Why do We Drink so Much?

Us, Irish have a rep of being heavy drinkers… and it wouldn’t be wrong.

This weekend the pubs were open for the first time in 3 months so of course, we all fled to them. I wish I could say I visited the local for the opening night and that was it, but I basically moved in there this weekend. So much so, it had me questioning why I pay extortionate rent in Dublin when I spent half of this week in the pub. However, I think we can all use the fact the pubs haven’t been opened in 3 months as an excuse.

But even with the excuse I still don’t let myself off lightly in my journal. In my journal, I like to question all my behaviors, good or bad.

Today I questioned why I drink so much, or even why we all drink so much. Firstly we drink to switch off. Alcohol has the power to switch off our thinking brain. We stop worrying about the past and present and we just enjoy the moment. We don’t care what people think as much... Like who the hell cares if you fell asleep on the bathroom floor… sure you were stovin! It gives you the ability to free you from worrying and let go and for that reason, I think a drink at the weekend is almost necessary!

The next reason I came up with is; I basically just want to spend time with my friends. I love being around them so much, they accept every part of me and I accept every part of them! We laugh, have fun, and make memories and I couldn’t be happier sharing my time with them. On day 3 of drinking this weekend I can’t explain how much I didn’t want to drink, I was dying a slow death on the sofa binging on Netflix and eating cheesecake, but as my friends were in the bar I just wanted to be around them. So, into the shower I went, I was sitting on the high stool in half an hour.

In my journal, I stated that I didn’t actually want to drink that day but this is where my friends are (and let’s be real here most of you are Irish so I know that’s where your friends were too!) It seems sober activities arent the craze in Ireland like they are in Australia. If you don’t go to the pub you don’t see your friends and that’s that.

But, I made a decision today in my journal that I’m going to research more sober activities, and I’m going to bring my friends down with me! (friends if your reading this unlucky!)

The pub isn’t about my love for the taste of jager bombs, The pub is about my love for my friends, the social connections and being around people who accept me.

So although I will still be getting lamped(incase anyone forgets I’m human) I’m going to try and understand what days I want to shut off and what days I just want to be with my friends and if I plan more outdoor walks and sober activities like kayaking, hiking, and museums maybe we won’t want to spend 4 days in the pub and maybe it will save us being hungover until Wednesday.

So Todays Journal prompt

I want you to ask yourself why you drink.

Journaling is the path to finding out who you are. I could easily put my own self down and tell myself I’m a bloody alco for drinking all weekend but when I inspect my thoughts I can see I just love being around my friends and if I want to drink less this weekend I can now put steps in place. I can understand myself that little bit more and forgive myself for the guilt of drinking all weekend.

I want to point out I think its totally normal to let loose every so often but if you have inspected your thoughts and released you’re trying to drown out your emotions constantly with drink then maybe its time to look deeper and understand what emotions you are drowning. Once you journal and inspect then you can accept and seek the solutions you need.

Sinead  ‘may have no friends after this’  Hegarty