jackson123

I was just curious if there seems to be more that are addicted to beer or hard liquor. My AH is a vodka drinker.

denny57

Doesn't matter. I've heard many recovering alcoholics say they eventually settled on vodka because it was (they believed) odorless and quick.

jackson123

Vodka is the worst odor to me. AH stunk so bad all the time from his "vodka smell". He would swear to me up and down that he wasn't drinking and as soon as he went to bed and started sweating I could smell the odor in the room.

ChildlikeFaith

My AH use to drink Bourbon then switched to Vodka. Personally, I preferred the bourbon smell over the Vodka smell. At least the Bourbon didn't seem to seep out of his pores.

My dad drank only beer, but my husband drank Vodka. There really was no difference in the attitude. The only difference was that my dad didn't feel the need to hide his. It is more socially acceptable to have a beer in your hand most of the time than to carry around a fifth of Vodka.

Pick-a-name

Mine preferred beer (probably still does) for years with Jack Daniels in addition,some times. Then he "cleaned up his act" for many years and stuck to the beer. Now has added wine...collector! so he says! haha
The people he drinks with love wine and showing off their "knowledge", but he also must still drink beer,too because he made a big deal out of telling me he didn't "feel like" drinking beer for 3 weeks after his surgery and didn't". (good.he was on a catheter during that time,too...)

My personal take.trying to "control it" vs. trying to get a quick buzz. Depends at the time, which is the more important. JMO Oh, and of course the progression....you can only physically drink so much beer without spending your life in the bathroom!

jackson123

You are right about that. My dad drinks beer 24/7. No one ever says anything. My AH will go to t fast food restaurant an order a jumbo size drink pour 3/4 of it out and fill it with liquor.
The last bottle I found was in his golf bag. You can open my dad's fridge and see 5 cases of beer in there.

equus

Almost certainly but as to what those differences are I haven't a clue - I never looked!

I think as alcohol is a diarretic (excuse phonetic spelling!!) and dehydrates then the quantity to which it's diluted with other liquid would have an impact, possibly both on health and speed with which effects take place. That's guesswork though!!

What I'm more certain of is it being a toxin and a neat toxin is likely to be more severe than a diluted one. HOWEVER once significantly greater quantity of diluted toxin is consumed to equal that of neat consumption then the only differences would arise from acompanying fluids, relative system shock, speed of consumption etc.

You can get just as pi$$ed on beer!! Longterm though whether scotch (alc without the fluid) is more harmful than beer (alc with the fluid) would need specific research (almost certainly already done!).

Pick-a-name

OT---Haha...you reminded me of something. Right before my AH moved out, I considered (but didn't) buying him his own refrigerator for keeping his beer (he left it outside or just bought it on the way home every night) because it took nearly all the room in ours and he would get upset every night trying to put his case in around the food. Sometimes he put it in the freezer, because he knew it wouldn't be there long and he wanted it cold.

And I still wonder if he really had/has a drinking problem!?

MsPINKAcres

Is there a difference???? - My AH's who also suffers with an addiction to prescription drugs, his sister before his sobriety date of 02/07/03 offered to buy him a case of beer every day if he would just stay off the pills??????
How sick is that??? But to her defense, I use to think, if he would only take a few of the pills and not drink so much maybe I could handle that????

So, beer, hard liquor, one pill, a few or 10, I don't think it matters - my understanding of their disease - it is all about the reason they take that first drink or first pill and their inability to stop at that first drink or first pill, etc.
"One is to many and a thousand is never enough" The allergic reaction that happens to the body and their thinking once that substance enters their thought process or body, it takes total control over them.
Just my understanding of alcoholism/addiction . .
Rita

denny57

All alcohol is ethanol and no matter what form in which it is ingested, the ethanol has the same effect on the body and all its organs.

There is some excellent scientific reading to be done if you're interested in the chemistry of it.

Childlike makes a good point about the societal views. An excellent book for a basic understanding of ethanol and how it works in the body, as well as society's role in alcoholic drinking, is "Under the Influence."

As an aside - it wasn't until I came to this forum that I realized the "scent" of my AH was the booze coming through his pores.

ChildlikeFaith

this is not really on the topic of this thread, but kind of is...

My AH told me the other day that he has a theory. He said that each of us has a quota of Alcohol that is ok for them to consume in their lifetime. When a person hits that quota, they become an alcoholic.

I don't exactly agree with him, but I found it interesting. He thinks this means that it takes people that drink beer longer to become alcoholics. Since there is less alcohol content in beer, they can consume more before it becomes problematic.

harleygirl92156

Mine would start with beer and then after 6 or 8 would switch to hard stuff, what kind, WHAT EVER WAS AVAILABLE, and if there was a wide variety, he would drink a little of everything. BUT he always started a binge with beer.

cinderellawkids

First of all I want to say, why do they all seem to believe vodka is odorless. My husband and his brother drink it for that reason and I know what they smell like when they sweat it out its awful.

My husband is not as mean if drinking beer. My stepdad turns into psycho when he drinks liquor. Years ago he and my mom decided there'd eb only beer for him and he sticks to that

sunshine003

mine drinks it all. He'll start off with beer but that's only cuz in his mind, beer isn't bad but he can't stay with just beer. BTW, if he did stick to just beer, he'd get just as drunk.....LOL

Pick-a-name

Same with me..now I notice it "in public",too.

best

Tried them all. Didn't like the flavor of many. Southern Comfort or Rum and coke were ok. Started on beers, moved to whiskeys and rums. Gin and vodka never hit it off with me. Yuck! Finished out that part of my life on beers (cost less per drink)
Alcohol is alcohol. How it is delivered to the stomach is just a matter of volume per sip. There is the only difference I noticed (other then taste)
Yes vodka is harder to smell on the breath then any other form of alcohol. Not impossible, just harder.

sunshine003

I believe the "night" makes a difference, not the choice of alcohol. For example, sometimes ah could be a nice drunk. Very funny, loving, etc. Sometimes he could start off that way and end up being a raging freak....Didn't matter if he stuck to beer, mixed it up or drank straight liquor. Never knew what I was gonna get. The nice drunk, the mean drunk , or all of it in one night. It was the guessing game, never knew. Terrible way to live.

meli2005

My AH seems to prefer Vodka. I think they like it because it is more concentrated liquor they have to drink less to get the effect than say beer. It is not odorless. I can't stand the smell of vodka!! Mine was never much of a beer drinker.

But alcohol is alcohol. MIL when she was drinking, now sober a lot of years, really liked Miller light beer.

PaperDolls

Well for me - alcohol is alcohol - I usually drank beer but I'd drink anything really. If someone says that they'll quit the hard liquor and just do the beer, or go from regular beer to light beer -- it's just an excuse as far as I'm concerned. Actually, I tried that lots of times......it didn't work for me. Drunk is drunk is drunk is drunk.

cinderellawkids

Im crazier on whiskey personally. Picka aname you commented on smelling vodka on peoples pores in public, isnt it the sickest thing. I can pick out people taht have been drinking, and in a pawn shop, give me a second I can tell you, who needs grocery money, whose already high, and whose antsy to get high. I crack the pawn shop manager up by reading people,a nd can tell him who he convince to give him something for less