anew

This is exactly how I drank. I also could go out with friends and only have one drink and be fine with that. I have been diagnosed with early alcohol dependence.

Supercrew

I am in outside sales. I drive about 25,000 miles a year. My tolerance was very high, to the point that the only one who could normally tell if I was drinking was my wife, and she could tell after 1 beer, but she never could tell how many. I have many customers now from years of hard work, and now a majority of my days is just stopping by to check and see if our service is up to standard, and to take guys out to lunch. I carried visine, mints and mouthwash in my car, and I was king of the energy drink as well. Basically I would be on the road at 6AM, pop my first beer and energy drink about 7AM be in my first account about 8AM, then see three or four customers, grab some lunch and grab a 6 pack about 1PM for the ride home. 3 nights a week my wife got home at 6PM, and I would already be working out, napping or coaching when she got home. I would normally not drink on the 2 days that she was home. Then I would go big and normally party with my buddies on Friday night and Saturday, then Sunday I would sneak off and do yard work with my cooler by my side, and wake up Monday and do it all over again.

Don't get me wrong, it became hard work and I carried on this way for about 2 1/2 straight years. At first it was fun, because I felt like I was getting over on everyone. I would be driving down the road at 7:30AM looking at all the sorry suckers who weren't happy and drunk like me going to work. My thinking during that period was truly twisted.

Three years ago I could have never imagined it getting out of hand the way it did, and for alot of the time it became a game for me. How far could I push it?

MrDavid

Thanks DownWDisease for the topic...

I was considered more of a social drinker, early on, graduating to the status of “binge drinker” by age 22. I progressed to what can be defined as “A full blown alcoholic” by the time I was 30 and probably would have died, from this disease, at age 35 if it wasn’t for divine intervention.

My vision of an alcoholic, was that of a bowery bum on the streets drinking wine and having no life –until I became one myself. I finally realized that skid row wasn’t just an actual place but more importantly a state of mind. I became so consumed by the thought of my next drink, that the drink, eventual, consumed me –hook, line and sinker.

You’re right about one thing: “It is hard to define who an alcoholic is” in layman’s terms, because as you said, “There are too many variables” involved. There is for this alcoholic no compelling reason why I should justify having a drink, knowing quite well what the outcome would be. So, I won’t for today, maybe not tomorrow either and hopefully not ever-God willing, knowing quite well what the end result would be -if I did: A belly full of booze and a sudden, yet undeniable, craving for more......

~God bless~

LexieCat

I used to have bad hangovers after a night of drinking, too.

That can go away if you drink enough. By the end of my drinking I didn't have hangovers, just withdrawals. Which I would go through until I could have a drink or five.

Jemma

I am DEFINATELY an Alcoholic... I hear myself in every speaker at all the meetings I go to..... but never suffered any physical withdrawal symptoms.

It is not how much you drink... it is what it does to you.

yeahgr8

This is not the definition of an alcoholic either in AA or the medical profession...it's worth looking into what alcoholism actually is because i sit with binge drinkers who are alcoholics in meetings all the time and i've drank with daily drinkers who aren't alcoholics but you are right in the sense that the information on what alcoholic means isn't exactly forthcoming which causes a great deal of distress and confusion amongst vunerable people looking for a solution:-)

PaperDolls

I consider myself a binge drinker ..... never got to the point that I was drinking daily nor did I have withdrawal symptoms.

I know I'm an alcoholic because of the fact that I continued to drink in spite of the consequences and the way I felt after a night of drinking. Besides the blackouts and hangover there was the guilt and shame and remorse and the utter hatred for myself.

It's not for you to decide who is a 'real' alcoholic. It's up to you to stay sober and worry about your own alcoholism and recovery.

ItsMe23

I consider myself a problem drinker/binge drinker, but I know I have the makings of becoming an alcoholic. I would usually drink hard one night a week and never more than that but who knows, that one night produced more trouble than it was worth.

bellaluna4

Alcoholism Symptoms


I can relate to having the inner debate on whether or not I'm an alcoholic...even after voluntarily going to AA by choice. I now believe I AM an alcoholic and addict (drug of choice being weed).

What helped me was listening to people in AA and relating, rather than comparing. I had to get really honest with myself. Alcoholism runs in my family and I always compared myself to those in the later stages and think "I'm not THAT bad, so I couldn't be an alcoholic." But I see now I was headed down that exact same path, and sooner or later I WOULD be that bad.

After reading the 4 stages of alcoholism, I would say I was at the 2nd stage, and I don't want to go down any further. I also just realized that my (usually severe) "hangovers" were mild to moderate alcohol withdrawal. No shakes but every other symptom on the list.

It may take time to figure out for yourself, but for me..even when I wasn't sure I was an alcoholic, I knew I didn't want to go back to that life of drinking so I kept with it and incredibly grateful I did.

Good luck

dingding

I've wasted so much thinking time on this subject. The good thing is if you stop drinking all the questions and thoughts are irrelivant. Thats a great feeling.

Not drinking is better than drinking no matter what kind of drinker you are.

reggiewayne

I don't think so. An alcoholic is a person that has lost control of his / her drinking. I suppose I COULD stop after drinking one beer if there was a lot of money on the line or someone was threatening my family, but overall I don't stop after one. Another thing to keep in mind is "you think" people are able to just have a few and stop. Even at my worst, I would rarely have more than a few drinks with co-workers or friends, the reason is I knew how I drank. I would have a few with them, then go home and drink like I wanted to all along.

Things are seldom how the seem when we are clouded with booze. For me, I need to stop comparing myself to others. It's much more important for me to know how I drink and ask myself if this is how I want to live the rest of my life. The answer is no for me. Moderation is not an option. So my only choice is to find a program of recovery. That is where I try and stay daily.

Best of luck to you!

Supercrew

This is really a neat thread. For a majority of my drinking life I never considered myself an alcoholic. In fact up until the last few months of my drinking where I started saying to myself in the AM that I was not drinking that day only to end up drunk again by 8PM did I think I really was an alcoholic.

I happened to be cleaning out some old email coorespondence yesterday (from 6 years ago) that I had with my wife at an old email address I used to use.

A hand full of those emails where me writing apologies to her for "letting my drinking get out of hand" the weekend before, "it was never my intention to come home so late or get so drunk". And it wasn't just one email, there were a bunch of them.

On those occassions although it might not have been my intention to drink when I started out, but somewhere along the line it seemed like a good idea to have one or two. It made me realize that although I am only claiming that I became a true alcoholic within the last 3 or so years, the reality was I have always been an alcoholic as far as not being able to stick with the intention of not drinking for a night or controlling myself.

During those times I might have told my wife that I didn't want to drink, and I just got teased by friends into drinking with them, but looking back I think the intention to drink was always subconsciously there. Even in the end before I found SR and put a program together for myself, I think somewhere on the subconscious level I still wanted the booze. Being that I was consciously saying I was not going to drink and I still did made me feel powerless which is when I had the "aha" moment. I was not taking any positive action to stop myself, but I was still taking actions to go to the store, buy the bottle, open it..... Until I made a real effort and took positive actions towards not drinking nothing was going to change. Once i was able to break the cycle for an extended amount of time, the benefits of not drinking sunk into my subconscious, and i realized that I really did have the power to not drink, but it only came by making a true effort and taking daily action.

TwelveSteps

I define an alcoholic as someone who wants to avoid the negative consequences they suffer as a result of drinking but can't seem to stop themselves. It doesn't matter how often or how much you drink.

I used to drink two bottles of wine every night to "help me sleep." I didn't really suffer any negative consequences, didn't really even get hungover. I didn't realize I was an alcoholic until I tried to stop for a month (multiple times)... then just a week... and was never able to get beyond a couple of days without I caved in and drank again. I'm grateful to AA every day for getting me out of that cycle.

GG

pounding

I started drinking properly at 16 (Im now 45)....from 16-22 I was a binge drinker, every Friday and Saturday night I would get hammered with friends. I could take it or leave it at any time.

I married young so my mid to late 20's were the end of binge drinking but the start of home drinking. Something in those years of binge drinking had planted a seed.

This developed into my 30's and 40's and I guess I followed the typical example of a progressive alcoholic. My friends who drank with me back in the day are not alcoholics.

What I am aware of (especially here in the UK where every weekend night in EVERY town young people are binge drinking) is that not all binge drinkers become alcoholics - if they did the country would be wasted I can assure you (I work in emergency services) - drinking is a massive part of youth culture.

So my answer to the OP is NO ....being a binge drinker does not mean you are an alcoholic or will even become one. However you may well become one!

lookinforward

I carried visine, mints and mouthwash in my car- the functioning alcoholics survival kit. I had one.
My vision of an alcoholic, was that of a bowery bum on the streets drinking wine and having no life –until I became one myself. I finally realized that skid row wasn’t just an actual place but more importantly a state of mind. I became so consumed by the thought of my next drink, that the drink, eventual, consumed me –hook, line and sinker.
Thank you Mr. David. You nailed it.
I just don't think I could deal with being hungover all the time every morning. I mean especially if you have a job or something important to do. How do people like this do it? I can't imagine waking up 6 or 7 days a week hungover and participating in life/job? I know people do it, I guess, but man o man what a miserable existence that must be to be an everday drinker. No offense to anyone.Unfortunately I can attest to this. If you only new how many times I looked in the mirror in the morning and said wtf. Did it hurt? Yes! How did I do it? I have no earthly idea. I don't live in a cardboard box and I have to support my family. Besides how else would I be able to pay for all that beer? I did not set out to be an alcoholic. But it is a twisty dirty road and if you keep going you will eventually get there.
Definition of an alcoholic. I just look in the mirror.