your company is enough and everything you bring to the table.  Even going out and not having a drink is crazy and daring, I know.

It shouldn't always surround alcohol and you can always have fun without it. You definitely don't need alcohol to have fun because you are you and with the right people you won't feel the pressure to. Yeah sure it will make everything feel a bit better if you aren't feeling as good as normal but sometimes it opens a hole to overindulge. If it is there and you fancy it, do it. Don’t put yourself on the line to have an alcohol fix.  Some people love the environment around drinking and everyone is different and you aren't strange for feeling different on a night out.

Little do you know there will be more people than you know that feel exactly the same.