Alcoholic or problem drinker?
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Scotland
Posts: 1,506
Alcoholic or problem drinker?
I have seen this posted a thousand times and I am always unsure if you can self diagnose whether or not you have a drinking problem or are a functioning alcoholic? I think if there was any way to know the difference it would help out. A lot of people right here on SR, why? Because a lot of people after a period of sobriety albeit a month or a year think can I have the one drink? So I guess if you are not an alcoholic can you have just that one drink, and if not what is everyone's take on non alcoholic beers?
This post may be a bit out there but I think it will help a lot of people on this fine site.
Thoughts guys?
All the best
Stuart.
This post may be a bit out there but I think it will help a lot of people on this fine site.
Thoughts guys?
All the best
Stuart.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 73
I know for a fact I can't have another drink and I'm 5 months sober and still dealing with anxiety and brain fog that started 9 days after I quit so this experience makes me not want to drink anyway.....I went from periodically binge drinking to drinking while doing yard work to everyday as soon as I got home i needed 6-8 beers to feel that "high" which I'm now paying for and yes been to the doctors for the million dollar check up
Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: KC MO
Posts: 980
Originally Posted by Stoogy 
a lot of people after a period of sobriety albeit a month or a year think can I have the one drink?
Thoughts guys?
All the best
Stuart.
Thoughts guys?
All the best
Stuart.
But for whatever reason we decide to quit. After a short period of time. The reason we quit becomes irrelevant,or unimportant.
As the phrase goes I heard at AA a few years ago.
"our rememberers are broken,but our forgetters work very well when it comes to booze".
As far as non alcoholic beer. I see no use for it. But I am an alcoholic. Where I went to school. Beer =Buzz. Non alcoholic beer is saying 3+3 =2
Just my opinion.
Fred
Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 70
Originally Posted by Stoogy
I have seen this posted a thousand times and I am always unsure if you can self diagnose whether or not you have a drinking problem or are a functioning alcoholic? I think if there was any way to know the difference it would help out. A lot of people right here on SR, why? Because a lot of people after a period of sobriety albeit a month or a year think can I have the one drink? So I guess if you are not an alcoholic can you have just that one drink, and if not what is everyone's take on non alcoholic beers?
This post may be a bit out there but I think it will help a lot of people on this fine site.
Thoughts guys?
All the best
Stuart.
This post may be a bit out there but I think it will help a lot of people on this fine site.
Thoughts guys?
All the best
Stuart.
New Year's this year I set out to have one drink. I don't remember that one drink, nor the four days that followed. Followed by 5 days of drying out. Again.
I kind of got a clue.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 5,229
i was probably an alcoholic all along. I even said as much just jokingly on many occaisions. Sometimes I just drank less then other times. But 1 beer or 20 beers it was always a problem I guess the degree of the problem may have been less or more depending on circumstance or intake levels. But it was still a problem.
Its almost like saying if ia problem isnt very noticeable is it still a problem? If a tree fell in the woods and no one saw it happen did it still fall?
I wouldnt be afraid to say Im an alcoholic but my problem is not so bad right now etc.. Least then your being honest about it. Maybe sometimes the problem flares up maybe it doesnt. Maybe You find after a couple drinks you need to wait till it wears off some till you drive etc.. still a problem no?
Its almost like saying if ia problem isnt very noticeable is it still a problem? If a tree fell in the woods and no one saw it happen did it still fall?
I wouldnt be afraid to say Im an alcoholic but my problem is not so bad right now etc.. Least then your being honest about it. Maybe sometimes the problem flares up maybe it doesnt. Maybe You find after a couple drinks you need to wait till it wears off some till you drive etc.. still a problem no?
Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: CA
Posts: 3,360
Seems like many of us have stopped drinking for a period of time...then "forgot" the pain and suffering which caused us to quit. The thing we share, one is usually not enough....how much is enough? For myself it meant drinking to blackout over and over. Then stopping for a while and forgetting, repeat cycle. So, I gave up and don't take the first drink, one day after another. No matter what my "voice" says...no matter what.
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 405
"Moderate drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone.
Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.
Here is a fellow who has been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control. He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He is a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is seldom mildly intoxicated. He is always more or less insanely drunk. His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little. He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social. He has a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him. He uses his gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself, and then pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. He is the fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplace the night before. If he can afford it, he may have liquor concealed all over his house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the wastepipe. As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work. Then comes the day when he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who gives him morphine or some sedative with which to taper off. Then he begins to appear at hospitals and sanitariums.
This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic, as our behavior patterns vary. But this description should identify him roughly."
There Is A Solution, Alcoholics Anonymous
Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.
Here is a fellow who has been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control. He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He is a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is seldom mildly intoxicated. He is always more or less insanely drunk. His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little. He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social. He has a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him. He uses his gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself, and then pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. He is the fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplace the night before. If he can afford it, he may have liquor concealed all over his house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the wastepipe. As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work. Then comes the day when he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who gives him morphine or some sedative with which to taper off. Then he begins to appear at hospitals and sanitariums.
This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic, as our behavior patterns vary. But this description should identify him roughly."
There Is A Solution, Alcoholics Anonymous
Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: liverpool uk
Posts: 198
it's not the one drink that gets you-it's the gluts that you do, you think " oh I've had one so f**k it, one night isn't going to hurt me"
take it from someone that can go for weeks without a drink, and then have one-just normal 4% beer-and that turns into DAYS-you get the taste-and it's not good.
take it from someone that can go for weeks without a drink, and then have one-just normal 4% beer-and that turns into DAYS-you get the taste-and it's not good.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 3,359
For me it had to do with why I was drinking. When I got really honest with myself, I realized I used alcohol, despite knowing its bad consequences to pacify emotions good and bad. This emotional escape to cope with life is what became my problem. I believe this is addictive tendencies since I would drink but I did not want to drink. The quantity was irrelevant to my problem but I was consuming 3L of vodka a week - a lot to some and not enough for others.
In recovery I have found that alcohol was one of the many horses on my addition merry to round.
Coming to terms that I am and will always be an addict and an alcoholic is humbling and I struggled for a while with this question. Nobody else can diagnose this for you. You have to come to terms on your own and accept it if you want to get better in my opinion.
In recovery I have found that alcohol was one of the many horses on my addition merry to round.
Coming to terms that I am and will always be an addict and an alcoholic is humbling and I struggled for a while with this question. Nobody else can diagnose this for you. You have to come to terms on your own and accept it if you want to get better in my opinion.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Scotland
Posts: 1,506
Originally Posted by jdooner
For me it had to do with why I was drinking. When I got really honest with myself, I realized I used alcohol, despite knowing its bad consequences to pacify emotions good and bad. This emotional escape to cope with life is what became my problem. I believe this is addictive tendencies since I would drink but I did not want to drink. The quantity was irrelevant to my problem but I was consuming 3L of vodka a week - a lot to some and not enough for others.
In recovery I have found that alcohol was one of the many horses on my addition merry to round.
Coming to terms that I am and will always be an addict and an alcoholic is humbling and I struggled for a while with this question. Nobody else can diagnose this for you. You have to come to terms on your own and accept it if you want to get better in my opinion.
In recovery I have found that alcohol was one of the many horses on my addition merry to round.
Coming to terms that I am and will always be an addict and an alcoholic is humbling and I struggled for a while with this question. Nobody else can diagnose this for you. You have to come to terms on your own and accept it if you want to get better in my opinion.
All the best
Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 70
Originally Posted by SoulSister
"Moderate drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone.
Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.
Here is a fellow who has been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control. He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He is a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is seldom mildly intoxicated. He is always more or less insanely drunk. His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little. He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social. He has a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him. He uses his gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself, and then pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. He is the fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplace the night before. If he can afford it, he may have liquor concealed all over his house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the wastepipe. As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work. Then comes the day when he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who gives him morphine or some sedative with which to taper off. Then he begins to appear at hospitals and sanitariums.
This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic, as our behavior patterns vary. But this description should identify him roughly."
There Is A Solution, Alcoholics Anonymous
Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.
Here is a fellow who has been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control. He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He is a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is seldom mildly intoxicated. He is always more or less insanely drunk. His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little. He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social. He has a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him. He uses his gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself, and then pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. He is the fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplace the night before. If he can afford it, he may have liquor concealed all over his house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the wastepipe. As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work. Then comes the day when he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who gives him morphine or some sedative with which to taper off. Then he begins to appear at hospitals and sanitariums.
This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic, as our behavior patterns vary. But this description should identify him roughly."
There Is A Solution, Alcoholics Anonymous
There's more of me in that definition than not.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Scotland
Posts: 1,506
Originally Posted by GunnyL
I LIKE that definition. If not for that, I'd probably not have returned to AA. Like most I'm sure, I was a casual member in denial until I started reading.
There's more of me in that definition than not.
There's more of me in that definition than not.
That's the first time I have actually read that segment, wow! Kinda nails it for me too.
Thanks for taking the time to post that.👍
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
The difference between an alcoholic and a drunk:
The drunk could stop drinking if he would.
The alcoholic would stop drinking if he could.
I have always felt that is the defining characteristic of the chronic alcoholic (of my type anyway). The total inability to leave it alone no matter how great the need or the wish.
To be able to stop or moderate on ones own power and still claim to be an acoholic is something of a contradiction in terms is it not?
The drunk could stop drinking if he would.
The alcoholic would stop drinking if he could.
I have always felt that is the defining characteristic of the chronic alcoholic (of my type anyway). The total inability to leave it alone no matter how great the need or the wish.
To be able to stop or moderate on ones own power and still claim to be an acoholic is something of a contradiction in terms is it not?
voices ca**y
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: St. Paul Minnesota
Posts: 4,360
Originally Posted by SoulSister
Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
Originally Posted by silentrun
I would lump that as alcoholic as well. If it impairs a person and they continue to do it that to me seems like loss of rational thought and not normal.
These others, I always wanted to be one of them, live pretty ordinary lives..they don,t seem to be beset by the problems of the alcoholic. Sure they drink more than is good for them, but they don't lose control, there is no progression in there drinking, it stays the same year after year. They most certainly do not need a spiritual method of recovery. Ask them. They are quite happy with how they are, unlike the alcoholic who would give almost anything to have a better life.
voices ca**y
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: St. Paul Minnesota
Posts: 4,360
Originally Posted by Gottalife
This person can stop or moderate on their own power. If they can moderate they can still control their drinking, therefore they are not alcoholic. The alcoholic has lost the power of choice in drink.
These others, I always wanted to be one of them, live pretty ordinary lives..they don,t seem to be beset by the problems of the alcoholic. Sure they drink more than is good for them, but they don't lose control, there is no progression in there drinking, it stays the same year after year. They most certainly do not need a spiritual method of recovery. Ask them. They are quite happy with how they are, unlike the alcoholic who would give almost anything to have a better life.
These others, I always wanted to be one of them, live pretty ordinary lives..they don,t seem to be beset by the problems of the alcoholic. Sure they drink more than is good for them, but they don't lose control, there is no progression in there drinking, it stays the same year after year. They most certainly do not need a spiritual method of recovery. Ask them. They are quite happy with how they are, unlike the alcoholic who would give almost anything to have a better life.
Either way it's over. I just assume now I quit further up the progression that some others and further down than others.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Out in the Sticks
Posts: 1,788
Great thread .
Lots of knowledge there , drinking has sure caused me problems.
But what had me confused was the drinker , that once took one drink -
He would drink all the alocohol he could get , or pass out .
I never understood that .
I suspect age and knowledge has had an effect on my drinking as well .
Lots of knowledge there , drinking has sure caused me problems.
But what had me confused was the drinker , that once took one drink -
He would drink all the alocohol he could get , or pass out .
I never understood that .
I suspect age and knowledge has had an effect on my drinking as well .
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