SoberRunner

Is there a such thing as being a "Situational Alcoholic"? (Aka you only drink a lot based on certain life situations.)

For example, I tend to only drink (a lot) when I'm single/bored... Does that make me an alcoholic, or--am I just someone who needs to learn how to fill her (single) time with something productive?

And, is there a difference between binge drinking once a week and alcoholism?

...All thoughts are welcome!

Soberwolf

Alcoholism is alcoholism it comes in many diffrent shapes & forms with all things sharing 1 key component

Andante

There's a simple test for the answer to "Am I an (any kind of) alcoholic?"

Try staying sober for a set period of time -- say, 3 months. Don't drink no matter what, even if you're "single/bored."

If find that it's impossible, or you're able to do it but are miserable the whole time, then you'll have your answer.

doggonecarl

Situational Alcoholic--a euphemistic term, like "functional alcoholic" that drinkers use to justify drinking.

least

I was a situational alcoholic, no matter what the situation, I drank.

Binge drinking or drinking every day, no difference. If alcohol is causing problems, it's best to stop drinking.

Fly N Buy

HA~!
Rule 62

Fly N Buy

My experience is that some heavy drinkers with the right impetus may quit given circumstances. My alcoholism didn't allow me that option as I progressively accelerated toward my end game.......I had lost the choice in drink.

Slippery slope, eh?

SoberRunner

Do you think the different forms of alcoholism is what confuses people to realize they're an alcoholic? I feel like I know a lot of "weekend heavy drinkers", but does that mean we're all alcoholics?

Ha! That is pretty funny...and probably true for the vast majority of us.

SoberinSyracuse

I'll share an observation: A lot of the times when folks are just coming to the realization they might fall into that stigmatized category of "alcoholic," they start overanalyzing the definition. "What if I never touch hard liquor? What if I only drink on the weekends? What if I'm 'responsible' and never drive drunk or drink around my kids? What if I quit every year for Lent?" Etc and so on.

They're secretly hoping that if they can arrive at a precise enough definition of "alcoholic," they won't fall into it and therefore can continue to drink without further concern.

In my layperson's opinion, the litmus test for alcoholism is wondering if you have a problem. Non-alcoholics don't wonder if they have a problem.

SoberinSyracuse

I know a lot of these people, too. Good, long-term friends who care a lot about me. Every one of them is 100% in favor of my sobriety. But you know what? Not a single one can abstain or even limit their drinking in my presence. They MUST drink on weekends, and they MUST drink to excess.

They're struggling. They want me in their lives, and they want to support my sobriety...but drinking comes first. These are alcoholics.

I think an alcoholic is someone who MUST drink.

Fly N Buy

I agree with this sentiment - trying to prove to oneself there is still a modicum of control by manipulation of the variables.


My experience is that at times non-alcoholics will indeed wonder if they have a problem. We see many post here daily. Remorse or regret for an occurrence(s). Certainly they may be much better off by eliminating alcohol from their lives, but they aren't necessarily alcoholics.

A heavy drinker may simply quit given the right motivation. An alcoholic must be pretty badly mangled in order to seek help from what I encounter and typically needs outside resources to recover.

SoberinSyracuse

Speaking only from my own 25+ year drinking career, I was an alcoholic for decades before I got badly mangled. I HAD to drink. It was only in the last year that I began to get mangled -- seizure, blackouts, DWI. I hope nobody with a drinking problem will wait to get mangled before taking action.

tufty13

Hey sober runner, how are you?

I wouldn't get hung up on labels. Either alcohol is a problem in your life or it isn't.

It's interesting that your "situational drinking" is troublesome for you, I don't know if that's better or worse than any obsession with wine being troublesome.

"I'm ok right now--I'm safely at home but am somewhat worried about my obsession with wine"

This is what you posted some time ago.

I was obsessed with wine too. The only exception to that was situations where there was no wine, only beer. I guess that could mean it was the situation that was the problem and not me.

I don't know; this sobriety malarkey is all new to me but all your posts remind me of how I thought before accepting the only common denominator was my propensity to drink too much too often.

FreeOwl

sure.... I was a 'situational alcoholic' since the age of 14.

in some situations, I drank without problem, without excess and without hangover or shame or guilt or destruction or risk.

in other situations, I drank to blackout, got arrested, scared people, got in fights, woke with alcohol poisoning, vomited all day, drank in the morning to shake off the withdrawals.

Over the years..... the first sort of situation seemed to be less and less the norm.

The second situation became more frequent, with less space in between.

Eventually, regardless of the situation, I was drinking almost every day. On the days I didn't drink, the situation was that I was kind of pretty miserable and just waiting until I had the excuse to let my next situation be a drinking situation.

Then the situation became that I was pretty much an alcoholic in every situation.....

For me.... "situational alcoholism" would just be sort of a fancy, rationalization of a term to help provide me with a false hope and a false excuse that fundamentally amounted to "Gee, I'm NOT an alcoholic... I just need to be conscious and careful about where and when I drink".

Incidentally, these were words I indeed used just prior to a 1.5 year relapse of epic proportions.....

Nope. Situational Alcoholism - for me - would be a delusion.

FreeOwl

another thought....

"situational cancer"

"situational kidney disease"

"situational leukemia"

"situational diabetes"

kinzoku

I'm not sure labels matter so much. Some of us have found drinking is simply too destructive. I am one of those people. I think also, as many people seem to suggest with the tone of their replies, that getting hung up labels is a dangerous thing for those of us who might look for loopholes in which to drink.

SoberRunner

Ha! I'd like you to try tell someone with cancer that alcoholism is "the same". Perhaps you should have said "Situational Depression", seeing as there are all types/levels of depression (just like alcoholism).

Dropsie

SR,

Lots of great stuff here already.

My current question for the universe is why is society's presumption that drinking is good/OK/ acceptable and that not drinking is the exception...

If one really thinks about it, drinking alcohol, even in small amounts, is stupid. OOPS did I say that out loud..

Drinking really should become like smoking, but to even say that out loud makes me sound like an excessive, and I really am not. It just seems so obvious to me that drinking is like playing Russian Roulette, and you don't know when the bullet is going to get you or what its going to look like exactly, but eventually it will. And the kids don't know that when they start, cause everyone drinks.

I am thinking about starting a movement...

So, I don't know if you are an alcoholic or not, but I do know that stopping drinking would be good thing.

If you doubt me, look at the pictures of the gal who drank ONE glass of wine a night and how much younger she looked after 30 days... ONE glass....

SoberRunner

Thank you guys for your responses! I was just curious as to what makes some people say they're in alcoholic (and go to AA) vs those who'd never even consider themselves an alcoholic.

I guess it just depends on the person...

doggonecarl

Try telling the family or loved ones of an alcoholic who has drank him self/her self to death how cancer is different.