I have a friend who drinks like that, I have seen her polish off a lot of alcohol, she kicks my butt and stays standing and she weighs a good 90 to 100 pounds less than me. I don’t know how she does it and she can’t figure out why I can’t 
So my answer for last night: Too damn much.
I would guess maybe around six but I make them pretty strong. I take in between a half to 2/3rds of a 750ml bottle of vodka a night. The big jug will last about 3 days.
I consider myself a drinker, but based on the answers here, I guess I’m extremely light. It depends on what I’m doing, but if I have to average it’s probably around 3 when I do drink. If I’m at a house party or somewhere I don’t have to worry about getting home, I’ll have 6 or more. Vodka & Tonic is my go-to when I’m out, but sometimes I’ll try a stout or three. I haven’t gotten sloppy drunk in a long time.
Around the house, I might have a beer with dinner, or slip a little bourbon in my coffee if I have the day off. Spiced rum and eggnog during the season. That’s about it.
Most nights 0-1. If I go out to a bar it’s probably about 10. Which to a guy who is 225 and spread it out over several hours makes me buzzed but not drunk. Now that I am in a relationship those nights are quite rare.
I’m the only one who said 30+. I drank those between 10PM and 2AM, 7 days a week. I typically blacked out 3 or 4 times a week and had no idea what I had done. (Fortunately, I was generally a fairly peaceful drunk.) That level of drinking is pathological, and I don’t recommend it to anyone. It cost me at least 20 IQ points, and they have never come back, even though I quit drinking completely for 4 years before I tried “social” drinking again. It has worked fairly well for 25 years or so, but I really have to monitor myself.
I would say that I am still an alcoholic. Frankly, I don’t think you ever stop being an alcoholic, even if you quit drinking completely. You might be a sober alcoholic, but you still are an alcoholic. I am having quite a bit of difficulty cutting back to a lower level than my current 7-ish drinks per evening. I would prefer 2 to 3 as a better number, but the extras just seem to slip down my throat. I occasionally don’t drink anything for an evening or two and don’t feel any ill effects, but the next evening I will be back at the current level again.
BTW, for voguevixen: A “standard drink” in the US (it varies from country to country) has 18 ml of alcohol; there are about 16.7 standard drinks in a 750ml bottle of 80 proof liquor (one in a 12 oz can of 5% beer, and one in a 5 oz glass of 12% wine). If you drink half the bottle, you have had at least 8 drinks. (Incidentally, such drinks are what I used to drink 30+ of = 45 ounces of 80 proof vodka mixed at 1:5 with grapefruit juice. I worked my way up to that level.)
I have been cursed with the superpower of never being hungover, which is how it’s progressed to this. I think the norm for mixed drinks is a two count pour and I’m a five. (Though I count it off as “1,2,3,4,1!” like an indie rock band for some reason.) Also THE ENABLING BARTENDERS! I’ve had some give me 100% liquor, no mixer, Long Islands just to see what would happen. What would happen is I’d tell security “Don’t tow my car I’m walking home.”
I haven’t read the rest of the thread yet but I had to say—this literally made me laugh out loud. I’ve had some Vermont moments myself. Some have led to serious relationships and some have sent me running from the law.
Now adjusts glasses back to reading.
Usually when I am out I am driving so one drink per hour or less. I do that maybe 3 times a month, after work. Last week we went out for our Xmas dinner. I caught the train and probably had about 12 - 14 over many hours.
Up until a couple of years ago I used to have 22 a night - from 8.30 until when I went to bed, I would drink a bottle of (mostly) bourbon. Every night.
To MeanOldLady:
Most of the bar pourers (those spouts that insert into the neck of the bottle) seem to need a seven-count (which is about 2 seconds) to pour 1.5 ounces. That is a count about as fast as you can easily count them in your head. Test it yourself - pourers can be found cheaply at most party stores. Fill a bottle with water, tip, pour while counting, un-tip into a measuring cup. Repeat ten times. Adjust your count and tip/un-tip timing (move the bottle before, during or after you begin/end your count) until this gets you 15 ounces.
Then you will be able to pour your own standard drinks, as well as being able to monitor what the bartender is pouring for you in a bar. You can’t complain to the bartender; in most locations in the US they are not required to pour some absolute amount. But you can be aware of places that pour generously or skimpily and adjust your drinking and/or patronage at that bar depending on the observed pours vs. prices.
At one point in my mis-spent youth, I drank tequila neat (Cuervo 1800) with a Coke chaser. At one bar where I regularly ordered doubles, I would get a double Old-Fashioned glass (12 oz) about 2/3ds full - more than five standard drinks (I’m an extravagant tipper). I definitely had to do something other than count drinks there. Sometimes a friendly bartender is not your friend.
BTW, my personal definition of an alcoholic is a person who judges everything by how it relates to alcohol. Observe your friends; observe yourself; see whether you agree.
I don’t drink very often… but when I do it fluctuates pretty wildly given the circumstances. If I’m out at a bar or visiting with a friend, probably 1 or 2, maybe 3 drinks (could be beer or liquor).
If I’m throwing a party at my house (I usually throw about 4 big parties a year or so), I’ll drink a LOT… easily over 12, over the course of the night.
So, on a normal night of drinking, I voted 3. On a “I don’t have to drive and this is a special occasion” kind of a night, I’ll be over 12 easily.
I had a roommate who provided this distinction:
I surmised he was an alcoholic. One early clue was his banging on the apartment door at 2am. He was bringing home a female companion and was so intoxicated that he was unable to insert his key into the lock to open the door. I have no idea whether he was later capable of inserting his key into her lock.
Hm, in my pretty healthy youth I could drink 10-15 drinks, and catch a ride home or sleep in my car until my alarm went off and head in to work with no hangover [unless it was 1983 and then I lived across the street from a TGIFridays and some other bar and could walk across with my roomie with no car involved at all.]
Now, I restrict myself to a glass of wine a night with dinner [mainly at my cardiologists recommendation, something about some chemicals in red wine?] and very rarely I will indulge in a mixed drink [rarely because I have to judge my painkiller intake and my insulin to allow for the alcohol and the sugars] though it is just worlds easier to stick with the nutritional profile my diabetic nutritionist discusses with me.
And what chaps my ass was the absolute insistence about 15 years ago when the jackasses at the AA meeting I took my husbands friend to were bound and determined that because I liked a teaspoon of brandy in my coffee several nights a week that I was alcoholic. They would have shit a brick if I had admitted to going out drinking to the original 80s level 3 to 4 nights a week. [Working in a restaurant kitchen tends to lead to many nights out with the guys after work drinking] And nothing ‘made’ me stop drinking, other than stopping kitchen work and going back to straight day job. Stop hanging out with a pack of drinkers, and you tend to stop drinking. At least I did. <shrug> and I really don’t miss anything except the social aspect of hanging out with my workmates.
When I was drinking, it was greater than 12. I haven’t stopped drinking completely, but now I get a pretty good buzz after 3 beers.