Letter of Recommendation: Hangovers

Ouch, this is clearly meant to be (at least somewhat) tongue-in-cheek. Calling it &quot;drug abuse&quot; is a little extreme unless you&#x27;re familiar personally with the author.<p>It doesn&#x27;t seem like it&#x27;s affecting his life in an incredibly detrimental way, supposing that at some point when the hoopla of a book release dies down he stops drinking every night (and even then, the quantity consumed is an incredibly important component).<p>It&#x27;s just jokes.

In junior school I had a friend who was considered a little weird. One day during break I came across him repeatedly hitting his head against a wooden wall. He wasn&#x27;t doing it especially hard - but I was certain it was hurting him. When I asked him why he was hitting his head against the wall he said, &quot;It feels good when I stop&quot;.<p>This author is basically the drug addict version of my junior school friend. They&#x27;re both idiots - but one was 8 and the other is a respected author.

A good workout at the gym could have similar effects and is a much healthier alternative.

Kingsley Amis wrote what was probably the best description of a hangover, as recounted by Dick Cavett here...<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;01&#x2F;28&#x2F;the-wrath-of-grapes&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;01&#x2F;28&#x2F;the-wrath-of...</a>

Really, now -- I like getting trashed as much as the next guy, unless the next guy is one of that interesting subset of HN commenters who appear to regard it as &quot;drug abuse&quot;, but how completely buried in your own head do you have to spend your sober days for a hangover to seem psychically transformative?

So many less painful ways of reaching this mental state with greater clarity. But if it works for him, then cool I guess.

Or, &quot;how I became comfortable with my drug abuse and began to rationalize it publicly&quot;.

Yer an alcoholic, Kent!

There&#x27;s been a few times in my life where I reset myself by going on a bender. I&#x27;ve only done it a few times but beforehand I was in a rut - stuck motivationally, mentally exhausted, and after the bender feeling like my mind has been reset.<p>Sure the hangover sucked, but even with the hangover I could feel my brain being back to its normal energetic self including gaining the perspective of an outside observor that he mention in the article, making my problems less important.<p>I think some people do this through meditation, some through legal pharmaceuticals, and some of us by getting completely blotto on alcohol.

Weird, was this removed?

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