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Old 02-15-2017, 04:15 PM
  # 11 (permalink)  
DesertDawg
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 292
Originally Posted by Andante View Post
Some individuals have a naturally high tolerance to alcohol and a naturally low susceptibility to addiction. Those are the ones who can drink copiously and often without ever seeming to suffer any consequences (although they're at greater risk for health problems as they get older).

The people who find themselves on this site obviously don't fit that description. It's why we're here. But I think sometimes we can forget that we're not representative of the entire population.
I think you hit the nail on the head, Andante. For a long time, I was a moderate-to-heavy drinker who pretty much had things under control...Until I didn't.

But that was just me. I think there are more people than we think that can go on that way for a long time without becoming addicted. Eventually, it either takes a toll on them *physically* and/or they just quit (or dial it way down). But I realized I wasn't one of those people, and that if I had kept up my shenanigans, I would have died, and that I needed help to stop.

As we all know, alcohol is different from, say, heroin in that a lot of people can use alcohol in moderation, even heavily, and not become addicted. Not to say it's a healthy lifestyle, but it can be done (by some). There are a lot of older alcoholics and heavy drinkers. But not many (if any) older heroin addicts. Heroin is viciously addictive and very few people can keep that up and live very long like some people can with alcohol. There are of course, exceptions to every rule, but I just don't see a lot of older folks shooting up around here, though I see a lot of them at the liquor store.
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