992: Keith is a Drunk

[SmallMan]

1st. Long-term is vague and Keith will probably respond well to the challenge of not drinking for a while. There are iPhone apps for counting drinks (I think I'll get one too, seeing as I was also up until 8am on Monday morning), and I think its a helpful gauge and reminder to yourself. Another app has already helped me with my finances.
2nd. Though you can't draw a direct link, shows like this are going to be what makes KaTG grow, and I think that as work gets busier and bigger, he may rise to the challenge of keeping the success going. (He might, also, fall into the fate of so many celebutards and self-destruct, but let's be optimistic.)
3rd. I've spoken to my brother, who's a med student, about the criteria for alcoholism. There are a lot of tests on the web, but a quick test goes
1) Do you drink in the morning to wake up?
2) Do you drink every day?
3) Has drinking adversely affected your job or social life?
I'll admit that after hearing the show I started taking those tests for alcohol abuse on the web. I failed every one. I've just finished my first year of a Masters degree, am presenting a paper at an Urbanization conference in Hong Kong in August, received a full scholarship from the Chinese government to do research in Shanghai for 9 months, and I'm working for an urban consultant to advise the Shanghai government on its urban strategy for the next 10 years. None of those 3 criteria apply, and I think that if any of them started to really fuck up my life I would stop drinking. I've already quit weed, which gave me a 6 month psychosis, and cigarettes, which started affecting my health.
So the 3rd. reason isn't really about the show affecting Keith's drinking, but the fact that people curb addictions when they start to affect their wellbeing directly, not because other people tell them that its harmful. Jesse's drinking is a good example, and maybe so is Patrice's eating habits (sorry Patrice, apparently you were huge). Anyone who ever quit smoking did so after years of being told they stank and that it was costly and unnatractive. They didn't do it because of others, they did it because it became a problem for them personally. I told some people Keith's crack story recently and I think its a good reminder that he knows when things are fucking him up too bad and he can't control himself.

-Yeeg