So Dererys is the USA

[rah]

Fortunately as I have aged I drink less.

[Jon Miller]

No problem. But yeah maybe take up a less dangerous vice. That's why I all I drink is Mountain Dew.

Is that less dangerous than light drinking?

JM
(of course, paiktis is probably not engaged in light drinking)

[Jon Miller]

Fortunately as I have aged I drink less.

Currently, I basically drink at receptions and flights. Which have been very rare (for me) the last two years.

JM
(They were frequent during the two years before that, however.)

[Lorizael]

Is that less dangerous than light drinking?

JM
(of course, paiktis is probably not engaged in light drinking)

Apples, oranges, etc.

[Bereta_Eder]

That's not ALL you're drinking.
You're taking SSRI's.

Indeed I use alcohol as a stress reliever and I do consider it far less dangerous than blind seratonin/dopamine manipulators.
Ideally I shouldn't but what can you do.
Just as I gave up smoking, I'm positive I can give up drinking (like I have done for periods in the past) but now it's definitely not the time for various personal reasons that have to do with work stress personal stagnation, being a victim of cheating and infidelitely and generally simply not giving a freck.

[Proteus_MST]

Yes. However if most of the time I post here I'm drunk then it's very occasionaly (as in rare) that this happens.
...

So, an effective way to keep you out of the Forum would be, to connect your computer to an Alco-Tester?

[Bereta_Eder]

In that case, I'll just get a dog and have it blow down the tube

[rah]

Damn, I had to read that one twice.

[Bereta_Eder]

I have no idea what that could have been mistaken for, but I'll tell you this
When I was 16 and in a class of much older people to get the proficiency in english degree, the prof said paiktis is too young and too inexpperienced to get a profieciency in english.
I said, freck you and I quite his class.
I studied hard on my own alone for weeks on weeks.
And I did get the degree with an A
Of course I might make some mistakes from time to time

[rah]

You're actually pretty good at it. Your effort paid off.
It wasn't how you wrote it. It was how I saw it first.

[Bereta_Eder]

I am pretty good am I not?
The girls I consistently can swooon are english. (apart from greek, obviosuly)
I think that's because of language
(and adonis good looks)

[Elok]

SSRIs do magnify the effect of alcohol, along with other effects, but they're generally fine as long as you don't D/C them suddenly. They're certainly far less dangerous than alcohol, even if you drink alcohol responsibly. I can't recall hearing of anybody abusing Prozac--serotonin syndrome is really, really unpleasant.

[Bereta_Eder]

No, they produce all sort of weird sh!t.
Plus 90% of the patients who take them, get all the sideeffects (and they are nasty) and no benefits.
Alcohol will get you drunk for a period of time (when you'll need it) and then it's bye with no or little side effects.
The main reason why it lasted 5.000 years and SSRIs have started being qustioned justin a few decades of their creation

[Bereta_Eder]

Besides they are not comparable even as "treatements"

The losening of the neurotransimotr communication that alcohol induces can be compared mainly with bromazepam pills than SSRI's which simply and blindly shortcircuit dopamin and seratonin receptors for years on end.

[Elok]

I took Prozac for 10 years or so. I noticed three effects:

1. I stopped feeling irrationally listless and miserable all the time.
2. It got a lot easier to get drunk.
3. It was really difficult to get off.

The latter two are in some ways arguable advantages, though I eventually took myself off the Prozac because of number three. It was not a magic bullet which solved all my problems--few meds are--but it did help me get level enough to help myself. It did not render me inert or a zombie or whatever; I met and fell in love with my wife while on Prozac. SSRIs don't work for everyone because the human brain is complicated and we still don't understand all of it. Also, they have a vastly more subtle effect than the blunt implement of alcohol. The idea of "short-circuiting" serotonin receptors is precisely backwards; SSRI stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. They delay the reabsorption of serotonin by the end of the synapse which produced it, allowing the other end to absorb more. Thereby increasing, not decreasing, the effect of serotonin.

If you believe alcohol has no long-term side effects, I can only assume you are thinking of isopropyl alcohol wipes. The kind you're supposed to drink has substantial, potentially fatal side effects if overused. My father's sister has alcoholic dementia, for example. It is also addictive--unlike SSRIs--prone to abuse, and so simple to make that it can be created by accident by simply keeping juice for too long. Hence its abiding popularity. SSRIs are not associated with domestic violence, car accidents, organ failure, assault, murder, venereal disease, accidental pregnancy, or choking to death on your own vomit. They are associated with heightened suicide risk, but alcohol will do that too. The social effects of alcohol are sufficiently bad that many major religions forbid it, and many others are somewhat ambivalent. My country went to the bother of passing a constitutional amendment to ban it. Its abuse is still linked to thousands of deaths here annually. SSRIs, meanwhile, are opposed by Tom Cruise and various internet luddites. Vaccines are far more unpopular.

This is not to say alcohol is pure evil; I enjoy a drink myself, from time to time. But saying it's less dangerous than common antidepressants is absurd.