How do people stop themselves from drinking too much?

I don’t usually drink because alcohol tastes really gross to me and I don’t like how it affects me. But whenever I do find something to drink that doesn’t taste too bad, I overdo it and get really drunk. I don’t understand how other people control their drinking.

Example (skip to the paragraph if you hate details): Yesterday afternoon, my partner was feeling really anxious, so he went to a bar to get drunk. When I got back from work I went to join him, and he convinced me to drink with him. He had already had three glasses of Guinness by the time I got there and was already a bit drunk. He had me get a mojito while he had another Guinness. When I finished the mojito, he was still drinking his beer. Then he wanted some fried pickles, so I got us some to share, thinking it would be good to eat something since I was drinking alcohol and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I also got another mojito, since he was still drinking and I feel weird when he drinks alone.

The alcohol started to hit me right when I placed the order, but I felt okay. I drank the second mojito, we ate our food, and I was still feeling okay. We danced while talking for a bit. But then I suddenly broke down crying because we brought up some stuff from my medical history that I’ve been really upset about lately. I excused myself to the restroom for a bit to calm down, and then rejoined him.

The crying was definitely a sign for me to stop drinking, but I would have felt bad if we left because of me, and I didn’t want to just hang out at the bar doing nothing, so I got another mojito. My partner then saw that the people next to us had gotten sweet potato fries that looked good, so I bought those for us as well. Then we decided we wanted to try the white potato fries, too, to compare them, which is a thing we do sometimes. He wanted another Guinness, too, so I got that along with the fries and another mojito for me so that he wouldn’t be drinking alone. Again, I finished my drink really quickly since it was mostly ice, and he was still drinking his beer, so eventually I got one more mojito, even though I’d already closed out my original tab.

At this point, we’d both had 5 drinks – 5 beers for him, 5 mojitos for me – and it had been at least a couple of hours since I arrived at the bar. I was definitely quite drunk at this point, and didn’t feel like going home just to spend an hour cooking dinner, so we left the bar and ordered some takeout from a place nearby and then danced outside some more while we waited for the food. There were definitely some more warning signs that I was too drunk. I was acting really bubbly, and I recall getting confused about which of us had talked to a person earlier – I thought my boyfriend was the one who originally started talking to them, but he said it was me who asked them to repeat what they’d said as he carried me past on his shoulders. He also told me that my voice was becoming more girly, which he says happens when I drink a lot. But I was still feeling pretty good.

I paid for the takeout and we walked home. We got inside our apartment and pulled out the food to eat, and then I immediately went to the bathroom and started puking into the toilet. He came in to watch over me, and I ended up crying again, this time about how I wish I could get pregnant, of all things. And then I woke up in bed like 5-6 hours later. He told me I fell asleep on the floor and he carried me to bed.

Now, I definitely understand why my partner was not as affected as me. He was drinking beer while I was drinking rum, he drank his drinks over a longer period of time, and he weighs over 245 lbs while I weigh only like 135 at most. But what I don’t understand is how he seems to know when to stop even after he’s already drunk. He always drinks more than he says he’s going to, gets drunk pretty easily, and usually ends up acting kind of weird, lying on the floor, etc. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get sick from drinking. Whereas I pretty much always get sick when I drink any significant amount of alcohol.

I don’t really want to be better at drinking, because I think it’s unhealthy and a waste of money in the first place. But I know that I’m realistically going to end up drinking with him again someday, and I don’t want to keep puking up everything I paid for. So how do people do it? How do you know when to stop? How do you find the line between feeling good and feeling awful?