What do you consider to be “a lot” to drink by yourself?

I used to be a pretty big weekend binge drinker in my 20s, but hangovers began to crush me as I got older (while my tolerance actually seemed to increase). Was never an alcoholic per se but think I had some problematic tendencies with alcohol intake and drinking alone. I took a break from alcohol for a few years actually and just began socially drinking in May of this year.

I told myself I wouldn’t slip back into the routine of drinking alone, and honestly kinda lost the desire to, but today is actually my birthday and last night I decided I’d have a little self-celebration and polish off the last of a bottle of good Mezcal that I had on hand. It gets harder to find people to party with mid-week in your 30s so I didn’t even bother trying to make special plans – might sound depressing but I just wanted to kick back and relax with my dog lol.

Over the span of about 4 hours I had 6 drinks, each with one 1.5oz shot of mezcal, and a bit of ginger liqueur – but the liqueur is only 28%abv. Then before bed I poured a very small glass of Prosecco but didn’t even finish it.

So I’d say even though it felt like just six drinks, with the liqueur added in and the tiny bit of sparkling wine, I probably consumed around 8-9 standard units worth total. I was a little tipsy but not “drunk” or plastered.

Having said that when I mentioned to a couple people close to me today that I had six drinks by myself they acted like this was really bad / unusual behavior and questioned it. They said normal people don’t drink six shots of hard liquor alone.

I guess to me it felt like drinking a six pack of beer or something but now I’m curious … what’s the max that you guys usually consume when savoring a good drink? Do you ever have nights / special occasions where you imbibe more than usual?

Trying to be honest with myself about my intake/relationship with alcohol and am just curious, I guess, whether my friends are correct in saying it’s unusual or problematic to have more than just one or two drinks by yourself. It’s not like I was slugging them back and losing control; I just enjoy the feeling of a nice strong buzz once in a while, and being a 205lb dude who’s into bodybuilding, I think my tolerance tends to skew a little higher so it takes more for me to feel the effects. I don’t usually start to feel the pleasant effects of alcohol until I’m 4+ drinks in, and I’d say my perfect “tipsy but not drunk” level is 7-8 drinks or so. But knowing how unhealthy alcohol is makes me desire it less than I used to, too… since breaking my abstinence in May I’ve mostly been saving it for social events etc. and trying not to drink often.