I Enjoy Being an Alcoholic!!!

Sounds stupid but hobbies/other interests. When you have some you may be less inclined to drink. Used to do a bit of scrambling years ago. Stopped drinking the nights before I went out on the bike. The joy of the hobby was such that I didn't want the booze to ruin it for me. Its can be difficult to get into things. Try something and see if you like it. Also, I didn't think I had a drink problem for years... until I did. If you think you've an issue just stop for a week and see how difficult it is. Go from there. Alcohol problems ranges from the drunk on the street with shaking hands till they get a drop all the way to someone who just drinks at the weekends but gets plastered because they can't handle their own emotions/life issues.
Gluck

Go without alcohol a few days each week to give your liver a chance to recover.

If you can't do that you should seriously consider not drinking at all. As others have said, you need a hobby or something to interest you. Not easy with lockdown but plan towards reducing the alcohol intake.

120k is that after tax
I wouldn't have time to be an alcoholic or drink six cans a night if i had that dollar

What is a beer, 220 calories?

That's 1,320 calories a day in beer alone. Over half your overall recommended daily intake. Nearly 10,000 in a week.

I doubt you're exercising enough to offset that, you'd need to be hitting the gym non stop.

Sure fire way of piling on the weight.

Yeah, I know someone who was very similar, similar alcohol intake every night, hard worker, very athletic person, no weight issues, energetic, didn't think it was a problem etc etc.
Then after years of this several pints almost every night, started to get a few pains, bit of blood in toilet, went to the doctor.
He was told to stop drinking immediately or he could be dead within the year.
Now he realises that he did / does have a problem because he is having difficulty stopping because he stops for maybe a few days / a week, then binges.
He could be dead in a year from the damage that's done if he doesn't completely stop.
So, as others have said, 6 pints every night is not healthy. At the moment you are young and your body is working to cope with it. But it won't be able to cope for long.
Don't end up like my friend who is struggling to hit the brakes before crashing into an open grave at a very young age.
Try cut it down, try get the alcohol intake to moderate levels, enjoy a few pints, but give your body a chance to deal with it.
Also... If you didn't think that there may be something wrong with your drinking habits, you wouldn't be on here asking, just a thought

Some people can drink a lot and simply enjoy it, without being pigeonholed into the category of 'alcoholic' (which has implied inferences, like you're drinking because of some trauma or slipping into addiction and wreaking havoc on your finances/family/etc).

Your post makes it sound like drinking 6 tins a night is a total non-issue for you. Be that as it may, I always think if you get into too much of a habit with anything in life - it can be difficult to get out of. Whilst you are feeling 100%, subconsciously you are building a dependence on it. The same applies with constantly overeating, gambling, smoking, even smaller things like routines you have.

So if you're as certain as you think that it's a non-issue, why not just knock it on the head for a couple of weeks - a holiday from the beer - and see if you truly feel the same without it? Then you'll know if it's an issue or not.

If nothing else, a detox will be good for your body. On that health note, 6 tins a night in your 20s may be something your body can handle but it's not a long-term routine you want to get into - you are putting yourself at risk of chronic liver issues, high blood pressure, cancer and worse. Because beers and other drinks are packaged up, branded and advertised in such a convincing way, I think people often forget that alcohol is a toxin. And ingesting too much of any toxin for a long time can never be good.

Hi Op,

Your thread title and subsequent details come across quite facetious and could be perceived as insulting to genuinely struggling alcoholics. You call yourself an alcoholic in your title and even go so far as to say you enjoy being that way - is that really true? I've known a few alcoholics over the years and I've never heard any of them say they enjoy it. Most are struggling and going through personal hell.

That said, not all alcoholics are struggling or going through hell and I know myself that I enjoyed my drinking days (they're not over, just on hiatus at the moment) for the most part. Having a few beers in the evening is great! It relaxes you, makes you feel warm and fuzzy and helps you sleep. However, the internal unseen damage it's doing is undeniable and although you're not feeling the full impact now in your 20's, it will inevitably catch up on you. I know you say you're upbeat and don't really see it as an issue and if that's the case then maybe you're not an alcoholic, perhaps you're just a heavy drinker.

Maybe take a break from the 6 cans a night routine just to reassess the situation and seehow you feel. If you physically and emotionally feel pretty much the same and decide you genuinely prefer life with a six pack in hand then go nuts but if you feel notably different in a positive way then perhaps it's time to cut back a bit. You could have maybe 4 beers a night or drink 3 nights a week as oppossed to 7. Good thing is you're only drinking beer which is the least damaging tipple you could choose. If you were necking 6 glasses of gin or vodka a night, I think it would be more worrying and substantially more damaging.

lastly OP, at least you're honest and open about your drinking and enjoyment of it. My sister is similar, she drinks wine every night and has no intention of stopping. She has a gorgeous apartment, a great job and on the surface would appear to be content and happy but I can definitely see the effect it's having on her as an observer, albet a subjective obsever cos I love her and am concerned about her drinking. As I said though, she doesn't think it's a problem at all and her answer is .. give it up? Are you insane? It's my absolute favourite thing in the world!!

Personally, I view alcohol as an enemy masquerading as a friend and if you get on his bad side, you had better watch out!

OP, if you’re getting €120k a year maybe you should be seeking out professional advice rather that looking for online suggestions

OP you’re rationalising your drinking quite a lot here, and I found the need to mention how much you earn a bit bizarre and irrelevant tbh. The only way I can weigh all of that up with the fact that you’re here asking to begin with is that you sound like you’re in a bit of denial while also being somewhat conscious there’s an issue. Your post reads to me as, “I’m fine. I’m better than fine in fact, look how much I earn, I’m AMAZING...what’s wrong with me?”

At the end of the day OP only you can decide if you’ve got a problem and only you can decide to help yourself. None of us can make that decision for you and you won’t be helped if you don’t want to be. So what I’d suggest is figure out yourself why you felt the need to post to boards.ie asking if you were an alcoholic if you were as happy as you say you are.

If you decide that you are, then people can help you. But where you’re at now, mindset-wise, someone could spend decades trying to tell you you’ve a problem, and you could destroy your life without even realising, and it’d mean absolutely nothing to you. So really us telling you anything is kinda pointless.

freakish_habit wrote: »

If I can get down from 102.6kg to around 90kg by the start of April, I think that would be good progress. But it means cutting out the alcohol permanently. I'm guessing my sleep will be disturbed tonight. I hope that doesn't lead me to want to return to alcohol tomorrow. I'll keep you updated here. Maybe it will help others, too - or they can join in.

OP, your second post tells so much more than the first. In the first you more or less wanted to prove yourself (and us) you don't really have a problem, or more so, it can't be you have an alcohol problem mainly because you're enjoying alcohol so much.
that's a really 'funny' way of justifying having a drug problem. Sure, that's the nature of drugs, they make us feel better, especially in the first times of taking them and the amount not yet completely out of control because the body gets more and more used to it.

otherwise why take them at all, if they wouldn't make us feel good, we could also drink 6 glasses of milk, water, whatever each evening.

from alcohol and nicotine it takes a lot of time and consumption to be really physically dependent, and with physically I mean having tremors and such. but the mental dependency is there much quicker.

after I read this (highlighted quote) from you, you definately have an alcohol problem. you are already kind of on the physical dependency because your sleep seems dependent on it.
But you have good plans, try to stick to them and don't feel ashamed to take on professional help if you feel you won't make it.

golfball37 wrote: »

Being a heavy drinker with a regular schedule doesn’t make you an alcoholic.
If you drink more than intended every time you pick up and if you can’t stop or quit on your own volition.

Answering yes to both of those is the minimum requirement to be an alcoholic. The op can keep to 6 cans and stop at that so doesn’t qualify

Ridiculous summation. What if my intention is to drink a bottle of vodka every night and I stick to that, by your logic because im sticking to my intended limit, I don't have a problem.

We also don't know yet if he can quit on his own volition but even if he can it doesn't mean he's not an alcoholic. Not all alcoholics seek professional help, many manage to stop of their own accord. Conversely, many alcoholics who go into treatment fall off the wagon. My dad used to do 6 week drying out programmes in St. Pats and would go to the pub literally straight from the hospital!

Alcoholism is complex and can't be boxed into two questions. You're trivializing an extremely serious issue.

leggo wrote: »

Another common one you’ll get from alcoholics is comparing their drinking habits or lives to the worst example they know (and even seeking out these people as drinking buddies sometimes just to feel better by comparison), so just because they’re not homeless, incomprehensible and wetting themselves they couldn’t possibly have a problem!

My own father is a shining example of this. His father was an alcoholic, and he grew up in a very, very poor household because so much of the little money they had was pissed away. I cringe sometimes when I see people today with smartphones and huge TVs and decent houses pleading poverty, when I've heard some stories of my father's childhood which outlined what poverty truly is.

My old man by comparison has done very well in business and would be considered wealthy by any account. He sees no harm in drinking every evening because it's never affected his ability to provide for his family, and he has a perception that drink is only an issue if it is financially detrimental to your family. He either ignores or is oblivious to the other effects of this - emotional, health, etc.

It's a strange cycle of events. Growing up in such a poor household is arguably what gave him (and continues to give him, even at OAP age) this huge hunger to succeed, but his understanding of alcohol addiction and it's effects on all concerned is totally skewered and viewed through a very narrow lens.