Oh, alcohol! very very good for the high-energy high-stress type of bad week (as long as I am not in need of sleep). very bad for me physically when I am low energy but sometimes the mood assistance of 2-3 drinks outweighs the late-the-next-day exhaustion, if the next day is a Sunday. I... don't react to alcohol the way most people do? It makes me increasingly cheerful and increasingly more awake .... it's an anti-inhibitor, for sure, but not otherwise a downer *at all*. I once read Beowulf for the first time at 6:30 in the morning, still tipsy after a couple hours of sleep, while everyone else was sleeping it off until noon. Because I woke up SO FULL OF GLEE that reading Beowulf seemed like the only logical choice.
(It's self-medicating, but since I go without drinking for months at a time, drink to the point of true inebriation only a couple of times a year, and always end up happier than not - I have deemed it good.)
Speaking of alcohol, this summer I developed a ritual which really helps me leave bad weeks behind. Friday nights, I sit on my porch from 6 pm until midnight, or I get too sleepy, or people go home, depending on the week. I may or may not have anything alcoholic to drink. I always drink lots of water. I may or may not order food delivered, or we might make something. J might join me, or not. Other people might come over, or not (a very large group of my friends is always invited, but not urged, so one night there was 20 people, but most Fridays it's 1 or 2, different people each time). I might read books - actually I almost always read books unless I have a lot of company. I might or might not make phone calls. It might or might not rain, necessitating frequent spells in the dining room porch adjunct.
It's different every time, but it's always Friday night, and I always do nothing that feels like work once it starts, and it always helps. Even on nights when I'm so exhausted that I initially feel like cancelling it and crawling into bed. (I only cancel it for travel, or Extreme Circumstances like the time our friends wouldn't take no to an expedition for an answer and then I found out they were expecting a new baby.)
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Date: 2013-07-31 02:24 pm (UTC)(It's self-medicating, but since I go without drinking for months at a time, drink to the point of true inebriation only a couple of times a year, and always end up happier than not - I have deemed it good.)
Speaking of alcohol, this summer I developed a ritual which really helps me leave bad weeks behind. Friday nights, I sit on my porch from 6 pm until midnight, or I get too sleepy, or people go home, depending on the week. I may or may not have anything alcoholic to drink. I always drink lots of water. I may or may not order food delivered, or we might make something. J might join me, or not. Other people might come over, or not (a very large group of my friends is always invited, but not urged, so one night there was 20 people, but most Fridays it's 1 or 2, different people each time). I might read books - actually I almost always read books unless I have a lot of company. I might or might not make phone calls. It might or might not rain, necessitating frequent spells in the dining room porch adjunct.
It's different every time, but it's always Friday night, and I always do nothing that feels like work once it starts, and it always helps. Even on nights when I'm so exhausted that I initially feel like cancelling it and crawling into bed. (I only cancel it for travel, or Extreme Circumstances like the time our friends wouldn't take no to an expedition for an answer and then I found out they were expecting a new baby.)