Alcoholic

[Jlall]

So, I enjoy drinking every night. Does this make me an aloholic?

[luke warm]

it depends on whether or not you can (easily) refrain from drinking

[slothy]

wow Justin...

 

You have been quite confessional recently :)

 

I drink maybe 3 nights a week, sometimes more, 1 or 2 cans of beer (three on a bad night) if playing or JECCing on BBO, watching TV or reading.

 

If however i don't drink (sometimes don't drink for 2 weeks maybe) i don't miss it and certainly don't crave it.

 

Different story when it comes to cigarettes alas :) I have walked 2 kms to a gas station in the pouring rain (AND i mean POURING) at 2am in the morning to get a packet of cigarettes and come home with a sodden packet of wet tobacco (not going to confess what i did after that :) tooooo embarrassing).

 

So, yes, i have a problem with addiction to nicotine Hi my name is Alex and i am a nicotine addict and i recognise it and i am trying to stop with help (not very successfully to date)

 

If maybe you have done the same, or think maybe you would if the scenario arose, to get alcohol then maybe you should seek help.

 

Howeve,r i doubt very you are :) You seem the sort of guy who enjoys a drink (socially and recreationally as it were). Nothing wrong in that whatsoever . I think a good litmus test is if you drink, or continue to drink, and you don't enjoy it or drink so much that you are not in control (too often) i.e. there is something other than satisfaction which is propelling the 'habit'. This is the time to look in the mirror.

 

Alex

 

Cheers Justin (virtual clink of glasses in a haze of smoke)

[hrothgar]

Hey Justin

 

Here's my perspective, along with some background information:

 

1. My dad has a rather bad tendency to to down a fairly significant quantity of booze many / most nights.

 

2. In my high school and college days, I had a tendency to engage in pretty serious binge drinking.

 

3. On occasion, I have worried that I might develop some bad habits

 

Here's the what I settled on:

 

I never drink any significant quantity of booze if I'm alone. I think that drinking if your sitting along is a big warning sign.

 

I normally limit myself to a single beer if with lunch or dinner if I'm by myself and I typically don't get anything. I might have a couple if I'm someplace "special" like a japanese restaurant thats known for its sake or a brew pub. (I also make exceptions for red wine. Red wine is chock fulll of antioxidants. I'll often have a single small glass of red wine with dinner. I SO wish that I didn't dislike red wine so much)

[y66]

So, I enjoy drinking every night. Does this make me an aloholic?

When alcohol affects your judgment to the point where you ask questions like this in the water cooler, then, yeah, it's most definitely a problem. :)

 

Nobody loved drinking more every night than my grandfather. I don't think anybody who knew him would put alcoholic on the top ten list of adjectives that described him best. But it was definitely a problem in his otherwise amazing, productive, successful, long, full, life.

[helene_t]

Jimmy is right.

 

But whether you are an alcoholic or not, I really think you should stop drinking. The posts you make here when you are drunk are amusing to Josh and maybe to others, but you could end up doing things you would really regret. Alcohol is scary stuff.

[jkljkl]

So, I enjoy drinking every night. Does this make me an aloholic?

I guess you are just experiencing one of your regular lows. But even then I am sure that you know better than anyone of us if your alchol consume is getting problematic.

 

In the past I would have suggest to listen to

 

 

(german song)

 

now I can only hope you are still taking your meds and find a better way if you need some contact/help,

 

ciao stefan

[jillybean]

removed

[blackshoe]

Alcohol is a depressant. If you drink when you're depressed, you just get more depressed. I'm speaking from experience here, btw.

 

I once had a shrink ask me if I drank. At the time, I was a 2 or 3 nights a week, 3 or 4 drinks, drinker. He told me to stop. I asked him why. He said "I can't tell if you're an alcoholic or not; the evidence I see is unclear. If you can stop drinking, you're probably not." This from a guy who had in a previous assignment run an alcohol rehab center for ten years. So I stopped. Funny thing. A few weeks after I stopped, I was driving down the freeway, and all of a sudden, the world seemed a brighter place, and I felt a lot better. Was there a connection? Damned if I know. But it did happen. Nowadays, I drink maybe once or twice a year, always with a meal. And then no more than a couple of glasses of wine, or a couple of beers. Turns out I'm not an alcoholic, but I am very susceptible to depression. See my first paragraph. :unsure:

[Jlall]

lol I love reading these in the morning.

 

Related question:

 

I have always considered myself someone who doesn't drink and drive. But driving to work this morning it occurred to me that my blood alcohol level was probably above the legal limit still. Can I get a DUI this way? Is it dangerous?

[Phil]

lol I love reading these in the morning.

 

Related question:

 

I have always considered myself someone who doesn't drink and drive. But driving to work this morning it occurred to me that my blood alcohol level was probably above the legal limit still. Can I get a DUI this way? Is it dangerous?

Driving buzzed is driving drunk although I would bet Texas is behind the curve.

 

Here's a good test to see if you have a drinking problem.

 

Give it up for a month.

[blackshoe]

Can I get a DUI this way? Is it dangerous?

Yes. And yes.

[Jlall]

Can I get a DUI this way? Is it dangerous?

Yes. And yes.

How long does it take before it's out of my system? Like I assume if I sleep 8 hours I'm fine. What about 4 hours? How do I know (because it feels different from being normal drunk)?

[Gerben42]

About 8 hours per 1 0/00 alcohol. That means if you're really drunk, you still cant drive after 5-6 hours, and REALLY REALLY should NOT!

[TimG]

Can I get a DUI this way? Is it dangerous?

Yes. And yes.

How long does it take before it's out of my system? Like I assume if I sleep 8 hours I'm fine. What about 4 hours? How do I know (because it feels different from being normal drunk)?

I think it is about one hour per drink. But, there must be someplace on the internet where you can get a more reliable answer than BBO forums.

 

It strikes me that whether you are an alcoholic or not, the behavior described in this thread indicates in an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. It can't possibly be good for someone to be so drunk when they go to sleep that they're not sure whether they're drunk the next morning. And, driving this way is just plain stupid, not so much because of what you might do to yourself, but because of what you might do to someone else.

[MickyB]

There's no easy way to calculate it precisely, having looked at some stuff online the approximation I've arrived at is

 

for a 180 lb male, 5 units of alcohol takes them over the US/UK limit

 

It takes one hour for your body to process one *unit* of alcohol - NOT the commonly quoted one drink.

 

I'd guess a typical US beer is 2 units - that's 20ml (0.7 fl oz) of alcohol - guessing you know this better than I do though.

 

A 160lb male would need an extra hour or so, depending on how much was drunk - 4.5 units would be sufficient to reach the limit initially in this case.

 

All calculations can be done from the time you start drinking, assuming you don't make the first drink last two hours or something.

[skjaeran]

Drinking every night does not in itself make you an alcoholic.

 

But that might lead to becoming an alcoholic some time in the future. Whether that will happen or not, and how long it takes is a function of how much you drink and your genes.

 

My father is an alcoholic. I never thought he'd stop drinking. But now he's been sober for 20 years, after going to a clinic 21 years ago, and staying there for a year. I (and my sister) spent a week there early on, as part of the program. When I left, I understood that statistically, having an alcoholic father, the chance I'd become one myself was 25-30%. So I decided to stop drinking, and I've never taken that habit up again.

 

Jimmy is perfectly right, as long as you've got no trouble stopping, you're not an alcoholic.

[Winstonm]

Alcoholics Anonymous has this saying about real alcoholics: one drink is too many; a thousand isn't enough.

[jillybean]

lol I love reading these in the morning.

It seems like this is just a joke and not something to be taken seriously or get worried about?

[Apollo81]

lol I love reading these in the morning.

 

Related question:

 

I have always considered myself someone who doesn't drink and drive. But driving to work this morning it occurred to me that my blood alcohol level was probably above the legal limit still. Can I get a DUI this way? Is it dangerous?

Driving buzzed is driving drunk although I would bet Texas is behind the curve.

 

Here's a good test to see if you have a drinking problem.

 

Give it up for a month.

A not quite as extreme test would be see if you can go a month without having more than one per day. Most people who weigh more than 110lbs don't function differently on one than on zero.

[jdonn]

Jimmy is right.

 

But whether you are an alcoholic or not, I really think you should stop drinking. The posts you make here when you are drunk are amusing to Josh and maybe to others, but you could end up doing things you would really regret. Alcohol is scary stuff.

I didn't find this one amusing at all. The Trinnu thread is better but still not that memorable. What I am finding more amusing in that one are so many people's over the top reactions.

[matmat]

Jimmy is right.

 

But whether you are an alcoholic or not, I really think you should stop drinking. The posts you make here when you are drunk are amusing to Josh and maybe to others, but you could end up doing things you would really regret. Alcohol is scary stuff.

I didn't find this one amusing at all. The Trinnu thread is better but still not that memorable. What I am finding more amusing in that one are so many people's over the top reactions.

I agree and disagree, not necessarily in that order.

[Jlall]

What I am finding more amusing in that one are so many people's over the top reactions.

ding ding ding!

[mr1303]

A friend of mine suggested I should give up alcohol for a month just to see if I *could* do it.

 

As it was I went 28 days without it and got bored, but I'd realised that I didn't need to do it, I just enjoyed drinking socially.

 

However, I would say if you're drinking a lot most nights, cutting down will do your health a lot of good.

[42]

I think even when you make 'funny' comments there is still a serious background, no?

I recently got in touch with that problem because a friend started 'to lose' himself: his drinking carreer started years ago when he got a big box of different bottles of alcohol (wine, Whiskey, Sherry, etc.) as part of an inheritance. Every evening he took a drink, he felt relaxed, the world looked a bit more rosy. Then he drank 2-3 glasses of wine - sometimes more - every evening, in public events as well as at home. Then, whenever he felt a certain tension (job, family, whatever), he drank a glass of vodka and felt better. As a consequence his skin changed, his behaviour against family and friends changed, his barrier of control sank (he made remarks that more often hit the vis-à-vis), his hands began to tremble, he became depressed (therefore needed more alcohol to feel 'happy' again) and many more obvious signs occurred. Fortunately he has some good friends who noticed all this and who spoke seriously with him in a way he could accept his alcoholism without feeling he is 'worthless' because he is an addict. In the meantime he is sober and makes a therapy. He feels very good now and is a much better friend again, although it is not easy to face the problems.

So I think that the background why someone is drinking and the significance of alcohol (when thoughts go more often around the question where to get the next drink and always to have enough handy) plays an important role. To watch whether it is possible to stop drinking - and how it feels then - is a good indicator.

Alcoholism is a way to commit suicide.

Every crisis is also a chance.

We can decide.

Caren :o