When I was in college I knew a number of guys who used to refer to beer as “Vitamin B.” See, she was right! 
We’ve discussed this many a time.
IMO the term “alcoholic” is of extremely limited value. (Perhaps even less so than alcaholic! ;))
But there are any number of “tests” available that purport to define whether or not one is an alcoholic based on the number and frequency of drinks (among other factors).
I wonder if it was seriously a misunderstanding based on language. Someone once told her that in jest, and she took it seriously? Because she was very earnest about the health benefits of beer. (And she avoided carbs in the rest of her diet…:rolleyes:)
Beer has at various times and places been promoted as a healthier alternative to liquor. And beer that has any amount of yeast still suspended in it (homebrew, for instance) will in fact contain some Vitamin B. Vitamin B supplements generally consist of yeast extract.
^ What he said. Some varieties of beer do contain significant amounts of vitamin B. I suspect, though, that American lite beer does not.
Hubby and I just went for annual physicals. We both told the doc we drink, on average, 1-2 drinks per night, primarily wine and beer. I’d say 4 nights out of the week we split a bottle of wine.
Doc said “Good, that’s probably healthy for you.”
(I’ve since cut out the beer, having been diagnosed as some type of diabetic and thus trying to cut carbs. But wine supposedly lowers my blood sugar, so I’m keeping that up :D)
How would you rate someone who has 48 oz. of 4-5% Alc. Beer nearly every night, over the course of about 60-90 minutes?
It has very little if anything to do with quantity of alcohol consumed.
It has to do with how alcohol effects your life. I know a couple alkys who didn’t drink everyday…If HR is even mentioning alcohol in a official manner there is most likely an issue that needs to be addressed by this individual. Generally, HR stays out of it if it’s someone just sweating off the nights binge, if it is on their breath like they had it with their morning coffee, different story
Beer has also at various times and places been promoted as a healthier alternative to water. Now that’s awesome.
Men who suffer from anxiety disorders frequently self-medicate with alcohol. He’d do better to see a doctor and a therapist - self-medicating with alcohol isn’t a good solution.
Got it in one. It’s not “how much you drink” or “how often you drink”, it’s how drinking affects you. If you drink every single day, and it presents no problems in your life, you don’t have a drinking problem. If you only drink once a month, but to such an extreme that it gets you into shit, then you have a problem.
Some people seem to have trouble grokking this. Seems pretty simple to me.
This.
I drink nearly every evening. If there’s an evening I don’t drink, it’s probably because I forgot we were out and I didn’t stop at the booze store on the way home. However, I don’t miss work or social engagements because I was too drunk/wanted to get drunk. Also I haven’t embarrassed myself socially due to drinking since college.
I almost never get drunk, but I imagine it’s possible for a person to get drunk every night without actually being an alcoholic (not terribly healthy, though). So long as they’re still going to work in the morning and leading an otherwise normal life, if they get trashed every night I don’t think that’s enough to make them an alcoholic.
Unless they happen to have a low-functioning liver (liver disease, taking lots of medication, etc). That’s another factor, but basically it boils down to “do they ‘need’ the alky?”
I know many guys who think that drinking lots every time they go out hasn’t affected their social life negatively. They think that it makes them more open, it makes them have more fun, so it affects their social life positively, right?
Wrong, as I also know quite a few women who refuse to go out with a guy who can’t ask without help from Johnny (Walker).
Me too. And I’m speaking as a career alkie, not just somebody who has a drink every day.
Exactly. As someone who basically doesn’t drink anymore, I can tell you that most people who think they are fun and easygoing when they are drunk are probably acting like loud asses.
In my opinion the worse kind of alcoholic is the functional alcoholic. They go to work, have kids, a spouse, nice car in the driveway, and to everyone in the community look like upstanding citizens. However, inside they are a ticking timebomb. Ticking away like you and me, no different than the soccer mom or stock-broker. However, upon closer review, these soccer moms have vodka in their gaterade, and these stock brokers are half in the bag on their way home from work. But they don’t miss paying their taxes, going to basketball games or taking out the garbage.
Again, it’s more about what’s going on on the inside, and not what you are showing the world. Its not how much [quantity] it’s the reasons why.
Only you know if you are being honest with yourself, and if you have a drinking problem or not. Some unfortunates never take the hint, and never learn from their own emotions: [in my opinion] Alcoholism kills thousands of people a year, and ruins millions more lives without death per year and any other drug.
I hate these kind of long-winded symptom lists, in which each symptom is essentially just a variation on the others. Any alcoholic worthy of the name will easily meet all seven criteria. It’s like asking “what makes an equilateral triangle?”
- All three sides are the same length
- Angle between the sides is the same
- Shape is symmetric through 120[sup]o[/sup] rotation
Meet any two of these criteria and you’re probably an equilateral triangle.
…
THEY’RE THE SAME DAMN THING! Meet any of those criteria and you have an equilateral triangle.
Well, yeah, OK, but I was referring to the average person, not the minority with medical issues.
Yup, a brother-in-law of mine killed his liver this way. Looked more or less fine to everyone around him, but he was chugging vodka when no one else was around. We found out when he went to the ER, coughing up blood and ending up with a diagnosis of alcoholic hepatitis. Then his kidneys failed, he got pneumonia, had (IIRC) a small stroke, got a tracheotomy, and hung on for weeks, with no hope of a liver transplant because he hadn’t been off the booze.
Amazingly, his liver and kidneys started working again, and eventually he went to a rehabilitation center for lots of physical therapy. He’s alive today but considered disabled. And he doesn’t drink.
It’d probably kill him if he did. It’s extremely sad, I remember working in a rehab when I was in grad school - seeing people with yellow eyes because of jaundice and people sneaking alcohol in shampoo bottles. It’s never the guy with a 40 in a paper bag sitting under a bridge, it’s always the happy wife or the confident manager who ends up in rehab.
That is the biggest problem - average everyday people can be an alcoholic, there is no “type” or “commonality” among alkys, it takes all kinds.