Alcohol doesn’t make Gen Z more likeable .

[00:00:00]You're not fun. You're just drunk. I'm going to say it again. You're not fun.

[00:00:03]You're just drunk. Can we have an honest conversation? Is this a safe space? Can I speak freely? I feel like this generation especially, especially Gen Z, we rely so much on substances in order to be fun, in order to have experiences, right? If you constantly need alcohol to have fun, to talk to people, to be alive, to be energetic, then you're not fun. You're just drunk. Alcohol suppresses your prefrontal cortex.

[00:00:31]Alcohol lowers your inhibitions, right?

[00:00:33]Alcohol makes you a more unfiltered version of yourself. And that can feel like you're being the authentic version of yourself. That can feel like you feel free. That can feel like relief. But if you can't access that state sober, then it's just a state. When you can't access that authentic version of you sober, you become dependent on alcohol because you feel like that is the vice. That is the coping mechanism that you use in order to get to fun me, in order to get to unfiltered me. Like I know so many people who struggle with emotional vulnerability. They struggle being honest. They struggle with anxiety, right? And so they use alcohol because when they're when they're drunk, they all of a sudden their fears go away. All of a sudden they can be themselves, right? It's crazy because people would rather use something that takes them out of themselves, their natural baseline, then spend time alone. The people that I know that really struggle with being alone, they have some sort of vice.

[00:01:24]Whether that's vaping, whether that's smoking, whether that's alcohol, something that they can use, that they can rely on, that they can be addicted to, so they don't have to sit with the uncomfortable truth of just sitting with their own thoughts. Do you know how scary it is sometimes to just sit with your own thoughts? To to actually be aware of what it is that's going on in your head, to actually question why you even think the way that you think. Where did you even get that from? You know, we live in a generation where there's so many distractions, not just on the internet, but we distract ourselves. We distract ourselves with alcohol. We distract ourselves with v with vaping, with smoking. I'm not saying that these things can't be balanced or done in moderation, but I think a lot of people overrely on substances, right? And when you over rely on substances, you become dependent on them. And when you become dependent on them, you forget what it's like to actually be yourself, right?

[00:02:08]Because think about it, if you're constantly interacting with people when you're drunk, then you learn that I get positive interactions with people when I'm in a heightened state when I'm drunk, right? which means that what you're going to do more of that you're going to drink more because you have programmed your mind to think that people only like this version of me when I'm drunk. But that version of you when you're drunk is not the natural version of you. That's a altered version of you, right? And when you become dependent on that version of you, you become dependent on the vice or you become you become dependent on whatever you use in order to get to that state, right? And then you never learn how to access that state by yourself because I've seen people act crazy when drunk, you know, and I kind of understand now why alcohol used to be labeled as spirits because, you know, even back in the day, they used to think that people were being possessed when they were drunk. And sometimes the way people act when they have alcohol in them in their system from what I've seen is like, whoa, who is this person? Like what are you doing?

[00:03:03]Like what are you actually doing? And in uni, I wasn't even judging these people.

[00:03:07]I just feel uncomfortable because I could just see how people would act when drunk and I be like, "You don't act like this in real life. You are not like this when it's just me and you. Like what is going on?" Um, and then is another thing I've been thinking about as well is when you are constantly drunk, when you're constantly high, when you're constantly in an altered state, people never connect with the real you. Like how does anybody really connect with you? How do you ever really connect with anybody else if you're constantly altering a state in order to interact with people?

[00:03:36]If you're drunk whenever you make new friends, if you're high whenever you talk to people, then how are people ever connecting with you? People complain, "Oh, like I'm so lonely. I have no friends." Yeah, because have you ever been by yourself sober? Do you even like yourself sober? If you don't like yourself sober, why on earth would people like you sober?

[00:03:55]This is how you become emotionally dependent on other people because you don't like yourself when you're by yourself. You don't like your own energy. You don't like going to events sober. People used to look at me like I was some sort of alien when I would go to an event sober because I genuinely could not understand why I would need alcohol in order to be a more heightened version of myself. I'm already very in your face. Like I don't need if I had alcohol in my system, I'd be more in your face and nobody needs that.

[00:04:24]It's interesting, right? Because I think you're always going to feel disconnected from people if you never spend enough time getting to know yourself, getting to like yourself, getting to enjoy your own company. You know, these substances, they pull you so much out of yourself.

[00:04:38]You forget what it's like to be sober.

[00:04:41]There are so many friends that I used to go out with that would never be sober whenever we'd be out, right? But then you'd they'd always end up doing like crazy stuff and then they'd wake up the next day and they'd be like, "Oh, why did I do that?" And I'd be like, "I don't know. Why did you do that? Are you actually fun or are you just drunk?

[00:04:56]Think about it.