odhgabfe

I have no known alcoholics in my family. I mean when my family gets together with family friends, when my dad is driving, my mom usually likes to get pretty drunk. But I really don't think the is an alcoholic. This isn't happening every weekend, usually once a month, or once every two months. She doesn't drink every day, in fact when she isn't together with friends she almost never drinks, other than occasional nights when her and my dad drink a bottle of wine or two. I think I know why I have such a tolerance, and it has to do with my high school experiences. Very long story.

I always loved the taste of beer, in contrast to what most kids my age claim. In high school we drank it borderline warm, because we'd buy it, and wouldn't wait for it to cool in the fridge. And now that I drink it cold in college, it tastes even better.

Also, for Harley:

No, my drinking never affected my home life in my hometown.

In my high school, as well as the neighboring towns, being the hardest partier put you at the top of the ladder. I was always invited back to parties and other stuff- people knew they would have a good time around me.

No, I don't call random people to go party just because my normal friends aren't around. Then again, my friends have always been around to go out. And we always go to the same spot. None of us are legal, so we don't go to bars. But it's not like we need to, there is more than enough at the place we always go.

By the way thank you all for all this support. And all you do to try to narrow things down to help me find out exactly what is happening so I can target and focus on fixing it.

sugErspun

What are you going to try and fix? It sounds to me like you enjoy your life.... but are a little scared about the future. You sound a lot like me at 20 (I did not drink much at 18 - other substances worked and were cheaper and more available).

One thing that's different - I never stopped to question any of my behavior - I considered my lifestyle very 'normal' - I just had a high tolerance (Irish and Finnish y'know?). Drinking more than most people just made me all the more interesting - no hangovers, no blackouts, grades were ok (I was aerospace engineer major!!), no money, family, girl problems. Heck- I didn't even have a car to drive when I lived on campus...so no worry about DUI's. Some of that stuff came later, when life slowed down (hangovers, missing work, girl problems, family/friend problems) - those didn't really hit until the time to grow up came - and I still wanted to party.

Have you ever tried to stop drinking? That's where the problem lies.

If someone had told me when I was 20 what alcohol would do for me, and how I would come to absolutely depend on it for all areas of my life. I would have thought they were crazy....so basically - I don't have any advice for you other than make sure you are healthy, a basic physical, talk to your doctor.

But if the time comes that you want to stop drinking, or need to stop drinking, and find that you cannot - feel free to PM me.

(btw - my screen name is from a song as well)

AWEDA

Why did you post here?

odhgabfe

Oh I'm with you on that- 50/50 Irish and German.

As for why I posted here: well, like I said, I started feeling the obvious warning signs when I was in high school but I ignored them, because they had no impact on my life. I always had a lingering thought I may have a problem, thinking, "wow, it seems most people aren't drinking like I am... I thought everyone was," so I started looking on websites, and taking all the quizzes, and I would only answer yes to like a third of the questions, sometimes none of them. So I posted here and gave my story and I was hoping people would read it and try to gauge the severity of the problem as it stands now- do I need immediate help? Or not?

Tazman53

I would highly reccommend doing some research on alcoholism, 2 great books to read are "Under The Influence" & "Beyond The Influence", they both explain that people who are not alcoholic do not develop a tolerance to alcohol, if a none alcoholic gets drunk off of 4 beers today, they will get drunk off of 4 beers tomorrow and every tomorrow from now on.

Normal alcohol consumption is about 2 drinks a day for men. I strongly relate to your drinking so far, I started drinking at about 11 or 12, I would get plowed off of 4 beers then, by the time I was in my 20's I was knocking back a case a day every day and not getting drunk, I had no trouble in school except one time when I got drunk on a field trip in the 7th grade. Except for some crap from my first wife on occasion I had a blast, the last thought in my head was that I was an alcoholic, heck I even quit for a year and a half when I was in my mid twenties.

I understand where you are coming from right now, I darn sure was still having a blast drinking even though I knew in the back of my head I was probably an alcoholic, I was in a state of denial!!! Oh yea did you know one of the symptoms of alcoholism is a denial of being an alcoholic?

Any how lets forward the clock up to me at the age of 52, at this point in time I only had one DUI, still had a good paying job, owned my own home, was married with 6 kids, had 2 new vehicles and was a drunk!!!!

Yep, I was now at the point of having no choice, I had to drink in order to feel normal, I had no choice in rather I drank or not, I was physically and mentally addicted to alcohol. My tolerance had gone haywire, one day I would drink 5 or 6 beers and be sloppy drunk and then the next day I could drink one right after another all day long and not even get a buzz. I no longer wanted to drink, but I had to drink.

You may not be like me, if you are not an alcoholic then you have nothing to worry about, if you are an alcoholic then it is important that you understand that alcoholism is progressive, as long as an alcoholic drinks the worse thier alcoholism gets, it never gets better. The only way to stop alcoholism from getting worse is total abstinance. If one is an alcoholic they also need to be aware that if they stop drinking for 10, 20 or more years that if they start drinking again usually within a week, sometimes less, sometimes more they will be right back where they left off.

If you do not feel you are an alcoholic then why not quit for a year? If you are not an alcoholic this should be easy.

Bamboozle

How bad is it for you? How do you feel at the end of every day? I don't know you, so I cannot gauge how your drinking is impacting your life. It is different for everyone. I started drinking heavily in college.........Maybe you should talk to someone at school.

Bamboozle

It is possible to be a problem drinker and not meet the requirements of being "alcoholic" and it can still ruin your life. I'm sure if people looked at my drinking history, some wouldn't classify me as an alcoholic or think my problem is that bad, but it was/is for me...I wasted six years of my life...no DUI's, no jail time, no unintentional job losses,...but I didn't do anything positive except getting my degree. Other than that, massive opportunities for a better life passed me by.

Tazman53

Of course, there are plenty of folks in prison for things they did while drunk that are not alcoholics as well as non-alcoholics who messed up thier lifes due to drinking that are not alcoholics.