MaryEs

Hi, read your post. Save yourself a lot of pain and don't be fooled by the rationalizations of alcoholism. When you try to stop drinking, alcoholism starts fighting for it's own survival and will tell you anything to stay alive inside of you. It is parasitic and destructive. If you think you are alcoholic, don't fool yourself. 25 years down the road, if you are around, your will have many regrets if you play with this affliction. Take care

shortbiscuit

Moderation has only worked for me as a step-down mechanism to avoid DT's. The cravings are worse, but the withdrawal is manageable.

Oceanlover

Hi GracieLou, I am right there with you! I just found this site yesterday so can't give advice. My demon is beer, about 10 per night. Having surgery for oral cancer on July 11th and will be hospitalized overnight and terrified. I am afraid to stop cold turkey on this short notice and hope to begin detox in the hospital.

I spent most of yesterday reading posts and didn't drink until 6 PM, but then ended up having 6 beers.

Hang in there!

TwoJacks

I have yet to meet any two alcoholics with the exact same habits. My alcoholism is horrific about once a year. for some reason I go crazy for three days straight. The rest of the year I go from not drinking at all to a little to more than I should. It doesn't mean I don't identify myself as an alcoholic. Even though most of the time I drink in "moderation".

karate

I do moderation ,For me the thought of "Never having another beer " was not somthing i wante4d to do .

I dont keep any beer in the house ,Dont drink daily ,some weeks i dont drink a drop of alochol .

When i feel like it ,i get a 6 pack of miller lite ,Funny thing is im normally done after 2 of them .

My former AA group said if i can drink moderately ,i was not an alocholic ?

Who knows ,I do know what works for me .

I just dont have the desire to drink like i did .


I know what it CAN do to me so i keep it under controll .

Many people have said im crazy for doing what i do ,but it works for me .

karate

I drink like that too ,But skip the 3 days straight drinking now

Gottalife

The phenomenon of craving made moderation all but impossible for me. I might start out with the idea that I would behave tonight, I just wanted to have a good time, but after taking the first drink all bets are off. Like you I would leave one drinking event to continue drinking somewhere else. That was the problem, the first drink set off a craving beyond my power to control. Nothing could stop me until it had run its course (except being locked up perhaps).

TheCure

Hi All, this thread brings up a lot of questions in my mind bout what an alcholic is. I drink 40-60 units a week, just lager - no spirits or wine and lager at 5%. I can get through 20-40 pints from a Friday to a Sunday.

If I get to the end of the night and have had 10 I know I have had enough and can just toddle off to bed with some Vitamin B, C a pint of water and wait for the hangover in the morning. Are some of you saying that you would go home and not be able to stop even though your battered ? Surely your just sick ?

The next morning it is not unusual for me to drink at around 11am to "cure" the hangover and then I might drink all day and get through 10 pints without being overly battered as its spaced out.

Come Monday I goto work and look forward to the next week-end of playing hockey and getting leathered again with or without my mates. I do in the week sometimes think aww a few points would go down well but always think about the fact I'll feel rough at work the next day which I cannot deal with.

So what makes an alcoholic, I know this is subjective but for example is someone who drinks 40-60 units a week an alcoholic regardless of the fact I can stop drinking if I have had enough and I can abstain during the week?

DG0409

We could argue all day about semantics and the words alcoholic or drinking problem, etc.

For ease, I am just going to use the term alcoholic here, but not all alcoholics drink 24/7 and sleep in the gutter.

Things that stick out as alcoholic behavior to me:

You drink 40-60 units per week. This is not a healthy level of alcohol consumption.

You drink 10 at one time... although it sounds like it's more than 10 a day sometimes if you can get through 40 units in 3 days. Again drinking 10 or more drinks is not healthy. A 'normal' person gets drunk WAY before 10 drinks. The only reason why you can drink 10 is because you've built up your tolerance. Alcoholics aren't always smashed drunk... actually, my tolerance was so high that I rarely got REALLY drunk.

You drink in the morning. Definitely a sign of alcoholism.

You drink to 'cure' the hangover. Basically you don't want to go through the withdrawal from the substance, so you keep doing more of it. That is pretty much the definition of addiction.

You drink all day. Another sign of alcoholism.

It sounds like you drink EVERY weekend. That's another sign of alcoholism.

You spend all week waiting for the weekend to drink. That's another sign of alcoholism. Somebody who's not addicted spends their week thinking about what they want to accomplish, what they're going to eat, what they're gonna do with their friends. Basically they think about life and not about drinking.

When you're not drinking, you're thinking about it wishing that you could be. Most alcoholics can abstain for periods of time... to get through work, to go to the store, to take care of their kids. We tend to call ourselves 'functional alcoholics' even though we really only function to keep the job to pay for the alcohol. And the whole time we're working, we're waiting for the end of the day or the end of the week so we can go get $hit-faced.

In short, yes, you are an alcoholic. Only an alcoholic needs 10 drinks to call it 'enough'. Abstaining for periods is not unusual for an alcoholic.

Also, thinking things like, "I can't really be an alcoholic, I can force myself to not drink for X amount of time, unlike XXX drunk that I know" is a sign of alcoholism. It's called denial and it goes hand-in-hand with alcoholism.

Bluebird1927

In my day I've done a 24 pack of beer in a day. Battered but plough on through. I could drink a horrendous amount and still seem ok

karate

Im moderating today ,got my friday 6 pack ,drank 3 with dinner .

Now im done ,drinking protien shake .

trent333

To the OP. I think you have already tried it. I know I have. I was a moderate drinker in between my rare drinker stage and my problem drinker stage. I think that we all try this stage at one point in our drinking career. The difference is alcoholics like me don't usually stay in the moderate drinker stage very long so perhaps that is why you feel as though you never tried moderating. I know my time in that stage was brief.