VigilanceNow

Does anyone else find sometimes that people have a very different tolerance level for other drug addictions vs alcoholism? Alcohol is so ubiquitous and acceptable that I think most people don't think of it as an addictive drug. People will often be like why.. why can't you just stop? And the average drinker doesn't even know about withdrawal. When you think of addiction, you think of other drugs... I mean I know addiction is addiction, but... Just thought I'd see what people's experience with that is!

WizingUp

Yeah, most people I know don't understand why I have 3 day "hangovers". My wife thought I was being a baby for years until she finally realized I wasn't faking my shaking.

MicroMacro

The world is full of arrogance, ignorance, and assumptions - and patience, and willingness and open-mindedness. It just depends on where one looks and whether or not there's an opportunity to look internally (and share - or not).

2ndhandrose

I can see what you are saying. People tend to look at drug addicts, maybe shake their head and, sadly, think "poor, poor him/her".

When viewing an alcoholic in the throes of their alcoholism, I think people are more likely to see a person with no self control.

Not to brush all folk with the same stroke.

WizingUp

^ Exactly. I had a doctor in my college days frowning at me when my liver results came back. She yelled at me, "why can't you just have a couple here and there!". I think there are even doctors who think it is a bogus disease.

VigilanceNow

I completely agree. We had a long discussion about that in rehab... How people who drink too much are folks who can't control themselves and don't know their boundaries (me sometimes, lol) and drug addicts are kind of victims who need help. I'm no victim, but I can say I never *intended* to get blackout drunk... Sigh.

halfalife

From the outside looking in..individuals that haven't experienced it themselves or in their families/loved ones may not truly understand the progressive nature. I was raised around social drinking...it was normally consumed on most occasions, no holidays with wild binges. Until I found myself struggling I wouldn't have truly understood the characteristics that are unique about alcoholism.

I think drinking and to a degree binging have unfortunately become socially normed into day-to-day culture as well. Between marketing and 'happy hour' here in US, it's a prolific part of recreational 'fun'. No one that drinks 4-5 glasses of wine per Friday or Saturday night would assume that it's well over the recommended daily unit limit, nor might they realize given the right circumstances that it could move into a bottle a day or more and then the start of a habit of drinking alone.

It's a lack of understanding due to a lack of experience and simply not being aware of the very very slippery slope.

2ndhandrose

I can't count the number of times people have said to me, "you don't need to quit, just have a couple".

ya' right

bexxed

It is weird, I mean people fully understand that tobacco is an addictive drug, too, but not alcohol. I was thinking about whether it's a question of legality and access, but it's really not that simple, is it?

I don't worry about anyone's perceptions anymore. I don't think about it either - in a non-worrying sense. Alcohol and me don't mix and that is my business. If I could moderate I'd be 10,000 light years away from this group, moderating away, but I can't. I never lost a job, crashed a car, got a DUI, or hid vodka bottles, but it was a matter of the great "yets". I know that because I'm an alcoholic.