According to who? That's a bizarre definition of addiction.
Am I an alcoholic?
- Thread starter pitchfork
- Start date
According to who? That's a bizarre definition of addiction.
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 13,389
- Location
- The Orion Spur
The thing is I sometimes enjoy a beer in the morning, is that really bad then ?
Last edited:
Depends if it's just that you purely 'enjoy a beer' in the morning, or whether you can't get through that morning (or at least would feel worse) by not having that beer!
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 13,389
- Location
- The Orion Spur
yeah it's definitely the enjoyment factor, just sometimes when I wake up I crave for an ice cold bottle of beer, never more than the one, I've done this on and off for years now.
- Joined
- 27 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 107,330
- Location
- In bed with your sister
Depends on the reason and your lifestyle. If you do it to fulfill a craving then yes, it is a problem. If it's simply because you fancy one then no, it's not a problem in my opinion. I used to have the odd beer of a morning myself at weekends when I had no work but it was rarely to get drunk or to cure the after effects of a session the day before.
I should have made it clear in my earlier post that the time of day doesn't really matter either, it's the lifestyle which matters and whether or not the drinking adversely affects other aspects of your life. A lot of people get hung up on what time of day people drink and think that drinking before some pre-determined position of the hands on the clock is bad. If you prefer to have a drink in the morning, that's fine by me as long as you're not causing problems by doing so.
Again, I would like to say that liking a drink, regardless of the time of day, is not alcoholism, reliance on alcohol to get you through the day is. I rarely drink early in the day nowadays because I'm an old man and it makes me sleepy - also, I'm a night person and much more lively later on.
There is also a big difference between problem drinking and alcoholism and the two do not always go hand in hand. I've known alcoholics for whom their addiction wasn't a problem. They had money to buy their alcohol, they didn't drive and didn't go out fighting or stuff like that. I've known a couple of successful businessmen who were alcoholics. They had someone to drive them around and ran successful businesses whilst constantly tipsy.
I've also known people who didn't drink much at all and could in no way be classed as alcoholics but who got into punch ups and/or vandalised stuff whenever they had a drink - this I would call problem drinking but certainly not alcoholism.
Basically, it's not how much you drink or when you drink that determines whether you're an alcoholic, it's WHY you drink that does.
No, just an anti-social tit.
The medical community, being an alcoholic doesn't mean you are also alcohol dependent.
As Energize says, the quantity of alcohol that is being consumed weekly on a regular basis is likely doing damage to his liver, which is very much a negative consequence of going out to get drunk on a regular basis. Alcohol dependence is when you suffer the physical effects of withdrawal when you're not drinking.
Not all alcoholics are addicited.
I've only ever met one person who i think would fit the bill as an alcoholic. Used to work with a guy and his daily schedule was something like this:
4am Wake up and have a tin of Skol & a Fag. Back to sleep
7am Get up. Tin of skol & fag.
8am I pick him up for work. Tin of Skol on the way to jobs (was when i was landscaping/tree surgery)
9am > 5pm 6 tins of skol, 1 ham sandwich, half bottle of sherry
6pm > 10pm 1.5 bottles of sherry & a couple more tins of skol
Repeat that daily. He would never go to the pub and when i said he was an alcoholic that was his defence. For me, i do believe i have an alcohol dependency, when i get in from work i like to have a drink or two as i feel it helps me wind down from the day. I also like a beer on the weekends in the afternoons/evenings.
4am Wake up and have a tin of Skol & a Fag. Back to sleep
7am Get up. Tin of skol & fag.
8am I pick him up for work. Tin of Skol on the way to jobs (was when i was landscaping/tree surgery)
9am > 5pm 6 tins of skol, 1 ham sandwich, half bottle of sherry
6pm > 10pm 1.5 bottles of sherry & a couple more tins of skol
Repeat that daily. He would never go to the pub and when i said he was an alcoholic that was his defence. For me, i do believe i have an alcohol dependency, when i get in from work i like to have a drink or two as i feel it helps me wind down from the day. I also like a beer on the weekends in the afternoons/evenings.
Using that idea, someone could drink from dusk till dawn because they like to, but don't need to. But that doesn't make them an alcohilic.
Your statement is flawed, and you can't have "certain cases".
Excessive drinking took someone away from me, yep, there's nobody to blame but her own misuse of it but godamnit I was already sick of alcoholism, after that, I can't stand in the same room as it.
I can understand having it for some fun, with friends, but to keep on having it, daily. *puke*.
Soldato
- Joined
- 15 Aug 2007
- Posts
- 15,788
- Location
- Outside in the bushes
Dude so long as your not drinking to the point of being either horizontal or perpendicular your not an alcoholic
Soldato
- Joined
- 28 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 16,024
- Location
- 9th Inner Circle
You're an alcoholic. Lots of people are and either don't realise or, like you, try and come up with a valid reason for drinking so much. You do not have to get the shakes or start the day with a drink to be an alcoholic.
Be vary careful that it does not get worse and cost you your very well paid job. Don't think it could happen to you? I have known people who thought the same and a few years latter lived in a homeless shelter.
Be vary careful that it does not get worse and cost you your very well paid job. Don't think it could happen to you? I have known people who thought the same and a few years latter lived in a homeless shelter.
wouldn't say i agree with that at all
![[TR]SweetSpotOz](/styles/overclockers/avatars/6.png){kind=avatar}
Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Mar 2006
- Posts
- 6,183
- Location
- everywhere
.
Last edited:
If you're binge drinking on a regular basis you're an alcoholic.
Binge drinking isn't good for you!
Do you have a link for anything to back this up?
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 5 Jun 2003
- Posts
- 91,864
- Location
- Falling...
do you feel you need a drink? I've gone for months without touching a drop, in fact at the moment I'm teetotal I find it easy and I don't get tetchy and feel I want a drink. If you feel you need one and can't survive without it then yeah I'd say you probably have a mild attachment to alcohol. Also if you feel the need to get drunk then yes I'd say there's something there. If you drink an have a little too much from time to time that's fine, but the fact that you drink TO get drunk is not only daft and a waste of money, but not very good for you.
Last edited:
- Joined
- 27 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 107,330
- Location
- In bed with your sister
My statement is only flawed to you because of your loss. I'm sorry you lost someone through alcohol abuse but I stand by my definition of alcoholism. As far as someone drinking from dusk til dawn, if they're doing it every day, they are not doing it simply because they enjoy it, they are dependent on it. I won't argue the point with you because you have good reason to dislike excessive use of alcohol and in your position, I would imagine I would be the same.
I don't care what the medical definition for alcoholism is - just because they say it, doesn't necessarily mean it's any more valid. It's all too easy to lump it all together and the medical profession is really only interested in levels of alcohol use which exceed the levels they specify as being harmful - therefore, any man who drinks more than the specified 21 units per week (14 for women) is automatically an alcoholic.
My definition is someone who depends on alcohol to get through the day or for whom alcohol causes serious social and/or domestic problems or persistent problems with the law. Being a heavy drinker is harmful to you physically but does not make you an alcoholic.
During my years of heavy drinking, it never caused me any of the above problems so I can confidently state that I was never an alcoholic. I've probably done irreparable damage to my liver and other organs but that doesn't make me an alcoholic.
Last edited:
Loss aside, being an alcoholic =! being addicted.
You + heavy drinking = alcoholic.
I can't believe you think because you only drank heavy amounts you're not an alcoholic. You drank lots of ALCOHOL.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 28 Jun 2007
- Posts
- 52,812
- Location
- Tamworth, UK
I think your wager is relatively safe there
I went 3 weeks in January without a drink. By the end of the third week I was craving alcohol really badly and caved in.
That makes me an alcoholic I suppose, but I don't drink anything in the week, only at weekends and it doesn't bother me. It's more to do with letting your hair down.
Being an alcoholic is certinally nothing to do with how much you drink or when you drink. Its all about how you react to the alchol consumption. Go to a few AA meeting and take a look, then youll see what an alcholic is.
You can be an alcholic and not drink.
You can be an alcholic and not drink.