Is my friend an alcoholic or just drinking too much

It's Christmas..probably over indulgence at this time of the year

Never pat a burning dog, nobody is going to thank you for it.

Alcoholic is a subjective term and shouldn’t be applied lightly. Everybody’s situation is different, so I wouldn’t be applying a label to people without all of the facts.

Its Christmas so people tend to over indulge. I wouldn't be overly judgemental at this time of year. But yes, 2 and a half bottles of wine is a lot.

There can be a difference between an alcoholic and a binge drinker. You can be both of course, but many people who don't see themselves as problem drinkers are also binge drinking. Being overly drunk has knock on effects and has consequences.

My advice, unless you are asked for help or their behavior effects you directly, it's all on them. If you'd prefer to hang around people who are more for sobriety or modest drinking then do so.

The fact that she downed two-and-a-half bottles and didn't appear drunk is a marker. Most functional alcoholics I've known had built-up an incredible tolerance to alcohol that whereas most people would get more drunk gradually over time, the functioning alcoholics appear fine until bottle number three, then suddenly boom, total head-down passing-out.

Personally, I wouldn't say anything to her.

I mean some are , but how many really do you think? Like a pure guess I’d say 1 in 20 would be going to the gym 5 times a week at over 40 and suffering from alcoholism. Dedication and commitment tend to be lacking in a lot of alcoholics let’s be fair.

I’d disagree that there’s too many dedicated sports people being alcoholics, maybe dart players. Dedication and commitment isn’t a trait of alcholics typically sure there’s exceptions.

You should read some stories about how footballers used to live their lives back in the day, drinking and top level sport went hand in hand for a huge number of them.

Multi-day benders every week, train every day and play PL matches against world class international players at the weekend.

And I'm not talking George Best in the 70's here, it was rife up until the late 90's.

This is pure nonsense and is what every alcoholic claims when everyone else tells them they have a problem. If you are drinking excessively, you don't have to wait until they crash and burn to admit they've a problem.

No sugar coating it - she’s an extremely high volume drinker - 2.5 bottles of wine in one night is serious drinking - it takes a lot of drinking to get to that level of alcohol tolerance - arguably she’s not tolerant in the sense she’s no memory of the previous nights events- as for driving the following day, well it’s her life, career, money, conscience - if she wants to wash it all away in a moment of madness that’s for her to potentially face - if you want to help that aspect maybe tell her stories around people you know caught drunk driving the following day - it might make her realise what she’s doing is just dicing with her future and potentially that of some innocent person she may well kill - but she’s also an adult - she DOES know better but she’s appears to be worshiping the altar of me-Fein - so be it - you can’t and won’t change that - very likely some hard lessons will be learned soon though