Lower Drinking Age to 18? (Page 3 of 5)

For the most part, I agree with you. A lot of people at a young age drink because it's the rebellious thing to do. And some drink because they feel socially accepted finally. And still some drink because maybe they had a bad experience and they don't feel pain anymore when they drink. None of which really ever applied to me. How am I going to be rebellious when all my life I've been around the stuff. If anything, NOT drinking was being rebellious. Secondly, I never gave a hoot what anybody ever thought of me, because I knew I was always just as good, not better or worse, than anybody else. And thirdly, great upbringing, while being instilled in me that turning to a bottle will do nothing to solve your problems. Instead of getting drunk or feeling sorry for yourself (if that's indeed the case of why you're drinking), basically wasting time, you could put yourself to good use, like solving your problems and being done with them.

I truly wish everybody here had the upbringing I had, maybe it would make more sense.

Really? what did he have to say?

SRV said it took an act of God.  He tried to quit and could not untill he surrendered himself with complete abandon to his creator.  EC did the same.  Neither one of them had what it took to beat it.  Neither did I.  A power much greater than the human mind must remove the compulsion and the obsession.  Remove it, not beat it down.

Deezer, if you are not a recovered alcoholic, I respectfully suggest you bow out of this part of the discussion.  You are entitled to your opinion, but it is only that.  Some of us on this forum have EXPERIENCE with this addiction.  It is a deadly affliction, which will tell one there's nothing wrong.  It is a disease of denial.  Self knowledge and will power will not fix it.

If you want to enter a discussion about right/left brain comparisons, email me.

Don't tell me to bow out. These are my opinions I've had family and friends who have had these problems. Don't tell me I know nothing.

You dang right they are.

So what does this have to do with lowering the drinking age? If someone has an addicted personality, they'll wait until they're 21 to get hooked? I really don't see the logic in that. People who have addictive personalities or were going to get addicted to alcohol or drugs in the first are going to whether the age is 21, 18, or if prohibition is put back into place. Stevie himself said he started stealing drinks from his father's liquor cabinet when he was a kid.

I still stand by the fact that if you're considered old enough to die for your country, you should be old to have a beer. Either up the age to enter the army to 21 or lower the drinking age to 18. Because what those kids are doing is the most grown up thing you can do. Whether or not people will become alcoholics does not matter, because they were going to be whether the age is 18 or 21.

Clearly you've never met my dad. He can go without them and not get the shakes, and not go, "Oh my gosh I gotta have a beer!" This is the same man who stopped cigarette smoking one day because he didn't want to do it anymore. No patches, no shakes, no nothing. Just stopped. Who just stopped chewing one day because he was tired of it, didn't want to do it anymore. Who will oftentimes go a few weeks without drinking anything just because it gets old to him.

Like I said, you don't know my dad. And I feel bad for you for not. I'm not making him out to be Superman, but one thing he has taught me is how powerful a tool the mind can be.

Oh, and he doesn't get behind the wheel when he drinks.

It was kinda directed at everybody. We went from discussing whether the drinking age should be lowered to what alcoholism is. Those two are independent discussions in my mind.