INTELLIGENT DRINKING
There are
some people who believe that to touch alcohol at all, to take even the first
drink, are to invite possible disaster. But there are many, including
knowledgeable physicians, who believe that intelligent drinking has much to
recommend it. Intelligent drinking is a matter of timing as well as moderation.
The time to drink is at the end of the work day, not at lunch and not after
dinner. Cocktail time, provided it involves an unhurried drink or two, can be a
pleasant time. It can foster relaxation, especially if the atmosphere is quiet,
peaceful. It can ameliorate some of the tensions of the day -in effect, ringing
down the curtain on the work day, opening the way for a relaxed dinner and
relaxed evening. Intelligent drinking of this sort, if your regular preventive
medical checkups indicate that you have no health problem, is not likely to be
a health hazard.
UNINTELLIGENT DRINKING
It has been
said that the road to alcoholism is an easy one to travel. And, indeed, some
rules, seemingly facetious but not really so, have been suggested.
1. Start each day right-by taking a drink
as soon as possible after you get up.
2. Whenever
you feel depressed or have a problem, take a drink or two. If you are alone,
take more; who will know?
3. If you take one drink and then feel like
having another, and then another, you are on the right track. Keep it up.
4. When
you serve drinks to guests, be sure to sneak a few snorts for yourself between
regular servings.
5. If you want to get up nerve or bolster
your self-confidence, take a drink to get rid of your inferiority complex.
6. Don't just take a cocktail or two before
dinner; keep it up after dinner.
7. No matter how many drinks you have had,
if you can lie flat on the floor without holding on, you can regard yourself as
OK.
Despite their seeming facetiousness, these rules make an important point:
It is easy for some people to slip into uncontrolled drinking and to delude
themselves that it is still intelligent drinking or harmless drinking.
