Am I an alcoholic?

LegacyUser

I have wondered if I am becoming an alcoholic for a while now, but I don't want to ask my friends because they have an attitude to alcohol similar to mine (prior to my suspicions anyway) which involves drinking plenty and not worrying about it.

My weekly consumption of alcohol is something like this:

Minimum: a bottle of wine one day.

Average: a bottle of wine 3/4 days of the week or a bottle of whiskey over 2/3 days.

Big week: two bottles of whiskey and two bottles of wine.

I don't drink to deal with stress, I more do it because I find being drunk to be fun. I do drink alone sometimes and occasionally before noon. It doesn't affect my performance at college egregiously or cause me miss commitments etc. I am just wondering about the quantity aspect as it exceeds recommendations by quite a bit (although the 4 units max a day thing is crazy, 3 pints has you over that.)

I don't feel dependent on alcohol, I just enjoy it and have fun when I drink. That said, I do drink with, as you can see above, some regularity. It isn't extreme compared to others I hang out with, but I don't discount that I'm surrounded by incipient alcoholics.

Taltos

Hi OP.
It is against our charter to issue any type of diagnosis - doing so could result in said poster earning a ban.
If you just want a yes or no here then I will proceed and close this thread.
However, if you are open to advice from some posters then we will leave it open for a while longer.

It might also be worthwhile sitting with your GP and going over your intake.

Here are some of these resources from our Charter:
Addiction
http://www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie/op...nt/default.asp
http://www.al-anon-ireland.org/
http://www.gamblersanonymous.ie/
http://www.nasouth.ie/ (narcotics anon)

kelle

OP, I can empathise with you.

I've been in your situation.

I was in the habit of drinking a half bottle of wine every second afternoon, then it was every afternoon, then it was a half bottle of wine with a can of Carlsberg and a Bacardi Breezer. I was on leave of absence from work to stay at home with my two small children and I was bored. Like you, I enjoyed the feeling of being merry - though the headaches afterwards were awful. And I found myself craving for drink.

Like you I got worried I was on the downward spiral to alcoholism, I could see where this was leading so I made a decision to stop drinking immediately - I knew if I didn't stop then it would get more and more difficult. Friends reassured me I was fine, but I knew I wasn't.

Breaking the habit was hard for a few days (I was drinking copious amounts of coffee instead) then I got used to it, now I don't miss it at all. I haven't drank alcohol since February 2006.

It's difficult to judge whether or not you drink too much alcohol, but my gut feeling would be that if you're worried then you need to do something about it. It would be no harm to contact any of the organisations mentioned in Taltos post.

Good luck.

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

LegacyUser

This is the op back. Yes I am looking for advice rather than a diagnosis, also interested in other people's experience.

Thanks to both posters so far, I can relate.

a fat guy

As was said previously, we can't give out diagnosis's and all that stuff...

But I will say that you should try to go without drink for a few weeks to see if you like it. I gave it up and couldn't be in a better mood if I tried! It's like being able to have as much fun as you want at any point, without needing alcohol.