
The Drunkard’s Progress: Alcohol in 19th Century America - benbreen
https://medium.com/bunk/the-drunkards-progress-83ce12f3889c
======
shadowbannedtoo
Yes alcohol is bad.

Then again, it seemed like it was the only drug that helped with my panic
attacks, and generalized anxiety.

Benzodiazepines(mainly Klonopin) helped a bit, but dealing with MD's is
tedious, and expensive, and there's nothing more irritating than a doctor whom
forgets to fill refills, or wants to see you for another expensive office
visit before the script is written. (I happened to run across a ethical
doctor, but I'm definetly in the minority. And I only found him after seeing
utterly useless "professionals".

I knew after my breakdown that if I wanted to make it to middle age, I would
only use alcohol when absolutely needed. Meaning very light drinking during
social events, or none at all?

I tried to only use the poison when absolutely needed.

As my grandfather said, "Moderation in everything!".

(I think I'm Shadowbanned. Up, or down vote me. To lazy to go to incognito
mode on my laptop. By the way, I belive shadowbanning because you refuse to
kiss a moderator's ass is childish, petty, and un-American. It's mean girl,
middle school tactics. It's not clever, it's weaselly, and weak. At least tell
the person that got their panties/ego in a bind to get lost?)

~~~
jlarocco
Since you didn't mention it, have you tried cannabis or CBD? If you live
somewhere that it's legalized it's worth a try. Among people I know the
results are mixed, but it can help with anxiety.

In any case, edibles especially, are a lot healthier than benzos or alcohol,
and not addictive in the same way.

~~~
DKnoll
Treating anxiety with cannabis is like throwing gas on a fire.

~~~
jlarocco
I disagree, it depends on the person.

~~~
DKnoll
Some people do not become anxious from cannabis, that is true.

The problem is recommending a drug with one of the most common side effects
being anxiety to a person who has severe enough anxiety to have sought
treatment for it and been prescribed benzodiazepines. While it _might_ work it
might also trigger a panic attack.

------
gwern
This makes me wonder about old-timey drink. I vaguely know what 'grog' is, and
I can sort of guess what they mean by 'punch', but what is 'flip', 'slings',
and is 'pepper in rum' really what it sounds like?

Wikipedia can help with the first, which is an interesting concoction which
sounds like hard work
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_(cocktail)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_\(cocktail\))
: " a mixture of beer, rum, and sugar, heated with a red-hot iron ("Thus we
live at sea; eat biscuit, and drink flip"). The iron caused the drink to
froth, and this frothing (or "flipping") engendered the name. Over time, eggs
were added and the proportion of sugar increased, the beer was eliminated, and
the drink ceased to be served hot."), but 'slings' WP entry is rather vague,
and while I can find various combinations of pepper and rum in Google, I'm not
sure any of them are what is meant.

~~~
benbreen
All of them roughly map onto the more modern category we typically use for
anything involving mixing spirits with something acidic, sweet or bitter:
cocktail. "Sling" still survives via an old-timey British cocktail, the
Singapore Sling. Says Wikipedia: "a sling was originally a North American
drink composed of spirit and water, sweetened and flavored."

As for pepper in rum, I had to look that up too. I suspect that Benjamin Rush
would've been referring to something similar to this, because Jamaican rum was
so dominant in the British colonies:
[https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/pepper-
rum](https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/pepper-rum)

Edit: Confusingly, this source from the 1780s [1] says "rum, whisky, brandy,
gin, stinkibus, bitters, toddy, grog, slings and fifty other liquors, all come
under the denomination of spirits." But this is presumably what Rush had in
mind because it's direct from his book: "After a while nothing would satisfy
him but slings made of equal parts of rum and water, with a little sugar." [2]

[1]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=VyRTvziJuecC&dq=sling%20sp...](https://books.google.com/books?id=VyRTvziJuecC&dq=sling%20spirits%20grog&pg=PA232#v=onepage&q=sling%20spirits%20grog&f=false)
[2]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=PnZVb3esMk4C&dq=sling%20sp...](https://books.google.com/books?id=PnZVb3esMk4C&dq=sling%20spirits%20grog&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q=slings&f=false)

