Ask Lemmy

I started drinking at 13 but never much. It wasn't until about 15 i finally got blackout drunk. My peer group drank hard in the late 90s and were the binge drinking bar crowd of the early 00s. I've lost a few friends to ODs combining booze and pills, accidents while drunk, escalation to heroin, and once had to be resuscitated when i drank so much i quit breathing. It wasn't until my late 30s that i finally got sick of living like that and reigned in my drinking. Now i never drink at home and maybe go out one afternoon for happy hour and am home by 10 rather than closing out the bar every night.

Alcohol is a rough one because it's not only an addictive substance, it has a strong social component. When you drink hard your social circle becomes others who drink hard, if you try and quit you have no friends. If you have a hard time making friends while sober but are more at ease with a little buzz, you'll end up right back at a bar. I've been going to the same bar for over 20yrs and there's regulars who were there before me still on the same barstools.

Fun fact from a psych nurse: you can usually estimate how many years a person has spent abusing substances by how many years behind they seem in their emotional development. A 30y/o who still acts 20ish has probably spent ~10 years using. It's not necessarily contiguous, they might have started at fifteen, used for 3, got sober for two, used for 7 more then been sober for the last 3, but they've probably spent about ten years using in total. Abusing substances lets people avoid the psychological crises they would normally need to confront to grow as a person. When they stop using they don't get to skip ahead, they have to pick up maturing from where they left off. It can also happen with non-substance behavioral addictions (like gambling) but it has to be real bad.

It looks like the other side needs a bit more representation here. I'm late 30's. While I've had the occasional wine with friends and family, I've never been drunk and have no plans to change that. I've also never done drugs unless you count stuff like caffeine. I guess my rule of thumb is if a substance makes me not me, I don't want it.

I started drinking age 14. At first it was like 3 beers per friday. By age 16 I was drinking a 12-pack per firday/saturday. By age 18 I was drinking a few beers every day and got properly pissed on the weekends, about 20-24 beers and some vodka. By age 22 I was pretty much an alcoholic. By age 25 I decided I either stop or die under a bridge with my own shit in my pants. Have been alcohol free now for... I dunno, 13-15 years or something like that.

I went to university when I was two weeks away from my 16th birthday. I started smoking weed that summer, and tried alcohol when I was 17.

Yes. But I am Scottish.

In Germany (if your parents agree) its allowed to drink beer and wine from the age of 14. By 16 you are allowed to buy beer and wine by yourself. By 18 you can buy anything.

... So yeah, the first time i got shitfaced i was 13 :|

There's an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in my area called "Never Had A Legal Drink." It was created by and for people who decided that they were alcoholics and had to stop drinking before they turned 21.

Plenty of people get into drugs/alcohol at an early age.

Yes

Once I turned 16, I would have a beer with my parents once or twice a month. Despite being in the US, in my state it's legal for parents to give their kids alcohol, so it was no big deal.

Personally, I think it can be a fairly healthy introduction to alcohol, so long as the parents aren't just giving their kids a 30-pack and letting them loose.

Never bothered with weed, I was never (and still not) interested

I was a fullblown alcoholic and habitual stoner by the time i was 16. Started at 14. Im now 2 years sober at 29 and really mourning the lost time.

I think I've always been older than you...

My psrents gave me a sip as a teen and I hated it. I tried it again at 21 and hated it then too. It was only a few years after that I tried something I liked.

Yes, we have quite an unhealthy alcohol culture here.

The only redeeming factor is that most people make their mistakes learning their tolerance while still being young enough to avoid getting in serious trouble.

If you've never touched alcohol at 18, you might want to be extra careful about it. It's kinda cringe to watch grown ups not knowing their limits, because it's assumed that they should know by now.

A minor exceptions, I stole a sip of my a coke without realizing there was booze in it. Felt weird, tasted gross.

0/10. Don't recommend.

I didn't really drink until my 21st birthday. My only memories of that night was being bought a shot of Hennessy, bartender telling me to put my shoes back on and then crying to my best friend that I totally loved her in the cab home.

Hilarious. 10/10. Smashing success.

My first time getting drunk was with 17 years old, i live in europe. I could have gotten drunk earlier, as many do, but my environment with friends and family kept me from that. I have to say I am very happy to have had my first serious contact with alcohol no earlier than 17 because i was able to judge the implications better.

Started at 13, about every weekend. 0,5 l moonshine. That continued until 20, then maybe just 2 times a month. 20 years later I never get drunk but enjoy a glass or two sometimes. I don't wanna know how many brain cells I killed.

Yes, I was 11-12 and got it from some freshmen/eighth graders who got it from God-knows-who

I didn't drink until I was 23. I don't think I missed out on much.

That said...I drink a lot now, so maybe I'm making up for it? lol, jk.

Drink if you want, don't if you don't. It's poison, it's unhealthy.

Alcohol not until I was 20. Weed not until like 25 I think. You're probably about around the average age to try for US kids and a little late for euro kids it seems like.

my friends dad would feed us beer in the pub at 13 years old. We were having lock ins in local rural pubs in deserted rural areas by 16. At 18 (legal drinking age here) I could party all night.

I think I got drunk for the first time at the age of 13, partied hard til I was 19, then "took a break" from it and went hard again in my early army days (2015/16). I haven't had any alcohol in 8ish years or something like that (for more than just religious reasons).

Some people, like me, just got drunk to be in a "better" position to make some indecent proposals to drunk girls in pubs/clubs, and once you're out of that cycle (in my case, I met my now wife) it loses any utility. Other people really enjoy the effects of booze, and that's it. The first group will more easily leave it in the past, for obvious reasons.

In the UK it's quite common for kids at some 15/16 to have house parties with alcohol (our drinking age is 18). At least this was common when I was that age 16 years ago

I was a nervous kid. I didn't try alcohol until 20 and weed till I was 31. They can be fun but remember your brain is still developing. Don't really use them until that has stopped. They have profoundly negative effects on your developing brain.

And alcohol is literally just poison. Id avoid that completely if you don't have a strong desire to drink. I say that as a neurodivergent that self medicates with alcohol. It's not good stuff.

Yep, first had alcohol and pot around fourteen. I don't think anyone I personally knew had their first drink later than fifteen or sixteen.

I smoked weed at 16, more regularly from 17 on. Didn't have my first drunk till 18. A few beers and sips of wine here and there, but never full on blasted.

If I could go back in time I'd tell myself to stay sober. I never had any huge problems with substance abuse, but it took me to my till my 30's to realize life was better and more fun with a clear mind.

The first time I quit smoking pot was in the fifth grade.

I started smoking dope again in high school. I didn’t drink alcohol much in high school mostly because I didn’t like the taste, but I had did plenty of drinking.

I was a total pothead in high school. I was self medicating because of my crazy ass home life.

9 when first tipsy on champagne at A new year's party. Generally had a beer with food from 14ish. Would get drunk regularly every weekend from 15. Drunk daily between 17 and 18, clubbing and partying almost daily. Calmed down a bit and restricted that to weekends from 19-20 but spent the whole weekend shit-faced. At 20-21, cut it down to just one day of the weekend. At 22-23 it dropped to only ever every few weeks but still getting pissed.

From 24 onwards it's been only every few weeks but just getting tipsy e.g. ½ to 1 bottle of wine, with the odd occasion of 1½ bottles. Rarely drink anything other than wine these days as I live in wine country and have access to good stuff but do like a beer or a rum and coke too, especially if I'm out at a gig or club on the very rare occasion that happens. Rounds out to about 12-14 bottles of wine a year. Which isn't too bad. Certainly a lot healthier than in my late teens-early 20s.

The minimum legal age for drinking beer or wine at a pub or restaurant is 16 years in Germany and many of its neighbouring countries so, yes, it's not at all unusual around here to drink before turning 18.

I only drank underage once at my graduation party

I got drunk when I was 5 does that count?

I've had a couple of parent-sanctioned sips of beer once every few years as a teenager, but never got drunk nor smoked any weed for the first time until age 20.

Just came here to say alcohol is a drug too. Saying "alcohol and drugs" makes it seem more harmless despite it being one of (if not the) most harmful drugs we know of. I know its a common way to phrase it, not judging, just leaving my 2 cents.

Also to answer your question, I had my first drink at 14 and my first cannabis joint at around 17. I still smoke weed but almost never drink.

I'm 25 and have yet to have a proper drink. Most people in my country started illegally drinking at 13-15 years old while out clubbing, but I just hate alcohol so much! I never understood the hype around it. I don't even like it when there are a couple of teaspoons in my sorbet. I'll have a tropical mocktail or soda, thank you.

I'm 30 and I've never drank alcohol or done any drugs besides whatever medications my doctors give me. Watching beer and cigarettes destroy my father's life kept me ever from wanting to even try. Plus seeing how damn expensive it all is makes me super glad I never started.

Never drank illegally, waited until my 21st birthday

I waited until college. I tried weed and alcohol in my freshmen year, so 18-ish for me.

I was 14 when I had my first drink and 16 when I tried weed.

I didn't get proper drunk until I was 18 though.(Legal age here)

Overall, I was never a super heavy drinker nor did I get into other drugs. In college I would smoke weed with a buddy and watch Doctor Who, and now in my late 30s I maybe have 1 drink every couple of weeks, and quit weed entirely.

I tried weed and alcohol a couple of times. Didn't really care about them much though and never got into them. I started enjoying weed occasionally in my mid 30s. 😂 I still don't care about alcohol much, though I'll drink on occasion.

To be totally honest, it wouldn't kill you to try light drugs like alcohol, THC or nicotine, and you won't get instantly addicted to them or anything. But they are not healthy for you or your brain, and in the long term the potential for addiction is there. I personally feel that nicotine is the most addictive and THC. Is the least.

I would strongly recommend against even trying hard drugs, like opioids, heroin, meth or fentanyl, as those things can ruin your life or kill you quickly. Not all "drugs" are the same.