carmen303

As a non- drinker who has a drinker in my life, I'm trying to understand strength of alcoholic beverages.

I read on the internet that beer is something like 4% and most wine is like 12%, but they said you can't compare the two. I wondered what that meant. Is the beer really any better than the wine?

My A used to drink Bud Lite all the time. Now, it's a cheap oak wine. That's pretty much it. I never count the drinks. I lose count, because it happens before I see him. So, what may look like one or two to me, is usually much more...but I don't know how much more.

Now, I'm trying to educate myself and be aware of percentages of alcohol in the drinks. It may not matter, as people can make up the difference in volume, I suppose.

LexieCat

Yes, they make up the difference in volume. Alcohol is alcohol.

A couple shots of something like Everclear equals a whole lot more wine or even more beer. One type isn't any "better" for an alcoholic than another--they all have exactly the same effect, only there is a tendency to consume more of the less-potent types.

Most of us alcoholics have tried switching to "weaker" kinds of drinks, or diluting them with ice, mixer, or water, and the bottom line is we still get drunk, still damage our bodies, and still feed our addiction.

amy55

Oh why oh why do alcoholics do what they do?

I drank lite beers. Yes 4 percent or less. But wine seemed more sophisticated, sort of like something no one would get pissed about. I don't know too much about wine, it is stronger, a bottle may be equivatent to about I don't know, 6 cans of beer, if you are going by lite beers.

He's messing with your head, he is still taking in the same amount of alcohol if not more.

Maybe someone will come along with more exact measurements, since I know that you are looking to see how he is reducing his alcohol consumption.

He's not. He is playing you.

(((((((((((hugs)))))))))

amy

NWGRITS

Alcohol is alcohol, just like cigarettes are cigarettes. Smoking a "light" or "ultralight" cigarette doesn't make it any better than a "regular" one. But the deal with alcohol is that an alcoholic cannot have ANY alcohol - no matter the percentage - if they are to become sober. So it doesn't matter one bit what type of alcohol he's drinking. It's all going to cause the same problems for him.

lillamy

Yeah, what they said. It's alcoholics playing mind games with themselves (and you). My ex went through periods of "drinking healthy" (I kid you not). He would switch to organic wine because it was healthier, and from whisky to vodka because vodka was "cleaner"....

LexieCat

I had a hard-drinking friend (not an alcoholic, I don't believe) who swore he never got colds because he always drank screwdrivers. Vitamin C AND we all know alcohol kills germs!

maia1234

A long time ago I used to wonder about that. How many they drank or how fast. In the big pix it really doesnt matter. They are only showing or telling you about 1/2 of what they say they drink. Its a terrible disease.

NWGRITS

Wait, that's not what mimosas are for???

brightdaysahead

I was in the same boat as you. But, I didn't bother to tally up the number of drinks my husband's specialty beers equated to. Besides, some empty bottles most likely made it to the recycling bin before I ever laid eyes on them.

Anyway, my husband then decided to move to non-alcoholic beer to help him abstain from alcohol. I don't think so. We dumped that beer too. A lot of dumping of beer in my household. In retrospect, I shouldn't have done that, but, in fairness to me, that was a month ago. Since SR, I have started to learn what I should and should not do.

For me, it wasn't the total consumption that mattered, but rather whether his relationship with alcohol was healthy or unhealthy. That's what kinda stuck with me the most (the unhealthy relationship part). A few times - I'd start to question myself and that helped me to stay grounded.

CodeJob

My H could have run an Al recycling plant with all the lite crappy beer he drank. He was very open about it. I never dumped it, but I also never bought it. By the end he'd drink up to maybe 20 cans a day or more? By then he was drinking at lunch too, so he had a way of playing games with himself about how the cases of 15 were split. He also played by buying tall boys.

He'd tell me all sorts of stupidity about beer being healthy and light. As have an issue with the whole concept of moderation. As are in denial.

LeeJane

Speaking as a recovering A, I wouldn't bother too much about different strength drinks. Us A's play insane mind games with types of drinks. The different strengths, also different sized glasses come into it. As mentioned, 'healthy' versions of drinks. 'Posher' types of booze.

Is all rubbish. Alcohol is alcohol. It is about fooling ourselves that we aren't really being controlled by it, but we are of course. It is annoying for the unfortunate people around us who we spout our insanity to.

During my drinking career I calculated which alcohol got me as drunk as possible and as quick as possible for as little calories as possible. Nuts! But made sense to me at the time.

Very grateful to be sober four years. Seeing the world sanely. My AH still plays these mind games with his alcohol.

Hope this shares a little useful insight with you.

ubntubnt

Ditto regarding counting the calories to get drunk. That's one of the reasons I switched from beer (my true love) to wine (the mistress). It got me drunk in half the calories. I would even go for a 5 mile run at lunch time so I could add 3 beers to my wine that night and be calorie neutral. Total madness.

CAPTAINZING2000

Trying to wrap my mind on your question.
If, he's an alcoholic he's going to drink to the point of intoxication no matter what the alcohol content.

More then likely, if you complain about how many drinks he's consumed, he will drink where you can't see him. Nothing aggravates an alcoholic more then to have someone mentioning they've had too many or they need to slow down.
We might intend on just having a few once we start, will continue to drink until we are drunk.

Watch what happens should it occur he runs out and wants more. I've gone to great lengths trying to find an open bar or liquor store late at night.

LeeJane

Thanks for replying. Hear you on the exercise, I used to use it to balance out my drinking too. I allowed myself 1500 calories a day, choosing to use as many as possible on vodka and calorie-free mixer. The small amount of food I did have was rubbish with no nutrition. It was all about thinness and drinking.

Literally everything in my life was based on supporting that one darn habit.

Absolutely insane! Btw, yes I was thin but looked like I had been dead for a fortnight and no one had bothered to bury me! Er-hem, soooo attractive!

torquemax777

They teach in school and in alcohol classes that 1 shot of hard liquor is equal to one twelve oz beer or one 4oz glass of wine. So they are all equal, it's just that there is a lot more "volume" to a beer than a shot. Also, because there's more volume to a beer than a shot, "in theory" it will take a beer drinker a lot longer to get drunk than someone throwing back shots left and right. Though if one guy has 12 shots, and another guy has 12 beers, and his wife has 12 glasses of wine, they all have had the same amount of alcohol.

However, weight, age, drinking history/tolerance even how much they had to eat before drinking all come into play with what level of "drunken behavior" they will be displaying.

All that being said, where we live in Utah they only sale 3.2 beer; supposedly weaker than what most refer to as "6%" my AH tried to rationalize/justify that he was "doing so good" if he stuck to "3.2" beer. After some research, I found that "6%" is actually lower than 6%, and "3.2" was actually closer to 5%, so, to make a long story short, if you have a can of 3.2 beer and a can of 6%, 3/4 of a can of 6% is equal to 1 whole can of 3.2%. So basically, 3.2% is only a quarter weaker than regular beer! Not much difference at all except it satisfies the Mormons.

What I have observed though, is the longer it takes for my AH to get plastered/pass out drunk, the worse it is for me! Because it's either "supposedly" weaker, or because he "thinks" it's weaker, he gives himself license to drink from sun up to sundown, and stays in that scary risk taking, rambling, ranting, "danger zone" for several more hours than if he would have just did shots!

I wish he would just slam shots and get it done and over sooner!

You sure you wanna be in my spot? Even for one more day? I assure you, it gets old; very very old making his "choice" to drink your mental obsession 24/7! And the longer you stay, (even mentally) you will get "stuck" both mentally and physically.

I am.

Stung

My husband has told me that he justified that vodka was so much better than beer because then he wasn't consuming a bunch of empty calories, he wasn't going to be as gut bloated, blah blah blah. It's all denial.

A drop of any kind of alcohol is too much alcohol for an alcoholic.