Someguy23

To be fair, I moved them towards drinking less (max 15 a week vs max 6 a week), but I get your point. I'll make it a "soft" limit so that I can do ±2 because of special circumstances without obsessing about it as long as it doesn't become a habit to go over, and I'll keep you guys posted on how I'm doing. Let's say you're my accountability.

Also, if I binge ever again (8+ drinks at once), I'll quit for good. To be honest, I'm pretty confident about this one, last time I binged was in late February, and I don't even feel like doing that anymore.

And thanks for the support everyone.

Presumably, I'm more of a slacker than you were...

I've been to lectures and talks hung over, though only twice. I usually avoid drinking if there's a lecture I want to go to the next day.

Research can be done whenever you have time, energy and ideas. I slacked most of the day today cause I didn't feel like working, but I'm going to pull a half-nighter to compensate. When your schedule is that flexible, the question in the test doesn't mean much.

As for serious stuff (teaching, giving talks, etc...), I never drink if I have serious stuff to do the next day.

That's definitely true. I wish I still had my Psych textbook, that was a good article.

IIRC, the three patterns they identified were: the daily drinker who never really gets drunk but feels the need to drink almost every day, the deliberate binger who drinks reasonably most of the time but occasionally feels the need to get trashed and the out of control binger who rarely if ever feels he needs a drink but cannot stop once he's had one.

I feel most people here were out of control bingers, I was (hopefully no longer am) a deliberate binger.

Yes.

I'd rather not disscuss it too much, but let's just say alcohol, caffeine and artificial sweeteners have interesting (clinically-proven) interactions.

Payton

Thanks Sapling for posting this. Quite a shock to answer 9 yes and have them tell me "you are definitely an alcoholic." wow.

ReadyAndAble

I can see why you need the caffeine. All the planning and calculating, giving yourself all the loopholes, all the rationalizing and recalibrating after each regrettable event--sounds exhausting, Someguy.

hypochondriac

I know tequila and red bull used to give me black outs...you mean that kind of interaction x

instant

For me all the rules were like playing chess with myself having stacked the board.......and still losing. I learned to give up playing.

JimJim

I stopped doing those tests, they are too easy. I always ace them!

Firstly I'm not a fan of those questionaires because everybody's problem with alcohol is different. I'm not going to let a set of questions determine wether I am an alcoholic. I just know anyway I have a problem. I think you can answer those questions at any age. I too am young and single. For example, my repuatation. I had one as a boozer! 'Jim, I heard you were throwing furniture into the corridor last night?' etcetera.

Dee74

20 questions tests aren't conclusive and they're not meant to be, IMO.

I think for most people wondering if they *might* have a problem they can be a useful indicator tho

D

Someguy23

One of those questions was about alcohol causing problems in your home life. I live alone. My home life consists of myself and my computer.

If I'll ever hear my computer saying he's worried about my drinking, I'll be more afraid of schizophrenia than alcoholism.

Most of them claim to be conclusive...

I think I agree with JimJim, the best test for drinking problems is whether your drinking is causing you problems.