freethinking

Sorry, I am just trying to pass the time while I get through the afternoon....but was just curious....any women here drink daily, drink in the morning, or drink mass amounts of alcohol on a regular basis that others never seem to understand?

Even in rehab and AA, I have never heard of a woman drinking as much as me and it often feels isolating.

(not trying to make this a pissing contest...but just sort of looking to see if others were as bad as me so I don't feel so alone)

silentrun

I drank a pint a night was up to 5-7 nights a week at the end.

alphaomega

Two plus bottles of wine, a night (3-4 hrs) and then a few more shots on top of that. OR if I was doing martinis, 4-5 large a night.

Harder than any woman I ever knew.

And I know a lot with drinking problems.

TigerLili

I drank daily. I drank until I passed out. I don't find it helps me to focus on what or how much I drank so I don't post about it very much.

What makes us alcoholics is the effect the alcohol had on our lives and selves, rather than the amount we drank. I think I drank a lot. Other people might think I was a light weight. My life was in ruins and I wanted to kill myself. Regardless of how much we drank, I think many other people got to the same point and that's why we ended up in recovery.

When I first went to AA, I didn't know if I was an alcoholic. People kept asking me if I thought I was. I kept saying I didn't know. All I knew was that I was desperate to stop drinking and had been trying for years on my own to no avail. After a few months I realised that I was indeed an alcoholic.

You may never find someone who drank precisely the way you did. I bet you can find hundreds of people who FELT the same way you did. That's the identification I'd be looking for, rather than someone who drank the same way you did. It's easy for our alcoholic voice to find reasons not to identify with other alcoholics as a way of keeping us isolated and 'other'.

Aellyce

I started to drink in my teens socially. It was under control for about a decade and I never or very rarely drank alone until I had put myself into a very stressful situation at around 28, when I started to drink alone at home. First only on Fridays... then slowly more frequently. The quantity also increased: first it was just half a bottle of wine or a few beers, never hard liquor. Then one bottle of wine 2-3-4 times a week. Then at some point wine did not really cut it anymore and I started on the liquors: whiskey, rum, vodka. To cut it short, in the recent two years I could polish off nearly a 5th of vodka per day when I was drinking it all day, or half that when only in evenings. I'm a 5'7'' ~120 lbs woman. This was everyday, or nearly everyday for at least 2 years; I would skip some days when I was very sick, but mostly an everyday habit.

archenemy

Yes to all questions.

Hearts

I drank daily. When it wasn't that big of a deal, I'd wake up and drink half a bottle of white wine in a coffee mug while I did laundry and whatever. Since I worked around 3-11pm I drank with the intent to make myself "take a nap". I'd then wake up, nearly finish off that bottle of wine, fill up half a water bottle of vodka and go to work. When I came home I'd have maybe 2 martinis to fall asleep. I think it was around half a handle of hard liquor when it really started being a problem. By the time I was headed to the ER I had been drinking about a handle (a few inches shy of one, I think) per day. Wake up and drink and pass out repeatedly through the day and night. I had like three "functional" hours a day. These days, when I relapse, I get as bad as two bottles of wine a day before I have to crash and sober up. Probably because I know where I'm headed.

freethinking

If I drank vodka, I drank almost 750 ml a night - there would be like an inch left in the bottom. If I drink wine, I drink 3-4 bottles a day. Mind you, I start early. I have been known to be at the liquor store at 9am.

I often wonder why I seem to drink more than most. I know at the end of the day it does not matter, but it makes me feel like MORE of an alcoholic, even though there is no such thing. I feel like I am worse of a person or something.

hypochondriac

I drank daily but never what I considered hard, but after talking to a few guys today I think it was more than most. I'd usually drink a bottle of wine and 4-8 cans of beer and probably a quarter a bottle of gin if I am honest. I tried to mix it up a bit and only counted the cans so I couldn't really tell how much I was drinking. I'd have a few bottles or boxes of wine open and topped the gin up with a bottle I kept under the sink.

A lady I knew in AA though drank 2 bottles of whiskey a day. She has been sober 3 years and is in her 70's. Plenty of women drank their share out there.

Hearts

I know I had the OPPORTUNITIES to be a daily drinker so I took them. I don't think it makes me a worse person but I think it makes my alcoholism more scary. I'm not worried about the weekends, I'm worried about every day. (Not that weekend drinkers don't have to worry every day.)

freethinking

A "handle"...is that like the alcohol bottles with a handle? Like a jug?

alphaomega

You just have built a bigger tolerance.

I was just as much of an alcoholic in college 20 years ago as I am now.

Only difference is I have practiced more.

And we all know what practice makes.....

Hearts

Yea. It took me years to get that lingo down. I still am just assuming a fifth is a 750 ml one... Without going to Google. Isn't that weird? You'd think I'd have figured it out the first year of buying booze every day.

freethinking

I weigh about 160. I am 6ft tall. Maybe my tolerance is bigger because I am taller? Or, do you think having a history of alcholism in the family makes you "born" with a bigger tolerance?

I feel SO BAD saying this, but I just got off the phone with someone who said she drank a bottle of wine a day and it made me feel like ****. I know she never intended that (she volunteered it), but it made me feel like a degenerate.

Aellyce

I agree with Alpha, original alcohol tolerance (before starting) varies a lot between individuals but we can build some insane tolerance with time. When I was a teen I was usually one of the people in my social groups that would get drunk most easily on the lowest dose (definitely not the one who would drink others under the table) - and see where it had progressed over a long period of time.

alphaomega

Maybe a better gauge would be how long and how often you have been drinking for, Im thinking ?

I knew a very thin woman who drank me right under the table. 25-30 standard drinks over the course of a day. I would have had to be hospitalized had I survived drinking that quantity. She had drank like that for decades.

I'm not sure body size has anything to do with it really.

Aellyce

Yes definitely, how long, how often, and how much. I think body size (weight and not height) has to do with it, most substances affect us based on that. Many medications are also administered by body weight. But tolerance is much more than that.

freethinking

I think a fifth is one of those small, flask-like containers.

But okay, I have never met a woman who drank almost a jug. Wow. Thank you for posting. I don't now feel so alone. Seriously, thanks.

freethinking

I go on 3-5 week binges. I have also never met people like that, period.

But even in college, when I did not drink this much, I drank football players under the table. They first thought it was impressive. Then my nickname became "Psycho" because of what a lunatic I was. Lunatic is actually putting it nicely.

ImperfectlyMe

Freethinking this is SR I'm going to go with.... Most of us were heavy hitters in the drinking department