ColeLampkin23

When I drink I usually do so within a 2-3 hour window at night and that’s most nights out of the week. People that are struggling with the addiction the most and the point everyone “warns” you of getting to what does that look like exactly. Is it drinking in a 10 hour window a day? 15? 20?

Gottalife

It doesn't have much to do with how often, how long or how much. If, when you drink, you have little control over the amount you take, or if, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, you are probably alcoholic. Control and choice. That's it.

ScottFromWI

The amount or duration that one drinks is somewhat irrelevant. If drinking causes problems, any amount is too much. Comparing how much you drink to others is not really helpful either, because there will always be someone who drinks "more" to make your drinking look more acceptable.

Offthemast

If you drink your 30 pack during an episode of Friends it's still no bueno.

Dee74

I went from binging on a Friday and Saturday nights to binging til the Sunday night. then I started drinking on a Thursday, then a Wednesday..Tuesday...then every night...then lunch times....

then I lost my job...

I drank every moment pretty much after that.

Things will get as bad as you let them Cole
D

least

In the end of my drinking, I was drinking all day, every day. It was a miserable existence.

Vandermast

there is some good advice here.i have found that my drinking worsened over the years. I would drink for as long as it took to get rat arsed, so time period is irrelevant to me. could have been a couple of hours or a prodigious bender.

either way I hop things start to improve....im in the same boat and getting there 1 hour at a time.

vandermast

trachemys

Until there's no alcohol or they're dead. Pretty simple.

theVman31

"... the point everyone “warns” you of getting to what does that look like exactly."

A coffin

Welcome
do you want to stop ?

DontRemember

Exactly! How much do you have and how long do you want to 'party'?

EliL

It’s a bit like asking what the latter stages of a terminal illness looks like whilst suspecting you have the early stages of the same Illness but don’t feel the need to get any treatment because you’re not in a hospice yet. It’s the same question I would ask in my twenties and the same comparison that in my mind would allow me to think jeez I’m not that bad.

It’s kind of like that question ‘how much did you drink?’ That always makes me laugh. I used to ask that with smoking too

PeacefulWater12

Are you looking for a definition so you can tell yourself "you aren't that bad yet"? Ease your way to carry on.

There isn't a set point. Is different for everyone.

How is your life going with your raging alcoholic lifestyle?

I encourage you to quit. I was a "raging alcoholic" too. My life is so much better now. Also for those people I raged at.

Nonsensical

Not nearly as long as they will inquire about the problem instead of looking for a solution.

Hawkeye13

It seems like you simply want to "compare" what you are doing to what us
"raging alcoholics" do which not going to help you deal with your own
quickly developing alcoholism.

At my height, I was indeed a "raging alcoholic" as you so kindly describe,
but I can tell you I wasn't drinking even 1/4 of the amount you are when
I was 21.

I truly hope you choose to look inward and face your problem
instead of looking outward for excuses to keep developing it.

It is a terrible burden to create for yourself at such a young age.

ReadyAtLast

only people who are concerned about their drinking log onto sobriety websites.

Welcome - comparing oursleves to others is pointless. There will always be someone worse and someone not as bad. It's irrelevant. All that matters is how you feel about your drinking

JJ991

You don't need to be a "raging alcoholic" to have a drink problem.....

I was not in that place but I still can't drink again. It is progressive.

TYG2

Well colelampkin...I'd say everyone has pretty much honestly answered your question. Painful but true.

Question for you
"When was the last time you woke up and thought, gee I wish I had of drank more last night?"

Since you found us. I hope you give it a go. We'll get through this together. Check out the size of the January Class. Wouldn't you want all that support???

Dropsie

Colepumpkin,

I don't think its fair to attribute motives to your question. You are way more conscious and trying to make good choices than I was at your age (or even double your age for that matter).

I don't believe that everyone who doesn't succeed when they try to stop drinking completely is an alcoholic. Indeed most of my friends, even those who clearly are not even problem drinkers, acknowledge that it would be hard to stop completely in modern Western society. And why should they. They would be healthier, but the consequences and non-problemtaic drinking are manageable.

Rather, I think it has more to do with obsession and compulsion. I was obsessed with alcohol and compelled to drink and once I drank compelled to drink more. And once I started being compelled, it went downhill from there.

So, I don't think its about amount, hours, when, where or how. Its about the obsession and compulsion, which leads to not being able to stop once started etc. Looking back, I had this almost from day one. The dopamine flared and I was hooked!

And I know that my brain has been trained so that if I drink again, I will become obsessed and compelled again from the first sip. I know that for sure. That is what makes me a raging alcoholic.

So if you are asking yourself questions, ask yourself if you obsess about drinking and whether once you drink you feel compelled to drink more.

As long as I steer clear, I am good. Better than most!

August252015

Agree with most everyone above. It's about you.

I was a raging alcoholic for 7 or 8 years and kept getting worse, more, insane-r....somehow I was DONE when I got the sh*t-talking to of my life from my liver dr. Among his explicit words were that I "had a year, 18 mo to live if Ikept going like I was." I'd known for the last six mo of my drinking that I'd either quit or die, and I wasn't sure which. This was WELL after I had "gotten used" to all manner of sickness and kept drinking.

That moment of DONE is priceless to me and I quit cold turkey.

Hope you can think of what alcohol is doing to YOU then take advantage of support available here and irl to quit and stay that way. Comparisons and any of my "best" thinking only kept me drinking - and honestly only the teeniest bit believing I hadn't crossed a very likely fatal line.