Does it matter how you classify yourself?
Does it matter if you are a binge drinker, alcoholic, alcohol dependent, alcohol abuser?
I decided after months, probably years of trying to find a description that matched my drinking, that it really did not matter what definition I used.
Drinking made me unhappy and the people I loved unhappy and that was enough for me to stop.
It's really not about how much or how often you drink. Its about what happens when you drink.
If you only ever drink once a year, but it always ends up in a fight and get arrested and spend time in jail, then yes your drinking is problematic.
And perhaps something really important to remember is that when you see an end stage alcoholic, an extreme drinker that has lost everything and everyone, they did not turn into that over night. They did not wake up one day and were like that. They were not born like that.
It's a process, alcoholism has stages.
At the moment you are maybe making your wife cross.
What happens when it moves on from this and you loose your friends, your relationships, your job, your home, your freedom.
Only you can make your mind up about your drinking.
For me, I knew drinking and me were not a good combination.
Becoming a member here and reading and learning and understanding all I have done about alcohol addiction, I look at a beer or a glass of wine in a different way. It has the potential to destroy everything I love and have worked so hard for.
I now know, that as long as I don't have that one drink, then I cannot get drunk, blackout, upset other people, make a disgrace of myself.
For 18 months I have not had a drink and have not done any of those things. I can tell you that my life is much calmer and much more preferable now.
I wish you the best xx