Unhealthy relationship with alcohol
Here goes. I don't think of myself as an alcoholic. I do think I have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. I think of an alcoholic as a person who gets physical withdrawal symptoms when they don't drink.
I have not experiencied financial, work, relationship or legal problems because of drink. I know i could insert the word YET here. However, alcohol impairs my quality of life and I have many, many reasons not to drink (I wrote down over 60 of them ). I think about alcohol a great deal and before I stopped on 21 June, I drank every evening.
Basically, I am having difficulty believing I will never drink again and I think the main reason for this is that I don't think I am an alcoholic.
I envisage scenarios in the future, such as only drinking socially, only on holiday, only with friends etc.
I have tried and failed to moderate my drinking time and again......Never in the house, only at weekends, never alone, no more than two bottles wine a week, no more than half a bottle a night and so on. Despite this, and a fair length of time due to pregnancy and breast feeding where my alcohol intake was minimal, here I am back to knocking back 50-70 units a week ( til two weeks ago).
What are others views about 'defining' the problem and how this influences how it is viewed and approached?