pfft. that’s not even enough to blow over the legal driving limit if you have food in you.
Seriously. If that’s the definition, half the people I know binge drink practically every night.
Do you regret it later (assuming you can remember what you did in the first place) and is it causing problems in other areas of your life? If the answer is no, then you are probably not an alcoholic. The others? Depends.
That is my impression. I have no idea when something is a problem, but the OP didn’t sound that bad. Smoking and drinking once every few weeks isn’t that bad. The fact that the OP regrets it is again, a complex thing. Some people regret masturbation, that doesn’t make it unhealthy. The shame and neuroticism is more unhealthy. But again, I don’t know where the line is. I guess for me the line is when you drink so much you do things you regret, or are forced to drink even when you don’t want to due to physical addiction.
Lame.:rolleyes:
Try this…
Next month when you go out with friends have a beer (or whatever you drink) then switch to Coke or water or whatever. See how easy that is. If its hard - or you can’t do it - you need help. (And if your friends give you crap about it, you need new friends). If it isn’t hard, you probably drink too much at a sitting because feeling like crap and regretting it aren’t fun, but you just need to stop before “woo-hoo, this is fun! - where are my pants?” overrides your better judgement - and that might be one drink when with these friends.
I have at least one night a week in which I get total shitfaced. Been doing that for the past 20 years at least.* I look forward to that night of the week.
As of today, I’ve been at my job for over 20 years. I’m in no danger of getting fired or laid off. My reviews at work have all been above average.
I also make it a point of being a responsible drunk. Usually my drinking night is done at home with a “friend” or friends. And if I do venture out, it’s taxis all the way.
*My 20’s were a little more crazy than one night a week. I was very irresponsible back then. That all changed after my son was born.
I thought the same thing right after I posted this, I know so many hard core drunks I think I have gotten a bit immune to your average drunk.
By with a “friend” do you mean “alone”?
While I’m no stranger to drinking alone, I meant “Friend with benefits”.
Some people grow out of their college drinking phase, others get worse. I was in your shoes in college, and came out of it fine. You’re probably ok. But at the same time, if you have to ask if you have a problem, or if you think you might have a problem, maybe you actually do.
Do you feel like you have to drink to have fun? If yes, that’s problematic.
I dont know how much i trust someone named “shakes” about alcohol abuse.
Ahh, makes more sense.
A true alcoholic is not measured by the number of Sundays he wakes up drowning in a bottomless pit of self-loathing, but by the number of Wednesdays he wakes up drowning on a bottomless pit of self-loathing.
Being hungover on Easter is practically a Catholic tradition. I bet Jesus felt like shit on Sunday, too.
Getting drunk and coming home at 4:30 AM isn’t fundamentally any worse than getting drunk and coming home at 2:00 AM, or 10:00 PM for that matter, as long as it doesn’t affect your work. As an adult you don’t have a bed time, 4:30 in the morning only seems like an unreasonable time to end your night because of more or less arbitrary social conventions. Plenty of people stay up till 4 AM stone sober every night and still lead productive lives.
So the issue is whether going out and getting pretty hammered with your friends once a month is a bad thing. It doesn’t sound excessive to me, and again plenty of people (myself included) do that more frequently without it interfering with their lives. Unfortunately, I suppose that sort of behavior is fine until it’s not fine. The two red flags I saw were that it resulted in you missing out on family time with your sister, and the simple fact that you seem to be worried about it. There’s really nothing to lose by giving it up for a while. I suggest a simple experiment: next time you’re in that situation, give yourself a drink and time limit ahead of time. Feel free to cut loose and have fun, but say you’re going to stop drinking after 6 drinks and head home at 1:00, no matter what your friends are doing. If you can do that, then keep doing it! If not, try to avoid that behavior altogether.
I don’t know man, that’s asking a lot of the guy. Setting the bar pretty high there.
You’re confusing Catholic with Irish 
I recall a cartoon - I think it was in the National Lampoon - of Jesus groggily making a cup of coffee and thinking “Damn! I feel like I’ve been dead for three days!”
And Jesus could make his own wine. Lucky guy.
Living Well, your binging probably isn’t a problem if you don’t do it alone and you don’t do it to numb the pain of your problems. Those were two of my biggest concerns back when I used to drink.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Two comments stuck out. Rachellogram asked if I needed to drink to have fun. That’s a tough question. In many ways the answer is no. Much of my hobbies and free time do not involve drinking at all. However, going out on a weekend night almost always involves drinking. Drinking is such a foundation for my group of my friends, that if someone wasn’t going to drink they probably would just stay home.
Emily’s comment above about drinking to numb the pain of problems also resonated. I think I definitely have used drinking as a short “vacation” from life’s stresses.
And just to clear up the idea that I am a young 20 something grad student drinking with other kids, well I am late 30s and unmarried. That might change some opinions.