How does one know one's an alco?

SteamTrean

I was thinkin'; I'm fond of a drink. I've often drank Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night. Hell there's been weeks, like holidays and the like where I've seldom been sober. If for example, I'm watchin telly, with no thoughts of socialising or getting steamed and one of my housemates announces there getting drunk, goin out etc.. It takes my brain about 2 seconds to fully commit to the same fate and before I know it I'm in Tesco pickin' up 6 cans and a bottle of Bucky.

The thing is, lot's of my aquantances are similarly disfunctional.. are we all alcoholics? what is an alcoholic? and are there many more of us out there pondering the question "Have I got a drink problem?" ?:eek:

Lorri_L

I would think that the day you have a problem is the day that you actually feel that you need to drink, not that you just want to.

Ponster

How old are you?

SteamTrean

Ponster wrote:

How old are you?

Public profile. why?

hallelujah

In my 24 years alive I have often heard young people (16-20) commenting on other people/friends as 'pure alcoholic like' when they go out at the weekend and get trashed. Because of the drinking culture in Ireland alot of teenagers think its cool to be considered an 'alco' as it means you are more grown up, grown-ups drink alot, etc. Getting trashed at the weekends, even if its Friday, Saturday and Sunday does not make you an 'alco'. I think referring to these young people as 'alcos' is insulting to real alcoholics. The ones who get up in the morning and need a 'swig' of whiskey because they are addicted to it. It is impossible for alot of these people to stop drinking, they are ill and need help. If I get wasted for all of this weekend I will, like most others, still not have another drink until the next weekend. I think you know you are becoming an 'alco' when you start drinking heavily every day and taking days of work etc, because you really want to drink.

gimmick

There are different definitions of being an alcoholic. If we were to drfine it like drug use, then we all are, in so far as I love having a few drinks every weekend, look forward to it, and dont like going out not drinking.

But, to me, an alcoholic is someone who lets booze control his/her life. Someone who depends on a drink to get them going, someone who is depressed when not drinking.

By reading your post, to me you sound like a normal bloke aged between 17-25.

Dragan

when it's too late, generally speaking.

seamus

Being alcoholic is rather like being in love (no I'm not going to paraphrase the matrix here). If you know that the condition exists, you can't recognise it until you have it.

There are certain levels of alcoholism. Just because you're not taking a liquid lunch, doesn't mean you're clear. If you feel you're in a place where your intake of alcohol is adversely affecting your ability to operate as "you", or you have certain days (even if they're just Friday, Saturday and Sunday) where you absolutely cannot go without having a drink, then it's time to examine it.

HelterSkelter

I think you are heading for trouble when it starts having a negative effect on your life, be that missing work regularly, causing tensions between you and your partner/family, stuff like that. Also if you are depending on drink, for example, to boost your confidence, you are on a slippery slope. Another sign is when you are constantly watching the clock to make sure you can get your quota in before the bar closes. Or having sneaky ones (shots, small ones) while at the bar and hiding the fact from others.

hallelujah

HelterSkelter wrote:

Or having sneaky ones (shots, small ones) while at the bar and hiding the fact from others.

:eek:

Black Swan

When you start to crave it and deny that you're hooked, it's too late.:rolleyes:

Archeron

I never understand people who order 4 or 5 five pints when last orders are called in a pub because they want to get in as many as they can. When last orders are called, all I usally wanna do is leave.

connundrum

When people say it to you.. jokingly at first of course, but then more and more.

You mightn't notice it yourself, other people deffo will.

My mate became manager of a country pub at 20, which in turn meant that we drank for free 3-4 nights a week. It was all good until he started staying there maybe 5-6 nights a week.. sleeping there and everything. Drink is great until it actually changes your normal behaviour pattern.

hallelujah

connundrum wrote:

When people say it to you.. jokingly at first of course, but then more and more.

You mightn't notice it yourself, other people deffo will.

My mate became manager of a country pub at 20, which in turn meant that we drank for free 3-4 nights a week. It was all good until he started staying there maybe 5-6 nights a week.. sleeping there and everything. Drink is great until it actually changes your normal behaviour pattern.

Take the Aslan lyric off your profile. Thanks.

HelterSkelter

hallelujah wrote:

Take the Aslan lyric off your profile. Thanks.

Why should he????

seamus

Archeron wrote:

I never understand people who order 4 or 5 five pints when last orders are called in a pub because they want to get in as many as they can. When last orders are called, all I usally wanna do is leave.

Depends on the night. Some nights you could be knackered by the time last orders are called, and as you say all you want to do is leave. Other nights you're having great craic, and last orders seems to come really quickly, so it does no harm to get two pints in to continue the craic.

hallelujah

HelterSkelter wrote:

Why should he????

I dont want to start an argument. Reading the lyric soured my Friday.

Saint_Mel

Its a bad sign too when your struggling to pay bills etc. on account
of being out boozing too much.

Or if your constantly complaining about being broke with no money
to do anything, even though your still managing to getting sh!tfaced
a few nights during the week.

ronbyrne2005

YOur not an alco.
When you cant stay dry for a few days and/or its affecting your job relationships or quality of life in general then you have a problem but alcoholism isnt a disease imo, alcoholics choose to drink despite the harm it does and they may become addicted but they could become addicted to anything, if they avoid or minimise their alcohol consumption they'll have few probs. Many people who continually return to chronic alcohol cnsumption have underlying issues in their minds and abuse alcohol to deal with it, if other drugs were as widely available and culturally acceptable as alcohol they would use that.

wyndham

The same way one answers any of the important questions in life.
Take an internet quiz.
http://alcoholism.about.com/od/tests/a/quiz_alcoholic.htm

Tha Gopher

SteamTrean wrote:

The thing is, lot's of my aquantances are similarly disfunctional.. are we all alcoholics? what is an alcoholic? and are there many more of us out there pondering the question "Have I got a drink problem?" ?:eek:

The Irish are quite possibly the most fcuked up nation on earth in terms of addiction to well, everything, tied only with the Scots, North English and the East Europeans. I actually thought about it once when my mother complained that all my friends were wasters. A bit harsh, but nevertheless doing a count I came up with five whos primary addiction is alcohol, three who drink but have more of a coke problem than anything, and one who cant stop getting fcuked up by whatever means necessary (primarily alcoholic, however hes the type who likes nothing better than skipping work and sitting in his house drinking and taking yokes all day. The only thing stopping him from being a full on pill addict is the hit and miss availability of them in coke obsessed 21st century Ireland. Like myself, he thinks the oul coke is severely overrated). In addition, four of the above have gambling problems, along with another mate who only drinks rarely, seldom if ever does drugs but nevertheless has a bit of a gambling thing going on.

And people in work wonder why Ive never been on a lads holiday with my friends......THEYRE ALL TOO FCUKING BROKE!!!! Im 19 and I havent been abroad in 6 fcukin years.

connundrum

hallelujah wrote:

I dont want to start an argument. Reading the lyric soured my Friday.

Yes baas, sorry baas, anything else I can do for you baas?

Polish yo shoes baas?

HelterSkelter

ronbyrne2005 wrote:

YOur not an alco.
When you cant stay dry for a few days and/or its affecting your job relationships or quality of life in general then you have a problem

Not true. Ever heard of binge drinkers? They are people who can stay off the drink or drink in moderation for a long period of time. But every so often (every few months) they go totally off the rails and drink excessively.

ronbyrne2005 wrote:

but alcoholism isnt a disease imo

Alcoholism is recognised as a disease by the medical profession.

seamus

Saint_Mel wrote:

Its a bad sign too when your struggling to pay bills etc. on account of being out boozing too much.

Actually, that is quite a good indicator, but really only comes about when you're really plummetting towards the bottom. If you constantly find you're broke, but will do anything (such as delaying paying a phone bill, using your credit card to withdraw cash to you don't have, etc) to fund a night out on the beer, it's a bad sign. Years ago working on a checkout there was a womain who used to come in every day. She would have ten cans of Bud, and a few other essentials (milk, bread, cat food). If she found that she hadn't enough money (as was regularly the case), she would put back everything but the beer to ensure she could buy it. That's a case of having it bad.

thebaz

i'm supposedly on the dry for a year , i have not had a drop this summer, but found it so difficult to abstain it makes me wonder if i have a problem . Sober life is begining to become a bit easier, slowly .. i didn't drink every day ... but was a heavy weekender binger ... and as i got older the hangovers hurt like helll .. basically wanted to lie in bed all day after a major stint ... if it has been so hard for me to quit .. i wonder will i ever will go back to the boozy lifestyle ?

ronbyrne2005

HelterSkelter wrote:

Not true. Ever heard of binge drinkers? They are people who can stay off the drink or drink in moderation for a long period of time. But every so often (every few months) they go totally off the rails and drink excessively.


Alcoholism is recognised as a disease by the medical profession.

Going on benders doesnt mean your an alcoholic. What causes this "disease" of alcoholism and how come so many alcoholics end up stopping drinking for decades without any treatment. Whats the definition of a disease? The disease classification can be an excuse for many. Reminds me of the south park episode where stans dad becomes an alcoholic and talks incessantly of a "disease" .

smallpaws

One big red flag of alcoholism is the inability to consistently control drinking--i.e., going out for a couple and coming home wasted, promising to only have a few at the party and then again coming home wasted,repeat, repeat, etc..
also, I think it's sort of a disease process and sort of a way of being. SOme people I think are genetically programmed for addiction (to whatever, but drink is the top of the list) who will tell you that having their first drink 'was like falling in love' and have drnk like fish ever since, thus completing the disease part, and then there are others who are dependent for a short while during a crisis who then go back to a more normal way of functioning when the stress has passed who are not alcoholics. Then there are just heavy drinkers.
A great book related to the subject is cartoonist John Callahans' autobiography called "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot", if you can find it. Class read, very useful insight into alcoholism and hilarious as well.

magpie

Whoever wrote that quiz is clearly not Irish. I'd assume they're from the American "I don't use alcohol" school.

To the OP - it just sounds like you're having a normal social life for your age to me.

Siogfinsceal

I think its a problem when you start missing work and the like or whenyou sit there alone and depressed drinking away or when you can down 20 pints and still be sober. Or when you life revolves around it like the fella up our road who queues outside the pub door on a saturday morning!
Myself I like to drink, I like to be drunk I like to have a good time. I dont like to go out and sit there sober! Im not an alcoholic I just like to have a drink at weekends when I dont have to get up early the next day, if im on hols or some week nights when I just want to chill in with a film and a glass of wine (wines good for you)

The ones I dont trust are these peopel that go around announcing 'I don't drink'. Why do they feel a need to put a limit and a definate status on it?? Why dont they allow themselves an occasional drink? Why do they feel the need to tell us? They my friends are the ones with the alchohol problem a severe fear of losign control. I mean I dont smoke or eat indian food or go stealing but I dont feel the need to go around telling everyone or to put a definate rule on it.

ronbyrne2005

http://www.orange-papers.org/

Ruu_Old

When you starting washing your mouth out with beer after toothbrushing instead of water then you have a problem.

toffo

Your only an alcoholic if you go to meetings
Seriously, when you wake up and have to get a drink, ya have a problem.

Ruu_Old

toffo wrote:

Your only an alcoholic if you go to meetings
Seriously, when you wake up and have to get a drink, ya have a problem.

Just have one on at the bedside, no need to get up at all.

toffo

Ruu wrote:

Just have one on at the bedside, no need to get up at all.

Saves having to do that long walk to the fridge

Evil_Bilbo

definition of alcoholism - when someone is powerless to control their intake of alcohol.

The whole "I can quit when I want" thing is fair enough - I love getting ****faced, and am sure if all the pubs and offies closed for a month tomorrow, I'd really be craving for a drink. So what?

Sometimes you may have a particularly bad hangover that takes all day (or a few midday pints) to shift - so what? You might drink every night for a month - so what? If you're afraid you're drinking too much you might want to change some of yer habits (go to the cinema instead of the pub or something), but dont be worrying you and yer mates "have" alcoholism.

The one thing that defines you as an alcoholic is if you just can not go without a drink (and I dont mean refusing "one more pint" at the end of the night) - but if you absolutely HAVE to have a drink (nomatter what time of day) - not a craving - but you just cannot function until you get that drink. Thats when you need to start worrying.

the whole disease thing is true for those unfortunates that are alcoholics, but the term is used a bit widely imho.

oranje

I don't think that you can have hard and fast rules about when somebody is an alcoholic or not since there are so many shades of grey.
There is no doubt that the Irish nation as a whole has a seriously bad relationship with drink. It is culturally engrained that a couple of drinks turns into a session really easily. I think that nearly everybody in Ireland goes through periods of really heavy drinking (by world standards) in their 20s.
This doesn't normally lead to alcoholism because people tend to get in a relationship and your body starts to dread hangovers so much by 28 or 29 that a certain self-moderation takes place.
I have horrors now when I think of waking up in my landlady's bed one morning (she was gone) and wondering what I had moved and she would find out. I was dreading her coming back on the Sunday so I went out and got slaughtered that evening to ease the dread.
Living in Dublin I felt like a ship sinking because I hated my drunken self but the rules of the game in Ireland tended to mean that I kept going back to drink and I couldn't break out of it. At no point was I an alco in the sense that my work was affected or that I was in financial problems. However, I was not in control of myself because I kept getting drunk even when I didn't intend to and I was always drinking too quickly.
In my case I left Ireland and now I drink very little and I actually stopped totally for eight months last year. I know of people who moved to the suburbs and had kids in Dublin and the same happened.
Like other have said you really have an issue when you start putting drink above basic needs. Just getting lashed is not pretty but its also not the end of the world

Pal

Evil_Bilbo wrote:

definition of alcoholism - when someone is powerless to control their intake of alcohol.
.

sounds about right.

I prefer 'a dependency on alcoholic beverages'

scojones

Ruu wrote:

When you starting washing your mouth out with beer after toothbrushing instead of water then you have a problem.

Did that when I was camping last year. Had no water!

Beetlebum

I'd be the same as yourself OP. Me and my freinds go to the pub every Thursday night, we have done for years. I go out every Friday and Saturday and would usually have wine with a nice big dinner on Sunday. I'm only a size 8 and really petite so people are always shocked at my capacity for alcohol. I really enjoy drinking, it's so much fun. I'm not drinking to escape any problems and I never miss work on account of it. Sometimes I worry about my style of drinking though. If I have one drink, I'm in it for a session. I find it really hard to stop and am often the last girl standing. My mam died of alcohol poisoning two years ago so I really do need to keep myself in check...

SteamTrean

Beetlebum wrote:

I'd be the same as yourself OP....

Same birthday too. I'm '82 though.

Beetlebum

SteamTrean wrote:

Same birthday too. I'm '82 though.

...spooky....

aidan24326

The definition of being an alcoholic can be different for different people. That 20 question quiz in the link is a bit ott, by their definition just about everyone who drinks is an alco. True alcoholism is a disease, there are physiological/neurochemical changes that take place in the brain of a confirmed alcoholic, and sometimes irregularities that were there to begin with. This can lead to changes in mood, behavioural patterns, thought process etc. The actual term 'alcoholic' is bandied about too much in a similair way to how clinical depression is over-diagnosed. And it's true that some people do just use it as an excuse. But there is also believed to be a genetic component so if you have family members, especially parents who are alcoholics you need to be extra careful.

I would say for anyone who thinks they might have a problem just look at your own patterns/habits. If you can go out and get drunk 4 nights a week according to those guys who made up that quiz you're probably an alcoholic. But if your drinking, even at highish levels, doesn't have any adverse effects on your life then you're not an alcoholic but still may need to cut down due to longer term health risks.

If however you're missing work/college, ringing in sick on Mondays with hangover, getting in trouble at work/college beacause of it, sitting at home downing cans by yourself, always broke because you blow all your money on booze, sleeping difficulties after another binge, low moods, neglecting other areas of your life so you can carry on drinking etc. if you experience some or all of these problems, then regarless of whether you fit into some neat definition of what is or isn't an alcoholic it's quite clear that drink is having a serious adverse effect on your life and is something you would need to examine and ask yourself is the drink worth all of that other crap? The answer would obviously be no, but then if your drinking patterns carry on the same way or even worsen in spite of all the negativity it's bringing to your life then you definitely have a problem which needs to be addressed, quite possibly by a professional counsellor/doctor.

To the OP, it doesn't sound like you're an alcoholic in the stricter sense of the word, but even the fact that you felt the need to seek advice/opinion on this forum should be enough to tell you that you need to cut down.

groundedplane

Well its been 4 years since I have left Dublin. In that time I got married and have two kids. Now my reason for saying that is I do not dink that much any more. Actually, I will head out tonight with a few buddies to the local here in Pensacola Florida and have my 4 pints and I am happy. I drink these days to socialize and drink to relax not escape reality.

Now back in my younger days when I was living in Dublin and when I think of it, I was close to an alcoholic as you can be. In my opinion there are two types of Alcoholic’s. The first being defined as, “One who drinks every day to get drunk and cannot go a day without drinking. The second being defined as, “ A person who cannot stop at having one Drink, who will drink until drunk or cannot physically drink any more.

I fit into the second definition perfectly and can relate to the OP totally. I used to live with my mates in a shared house and we would drink bucket loads. At the beginning of the month when we got paid It was crazy. Sometimes we would go on week long benders, the normal would be Thursday after work hit the pub and then hit a club. The same Friday. Saturday would consist of myself going of playing a football match and going back to the pub after the game and thinking nothing of sinking 6-8 pints then go home get ready and head back out till all hours of the morning. Once we hit the club, it would be double vodka’s in a pint glass with a Bacardi Breezier on top as a mixer. I mean I used to abuse alcohol big time and when I think about it now it was down to boredom, to escape reality and that’s how society is back home. Monday morning in work or college you here many a person bragging about how f ucked up the got over the weekend and how the puked all over the place. When you look at it, its not actually something to brag about.
Sunday we would do the same, sit in the pub all day. The money I used to spend was something terrible and now, I when I go out for a drink I am lucky if I spend $10. The last time I was home myself and the wife went out and spend nearly 200 euro between food, taxis, admission fees into clubs and drink.

I don’t miss the drink at all and am actually better for it. I think you drink as much as you do for a number of reasons. Its socialably acceptable back home to get ****ed up and brag about it. It some how makes you more of a human being. The other reason who be to fill in a void within yourself buy drinking as much as you do and did.

Lemlin

The first sign of an alcoholic is denial that they enjoy or like drinking. You're on here shouting about how you think you might be one, therefore you definitely aren't.