The Alcohol isn't killing me thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I understand that Alcoholic threads are a self-selecting bunch, and they’re full of people that REALLY need to kick the habit, because there’s something in their make-up that compels quitting or severe physiological damage will result.

I was NOT about to derail a thread like that for this thread. It’s borderline threadshitting, and that’s not how I roll.

But it got me wondering. Do I drink? Yes. Do I, on occasion, drink a lot? Yes. Have I quit with little to no effect for other reasons without issue? Yes! Do I, on occasion, decide I just don’t feel like drinking…and then don’t drink? Yes.

I wonder what percentage of the population acts that way? All I hear are the ‘Fifth a day, destroyed their life, functioning Alcoholic til the end’ anecdotes.

So. I drink a drink about 4 nights a week. I’ll still get a buzz off that drink. Occasionally, I’ll have a second. Once a month I’ll have a third or a fourth, in the evening, when the online video chat is going particularly well. I’m 6’5" 260 lbs.

In January and February, I dropped 20 lbs, part of that required I cut out the alcohol and that happened pretty easily.

It also makes me wonder about the sociological side of the issue. The amount I drink would be LIGHT in parts of Russia or Germany (BUT!, I hear from the peanut gallery, their health, suicide and Alcoholism rates are TERRIBLE!) I don’t have the facts and figures to debate it.

I’m just saying there’s people out there that take more than 1 drink occasionally and don’t seem to be pissing their life away.

2

Here’s the difference between you and I: I drank to get away from feelings that I didn’t want to feel. I didn’t drink because I liked to enjoy an alcoholic beverage occasionally. I have a history of addictive behaviour that always ties back into my need for control and the subsequent actions I take when I can’t maintain control. I drank a lot for my weight, but I didn’t drink more then my dad drank. The thing was, I was hiding it, I felt guilty, I did it so I could let go, I did it so I could fall asleep.

My husband drinks once in a while, and sometimes he drinks to much. I don’t think he has a problem. I don’t think YOU have a problem. There are plenty of people out there who drink more days then not, and drink one or more drinks, and probably aren’t alcoholics. But the thing is, they drink for different reasons then an alcoholic drinks.

3

There’s a big difference between people who drink and people who are alcoholics. If only folks on both sides of the alcohol argument could recognize that . . .

4

I’m smashed.

I am definitely a binge drinker.

Thing is I can easy as piss go a few months without drinking. For various reasons have done occasionally.

This is bloody obviousl It’s vbaically an American thing to worry about it. No problem here :slight_smile:

Cheers! :smiley:

5

I drink maybe once a month. When I was younger it was double that, still no problem. I just don’t think, “you know what would make things better? Booze!”

Nope, my drug of choice is food.

6

There are alcoholics who only drink once a year, and there are people without an addiction who drink like fish.

I hang with a crowd that drinks pretty heavily. Although we all overindulge, you can tell the problem drinkers from the rest.

They are the ones who order the beer before they order the food…and then sometimes forget to order the food. They are the ones who get antsy if a social event doesn’t involve alcohol and drink before or during events where it really isn’t appropriate. They want to keep drinking when everyone else has had their share- while we all may stay out until four in the morning, the problem drinkers will order a few beers “for the road” when everyone is ready to go home and pass out. They will wake up in the morning and down the unfinished drinks from last night’s party rather than pouring them down the drain. Indeed, they find it impossible to walk away from the table with their beer half-drunk. They go out intended to drink one beer and end up drinking so much they miss work the next day. They wake up in places they didn’t intend to on regular basis.

I used to date a guy with a serious alcohol problem. We’d both go out and drink too much. The difference is that when I’d had enough I’d go to bed. Sometimes I’d wake up to go to the bathroom and find him sitting alone drinking hard liquor while I’m fast asleep. That dude had a problem.

7

I tried to develop a drinking habit once (not true alcoholism, obviously, which I don’t think would work out anyway* but self-medicating for apparently untreatable** insomnia the only legal way I knew how) and it plain did not work out. For sleeping, it was amazing; one or two drinks/night worked like a charm. Most times though I would forget about it so I wound up really only drinking to sleep a few times a month. I do go out and drink for fun and I generally have a good time. I don’t like drunk people at all though so it’s pretty rare and I don’t tend to stay out long.

I honestly cannot imagine needing to drink. Or needing to take pills (illicit, not valid prescriptions), or any other drug for that matter. I’ve known a lot of addicts and I get that addiction is very real for some people, I’m not denying that at all. It isn’t something I’ve ever been able to wrap my mind around though.

  • Whatever it is that determines addicts, I don’t have it. I’m reasonably certain of this.

** Tried Ambien without results and the standard anti-depressants typically prescribed for such complaints. I gave up trying to find a doctor willing to try anything else. I wish pot were legal for this reason.

8

That’s why I opened this thread. I’m perfectly aware there are people out there like this. But they’re more that covered for in other threads. THOSE threads have a ton of "I had to quit cold turkey before it killed me’ and ‘I can’t drink even just one’

I wanted a data point that said ‘Here are people that aren’t teatotallers, aren’t going to die by the bottle, and aren’t carrying AA coins.’ I just wonder what percentage we are?

9

I don’t think alcoholism ever. kills. anyone. Read the obits. Read coroner’s reports. Nobody ever dies of alcoholism.

Doctors will tell people, “If you don’t quite drinking you’re going to die.” But apparently drinking has little to do with death. In the end they die from drowning, or domestic abuse, or car accidents, or cancer, or strokes or heart attacks.

Never alcoholism. :wink:

Edit: Oh wait. I take that back. There are bums who die from alcoholism.

10

I was what I though was a major alcoholic. I quit for 12.5 years. Now I drink again. Kinda regularly but with no ill effects. I drink as much as I desire and Dont really think that much about it anymore. To tell you the truth alcohol is is less of an issue now that I started drinking again then when I was sober. The sobriety was good for me though. I needed the break.

11

I’m confused; do you think that this is a controversial statement? I’ve never met someone who thinks this.

12

What do you consider “pissing your life away”?

I regularly enjoy meeting up with friends or coworkers after work for drinks or drinking a bottle of wine (or 2) with my girlfriend over dinner. To a certain extent that’s what life is about.

OTOH, in my younger days (and even these days every now and then), many of my friends and I would frequently indulge in what I like to call a “bender”. Basically you start with a happy hour somewhere and jump from spot to spot drinking and getting into trouble until 6 in the morning. Most of the next day was spent lounging on the counch watching TV until you repeat the process again.

Now to a certain extent that sort of behavior was accepted in my circles. I went to a college with a lot of fraternities and a strong drinking tradition. I lived most of my 20s and 30s in cities like NYC and Boston where there is an active nightlife scene and worked in jobs that hired lots of young guys right out of colleges with fraternities and strong drinking traditions.

So my question is at what point does going out and partying like you are in a Vince Vaugn movie go from “crazy times with friends” to “wasting your time (which includes hangover recovery time) with a lot of stupid drunken bullshit”?

13

Alcohol is one of the few places where I don’t exhibit some of the more addictive genes I inherited. I like a touch or even three now and then in the right situation but except for a few times in college (where it is almost required for graduation) I’ve never gone binge of falling-down.

14

I generally dislike those who say “Americans are all so XYZ when compared to the rest of the world” but when it comes to moderate social drinking, I think that indeed America (as a whole) is pretty quick to want to judge and label anyone who enjoys alcohol on a regular (or semi-regular) basis as someone who probably has an unhealthy relationship (whatever the mollyfock that means) with alcohol…

Compared to other cultures, Americans are VERY moderate in alcohol consumption, yet any jackass (think of practically any politician, televangelist or celebrity caught in a sex scandal) who has personal problems (no matter what they may be) is quick to claim alcohol addiction and scoot off to the nearest rehab center, where they are then lauded for their brave and honest disclosure.

Drink or don’t drink, it’s all up to you—Just don’t blame all your personal shortcomings on alcohol.

15

Alcoholism absolutely positively, definitely shortens the productive, healthy part of your life. Alcoholics who continue to drink will damage their livers and immune systems, leading to complications. Excess alcohol over a number of years will lead to neurological damage, which will shorten your life. It will help to hasten the heart attack that kills you. Drinking has a lot to do with death.

And it’s not just bums. It’s people you know. It’s the guy working in the store down the street. It’s the nice neighbor cutting his lawn.

Was this a whoosh by the way?

16

I’d have been OK if you would have posted in my thread. I’m a couple of years from 50. I’ve had an on and off relationship with alcohol for many years. When I was young I drank a lot. In my twenties I slowed down quite a bit. I quit easily and without thought for about 10-12 yrs while raising my child. Then I drank on and off (moderately like yourself) for a bit after that. Lately however I’ve started drinking more, I’ve gained weight and found it’s not as easy to quit this time as it has been in the past.

So for a good portion of my life I have been like your OP describes. And I’m sure many people go their entire lives with no problems from drinking. But alcoholism runs in my family so I’m trying to stop this before it becomes a real problem. So my thread isn’t an "ALCOHOL IS KILLING ME!"thread. It’s more of a ‘share your experiences in stopping, I don’t want to have to buy new jeans’ thread*.

[sup]*Obviously it’s more serious than that but you get my gist…[/sup]

17

THis is a whoosh, isn’t it? Because I have a dead friend (last December) who blew out her liver because of her alcoholism. So the death cerificate would say “Liver failure” but the cause of that was overindulgence in alcohol.

18

I drink when I feel like it, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, sometimes far too much. Then again, there are times when I go a long time without a drink and don’t really care about it. I don’t have an alcohol problem, I don’t consider myself at risk of ever becoming an alcoholic, I just like a drink now and then.

I do think there are some cultural elements at play here though, some countries seem ingrained to worry about having more than one beer in a day as being a problem.

19

Yours was the thread I didn’t want to derail. :wink:

20

May as well have called this thread “Paging MeanOldLady.” As some of you may have guessed, I like the sauce. Like many things, I’ve found that drinking is completely normal in real life, but for some reason, everyone on the SDMB has been traumatized by it. I enjoy drinking, I think it’s fun, I don’t drive drunk, I don’t cry alone in the dark clutching a bottle of wine, if I had kids, I probably wouldn’t beat them, etc.

Why, I think I’ll have a tumbler of bourbon right now. No, wait, I’m at work. They frown upon that here. Maybe later.