Alcohol Keeps You Happy!
The Effect of alcohol on people!
Wow! What a topic to write on. I bet you are thinking that I am being incredibly audacious and rather stupid to make a claim like this. Trust me, I would feel the same too if I was reading an article which would say alcohol keeps you happy. This was a video, I came across on the TIME website and I was a bit stunned at the quality of the video done and the statistics that they have posted to make a statement.
Of course it is just a study and there is no direct implication as suggested by the post. But it does raise a few questions in my mind
- Who would benefit from a study like this?
- Who paid for this study?
- What is the end objective of a study like this?
- To make people happy?
- OR
- To get people to drink more?
- To make people happy?
Well, that is where I would love to listen to your thoughts. I am just going to state the facts as posted by the video.
A Study to quantify the effect of happiness from drinking on a scale of 1 to 100
More than 31,000 said that drinking increased happiness by 10.79 points!
I wonder what the data sample was, where did they target these people. It only says 31,000 said it increases by 10.79, but what % is this of the total number of people surveyed?
During Unpleasant activities
Doing anything along with the unpleasant activities has a positive impact, it can be generated by listening to music or watching TV in the background or maybe even talking over a phone. Was this survey conducted in comparison with other activities?
During Pleasant Activities
Well, this is one place where I would like to believe the study. When you are happy, there is little need of a supplement to make you happier. Of course there are some methods which some people resort to, but I guess that is a different case altogether.
Well, these were the findings of a study. I am wondering
- What is the amount of resource that has gone into this study
- Who does this study make appear good?
- If you are a person who enjoys a drink, the study gives a solid reason to drink more.
In the end, I would like to ask just one question – What is the purpose of this study?
The debate is on and I would love to listen to your opinion.
Do join us for more such updates,
Discover more from Inspire99
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Completely agreed!!
Nice Review dude
Keep it up
Thanks Cheers!!
He he thanks dude, it was funny to watch that video!
Happiness doesn’t depend on alcohol, it depends on the situation in which you are consuming it. :-D No happiness for “devdas” while drinking, I guess….but while celebrating a friend’s promotion, we feel happy even it’s simply mineral water… :-P
Drinking is not bad, I find addiction bad, to anything…
The last line is an extremely important one Maniparna, drinking is not bad, alcohol is not bad, but addiction surely is! The occasion and the person really matter a lot and most times it is the joy of being with people we really like and enjoy being with.
Well, all I can think of is numbers can be skewed whichever way you want them to. Biologically, alcohol is a depressant and should not be making anyone ‘happy’ :). As the study says – the greatest effect was when doing enjoyable activities. How do you separate the contribution of enjoyable activities from contribution of alcohol at the same time? The obvious beneficiary is the industry. Nice catch :)
Indeed mate, it is such a misrepresentation of data and no wonder a few alcoholics will use it as a support to justify their actions. Not that I am saying any of it is bad, it is terrible to use data to prove a point which everyone knows is wrong. And it just in a way sickens me that people are taken for fools and they have the audacity to prove that with stats!
Its not only make happy but also make sad. there is some effect of alcohol that leads the drinkers to behave in another way.
about the purpose of the study, i want to say that studies/research should be made in every field to know the things more deeply, some research are deadly so without hampering any living body it should be made.
its true that alcohol helps us to get rid of our stress and makes us feel better, specially if taken before sleep it helps us in sleeping and also keeps mind much cool after rising in morning—its my personal experience,i have taken alcohol three/four times and gone through this experience.
at the last i want to say—peeyoge nehi toh janoge kaise?(you will never know until you drink)
btw, i read the conversation between you and Deepali, hope you will not mind if i ask a question, as Deepali said–“delusional state”…i wanna ask—how can it be said that the state is delusional? what is illusion? what is reality? the state we call delusional—may the state “without ego”(as i termed it).
True Jyotirmoy, the whole report kinda makes me wonder about the necessities of these studies, the sponsors and the real purpose of it in the first place. Alcohol is a great thing for a social drink, works much better in colder countries. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we need such skewed data to make a statement. People are adults and know what they should do. If not, they will learn! But not through wrong data!
Well for me delusion is a wrong perception of reality, it is living in an illusion with the strong belief that it is true while it is completely false. In that sense, it is certainly a delusional state. However, it also keeps the head a bit dizzy which can also be argued as an illusion. So, not much of a loss with either argument here :)
I am actually smiling while reading this. Why do you need a study to prove that alcohol makes you happy. Isnt it obvious. But then, why doesnt it work when you are sad. On the contrary, it makes you sadder. And sometimes, people start drinking because they are happy and then go into bouts of hysterical crying. Alcohol numbs your senses- physical as well as mental. So the delusional state is often misinterpreted as happiness. I would not recommend this to anybody as a path to happiness.
Thank you Deepali. I like you thoughts on the posts, always sparks a very good conversation :).
He he, I think it is a completely skewed statistics and data study. It is like spending money on something just to give you advertising. I dont see how this is not advertising to any alcohol industry and I really wonder who funded a study like this. Kinda makes me feel that even PHd’s on matters like these are ways for companies to prove their point and add research to their half baked ideas about the importance of their product. End of the day, there is nothing more dangerous than half baked information.
Thank you for the medical opinion on alcohol. Although I don’t hate drinking, I think it is a good thing to have only once in a while. If it becomes a regular thing, then really it is more of a danger than something of use.
Thanks Vinay…your posts also seem very honest and thoughtful. I also enjoy a drink or two sometimes but not because I am seeking happiness. I have many other ways to find and retain deeper happiness which is not lost after the dreaded hangover.
Thank you Deepali :). Very happy to keep the mature conversations going, its not that easy to find more sensible conversations these days. Always happy to see your views.
Spot on, I think it is unfortunate if people think that alcohol is a way for happiness. It is never going to be, atleast for the likes of you and me. There are so many wonderful ways to make us smile and be happy about :)
Its a matter of coincidence that I got the notification of this article and I am standing right beside a signage of a restaurant that offers free drinks for the ladies in Saturdays. Point I am trying to make is the TIME study is definitely funded and is misleading. Happiness is so abstract a concept that a human in his own lifetime becomes sad from things that onve used to give him happiness. Just placing someone outside a drunkards paradise and then asking them to take feedback of drunk people on whether they are happy or not is to me just an example of survey taking gone wrong. Acceptable if the survey taker was himself high.
N.B This is coming from a person who took to alcohol to get rid of sadness only to realise later that it eats more into your time and mental strength for which you again feel sad, thereby, increasing the sadness exponentially. I quit alcohol pretty early but it still took away an year and half from me.
Ha ha ha, that’s quite an irony mate :D :D . Bulls eye mate, it is a skewed statistic to say the least and in every way wrong as I can imagine. It is really sad that this information will be treated as true by some naive people. Granted that it is their responsibility to be a little more aware, it is the responsibility of the media also to put these data up with some caution. I had a great amount of respect for the TIME magazine, this just confuses me a bit now.
PS: Thank you for sharing your personal experience with it. I am happy to know that you have been able to push it away with strong resolute – True respect mate :). I think it only goes to show that it is not strong enough to overpower your will and determination to stop something. Kudos mate.