You have nothing to worry about- you should see my posts from Friday night! You are in good company.
Original quote by: iamutt
…Best writing? Did this line come up after one hit or two? Sorry. Could’nt resist. 
I'm not sure if I'm an alcoholic but I do drink a lot. I'm sure by most standards I am (as in "I have more than six drinks a week"). However, I've never felt like I "needed" alcohol. Sometimes I have trouble stopping afer two or three beers but I believe that's fairly common for most drinkers.
Only rarely will I drink when home by myself and that’s only while watching hockey or football games on the tube and I never get drunk doing this. I think it’s more of a macho thing. But, when we have company over or we go out to a bar I can occasionally get so drunk that I dont remember the ride home(I’m not the driver). I’ve never been told that I’m a jerk or an asshole to anyone while drunk but rather that I’m usually very funny and even charming.
Maybe I’m fortunate enough to be in denial because I have a lot of fun when drinking and currently have no intentions of stopping. At least for now.
Hmm … well, I was diagnosed with dysthemia (mild depression) a few years ago, ald zoloft, combined with not being in a dangerous environment, seems to have made that easier to handle (though I’m off Zoloft now, by personal preference).
I have alcoholic relatives on both sides of my family, which is one reason I don’t drink (another being that the stuff tastes nasty to me).
Not currently addicted to any drugs as far as I know (though the jury’s not out yet on whether the SDMB is something one can be addicted to as such is considered by the scientific community).
OK… where to begin…
I’m cyclothymic (mood swings that aren’t bad enough to be bipolar). Due to some particularly unpleasant events in the not-that-recent past, I’ve also wrestled with post-traumatic stress disorder that led to suicidal behavior, but that’s been “in remission” for a while now. (remission is psychspeak for “no active symptoms”) I’m not taking medication at the present time, although I have in the past, and may need to do so in the future. I also have a counselor who I see on an as needed basis.
In addition to that, I’m a sober alcoholic (although I choose not to attend AA meetings anymore), sober since March 12, 1993.
Robin
Not everyone who drinks too much is necessarily an alcoholic–it even says this in the AA Big Book–but if anyone wants more info about how to decide whether they might be an alcoholic, check out this pamphlet from the AA website. Also, if anyone wants to discuss alcoholism and/or recovery privately, feel free to email or IM me, my info is in my profile.
i like to drink and all, a lot, even, but what i really like to do is smoke a bowl of good green weed every 20 minutes or so. i quit periodically, from 3 weeks to 6+ months at a time, but i always start again. i like weed better than being married, i guess. i like it better than just about anything. smoking weed, reading library books, and listening to the giants on the radio, thats the shit. who needs people?
I don’t drink, but I do indulge in the occasional chemically-induced euphoria. Nothing to be called a “druggie” or “stoner” or the likes over, but I’m always afraid it’ll start to get that way so I keep it moderate. I’ll do something until I start feeling I need to do it again, and then I’ll put it on hold for a few months. Did it with smoking, E, pot, DXM and a whole plethora of other drugs. As far as depression, I have symptoms synonymous with manic-depression. I’ve never seen an actual shrink over it, though, so I couldn’t say for sure. But my friends all tell me that I’m crazy and I’ve always trusted their judgement :).
I’m an alcoholic. At least, I presume that I am, for I drink every single day. I don’t know how not to, and I’m not really anxious to find out. I’m what you might call functional. Also, I play in a band and spend several nights per week in bars, which of course makes it real easy to drink. I have an open door policy on drugs in general, and will rarely say no to anything offered me. However, I do not smoke cigarettes due to a chronic respiratory ailment I have.
Used every day for 12+ years. Been clean in NA since July 22, 1987!
Just kidding.
Stroke another one up for some bouts with clinical depression. IT SUCKS!!! I have had three spells of it in my life triggered by something bad that happened.
First one happened when I was 20 when I was engaged to be married and my parents(married for 27 years) were getting a divorce. I went WHACO! It was terrible. Lasted for 6 months my fiance(sp)(still my wife) stuck with me through it.
Anyway I have found that taking a week or two vacation in a very pretty(nature wise)place cures clinical depression(well at least it did for me). And I would suggest trying that(and talking to family members you trust) before getting on medications and giving lots of money to head doctors.
Minor sort of anxiety disorder checking in.
I’m completely bonkers. I have paranoid schizophrenia and have been in this condition all of my adult life; I also have major bouts of depression from time to time and a case of extreme social phobia that keeps me away from social events.
I don’t drink, smoke or do drugs.
And I’m also illogical sometimes, some would say. 
I have periods of depression that I funnel into art. I fuel this with alcohol. My family has a long history of alcoholism and heart diseases. When I was in high school my goal was to live to 32. I love life and all that is beautiful, but sometimes I can’t look in the mirror and say the same.
Somehow I feel my problems are minor compared to others, but here goes.
I have been depressed a couple of times before in my life, but I’ve usually battled it on my own. This last time however, I wasn’t only depressed, but I was so stressed out that I got physically sick, i.e. gastritis. So when I finally went to see a doctor for my problems, he prescribed both Losec and Zoloft for my problems. I feel fine now, and I’m getting off the Zoloft. I figured that now that my stomach isn’t hurting constantly, I have been able to focus on what my real problems are. What I really like about being on Zoloft is that I sleep so well, and that I don’t go on eating binges for comfort.
I smoke pot, and I do miss it sometimes when I go without (especially if I see someone smoking on TV or in a movie) but it’s no problem for me. When there were rumors that my workplace was going to start drug testing, I quit without any problems. I guess I am mildly addicted.
I’ll bite, and I think I’m going to sound like a real reprobate:
I’ve pretty much abused it all. At various different periods in my life. Chronic dope smoker, probably an alcoholic, LSD and 'shrooms, cocaine, heroin - and that to a dangerous point, tons of ecstasy, ketamine, crystal meth and other types of speed, mescaline ( PCP ) , various tranquilizers, and I even huffed PAM once. No solvents, thank God. I had planned to try 2CB, GHB and possibly DMT but never did. Nor will I.
I don’t do any drugs now, but I haven’t kicked tobacco. I never sought professional help, and while I have a few beers in an evening, I don’t enjoy being drunk. I got out of it all by going pretty much cold turkey, working out, and cleaning the kitchen a lot. I don’t know if there’s any mental problems, but that list would sure make you think there must be. Maybe I was " self-medicating. " What a waste of time. But hindsight is 20/20 and all that…
got that right, geob! I think that after the first year or three, the quantity of sober time is less important than the quality. In one of my meetings, when people ask who’s been sober longest, we ask who got up earliest that day!
“Don’t drink, go to meetings, change your whole f**king life”