MIRecovery

We have a dry house so she doesn't drink at home but when we go out and she leaves wine I tell her that is alcohol abuse as far as I'm concerned. Not drinking everything there is to drink is almost a sin in my book

ScottFromWI

I don't think it matters in the least where, when or what you drink. It's HOW you drink. I know alcoholics who never drink at home and some who only drink at home. And then there's the ones like me who drank everywhere all the time.

Arbor

I drank at home. Everyday. Home is my safe place. MY place where I can do whatever I want, when I want. Part of that celebration was to drink myself silly. Didn't matter what day it was or what was going on. I do think buying my first home elevated my drinking substantially. I could hide it like my grandfather did wherever I wanted, buy as much as I could cause I had a great job to go along with the house, and drink daily like my father cause he owns a home and is successful too. Great question, really. I have thought about this before. The chain of events that lead to my chronic alcoholism.

Very interesting SoberWolf. Thank you.

Soberwolf

Thanks guys for your views & input

endlesspatience

I think this remark is interesting: In my opinion, some people can stay heavy drinkers, or just "stop drinking" if they decide to, without needing a recovery program.
I'd be inclined to agree with that. The disadvantage of not using a recovery programmme of some sort is that you don't then receive the tools you can use in other areas of your life. For example, when I took action on my drinking, I also took action on my smoking, eating, exercise, time management and a whole load of other things. They're all connected, aren't they? So often when you hear people lose weight for example they suddenly realise that they can do more with their life.

Centered3

To clarify, not all heavy drinkers are alcoholics. All alcoholics need a recovery program.

With heavy drinkers, it is just about the alcohol. With alcoholics, it's the mental, spiritual and physical disease of alcoholism.

To quote my favorite podcast speaker, "My uncle was a heavy drinker. His doctor said, 'Mike, you've got to quit drinking because it's harming your liver.' So he quit drinking. And he was fine." (He didn't have a mental, spiritual, or physical disease.)

Those of us who are alcoholics get worse without the drink or fill in the blank. Guys like the speaker's uncle just happened to drink a lot. He was fine without out. No mental or spiritual disease.

I have friends who are heavy drinkers. They socialize around alcohol. They enjoy it a lot. But I don't view them as having a problem with their thinking or reaction to life, or a spiritual malady so I surmise if their doctor said to "quit drinking, it's harming your liver", they'd find some other hobby to take up.

Soberwolf

You can't turn a pickle back into a cucumber.... a heavy drinker will get heavily pickled regularly drink enough & said drinker will end up pickled that's common sense

You can't turn a pickle back into a cucumber meaning the more a person drinks the more the pickling continues

Alcoholic, Heavy drinker, Medium drinker, Light drinker Not at all,

The end result is the same

uncorked

I have to disagree with you here. The majority of people with drinking problems/alcoholism quit without any formal program. I went to inpatient rehab (non 12 steps) but don't follow a recovery program. Does this mean I'm not an alcoholic, I just drank a lot? The label doesn't really matter.

Deckard

When I was growing up alcohol was served every day at home. The drinking was not excessive, but it was daily. As an adult, then, it at first seemed like no big deal to me to drink every day at home. (In fact, it seemed kind of normal.) The experience played right into my rationalization. It was no big deal, see, since the parents and grandparents did it and they were fine... But that did not account for my soon going back for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, drink...

Jack465

My alcoholism definitely got worse when I started drinking at home. Actually I didn't really even have a problem before that. But when I figured out I could drink at home, it was like, hey, I can get drunk without any of the effort required to go to a bar or other event. Not good.

Mags1

I can't remember when alcohol took its hold on me. I went years without drinking, just on occasions but I know I loved it more than normal people in my teens, I never wanted to go home. Then I think it was in my late twenties it got hold.

But I agree, Wolfie, you can't turn a pickle back into a cucumber. Alan Carr says something similar in his book. When you drink you're all on the slippery slope. I think it can get you to the point of no return, it snook up on me.

I loved drinking at home. Hubby went fishing and I would just drink and watch a film then pass out. Sad.