Medics: Do you smoke/drink excessively/use illegal drugs/tan/eat very unhealthily?

I'm sure most medical students have done some, if not all, of those things at some point over the years - they're pretty standard things for any teen/young adult to experiment with, especially at university.

My score: 4/5 - I'll leave it to you to figure out which one of those definitely isn't on my list of vices

Btw, if you're going to quote anyone from here on your blog, make sure you ask them first.

I drink yes and I can put away a fair amount of alcohol when in the mood to do so. Haven't drank for the past 5 weeks because of other commitments but I know myself that I will be back to a state of regularly consuming 20 or so units per week over summer. My drinking can swing between the social and unsocial variety. I'd like to think I could drink less If I wanted to and I think the last few weeks have shown that I can cut it out completely with little to no side effects or cravings.

I've smoked previously (probably no more than 50 in my entire lifetime) but never touch it nowadays and haven't done for quite some time. I doubt I'll ever touch another cigarette.

I eat a healthy well balanced diet and have done so for the last 5 or so years. Food is one of the areas I won't cut back on due to cost or difficulty in preparation.

I have smoked cannabis once or twice a good few years ago now. Never taken anything stronger and while I'd never say never (because I'm pragmatic like that), there is very little chance I ever will.

I have a very low opinion of males who purposefully decide to tan and for that reason wouldn't do it. I think it's a vain and (pathologically) damaging thing to do. On the other hand, it looks good on women so I've got an admittedly sexist outlook on the entire thing...

Please no direct quotes.

Becca-Sarah and Helenia, thank you also for your posts...I do 1 often, 1 sometimes, 2 never and 1 I am very self-righteous and annoying about, always telling people to stop etc...you'd be surprised which way around it is!

As it says in the title, I was wondering whether, as medical students/doctors, you drink a lot of alcohol/smoke (either regularly or just occasionally on nights out etc.)/eat unhealthily/use illegal drugs/tan purposely when we are all well aware of the dangers and risks?

I'm not judging or condemning any of these behaviours, and I'm certainly not saying that medics should be living the model healthy lives that we recommend to patients, and I know from personal experience that many of us engage in less than healthy behaviours, but I was just looking for some personal opinions and experiences, as I'm thinking of maybe writing a blog post on something along these lines. (Wow that was a very long sentence...).