karate

A true alcoholic ,If they take a drink ....... They will soon be in a drunken state of drinking daily ,or on a binge of excessive drinking ?

Hevyn

Hi karate. It didn't work quite that way for me. It took many years for me to become a daily drinker.

Tamerua

Depends on the person I think. I didn't drink daily although I could see it progressing that way.

Br00ksie

Ditto.

For me, I realized I was an alcoholic when I realized that I couldn't enjoy just ONE of anything, or when I started to feel a buzz I felt the urge to "keep it going" or "chase it," so to speak.

BackToSquareOne

I've always found that nothing is written in stone. If you could rate the severity of a drinking problem on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being on deaths doorstep, would walk over hot coals for a drink and 1 being some element of control you could vary quite a bit over the decades. It is not always a straight line progression, it was not in my case anyhow. I could go from a 1 to a 5 back to a 2 or 1 for a while then back to a 5. Over 3 decades I bounced around a lot!

bob8619

In my early years of drinking I would drink just about every night, no job no responsiblilty just party each and every night for the most part. No hangovers back then so there was nothing stopping me.

As years passed I started getting horrible hangovers, my drinking at this point turned into mostly weekend binge drinking. Occasionally had stretches of drinking just about every night though. Never got to the point of drinking every day in order to function or anything like that though. Only drank to get my "party on"

I also could drink a few but I would feel absolutely crappy so I never gave it much effort, instead I just drank to get drunk. I swore off drinking many times after getting in trouble but it never lasted, I would feel better and it would be party time once again.


I finally hit my rock bottom last year and finally I truly wanted to put this drinking behind me. October 16th will be my 1 year sober and I've never been happier. I did not attend any meetings or therapy, I call myself an alcoholic though.

youbetcha

If it's a problem for you, then it's a problem.

Amajorityofone

Amen.

The "definition" of what an alcoholic is means nothing to me. The more relevant question to ask is why are you here? What steps have you taken in your life that led you to this website?

Food for thought

Gravel

Alcohol hurts my body and when I drink slowly I can feel it. It just generally does feel like a poison compared to good foods or a healthy non-alcohol beverage.

When you drink slowly you get a buzz here and there then it goes away, then you take a few more sips and repeats itself. You are are constantly coming down and feeling like crap.

If you drink fast you never come down and never feel the damage it does to your body until of course the next time you stop. The old saying "drink away a hangover."

So for me there is no reason to drink 1 or 2. It's not fun and doesn't feel good. Now if I know I am going to drink 14 then 1 and 2 beers is good and so are the rest because I drink them fast.

pinkdog

Usually. For myself, one would lead to another. Personally, I can't drink at all.

Mountainmanbob

one is probably an alcoholic if

"Liquor ceased to be a luxury; it became a necessity"



Gradually things got worse. As we became subjects of King Alcohol

MB

Black Bird

I was a binge drinker weekends only from the age 19-34. Took time off when pregnant and when I had new borns. Started drinking during the week and weekends at age 35. Drank 24/7 at age 36 until 38. When I binged one was never enough, when I went on to drinking during the week one was never enough. When I became a everyday all day drinker I would drink no matter what. Sickness, health, almost unil death do us part. Grateful it did not come to that. I believe, I was an alcoholic from the time I took my first drink at 19.

FeenixxRising

I wasn't a daily drinker, but I was a habitual binge drinker. Every 7 to 10 days on average. And once I drank a beer, I would almost always drink until I passed out, or I could not get my hands on more booze. Am I an alcoholic? According to the AA Big Book, I am. But I don't really care much about the label. I do know that once I started drinking 1) I could not stop and 2) when I was drinking I would do all manner of things that usually caused me some type of physical, mental or financial harm.

So for me, it was time to quit.

whitebear

For me, one drink (or one pill, or any intoxicant) was almost immediately followed by me obsessing over it and how I could get MORE---either more of the substance, or more intoxicated in general.

So while it took me six years to become a low-functioning alcoholic, I always had unhealthy, obsessive thoughts regarding substances. And no matter what, if I take anything that makes me not sober, I will react to it in a way to where I will want more no matter what, and I will obsess about it even long after its effects have worn off.

Rarely was one drink enough, and if it was, I can only explain it by saying that it must have been a glitch in the Matrix---in fact, one drink was torture. It activated the beast within, and the only thing worse than one drink and stopping was three drinks and stopping; at three I was so close to feeling something.

For me, a lot of the addiction resides within my thought life, and just because I didn't get hammered sometimes (rarely did I not get hammered) doesn't mean that I didn't want to or that I didn't obsess about it.

But to answer your question: if I decided to have one beer tomorrow afternoon, I'd probably and up unconscious on my bathroom floor by early evening.

GracieLou

Is your question from the start or after a relapse?

I ask because I have heard that some that were daily drinkers before quitting turn to a binge when they relapse. Some, trying to moderate, will drink here and there until they are back to where they were before, others drink fast and hard (binge) in an effort to make up for lost time.

For me, from the start, I was not a daily drinker. It was Friday nights and weekends. It progressed over the years to daily with a binge on the weekends.

I don't look at how much or how often I drank, even though I qualified, it was the fact that once I drank, there was no going back. There was no moderation but then again I never wanted to moderate. I drank to get drunk.

Kathleen41

No, not necessarily. Alcoholics lose the power of choice in their drinking. So they cannot choose when and how much they will drink. They lose the ability to prioritize their lives. This takes places in varying degrees. Thankfully, some realize they are alcoholic before they reach the point you describe.

thisisme

I've seen this happen a thousand times. Yes.

Susan2984

This has kind of been my contemplation. I think that yes typically, "that one drink" can be enough to set an alcholic into a frenzy for more because of the addiction, or that one drink can cause a real relapse. But it's not always the case. I myself was drinking a moderate amount (or small depending on whose looking at it - 2 glasses of wine, maybe 3 sometimes, but sometimes only 1) most every night. I didn't drink to get drunk, I drank to simply take the edge off of my stressful day and anxiety. Still - for me - it was a problem. It had become habit. I just poured a glass I didn't think about it. I got used to depending on it to self medicate, even in a small amount. So I suppose it's not about what is an alcoholic or what makes an alcoholic or alcohol problem it's what you view for yourself as an issue. I do differentiate alcohol dependence vs "full" alcoholism but an issue that needs work is an issue that needs work.

teardrop

theres no such thing as a true alcoholic, a alcoholic is just that , alcoholic.

also a alcoholic can go several days even weeks or months without taking a drink, but once they take the first drink it sets off the craving for more drink

the craving may be set off immediately ie one drink leads straight to another and another and another etc

or the craving may not kick in as such immediately, ie the alcoholic may take one drink and say see ive had one drink ill not have another today, but sure enough that craving has set in and very shortly. ie the next day or two or even maybe the next week the alcoholic will drink again, and before too long be drinking to excess again and all the alcoholics problems will continue from where he left off and get worse.

thats my opinion of it anyway

dave

RobbyRobot

An alcoholic who takes that drink will be wanting another and it really doesn't matter if more drinking comes by daily abuse or by binges - it will always end up for the alcoholic to be in a drunken state - its not an if this or that kind of thing - its just a matter of time before the alcoholic who is back to drinking gets drunk.

You ask about if a true alcoholic - what are you thinking is a true alcoholic? Not everybody who drinks is an alcoholic of course, as you already know I'm sure. People can also just have problems and related troubles with alcohol and still not be alcoholic, imo.

Alcoholism is not equal with problem drinking, imo. So, are you asking because you too understand differences between alcoholics and problem drinkers or social drinkers?