103 replies to this topic

[Sheik]

Can't find your post to quote it, NoeL, but I've looked up wether alcohol evokes postive feelings "by itself" and the answer is yes indeed.
Not only does it interact with the dopamin based reward system indirectly (via GABA based neurons) but it is also very likely (as functional brain scanning suggests) that it directly influences transmission of dopmain which leads to feelings such as euphoria, relaxation and general wellbeing. It also appears that some comsumers feel more extroverted, more popular and more attractive (though the latter effects are depending on the consumer's mood). Still it stands that alcohol seems to rather boost the general mood than euphorize. (Source: Brain and Behavior by M. Pritzel/ M. Brand/ H. J. Markowitsch (2009))

Edited by Yoshimi, 01 November 2011 - 05:32 AM.

[Dawnlight]

So how does a cup of coffee compare to a simple bottle of beer? I'm guessing they're about the same as beer is to alcohol as coffee is to caffiene but in larger quantities, the effects of beer occur quicker than the effects of coffee. Is it accurate to say drinking 1-2 cups of coffee is equivalent to drinking 1-2 beers?

[NoeL]

So how does a cup of coffee compare to a simple bottle of beer? I'm guessing they're about the same as beer is to alcohol as coffee is to caffiene but in larger quantities, the effects of beer occur quicker than the effects of coffee. Is it accurate to say drinking 1-2 cups of coffee is equivalent to drinking 1-2 beers?

No... no it's not accurate at all

Caffeine is a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant. That basically means caffeine speeds you up and alcohol slows you down. Completely different effects. Drinking a ton of coffee would have effects more similar to taking speed than it would drinking beer. Drinking beer would be similar to heroin (or should I say, drinking a lot of beer would be similar to taking a little bit of heroin, plus it would make you feel much sicker than heroin would).


@Sheik: Fair enough. I suspected that'd be the case, but I just don't equate "fun" with the general warm and fuzzy feeling of alcohol.

Edited by NoeL, 02 November 2011 - 12:57 AM.

[Sheik]

No... no it's not accurate at all

Caffeine is a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant. That basically means caffeine speeds you up and alcohol slows you down. Completely different effects. Drinking a ton of coffee would have effects more similar to taking speed than it would drinking beer. Drinking beer would be similar to heroin (or should I say, drinking a lot of beer would be similar to taking a little bit of heroin, plus it would make you feel much sicker than heroin would).
@Sheik: Fair enough. I suspected that'd be the case, but I just don't equate "fun" with the general warm and fuzzy feeling of alcohol.

I'm not sure wether that's right. I haven't tested heroin yet (and probably never will but who knows), but alcohol, is like you said, a depressant whereas heroin is psychoactive and thusly it's effect is different than the effect of alcohol regardless how much you consume. I can look this up, too, probably. Will do when I find the free time for it.

I see where you are coming from. I'd say, though, that euphoria and fun are somewhat close at least. Different none the less, though.

[NoeL]

I'm not sure wether that's right. I haven't tested heroin yet (and probably never will but who knows), but alcohol, is like you said, a depressant whereas heroin is psychoactive and thusly it's effect is different than the effect of alcohol regardless how much you consume.

I guess. I've never done heroin (and I don't think I would. Needles... blegh), but I imagine the effect would just be deep and intense relaxation and some drowsiness, and I've had experiences like that on alcohol.

[Sheik]

Well, Heroin basically makes your brain go crazy with it's dopamin and serotonin causing a ridiculous amount of happy hormones being poured out at once which causes a feeling which has been discribed to be "100 to 1000 times greater than orgasm". I indeed do understand why people consume it. However, I'm quite sure I won't try it because you can in fact get hooked on first consumation and over the time your brain will loose much of it's ability to make you feel good without the drug, decreasing the potential and quality of happiness your body is able to experience in the long run.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

Well, Heroin basically makes your brain go crazy with it's dopamin and serotonin causing a ridiculous amount of happy hormones being poured out at once which causes a feeling which has been discribed to be "100 to 1000 times greater than orgasm". I indeed do understand why people consume it. However, I'm quite sure I won't try it because you can in fact get hooked on first consumation and over the time your brain will loose much of it's ability to make you feel good without the drug, decreasing the potential and quality of happiness your body is able to experience in the long run.

I can't speak for heroin (though I've had two friends overdose on the crap), but I know cocaine does the same in terms of hooking you on the first go. A friend of mine tried it a while ago, and he described it as being the most amazing thing he had ever done, and now he's what I would call an addict. Which is really sad and needless to say I'm very worried about him

I think the moral of this story is that drugs are bad. Not all drugs are though, but if one can manage to stay away from any of it, that is probably for the better. I say that as an avid user of marijuana, which of course isn't at all dangerous in any way shape or form (other than the smoke, seeing as inhaling any kind of smoke is bad for your lungs), but again, while weed has been proven not to be a so-called 'gateway drug', some people can still get the idea that 'oh wow, if this is that good, imagine what cocaine will be like', and that is what's bad about it. Cliche I know; but safety first. If you (not you Thomas, people in general) are thinking about trying anything, make sure to do proper research first, because that research may very well end up saving your life. Which is good.

I think I've said enough about why I think drinking/smoking is fun though, and I don't think I need to elaborate any further. As I said earlier, it all comes down to what you think of as fun. If your idea of fun is to go out and drink with your buddies, awesome, but if your idea of fun is staying home and playing video games with your buddies, that's awesome too. Most importantly; these things can actually go hand-in-hand. And remember, you can still hang out at bars if you don't drink alcohol. They do usually serve soda as well, not to mention water. Getting drunk is not a requirement to have fun Being comfortable is.

So how does a cup of coffee compare to a simple bottle of beer? I'm guessing they're about the same as beer is to alcohol as coffee is to caffiene but in larger quantities, the effects of beer occur quicker than the effects of coffee. Is it accurate to say drinking 1-2 cups of coffee is equivalent to drinking 1-2 beers?

No, the effect is not at all comparable in any way shape or form

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

I can understand why people can find it fun, of course.
Personally I don't find it fun but as long as the people who are drunk or drugged up don't harm/annoy me or anyone else, it's fine. Unfortuanley that's not the case, pregnancies, fights everything happen when people are drugged and drunk, that doesn't seem FUN at all.

Fun for me is playing video games, watching TV shows, sleeping, chilling with friends and browsing the internet.


(that yellow sponge sure knows how to have fun = F IS FOR FRIENDS WHO DO STUFF TOGETHOR, U IS FOR U AND ME, N IS FOR 'NYWHERE AND 'NYTIME AT ALL! HERE IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA)

Uhhh... what?

You're making it sound like taking drugs or drinking alcohol is going to make you fight somebody or get somebody pregnant. That is so stereotypical I'm actually a little offended. That's a bit like saying that all nerds have huge glasses and zero social skills. Those exists, but the majority of the people who call themselves a nerd isn't like that at all, and is pretty much a normal person who has some interests that might not interest everyone else. I have never gotten into a fight because I was drunk, nor have I ever slept with anyone while I'm either drunk or high, and I know for a fact that throughout my entire friendcircle, not a single one of those has ever gotten into a fight either. I can't say they haven't slept with anyone, cause I wouldn't know, but at least they haven't gotten anyone pregnant.

You see, most people are normal. The ones who likes starting fights when they're drunk likes starting fights when they're not drunk as well, so that is hardly an argument at all against alcohol, and drugs especially because it's even less likely that someone who has smoked weed would be interested in getting into a fight. Seriously, it's okay that you don't wanna do it but wow, you could at least make sure you know what you're talking about before you go off saying that all drunks get into fights and get girls pregnant. That's not at all true, and I hope you realize that.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

Well "Migokalle" we live in different places. Here, teens are getting drunk and being silly and getting pregnant. Alot of fights happen which I have personally seen because their drunk and spirits are high. I don't think "weed" causes any of this but alot of conflict can happen if your on other drugs, out of ALL the people who do drugs I guess there's been fights because they were all drugged up and having rushes, ofcourse some drugs chill you out and make you all "LALA".

Ofcourse I realise that when people are drunk not everytime they have a fight but a fight would be more likely to happen if they were drunk and what?! People who get drunk and fight normally fight when they're not drunk, that's not the case... I have seen chilled out people become angry people when they're drunk and theres alot of acholoics who become real angry when they're drunk, so don't point the finger at me when you say I have no idea what I'm talking about when I've personally seen this a bunch of times....

Good day!

I'm not pointing any fingers but it is obvious that you don't really know what you're talking about

Seriously, most people don't get like that, and those that do are idiots. It's that simple, I really don't understand why everyone who doesn't drink has to think that doing so makes it more likely for you to get into fights and so on. It's not true, and it never will be. The only thing that gets these people into fights is the fact that they want to in the first place. Some people like the idea of fights, and think it's cool. I don't, and neither does most normal people. And it has nothing to do with what country you live in.

[Sheik]

I really don't understand why everyone who doesn't drink has to think that doing so makes it more likely for you to get into fights and so on.

It's one of those things that makes you "a better person" and everybody that doesn't go about things the same way is automatically worse and thus (because it's what bad people do) they get in fights, get teenage girls pregnant, rob money off helpless seniors - basically fail at life as a whole. I don't approove of this kind of logic, but I've observered it often enough in "ascetic" people that I'm believing to see a pattern. Somehow, some people fail to understand that you can take part in certain behaviors/events/whatever without falling into the responding sterotype the media invented.

Edited by Yoshimi, 27 November 2011 - 01:13 PM.

[Dawnlight]

Drinking aside, I have another topic: Online Video Game Hacking/Cheating. Why is it so fun to try to be an internet publicity whore? This is why games like Modern Warfare 2 suck so badly. These hackers take the fun away from us.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

Drinking aside, I have another topic: Online Video Game Hacking/Cheating. Why is it so fun to try to be an internet publicity whore? This is why games like Modern Warfare 2 suck so badly. These hackers take the fun away from us.

I fail to see how that has anything to do with the topic at hand, so maybe we should make a new topic about that.

I personally find hackers hilarious. When I meet one, I make the best out of it. And of course, while I don't 'hack' myself, I do love using glitches. In Battlefield 2, on the map Strike at Karkand, there's two spots where you can actually manage to get yourself inside a wall, or a house that cannot actually be entered, by using a parachute glitch. You can both see and shoot enemies walking outside, but they can neither see or shoot you... in one of the spots, there's some narrow corridors which makes it possible to knife people from inside the house you're in, so they just see 'killed by knife', without seeing anyone there. It's hilarious. What's even more fun is throwing out C4 packs into the alleyway from inside the house, then just waiting til the enemy (or your teammate, just as fun either way) walks past. BOOM!

I love it, but I also love playing the game properly. When I meet hackers or glitchers, I try to make the best out of it by having fun, rather than trying to play seriously. Because if you're on a server and that is your goal, then you're gonna be robbed of all the fun because the hackers will make sure you won't be able to play seriously. So yeah, make the best out of it when it happens, be happy when it doesn't. If you run into me online. Sadly BF3 doesn't have a lot of those glitches yet, or at least they haven't been found yet, but there's a very cool one on Caspian Border which isn't exactly a glitch. There's a tower, and on this tower you can hide behind a little metal fence... except you can't shoot through the fence, just over it, even though it looks like you should be able to. This means that the enemy has to land a headshot on you in order to kill you, and that's basically impossible without luck on distances like that, because no one runs around up there anyway. It's the perfect sniping spot, I'll show you when we play sometime