question about alcohol tolerance
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Bristol TN/VA
Posts: 12,431
question about alcohol tolerance
I have only recently been able to say to myself and aloud in certain places that my sister is alcoholic.
I mean she is a party gal. Super successful & etc.
I have known for years that I don't like her gatherings and celebrations because the drunkeness really yanks my chain.
I stayed with her for a few weeks a few years back and was shocked to learn that when she came home from work the first thing she did was go to the frig for a beer and then drinks until she goes to bed. She got mildly drunk about half the time.
But she phoned me last evening and her voice was clear..an hour later it was very slurred and obvious that she was pretty drunk. I don't think she drank any more beer than she used to.
She has had this routine for a decade and probably more. and I know it is still beer.
What do you think is going on here?
I mean she is a party gal. Super successful & etc.
I have known for years that I don't like her gatherings and celebrations because the drunkeness really yanks my chain.
I stayed with her for a few weeks a few years back and was shocked to learn that when she came home from work the first thing she did was go to the frig for a beer and then drinks until she goes to bed. She got mildly drunk about half the time.
But she phoned me last evening and her voice was clear..an hour later it was very slurred and obvious that she was pretty drunk. I don't think she drank any more beer than she used to.
She has had this routine for a decade and probably more. and I know it is still beer.
What do you think is going on here?
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: the moon, milky way
Posts: 1,250
My sister is like that. She is has evening cocktails with her hubby. Used to be once week, then only on weekends, now I think it is every night. I think some people just head down that slippery slope and aren't even aware that they are consuming more and more alcohol. Or your sis is a high functioning alkie.
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Kansas
Posts: 10,182
I don't know what's going on with her.
I do know when I drank again after 4 years sober, my tolerance was very low.
I was never a blackout drinker all those years prior to recovery.
The second time I drank after relapsing, I blacked out.
I woke up in my own bed, alone, the next morning and had no idea how I had gotten there.
I jumped out of bed to see if my car was home.
It was in the garage, and I had hit the back wall of the garage and smashed my oldest daughter's bike between my bumper and the wall.
That's still painful for me to talk about.
Chronic long-term drinking does lead to the liver and body in general not being able to filter out the toxins from alcohol like it used to.
I do know when I drank again after 4 years sober, my tolerance was very low.
I was never a blackout drinker all those years prior to recovery.
The second time I drank after relapsing, I blacked out.
I woke up in my own bed, alone, the next morning and had no idea how I had gotten there.
I jumped out of bed to see if my car was home.
It was in the garage, and I had hit the back wall of the garage and smashed my oldest daughter's bike between my bumper and the wall.
That's still painful for me to talk about.
Chronic long-term drinking does lead to the liver and body in general not being able to filter out the toxins from alcohol like it used to.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Bristol TN/VA
Posts: 12,431
my sister has drank like that in the evenings for years and yes, still been super high functioning
what I am puzzled about is that I thought a tolerance developed so I don't understand why her speech detiriotated (I can't spell that atm) so rapidly
I am sorry about your sister, baby blue...I have some others I have a concern for that same thing may happen.
what I am puzzled about is that I thought a tolerance developed so I don't understand why her speech detiriotated (I can't spell that atm) so rapidly
I am sorry about your sister, baby blue...I have some others I have a concern for that same thing may happen.
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Wizard Land Downunder
Posts: 2,615
My AS does the same when she gets in the door...puts down whatever she is carrying, puts wine in cooler and pours out glass number one, sits out in patio with glass 2 & 3, gets dinner for herself with help of glass numbers 4 & 5, eats dinner with glass 6.
Sits and broods over years of bad "memories", with glasses 7, 8, 9 & 10 and may then reel off to bed, or with help of glasses 11 & 12, will ring "friends" or my mum, to let off steam.
She let that steam off at me the other night, ringing me up drunk for the first time....it could also be the last because I was NOT HAPPY, and let her have it in spades.
Mum has noticed it takes less for AS to sound drunk, which stunned me as God knows how much she drank before. I might add that in the 18 months since I saw her last, when she looked no more than 50, she has aged so much that she now looks 65, older than her real age.
Sits and broods over years of bad "memories", with glasses 7, 8, 9 & 10 and may then reel off to bed, or with help of glasses 11 & 12, will ring "friends" or my mum, to let off steam.
She let that steam off at me the other night, ringing me up drunk for the first time....it could also be the last because I was NOT HAPPY, and let her have it in spades.
Mum has noticed it takes less for AS to sound drunk, which stunned me as God knows how much she drank before. I might add that in the 18 months since I saw her last, when she looked no more than 50, she has aged so much that she now looks 65, older than her real age.
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Bristol TN/VA
Posts: 12,431
yeah, my sister is uber smart and she has developed some pretty good habits for masking it....but she doesn't realize that I can see it.
Like her replies are slowed..she pauses to formulate them and she doesn't talk silly or drunk but her speech slurs.
It is her choice to live this way...but I don't want to be around it.
Like her replies are slowed..she pauses to formulate them and she doesn't talk silly or drunk but her speech slurs.
It is her choice to live this way...but I don't want to be around it.
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Kansas
Posts: 10,182
Originally Posted by Live 
It is her choice to live this way...but I don't want to be around it.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Bristol TN/VA
Posts: 12,431
yeah, when it got apparent to me...I told her I needed to go read my book to get ready for bed.
Seems like I cut her short on the phone fairly regularly..at least she doesn't get offended.
But the minute I start hearing that..I get very bored with the conversation.
Seems like I cut her short on the phone fairly regularly..at least she doesn't get offended.
But the minute I start hearing that..I get very bored with the conversation.
Rising from the Ashes
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Republic of Texas
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In the average healthy human being alcohol is metabolized by the liver at the rate of about one standard drink (0.6 oz ethanol) per hour. In people who frequently engage in heavy drinking alcohol tolerance develops. Changes occur in the brain and the liver which work to adapt them to the steady presence of alcohol. When alcohol tolerance develops people need to drink much more alcohol to get the same effect as they used to.
Reverse Tolerance occurs when a heavy drinker develops liver damage and the liver no longer produces as great a quantity of the enzymes needed to break down alcohol in the body as it did before. Since people with a lot of alcoholic liver damage can no longer metabolize alcohol very well, these people can get very intoxicated on small quantities of alcohol--much smaller quantities than are needed to affect the person who rarely drinks. This phenomenon is known as Reverse Tolerance.
Once a person begins to drink alcohol on a regular basis the dose response goes down--in other words the same dose of alcohol produces less intoxication than it used to. Saying that the dose response to alcohol goes down is exactly the same as saying that alcohol tolerance goes up--and vice versa. Dose response and tolerance are mirror images of each other. As long as a steady consumption of alcohol is maintained, tolerance will tend to increase and dose response will tend to drop. If liver damage begins to occur, however, tolerance will begin to drop once again and dose response will tend to increase. When there is sufficient damage to the liver there will be considerably less tolerance and considerably greater dose response to alcohol than there was before the person ever took their first drink.
It is important to note that most heavy drinkers do NOT develop liver damage or Reverse Tolerance. The majority of heavy drinkers will not suffer liver damage and hence will not develop Reverse Tolerance.
One should be very careful not to confuse Reverse Tolerance with the Healthy Tolerance Reversal which occurs when a heavy drinker does a period of abstinence from alcohol or a period of moderate drinking. When the amount of alcohol to which the liver is exposed on a daily basis is greatly decreased, liver enzymes begin to return to normal levels and alcohol tolerance (as well as dose response) tends to return to levels similar to those before the subject began drinking heavily.
The essential difference between Reverse Tolerance and Healthy Tolerance Reversal is that Reverse Tolerance is caused by damage to the liver which is often irreversible. In Healthy Tolerance Reversal the liver is actually becoming more healthy than it was during the period of heavy drinking--and the reason why the tolerance is dropping is that the excessive and unhealthy levels of liver enzymes associated with heavy drinking are now returning to normal and healthy levels.
In Reverse Tolerance many of the cells needed to produce these enzymes have died and that is the reason why less of the enzymes are produced. In Healthy Tolerance Reversal the liver cells are going back to producing normal levels of these enzymes rather than the excessive levels which they produced during the heavy drinking period--no cells die when Healthy Tolerance Reversal takes place.
A period of abstinence may not necessarily return tolerance to the same levels as before the person ever took a drink of alcohol, however, an abstinence period significantly reduces tolerance from the levels it was at during the time of heavy drinking.
How much time is needed for Healthy Tolerance Reversal to take place? There is not an exact answer to this. Tolerance will start dropping as soon as heavy drinking ceases, but experts say that it takes a month or two for the full effect of Healthy Tolerance Reversal to take place.
The HAMS Harm Reduction Network, Inc
Reverse Tolerance occurs when a heavy drinker develops liver damage and the liver no longer produces as great a quantity of the enzymes needed to break down alcohol in the body as it did before. Since people with a lot of alcoholic liver damage can no longer metabolize alcohol very well, these people can get very intoxicated on small quantities of alcohol--much smaller quantities than are needed to affect the person who rarely drinks. This phenomenon is known as Reverse Tolerance.
Once a person begins to drink alcohol on a regular basis the dose response goes down--in other words the same dose of alcohol produces less intoxication than it used to. Saying that the dose response to alcohol goes down is exactly the same as saying that alcohol tolerance goes up--and vice versa. Dose response and tolerance are mirror images of each other. As long as a steady consumption of alcohol is maintained, tolerance will tend to increase and dose response will tend to drop. If liver damage begins to occur, however, tolerance will begin to drop once again and dose response will tend to increase. When there is sufficient damage to the liver there will be considerably less tolerance and considerably greater dose response to alcohol than there was before the person ever took their first drink.
It is important to note that most heavy drinkers do NOT develop liver damage or Reverse Tolerance. The majority of heavy drinkers will not suffer liver damage and hence will not develop Reverse Tolerance.
One should be very careful not to confuse Reverse Tolerance with the Healthy Tolerance Reversal which occurs when a heavy drinker does a period of abstinence from alcohol or a period of moderate drinking. When the amount of alcohol to which the liver is exposed on a daily basis is greatly decreased, liver enzymes begin to return to normal levels and alcohol tolerance (as well as dose response) tends to return to levels similar to those before the subject began drinking heavily.
The essential difference between Reverse Tolerance and Healthy Tolerance Reversal is that Reverse Tolerance is caused by damage to the liver which is often irreversible. In Healthy Tolerance Reversal the liver is actually becoming more healthy than it was during the period of heavy drinking--and the reason why the tolerance is dropping is that the excessive and unhealthy levels of liver enzymes associated with heavy drinking are now returning to normal and healthy levels.
In Reverse Tolerance many of the cells needed to produce these enzymes have died and that is the reason why less of the enzymes are produced. In Healthy Tolerance Reversal the liver cells are going back to producing normal levels of these enzymes rather than the excessive levels which they produced during the heavy drinking period--no cells die when Healthy Tolerance Reversal takes place.
A period of abstinence may not necessarily return tolerance to the same levels as before the person ever took a drink of alcohol, however, an abstinence period significantly reduces tolerance from the levels it was at during the time of heavy drinking.
How much time is needed for Healthy Tolerance Reversal to take place? There is not an exact answer to this. Tolerance will start dropping as soon as heavy drinking ceases, but experts say that it takes a month or two for the full effect of Healthy Tolerance Reversal to take place.
The HAMS Harm Reduction Network, Inc
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