Inspired by the discussion of what constitutes an alcoholic in this thread.
Some discussion there about how much you can drink and not be an alcoholic, or whether drinking a ton and being otherwise functional even makes one an alcoholic.
Blah blah, anyway…by your own definition, what kind of alcoholic are you?
Choices:
Don’t drink at all.
Drink extremely moderately. Not an alcoholic by any stretch of the imagination.
I binge drink on occasion, but it doesn’t result in any real negative effects.
I binge drink on occasion, and those occasions tend to affect my life. Either social relationships, work problems, DUI etc.
I am a “functioning alcoholic.” I regularly drink a “binge” amount, without significant effects to my relationships, finance or work.
I am an alcoholic on the way to or at the bottom. Driking seriously affects relationships, money, health.
I’m surprised there’s no choice between “drink extremely moderately” and “binge drink on occasion.” What if you never binge drink, but you do polish off half a bottle of wine each day? (Not saying I do that, myself).
And this seems to illustrate the Alcoholic Support Industry standard line that there such thing as moderate regular drinking. For them it is either “extremely moderate” or bingeing.
If you remove the term “Binge” from all but the two most severe levels, I may find my position on the poll.
Half a bottle of wine is binge drinking? Not according to my doctor - he pretty much laughed at me when I said I could easily drink a half a bottle of wine every day. If that’s the case, the entire populate of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are alcoholics.
Even a 115lb woman would be hard-pressed to get a buzz off a half a bottle of wine unless she chugged it on an empty stomach and she’s not a drinker at all (that is, no tolerance). Hell, you’re pretty much describing my mother - she’s around that weight, maybe a little less, and she drinks between 1/3 and 1/2 a bottle between 4 and about 7 or 8 just about every day. Her doc knows all about it and has no issue with it.
Hah, ok look; I’m not interested in arguing the nuances of what’s considered excessive daily drinking and what’s not.
Sematics notwithstanding, I’m sure that deep down everybody knows if they’re a moderate drinker, binge drinker, alcholic or not. That’s what I’m looking for.
If one drinks a bottle of wine a day, and truly believes that’s moderate, they should answer accordingly. I poisoned the well when I crafted the poll with the word “binge” in.
Of course, the very fact that I object to the implication that my consumption could be considered “bingeing” is proof positive to (many of) the Friends of Bill that I am in deep denial and am due to be sleeping under a viaduct by this time next week.
Sometimes I’ll polish off a bottle of wine by myself over the course of an evening. I’ll have some with dinner and then finish it before bed, so spread out over five or six hours. Or I’ll drink half one day, and the second half the next, but wine doesn’t taste the same after it’s been opened, so I try to make use of it. Other times I drink some and dump the rest down the sink. When my wife’s not pregnant (like now) she helps.
With beer I’ll buy a six-pack and I’ll maybe have three one night, or over a Saturday, and then the rest the next day. Or I’ll have one or two, or whatever. I’m not on a schedule. There’s been a bottle of Bell’s Oberon in the refrigerator since last week that I still haven’t gotten to.
I’ll have a week where I drink two bottles of wine, or a weekend where I drink a bunch of beer, but that’s rare since (surprise!) you physically feel like crap if you drink, and I like feeling awesome. I’ll go weeks without having anything. Or a month. Or two. I like wine because it’s delicious. I certainly don’t need to have it.
I forgot to add the most important part! I chose occasionally binge, because yeah, every once in a while I’ll go after it. Not like stupid blackout drunk, I’ve never actually done that, but times where the answer to “Do I really need another one?” is “Probably not.” yet turns out to be “Screw it, we’re on vacation!” …and then the next day you remember why you don’t do that.
I probably get legally drunk about 3-4 times a year at most. In between I will have the occasional beer or glass of wine. I can go months in between drinks. I guess that puts me in the binge on occasion category.
I guess I’m the “extremely moderate” category, though I answered before I saw the clarification of what “binge” is supposed to mean.
To clarify: in a typical week, I’ll have 3-4 alcoholic drinks. Rarely do I have more than 2 in a day. Only on a handful of occasions in my life have I consumed enough alcohol to feel like it affected my balance or to feel any kind of “buzz” - the very most being about 4 drinks’ worth during approximately a 2-hour period (over dinner). So I suppose the linked definition says that I do occasionally binge drink, but it would be less than once a year.
To me, even that level of drink was such an unpleasant feeling that I conclude it must feel differently to me than to most people.
I’m a 105 pound female, drink at least 2 glasses of wine daily and get tipsy. That’s the point!
Sometimes I drink more, and that usually results in a lot of throwing up the next day. This happens maybe once every six weeks?
Aside from that occasional “lost day” (which is almost always a Sunday, so who cares), it doesn’t adversely affect my life.
I’m always with people when I drink, and if I was alone, I wouldn’t bother.
Really, really occasional drinker, but about once a year, some friends and I have a very suburban, middle age guy version of a ‘lost weekend’ - we go to a distant city, go to a couple of baseball games there, and drink way too much - certainly over ‘binge’ drinking threshold. So, maybe a drink or two a month, and one weekend a year where I’m the the 12-18 range. I don’t know what kind of alcoholic that makes me. But I’m OK with it.