Okay so here it goes….

I love to drink. It makes me more social, more upbeat, it calms me after a long day. It makes me a better person. I don’t abuse it, I don’t have to have it and I am a very healthy person. I

The narrative right now is don’t drink, alcohol is super bad, you will get cancer. Yeah I get alcohol is a poison. I also get it’s been around for thousands of years and while some people end up alcoholics or damage their liver, I am skeptical that alcohol will end up killing you and questioning why medical professionals made this a big deal and not processed foods which probably kills more Americans every year than every bad substance combined ?. The people I know who have made into their 90s all have a common theme: they occasionally drank. Not correlating long life and alcohol, but let’s face it it didn’t kill them either. This includes many people in family who don’t have cancer or any other issues, but enjoy a good whiskey or two every single night.

Then there are people like me who gave up alcohol and is now stressed all the time. What’s more likely to kill me alcohol or stress ?

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this, but post anything pro alcohol on Reddit and you get crucified as if you killed a small child. Whatever happened to my body my choice lol ?

Anyways I don’t know what I am looking for answer wise. I am a father of three with a stressful life . I look forward to the occasional drink, but also want to live a long life for my kids. I have tried everything to de stress from tea, to hot baths, to mediation ( I do regularly )to the new sober curious drinks loaded with herbs to supposedly give you that alcohol like feeling – it doesn’t work. I can’t do THC drinks cause of random drug testing at work.