What's a "High Functioning Alcoholic?"
Member
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 104
I'm a high functioning alcoholic and certainly don't think I'm better than anyone else. I'd be a hypocrite to think otherwise. To me the word 'high' is irrelevant.
I think this term can be interpreted in different ways and there is no right or wrong interpretation just opinions.
I think this term can be interpreted in different ways and there is no right or wrong interpretation just opinions.
Life Goes On
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Posts: 6,069
Sure, Sushi.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and perspective. I personally believe an alcoholic can function, but by the very nature of the thing the descriptor "high" doesn't belong. It can make some people believe "It's not sooo bad." But as I said, I've no right to tell others how to define themselves. So if it works for you...
I posed the question because I was trying to figure out why it bothered me so much. Turns out that at the root of the thing it actually had more to do with the feelings it brought up for me than it did with the definition.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and perspective. I personally believe an alcoholic can function, but by the very nature of the thing the descriptor "high" doesn't belong. It can make some people believe "It's not sooo bad." But as I said, I've no right to tell others how to define themselves. So if it works for you...
I posed the question because I was trying to figure out why it bothered me so much. Turns out that at the root of the thing it actually had more to do with the feelings it brought up for me than it did with the definition.
Don't get me started on "rock bottom..." either....
Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 6,262
Alcoholism is a progressive disease that slowly, but steadily, gets worse. It's simply someone on the progression....... At one point I would have been a "high functioning alcoholic" until I became a daily drinker and slid steadily down the rabbit hole.
Quit 4/17/15
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Pa
Posts: 15,172
To the outside world, I might have appeared as high functioning. I held a job, paid my bills, never missed work, never got arrested or crashed a car. Able to enjoy a couple drinks at the bar with coworkers. What no one saw was me alone with a bottle drinking each night until I passed out. Forgetting what happened or whom I talked to the previous night. Counting the minutes until I could begin drinking again. Drinking not to feel good, but to not feel bad. The term high functioning alcoholic is a total oxymoron.
~sb
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MD
Posts: 15,964
it's an illusion; most alcoholics are high functioning alcoholics. The only low functioning alcoholic is an almost dead one.
We seem to have an idea that a drunk is wearing a trench coat and who carries their bottle of booze in a brown paper sack.
Sad truth is that an alcoholic looks like you and me and the Preacher and the Rabbi and the Priest and the grocery clerk and the accountant and the tv news person and the teacher and cop and...….and.....
We seem to have an idea that a drunk is wearing a trench coat and who carries their bottle of booze in a brown paper sack.
Sad truth is that an alcoholic looks like you and me and the Preacher and the Rabbi and the Priest and the grocery clerk and the accountant and the tv news person and the teacher and cop and...….and.....
sober style
Join Date: May 2016
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 2,384
Sam Houston and Winston Churchill are the 2 best examples I can think of "high-functioning" alcoholics. General Ulysses Grant might be another. But clearly men like these are the exception, not the rule.
Often even exceptional high-functioning drunks tend to function quite a bit worse as they age, like Ernest Hemingway for instance. Then things can get ugly fast.
Often even exceptional high-functioning drunks tend to function quite a bit worse as they age, like Ernest Hemingway for instance. Then things can get ugly fast.
Life Goes On
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Posts: 6,069
LOL, ditto, fini!!
That was indeed quite a fine entrance, Articdawn.
We'd love to know you more - here, on your own thread in this forum, in the Newcomers forum, any which way you please.
Happy New Year!!
p.s. I agree with you, so that makes me like you right off the bat!
That was indeed quite a fine entrance, Articdawn.
We'd love to know you more - here, on your own thread in this forum, in the Newcomers forum, any which way you please.
Happy New Year!!
p.s. I agree with you, so that makes me like you right off the bat!
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