Dr. John A. King and Mel discuss alcohol as a drug and its particular risks for people with PTSD. King shares his personal drinking limits (2-3 drinks at home, 1-2 in public) and explains how exceeding them triggers a spiral of lowered self-esteem and depression. They offer practical harm-reduction strategies: pre-plan, remove temptation, and recruit a trusted friend to help enforce limits.
Let's talk about booze. Irish whiskey is fantastic, and if anyone's got a bottle lying around, I'll send you my email address. Okay, let's talk about booze. Look, alcohol is alcohol is a major cause of death. Alcohol is a very acceptable you know drug that we use within our society, and it's used for social, and it can be used for. Adverse as well as, you know, to enhance an experience. But you have to understand that alcohol is a drug, and you have to understand how alcohol affects you. I've got some very simple rules. If I'm at home, I'm allowed to have between 2 and 3 drinks. If I'm out in public, I'm allowed to have between 1 and 2 drinks, because I know that around 2 drinks for me, it starts to really impact who I am. And my close circle of friends know that John has one to two drinks, no more out. Might have two to three when he's home, but he'll have no more than that because it does impact me. How does alcohol impact you? And how does that impact your family? Do you drink too much and fall into depression? Do you drink too much and all of a sudden you're having issues and challenges and thoughts? Because if you are, then you have a responsibility to. To do something about it.
And just be aware and plan accordingly. If you know that you're— that you want to have a couple of drinks at home, um, you know how it's going to affect you. And like, if it impairs your food choices and makes you go grabbing for the ice cream or the chips or whatever, then like probably your spouse can maybe help you not do that. Or I, I think just it's good to know yourself. And we're not those people that make Hard and fast rules. We sort of give ourselves a little grace.
But we also set ourselves up for wins. So if we're going to have a movie night at home, we'll have a certain sort of chips that are better for us than other sort of chips, or certain sort of snacks that are better for us than other sort of snacks. Because you don't want to be like 2 shots in of the best Irish whiskey in the world and all of a sudden you're going for the bag of whatever it is, because you will go for the whole box of Oreos And you will go for the double-sized tube of Pringles if it's in the house. So we just don't have it in the house because we're disciplined. No.
No, the opposite.
Yeah, we're not disciplined. That's why we don't have that shit around, because we're just going to scoff at all, particularly her with Pringles. Unbelievable. But just be aware of it. As Mel said, be aware, be self-aware, and set yourself up for wins. Because if you don't, then the failure cycle that often comes with alcohol leads to a failure cycle of self-esteem and self-doubt and becomes very self-deprecating, and you end up spiraling down and spiraling down all over the fact that you had one or two more drinks.
We're talking about living well with PTSD, and so you want to enjoy life. You don't want to say, I'm never having a drink again, or whatever it is. Um, you want to find what works for you, and you want to enjoy yourself.
Yeah, I got a mate who doesn't drink at all. And lots of reasons why, but he just doesn't drink. So when we go out, he doesn't mind if I have a drink, but if we go out somewhere, often I won't drink if he's around because—
Why?
Why? And because he's told me why he doesn't. And I think it's okay to go into social situations with a wingman or the wingwife and say, hey, listen, baby, one or two, you know, this is all I'm having. If I go into a situation with my mate, I'm saying, mate, I'm going to have our drink tonight. And he knows that if I'm going for my second or my third, you know, it's like, hey, how you doing, man? I'm responsible for my response, but he is my friend, has taken on the responsibility to help me win. And have those people around you who are going to help you win. We talk a lot of that in Deal With It, in our book on PTSD, is having people around that are on your side.
