I'm an Alcoholic

sink

I only drink about once a month. Majority of times I go out I don't drink, I prefer spending €50 on a concert than €50 down the pub and being able to drive home after.

I'm not a light drinker, my limit is about 15 units. I only like getting drunk when I have nothing to do the next day.

Chuck Stone

mmm88 wrote: »

people tend to forget that it is an actual disease

I'd imagine that a person with a real disease like HIV, cancer or hepatitis etc. would find it difficult to hear addiction and substance abuse referred to as disease.

Also, referring to alcoholism as a disease is dangerous because it can allow the addict to absolve himself of responsibility for his addiction and ergo could actually prevent them from quitting - 'I have this bloody disease and I'll have it for the rest of my life so what's the point' kinda thing.

Another problem is that when you call an addiction a disease it's self-evident that you will need a 'cure'... enter all sorts of charlatans and puritans offering all sorts of remedies... everything from casting out demons to application of leeches.

cloud493

Never drank :cool:

TeddyTedson

Pushtrak wrote: »

I imagine this is a case of people taking anything from what you say, for instance the sweats and try to equivocate that to be the same as you have. Like, for instance a person who gets consistent headaches might get told "Yeah, on occastion I get headaches too" referring to headaches that may be months apart. In short, it is confirmation bias at work.

But even supposing so many people as it seems are having these symptoms... That isn't an argument for anything. There are lots of people who ought to go to get something treated. Because people don't do this as much as they ought isn't really a compelling thing to appeal to. People don't like doctors, or might be more in my case, being broke.

TL;DR: Get it checked.

What would I be getting checked exactly.
I'd go to a doctor and tell him that after a heavy session over the weekend I get heart palpitations while trying to sleep on Sunday night. His response would be to take it easier on the booze. But after a few drinks as I keep saying I don't give it a second thought and feel on top of the world.

I'd love to be able to have 10 pints over a night and leave it that, but obviously you can't stop yourself after that.

starbelgrade

Whatever happened to the guy who drank a slab of beer at home every weekend & couldn't understand why his missus and kids weren't too pleased about it?

sink

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I'd imagine that a person with a real disease like HIV, cancer or hepatitis etc. would find it difficult to hear addiction and substance abuse referred to as disease.

Also, referring to alcoholism as a disease is dangerous because it can allow the addict to absolve himself of responsibility for his addiction and ergo could actually prevent them from quitting - 'I have this bloody disease and I'll have it for the rest of my life so what's the point' kinda thing.

Another problem is that when you call an addiction a disease it's self-evident that you will need a 'cure'... enter all sorts of charlatans and puritans offering all sorts of remedies... everything from casting out demons to application of leeches.

Actually it is a disease, defined as such my many medical bodies the world over. It's not a simple case of choice, an addicts brain is forever altered by their dependency and simple willpower is not enough to overcome it. It is a mental health disorder like clinical depression. Telling an alcoholic to just stop drinking is akin the telling a person with depression to cheer up. Diseases can be managed and controlled if not cured, calling it a disease does not relinquish the burden of curing oneself.

Pushtrak

TeddyTedson wrote: »

What would I be getting checked exactly.
I'd go to a doctor and tell him that after a heavy session over the weekend I get heart palpitations while trying to sleep on Sunday night. His response would be to take it easier on the booze. But after a few drinks as I keep saying I don't give it a second thought and feel on top of the world.

I'd love to be able to have 10 pints over a night and leave it that, but obviously you can't stop yourself after that.

You'd have blood pressure, and stuff associated with that checked out. I'm not a doctor, nor am I here to give you your medical advice. I will point out when someone posts like you do, perhaps a visit to one might be a wise idea.

Edit: Basically, you should be wanting to ascertain if there are conditions underlying it. A doctor would be testing for such things.

TeddyTedson

Pushtrak wrote: »

You'd have blood pressure, and stuff associated with that checked out. I'm not a doctor, nor am I here to give you your medical advice. I will point out when someone posts like you do, perhaps a visit to one might be a wise idea.

Edit: Basically, you should be wanting to ascertain if there are conditions underlying it. A doctor would be testing for such things.

Ok, well thanks for the advice.

Kintarō Hattori

Personally I sometimes feel a little out of place as frankly I don't like alcohol. I'll have it on occasion if out and about with friends but I'd always prefer a coffee or some sort of soft drink.

I can never understand the place beer has in modern society. I've tried many over the years from the run of the mill crap all the way up to craft beers and thought they were all equally unpleasant.

Wattle

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I'd imagine that a person with a real disease like HIV, cancer or hepatitis etc. would find it difficult to hear addiction and substance abuse referred to as disease.

Also, referring to alcoholism as a disease is dangerous because it can allow the addict to absolve himself of responsibility for his addiction and ergo could actually prevent them from quitting - 'I have this bloody disease and I'll have it for the rest of my life so what's the point' kinda thing.

Another problem is that when you call an addiction a disease it's self-evident that you will need a 'cure'... enter all sorts of charlatans and puritans offering all sorts of remedies... everything from casting out demons to application of leeches.

I get what your saying. Some people do use the disease thing as an excuse not to tackle it but like HIV and Cancer, alcoholism can also kill you in the end.

flutterflye

Wattle wrote: »

I get what your saying. Some people do use the disease thing as an excuse not to tackle it but like HIV and Cancer, alcoholism can also kill you in the end.

So can smoking, and that is not a disease.
Yes, it fcuks with your brain, but so do alot of things.
It is an addiction, a dependency, an illness even, but it is not a diease, and I don't care who says it is - it just isn't!!

gizmo555

mishkalucy wrote: »

The reason I asked this was because on a recent anti booze campaign thing they said drinking every day was in fact worse than binge drinking

This is true to an extent. The liver is a pretty robust organ, if it's given time to recover. This is why, for example, the French used to have the highest rate of cirrhosis in the world, because of their habit of drinking wine daily with meals.

Of course, there are all sorts of other risks associated with binge drinking apart from liver damage. My late next door neighbour fell on the stairs after coming home extremely drunk and broke his neck . . .

The key message, Dr Sheron said, was that by cutting out alcohol on three or four days of the week the risk of liver disease was substantially reduced.

He said instead of drinking a bottle of cheap wine every night, it is better is save the money and spent it on a couple of good bottles of wine for the weekend.

"Most of the health problems from binge drinking are related to being drunk, they are car crashes, accidents and fights and they tend to be associated with young people. As you get older and drink more frequently the health harms tend to be from the chronic effects of alcohol rather than getting drunk," he said.

This is the scary bit:

Dr Sheron added: "The process of getting liver disease is completely symptomless. Often the first thing you know about it coming into hospital with a big internal bleed or turning yellow. One quarter of our patients die before they get a chance to stop drinking."

St.Spodo

I like having a few drinks, but could go weeks on end without having any and I wouldn't miss it. Don't usually get drunk, and haven't been in about 3 months or so.

cesc77

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I'd imagine that a person with a real disease like HIV, cancer or hepatitis etc. would find it difficult to hear addiction and substance abuse referred to as disease.

Also, referring to alcoholism as a disease is dangerous because it can allow the addict to absolve himself of responsibility for his addiction and ergo could actually prevent them from quitting - 'I have this bloody disease and I'll have it for the rest of my life so what's the point' kinda thing.

Another problem is that when you call an addiction a disease it's self-evident that you will need a 'cure'... enter all sorts of charlatans and puritans offering all sorts of remedies... everything from casting out demons to application of leeches.

poor form chuck

bad call

youre going to be castigated for this

sink

flutterflye wrote: »

So can smoking, and that is not a disease.
Yes, it fcuks with your brain, but so do alot of things.
It is an addiction, a dependency, an illness even, but it is not a diease, and I don't care who says it is - it just isn't!!

Yes it is, disease is an umbrella term of all medical conditions. Addiction is classified as a mental health disorder by the WHO (World Health Organisation), and mental disorders are classified as non-infectious diseases. Disease in popular nomenclature is often only taken to refer to infectious diseases such as bacterial and viral infections, but in medical nomenclature disease refers to every medical condition from broken bones to schizophrenia.

http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2010/en

Northclare

There are recreational drinkers,heavy drinkers and Alcoholics.

I think the heavy drinker can drink a lot but seems to just relax and get pissed or merry but ,gets into a taxi and goes home.

The Alcoholic is different they seem to want more and more drink,more than likely they won't go home,they will find somewhere else to stay.
They drink on their emotions and get abnormal compulsions to get hammered
and cause hurt to themselves or others.



The term disease in alcoholism is the fact the person is not at ease with their present life situation.
And the hurt and turmoil that the problem drinker causes just branches out and affects everyone around them, the damage spreads like a disease from the home to work.

You might hear of a farmer who drank 3 farms,well the way he did it was selling land and making dodgy deals all for the purpose of feeding the addiction.
Or buying dodgy cattle down at the mart.
Not paying the bills etc.....

Chuck Stone

sink wrote: »

Actually it is a disease, defined as such my many medical bodies the world over.

Where is the pathogen? Where is the marker? When is the onset? What is the cure? Can it be cured?

These questions are all easily answered when we talk about real diseases. For alcoholism there are no such answers.

It's not a simple case of choice,

Ultimately it is. If you locked up the addict the 'disease', as if by magic, disappears. Many smokers who have heart attacks, as if by magic, are suddenly 'cured' of their addiction.

an addicts brain is forever altered by their dependency

and simple willpower is not enough to overcome it.

Ultimately it is only will power that can overcome addiction. If the addict chooses not to stop then he cannot be 'cured' by any means or man.

It is a mental health disorder like clinical depression.

But you said it was a disease?

Telling an alcoholic to just stop drinking is akin the telling a person with depression to cheer up.

You can tell them whatever you like but ultimately it is the individual who chooses to quit.

Diseases can be managed and controlled if not cured, calling it a disease does not relinquish the burden of curing oneself.

Yes and how you manage and control alcoholism is by cutting down or quitting. You remove the poison and the organism heals itself.

Wattle wrote: »

I get what your saying. Some people do use the disease thing as an excuse not to tackle it but like HIV and Cancer, alcoholism can also kill you in the end.

You're confusing the outcome with the process. People can be killed in car crashes but they don't have driving-too-fast disease.

gigawatt

drinking is relative and varies greatly across cultures. some cultures consider it normal to drink everyday others have a very low social tolerance for alcohol.
A good rule of thumb is that if drinking is causing a problem in your life.... then you have a drinking problem.
If you drink regularly and it doesn't cause problems.... then you don't have a drinking problem (you just like drinking!)
things like missing work or falling behind in college or having relationship problems because of alcohol are good indicators of it becoming or being a problem.
overall IMO it depends on the person. Someone can drink once a month and have a drinking problem, others can drink every day and have no drinking problem.

Opticom

Guill wrote: »

My drinking does not affect my family we have a very loving caring and fun home, my wife bearly drinks btw.
It does not affect my work, I never miss a minute.
It does not affect my social life, I have a very large circle of close friends.

One day It just dawned on me that by definition I am an alcoholic. Not completely dependant but an alcoholic all the same.

I DO NOT FEEL ANY SHAME IN THIS.

No one should.
To me it should be no more difficult to say this than to say you are addicted to ciggarettes, coffee, chocolate etc. But for some reason people begin to look at you differently for such an admition. When I smoked and told people I was hooked there could be open discussion between friends and family about it.

No two Alcoholics are identical, but there can be similarities.

I've seen this type of thinking a few times before, what actually happens is that drink slowly starts to pickle the drinkers logic, your brain craves alcohol, so it will dream up all sorts of 'logic' for you.

Your personality will also slowly change over time, like a tree growing, it will be imperceptible to you, or the day to day observer.

I watched a few people’s lives destroyed by alcohol. It does not happen overnight, it takes years. People always underestimate drink. Always. That's its power. It's a slippery slope with a very deceiving gradient.

There's an old proverb :

First the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then drink takes the man.

I'm not being critical or judgemental, it's up to you really.
I just mean this as advice by the way, learned the hard way by others.
You can take it or leave it.

In my experience, you'll leave it, but I hope not.

Good luck, look after yourself, and if that is not a good enough reaon, think deeply about your family and the long term effects on them.

Temptamperu

I voted yes, although I haven't drank in almost a year. Drinking ruined most good things in my life, friends, work and family. Although I am slowly gaining trust in them again.

ascanbe

http://www.theonion.com/articles/im-like-a-chocoholic-but-for-booze,10739/

Helix

mishkalucy wrote: »

I'm not condoning alcohol abuse etc but does anyone else here think that 3 pints is a binge session?

it would be over here in canada by plenty of people

Princess Peach

Helix wrote: »

mishkalucy wrote: »

I'm not condoning alcohol abuse etc but does anyone else here think that 3 pints is a binge session?

it would be over here in canada by plenty of people

Pshhhh come to Newfounfland my friend! They know how to drink here!

Helix

Princess Peach wrote: »

Pshhhh come to Newfounfland my friend! They know how to drink here!

that's coz they're all of irish descent - i cant tell the difference between a newfie and irish accent any more

also, id define knowing how to drink as being able to go out and not get shìtfaced tbh

southcentralts

so ,my buckfast thread didn't go so well, so I guess this may be the one for me,

when I drink I never have "just the one", I drink until I have no money left then do not drink until the moment I do. I can go months without drinking but when I do it is session ON. so I do not agree with standard definitions of alcoholism.

Yet I am not an alcoholic because I do not ruin other peoples lives? cause that would just be easy money, I self destruct when drinking but if it came to the point where I was infringing on others lives when drinking I would stop - does that really make me less of an alcoholic?

(best definition of alcoholism comes from Paul Mcgrath's book - drinking to oblivion, or "for the blackout" ) which is not something I have done but something I have experience with ( friend of mine who will slug vodka until he blacks out ) which is not fun, I drink to have a good time and will stay drinkin for days but will try to stay awake for as long as possible.

which is worse someone who drinks too fast but will be up in the morning to work or someone who drinks reasonably for 3-4 days straight?

Show Time

Yes but sober last six years.

Cookie_Monster

I'm sure technically like most Irish people I'd fall into the alcoholic category:pac:

That said I've not had a drink now since ANZAC day. 7 Days to go till I can have another, roll on June!

BraziliaNZ

This thread struck a chord with me. I'm prone to getting ruined at the weekends, having a great time, and suffering dearly Mondays and Tuesdays at work because of drink. I'm trying to sort it out now, as it's costing me too much financially, mentally and physically. I don't want to give up completely but I used to be able to have a few and leave it at that but that's just impossible now unless I'm just having a can or two at home.
Other people in my situation will know that it's hard to pinpoint the time in your life where you went from being able to go home after 4 or 5 pints to just wanting more and more until you black out, it's a slippery slope once I get started these days.
I'm reading a book called "Easyway to control alcohol" by Allen Carr, which is really good in changing your attitude towards booze, although I don't agree with all of his opinions.
I don't think I'm an alcoholic, and I don't misbehave when I'm drunk either, it's just the hangovers and ensuing depression and guilt that I can't deal with anymore.

sbsquarepants

I wouldn't class myself as an alcoholic by any stretch, although for a good few years i drank every day to a greater or lesser extent. Sounds very stupid but i didn't actually notice this untill my girlfriend pointed out, about 3 or 4 years into living together, that she had never seen me go a day without a drink! Since then i've cut back hugely. I have no sympathy for addicts of any sort and have no intention of ever being one. With me anyway it had just become a ritual of sorts, every evening have a few beers or whatever and being the glutton that i am, i sometimes forgot to stop!
Addiction is a funny beast, it certainly can control you almost entirely but it doesn't ambush you, there are a million little warning signs along the road which need to be ignored, for it to gain a foothold. This may well be one of them for you OP. Just food for thought!!

Archeron

Great thread OP, this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

I dont think I am, but its really interesting to see other peoples opinions and thoughts, and some definite food for thought.