What constitutes a drinking problem?

[DownhillGoat]

From Twitter:

Originally Posted by @macfaulkner

This flash mob sucks. It's just my family in my living room telling me I need to stop drinking.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I enjoy beer. I'm sipping on one now. Does having an occasional beer while watching the ball game effect my life? Well, if I didn't have the beer is be in bed right now. So it is affecting my life.

Does that mean I have a problem? Doubt it.

To answer the question asked:

You have a drinking problem when you run out of beer on a holiday afternoon.

Seriously,

If you can cut it out for a week or so (I like the 9 day theory mentioned above) and be fine the you're good. If you can't you have a problem.

Don't mistake a drinking problem with a serious drinking problem as we often do.

There are times in our lives I'm sure most of us abuse alcohol, that is a problem. But it doesn't mean you're an alcoholic, nor do you have a major problem where you need to seek counselling.

Ask yourself, do you think you can cut it out? If the answer is no, try it. Find a non-alcoholic drink you enjoy and stock the shelves. It sounds like you need an alternative to a drink you enjoy the taste of.

[polak]

Originally Posted by Ace

I have a 9-day theory, if you can't go 9 days (including 2 weekends) without having a single drink then you have a problem. The qualifiers are a) you don't alter your life (I.e. just hide at home), and b) you aren't white knuckling it.

Purely a non-scientific theory...

I usually go out in some form at least once in two weekends. While I'm sure I could do it without drinking, I don't see why I would? I probably haven't gone two weekends in a row without a single drink for a long time.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Ace

I have a 9-day theory, if you can't go 9 days (including 2 weekends) without having a single drink then you have a problem. The qualifiers are a) you don't alter your life (I.e. just hide at home), and b) you aren't white knuckling it.

Purely a non-scientific theory...

The problem I have with that, is why waste 9 days of my life?

I can 100% say I enjoy my Friday night more having a beer or two. Why deny myself and not fully enjoy 2 of the precious Fridays we have a finite amount of in life?

I will deny myself getting roaring drunk if it's happening too much, I really like my internal organs functioning properly.

[kermitology]

The year before last I did 100 days without alcohol. That was mostly because I was getting fat.

It's kind of good to challenge yourself to do that every now and then. Make sure you're in control.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by kermitology

The year before last I did 100 days without alcohol. That was mostly because I was getting fat.

It's kind of good to challenge yourself to do that every now and then. Make sure you're in control.

I'm not at all worried about being in control.

I am worried about wasting a third of a year being sober. *shudder*

[troutman]

[CaptainCrunch]

Waiting for the secretly bragging thread titled what constitutes a sex addiction?

[Hi-Psi]

I personally feel that everyone is different and as such people are able to handle their alcohol better than others.

For me, I can pretty much drink any day of the week, that's not saying that I do but if I'm out with friends at the bar or at a buddies place, I'll drink if that's what we want to do. I've backpacked a lot throughout the world so I'm used to drinking pretty much every night in hostels with the other backpackers and stuff. I find it a lot easier to meet people while drinking and I also find it harder to have fun when I'm at bars if I'm not drinking.

I don't drink alone though, that's something I just can't do for some reason. I don't usually come home from work and want a beer either(when I'm working in town that is). I really only like to drink if I'm gonna be with friends. I work out of town for 2-3 weeks at a time during the winter months mostly and during those times I don't drink at all and really have no problem doing so.

When I do drink with friends, I drink to get drunk, mind you I never get black out drunk and vary rarely make a fool of myself. Most people can't even tell when I'm drunk.

I have a friend that drinks alone at home most nights, hides it from his wife(who works nights a lot) and he drinks to get s h i t faced pretty much every time(He blacks out a lot). That to me is a problem.

[Dan02]

Hi-Psi you are a lot like me, rather then calling myself a alcoholic I prefer to refer to it as extreme social drinker.

I can get drunk, right pissed 30 nights a month if the social occasions call for it. I've since cut back quite substaintially but I think part of the reason I drink so much is I can count the number of hangovers I've had in my life on one hand. When you don't get hangovers the disincentive to drinking is significantly less.

[polak]

Originally Posted by Dan02

Hi-Psi you are a lot like me, rather then calling myself a alcoholic I prefer to refer to it as extreme social drinker.

I can get drunk, right pissed 30 nights a month if the social occasions call for it. I've since cut back quite substaintially but I think part of the reason I drink so much is I can count the number of hangovers I've had in my life on one hand. When you don't get hangovers the disincentive to drinking is significantly less.

I'm like that but I still get hungover. Hangover's are rarely anything more then a few hours of mild misery though. From May 3rd until June 2nd I was sober 4 days. That was only cause I was on vacation and going out almost every night though. Went through alcohol withdrawal twice on that vacation. Those were rough days. Your body feels like it's panicking and you can't sleep and when you do finally manage to you get weird and really vivid dreams and cold sweats. Cause of that I didn't drink the last week of that vacation and started feeling completely fine after only a second consecutive sober day. I never craved a drink after that extended binge and didn't drink again until a social occasion came up.

So, just cause I'm willing to go that hard, does it make it a problem?

I don't think so...?

[Hi-Psi]

Yeah I vary rarely get hangovers as well and on the off chance that I do get one, I have a drink first thing and it's gone. Seriously, as screwed up as it sounds, if I have a hangover, ONE of those Palm Bay cooler things straightens it right out haha

[Hi-Psi]

When I went backpacking through Asia I drank for pretty much 4 months straight, no joke. In hostels every night and meeting new people it's easy to stay up playing drinking games and going out with the other travelers. I got very few hangovers and I have never in my life had withdrawls.

[Kjesse]

I used to drink every night until I puked. Finally, I admitted it. I am a bulimic.


- Emo Philips

[Pontine]

I usually only drink when I'm out with friends, feels weird to drink/get hammered by myself.

[Max Cow Disease]

Beer's one of civilization's most delicious creations. Its varieties and variations are far too plentiful and exciting to not consume it with significant frequency.

Most lately I've been grabbing large cans from Co-op liquor store and indulging in one every second night. Getting plastered-ass drunk isn't my thing and simply pounding back 15 cans of the cheapest beer at the store with the aim of getting intoxicated is to waste the ultimately finite resources of one's liver.

[polak]

Originally Posted by Max Cow Disease

Getting plastered-ass drunk isn't my thing and simply pounding back 15 cans of the cheapest beer at the store with the aim of getting intoxicated is to waste the ultimately finite resources of one's liver.

This is such a North American thing. I've never heard of someone over the age of 18 buying the cheapest beer or liquor solely for getting sloshed any where else in the world. It helps that every where else in the world has decent beer for the near the same price as Boxer or Lucky but still.

There's always a few idiots who show up to a party with a six pack of Lucky so that no one dare has one other than themselves. They'll be in for every shot of other peoples liquor but God forbid they bring a 12 pack and leave a few. Only here. This is also true for girls who'll show up with a god damn mickey of fireball or malibu and then keep it stowed away for themselves all night. It annoys me that it's just accepted here.

[BigNumbers]

Originally Posted by polak

This is such a North American thing. I've never heard of someone over the age of 18 buying the cheapest beer or liquor solely for getting sloshed any where else in the world. It helps that every where else in the world has decent beer for the near the same price as Boxer or Lucky but still.

There's always a few idiots who show up to a party with a six pack of Lucky so that no one dare has one other than themselves. They'll be in for every shot of other peoples liquor but God forbid they bring a 12 pack and leave a few. Only here. This is also true for girls who'll show up with a god damn mickey of fireball or malibu and then keep it stowed away for themselves all night. It annoys me that it's just accepted here.

You sound like quite the world traveller - Have you recently returned from Europe?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Waiting for the secretly bragging thread titled what constitutes a sex addiction?

NSFW!

[Hi-Psi]

Originally Posted by polak

This is such a North American thing. I've never heard of someone over the age of 18 buying the cheapest beer or liquor solely for getting sloshed any where else in the world. It helps that every where else in the world has decent beer for the near the same price as Boxer or Lucky but still.

There's always a few idiots who show up to a party with a six pack of Lucky so that no one dare has one other than themselves. They'll be in for every shot of other peoples liquor but God forbid they bring a 12 pack and leave a few. Only here. This is also true for girls who'll show up with a god damn mickey of fireball or malibu and then keep it stowed away for themselves all night. It annoys me that it's just accepted here.

You have no idea what you're talking about. I'm sorry to say but I've traveled to just under 50 countries and it is much of the same pretty much everywhere in the world that has a drinking culture. I lived in Ireland, they drink the cheapest #### they can get their hands on. Pretty much any young person from the UK does. Same with Australia and most of Europe. There are much better cheap beers in Europe but most still buy whatever is cheapest on the shelves at any given time. Plus in Europe it's all about the cheap wines(Same with Australia) and they drink that swill which gives them the nastiest hangovers out there.

As for people showing up to a party with a six pack, there is nothing that pisses me off more to be honest so I agree with you there but people do that all over the world too, it's not a specific culture that does it, it's cheap people that are cheap pieces of crap. And women that show up with a mickey of Malibu and a box of juice and then yell at anyone who touches either of them, they're the worst. I usually pore theirs into shots for everyone just to piss them off. Drives me nuts.

Then again I'm the type of person that always shows up with a 12 pack or a '26 when I go to a party and quite a few of the people I know show up with nothing so I get a little more heated about it than most people. Mostly because it's usually my house that they're showing up to empty handed haha