Alcoholism

[MikeShaft]

Fair enough. I wouldn't say it's a transferable skill to all jobs.

[checkoutgirl]

Well I might not drink tomorrow but if I do I'm not sure it's such a bad thing.

Depends on how much you drink, what you drink, your own personal constitution and physiological set up, other lifestyle factors etc etc. The Sean Hughes thing has brought cirrhosis back into the spotlight for me. Apparently drinking everyday for 10 years puts you at risk but then again it depends on the myriad of factors. If you skull a pint of vodka a day for 10 years that would be bad but I'm guessing you're not in that league.

Personally I'd be embarrassed if I drank everyday for a decade because I'd feel I was addicted. Where's your pride man?

[biggytitbo]

I'm 25 next month and drink every day, including to excess every weekend, with rare exception. It's the first thing I do when I get in from work, and if I have a free day to myself with nothing to do I will spend the entirety of it drinking and listening to music. I realise this is bad, but it doesn't seem abnormal -  mainly because I've just never really encountered any reason not to do it.

[Emma Raducanu]

I went through a phase of drinking every evening, a beer while doing the washing up. It was behaviour in such stark contrast to my previous healthy and active life style that I gave it up. Now I drink water or milk instead.

But I so do miss that beer while adoning my marigolds

[Gwen Taylor on ITV]

Depends on how much you drink, what you drink, your own personal constitution and physiological set up, other lifestyle factors etc etc. The Sean Hughes thing has brought cirrhosis back into the spotlight for me. Apparently drinking everyday for 10 years puts you at risk but then again it depends on the myriad of factors. If you skull a pint of vodka a day for 10 years that would be bad but I'm guessing you're not in that league.

Personally I'd be embarrassed if I drank everyday for a decade because I'd feel I was addicted. Where's your pride man?

Well my self esteem comes from non drinking avenues I guess, but also until recently I've been very much a social drinker so the drinking came as part of the package of seeing friends. Now I'm questioning it because I'm in a new town so I don't have the excuse of drinking to see friends.

[TrenterPercenter]

Indeed. I think it can be distinguished from alcoholism though as TP suggested with the high/low functioning argument.

sorry if i wasn't clear but I was actually kindof stating the opposite.

Whether you function or not doesn't make you any less or more of an "alcoholic" - i know (and have worked with) many a functioning alcoholic that are completely addicted to booze, indeed many are even dependant on booze to function.

You can be a functioning alcoholic or non-functioning alcoholic - it is not the determining feature in alcoholism and therefore is not the determining feature between problem drinking and alcoholism.

Now i've just read a few definitions of problem drinking and as Janie says there isn't a clear definition, in fact one website said that there is in that alcoholism is a physical dependency whilst problem drinking isn't.  I'd completely disagree with that statement and it is, in my view, a very poor understanding of addiction that is actual quite dangerous when you think about it (in early intervention/policy terms).

[Janie Jones]

I'd be interested in what people drink in a typical binge?

Well I've no longer got a mortgage or life insurance and have therefore stopped lying to medical professionals. I recently got copied into a letter from a surgeon to my GP saying, 'Thank you for referring this delightful XX year old who is a keen runner and a binge drinker. She presents with a painful injury to the L occipital blah blah...' So I know I'm officially a binge drinker. It can go on my gravestone. I drink 2 or 3 times a week, between 8 and 15 units, I'd say the median is about 11, units, twice a week. Nothing else, as I'm an all or nothing person. One or two drinks  is no use to me, it's just empty calories.

I almost never drink at home, it's part of my social life.

[TrenterPercenter]

anyway....... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2TSqcQxvM8

[pancreas]

JANIE JONES (19XX-20XX)
DEAD NOW
KEEN RUNNER, BINGE DRINKER, & MOTHER
SHE WILL BE KEENLY MISSED

[MikeShaft]

sorry if i wasn't clear but I was actually kindof stating the opposite.

Sorry again. Badly expressed. My point was linguistic. The term "problem drinking" can allow people to distance themselves from the dreaded term alcoholism. If they can function they can argue it's not a problem so therefore it's not problem drinking so I'm not alcoholic.

[Icehaven]

I'm 25 next month and drink every day, including to excess every weekend, with rare exception. It's the first thing I do when I get in from work, and if I have a free day to myself with nothing to do I will spend the entirety of it drinking and listening to music. I realise this is bad, but it doesn't seem abnormal -  mainly because I've just never really encountered any reason not to do it.

Your reason is that you're 24.

[TrenterPercenter]

Well I've no longer got a mortgage or life insurance and have therefore stopped lying to medical professionals. I recently got copied into a letter from a surgeon to my GP saying, 'Thank you for referring this delightful XX year old who is a keen runner and a binge drinker. She presents with a painful injury to the L occipital blah blah...' So I know I'm officially a binge drinker. It can go on my gravestone. I drink 2 or 3 times a week, between 8 and 15 units, I'd say the median is about 11, units, twice a week. Nothing else, as I'm an all or nothing person. One or two drinks  is no use to me, it's just empty calories.

I almost never drink at home, it's part of my social life.

I can do the 3 pint thing on occasion but yeah i'm usually the same though maybe about 18 units (eep sometimes more) a week.  Shit.

[Sebastian Cobb]

In my mid-late 20's I used to drink regularly in the week and was pissed from Thursday night until Tuesday morning (played darts on the Monday) nearly every weekend.

I just can't do that anymore; it takes me too long to recover and several days on the piss results in several days of fear afterwards.

These days, unless there's a good few of us all meeting up, I much prefer a night in, a bottle of wine and a toke. Feel much better for it the next day.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I can do the 3 pint thing on occasion but yeah i'm usually the same though maybe about 18 units (eep sometimes more) a week.  Shit.

I think Janie is talking about in one sitting. Less than 9 pints over the course of a week isn't really 'eep' territory imo. That's a modest Friday night in the pub.

[TrenterPercenter]

I'm talking 18 units in one sitting.

Friday - 6 pints, two cocktails (i'd say 2 shots min in each), then about 2-3 home g 'n' ts
Sat - 7 pints (and a bottle) and 2 g 'n' ts.

both nights started with food and went on till about 4-5am (starting about 7 for both).

This is unusual for me though as I'm usually ruined after a Friday night like that.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

I could drink you all under the tables.

[Icehaven]

If someone drinks every day but has a couple of beers or two glasses of wine then I'd be amazed if that caused them any problems in the long term, although I'm sure 1000 Daily Mail articles have been written to the contrary. On the other hand if you drink 2-5 times a week, but always to excess, then tell yourself you're fine because you don't drink every day then that surely must be worse. This is exactly what I do. And even sitting here now having just written that I'm thinking ''Yes, but some people drink every day AND it's always to excess, and I don't do that so I must be alright.''

[TrenterPercenter]

If someone drinks every day but has a couple of beers or two glasses of wine then I'd be amazed if that caused them any problems in the long term, although I'm sure 1000 Daily Mail articles have been written to the contrary. On the other hand if you drink 2-5 times a week, but always to excess, then tell yourself you're fine because you don't drink every day then that surely must be worse. This is exactly what I do. And even sitting here now having just written that I'm thinking ''Yes, but some people drink every day AND it's always to excess, and I don't do that so I must be alright.''

Yeah but people generally drink a couple every day and then more on the weekend.  I suppose in regards to the liver a constant amount of booze to deal with is going to be trouble to deal with enmass, whilst hitting with a sledgehammer once or twice a week is probably is no better.

I've got something up my sleeve to make you feel better though, in liver terms drinking a can of coke is just as bad as drinking a beer, liver still has to deal with the concentration of sugar.  Lookup non-alcohol related fatty liver syndrome.

[ollyboro]

I could drink you all under the tables.

Tables? You seeing double(s), mate?

[Repeater]

Reminder

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I could drink you all under the tables.

You could drink us all beyond tables

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yeah but people generally drink a couple every day and then more on the weekend.  I suppose in regards to the liver a constant amount of booze to deal with is going to be trouble to deal with enmass, whilst hitting with a sledgehammer once or twice a week is probably is no better.

I've got something up my sleeve to make you feel better though, in liver terms drinking a can of coke is just as bad as drinking a beer, liver still has to deal with the concentration of sugar.  Lookup non-alcohol related fatty liver syndrome.

There was a somewhat informal study where two twins drank the same amount, one constantly throughout the week and one in binges.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32798569

[newbridge]

The problem tends to be that when people say they drink a normal amount everyday and to excess on weekends, the "normal amount" is preposterous and the "excess" means blacking out.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Real talk disclosure:

Most days I have 1 beer at lunch and 1 beer after work during the week, but no more than that, so approx 20 units minimum on top of whatever else is happening socially, maybe 2 or 3 outings or dinner dos which will push that up. That seems to be higher than some of yours, but then some of you seem to binge drink just a couple of nights a week. I'm not sure if there's any conclusive evidence that's worse for you but it sure feels worse.

Sometimes I'll have a day or two off just to check in and see how the body and mind feels being off it, help keep encroaching alcoholism at arms length, I guess. However, I guess over the last two years I won't have had any more than...ooh...maybe 50 or 60 days out of 700 where I hadn't drank something with alcohol in. That doesn't look so good.

It's difficult to gain clarity over what position I'm in mentally, as I'm interested in beer and enjoy drinking different beer so conflating that purportedly earnest hobby/enquiry with a chemical/mental dependency that tells me I want a beer and there's a handy pretext to justify doing so is probably quite easy.

Nevertheless, I always have always had an internal 'now you're just drinking for no real reason' alarm when I've just been fecklessly and pointlessly chugging beer (always seems to be something shit, too) and I tend to have a few days off when it gets to that point.

[biggytitbo]

my problem is alcohol causes me serious is issues, so I've pretty much had to give it up completely which is well annoying as I loved being pissed.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

my problem is alcohol causes me serious is issues, so I've pretty much had to give it up completely which is well annoying as I loved being pissed.

Fortunately all that crack cocaine doesn't bother your colon one iota, at least once you've got it past customs.

[Gregory Torso]

I have had a drinking problem for over a decade now, but the real problem is that it hasn't really impacted my life. I think I'd need some serious shit to do down before I could stop completely. I don't drink that much, the problem is more about how I drink (always at home, binge, hide it from my wife) and why I drink (depression and anxiety, and yes I know alcohol makes those things worse but sometimes having a hangover is easier to deal with than just feeling like shit for no reason). It's weird because I come from a "drinking" family, but my wife has never even been drunk (she's allergic to alcohol). In my mind, I still go to work, still be a husband and father (never drink when I've got something to do the next day, and I don't drink in front of my son), but the FACT the FACT is, I do have a problem and there will be a time when I need to just stop. It's bad when the import supermarket near where I live sells 14% Orangeboom for about a quid a can.

[Paul Calf]

I could never drink very much. Even at my late-teens ultra-binge-drinking peak I could only manage six pints or so on a Friday OR Saturday night. I'm not claiming any superhuman powers here: I just think alcohol is a boring drug that's good for loosening up tight social situations but that doesn't teach you anything when taken in large quantities except that you never want to have your stomach pumped again.

I managed to pick up quite a big opiate habit about 10 years ago, that took me about three years to shake off properly.  Admitting that often causes sharply-inhaled breaths or uncomfortable silences, but I can tell you that while opiate withdrawal is incredibly painful and leaves you weak, exhausted and writhing around in a state of semi-consciousness for several days, you can tough it out. It won't kill you, even though there might be times when you wish it would. With booze withdrawal, there's a significant risk of sudden withdrawal causing death. It really is the worst drug to build a culture around.

I think there has to be a strong genetic component to it. I think there are people who can never touch a drink and people who'd really have to work at it to get a habit. I'm lucky that I'm one of the latter but I can't imagine how hard it must be for susceptible people to live in a culture where it's so ubiquitous.

[Hanslow]

At what point does one become an alcoholic? Is it such a bad thing?

I do my homework for university and back when I worked full time I might have been regularly late-ish from booze hangovers but i did my work in a professional and timely manner.  But I also like to drink every night and have done for years, since I was at least 19.

Speak your brains.

Maybe you've only been operating at no more than 80% Gwen all these years. Do you ever wonder what its like after a few weeks of no booze induced sleep. How rewarding all those other activities might be you could be doing in replace of the booze. How much more vibrant the outside world might seem once you've reprogrammed your brain alway from the easy happy chemical fix it currently gasps.

[Repeater]

5 years sober in January, ask me anything.

Actually, is it 6? Fuck knows.