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Whether you're an alcoholic clinically speaking is for a professional to decide. I think that other posters are right to suggest that you see a professional so that they can provide a more thorough evaluation.
I'm still not quite certain about your drinking habits. Are you saying you have 10 drinks a day? I'd lean toward 'definitely get help' if that's the case - that's just not normal and you're putting your health at serious risk if you do that for a sustained period of time.
If it's just a case of doing this every once and again, you're probably just a 'binge drinker'. Now, that doesn't mean you should take it less lightly - binge drinkers are at serious risk of injury, or becoming victims of their own bad judgment under the influence. People get DUIs that way.
Alcoholism is a chronic and often progressive disease that includes problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol, continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems, having to drink more to get the same effect (physical dependence), or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking. If you have alcoholism, you can't consistently predict how much you'll drink, how long you'll drink, or what consequences will occur from your drinking. It's possible to have a problem with alcohol, even when it has not progressed to the point of alcoholism. Problem drinking means you drink too much at times, causing repeated problems in your life, although you're not completely dependent on alcohol.
Binge drinking — a pattern of drinking where a male consumes five or more drinks in a row, or a female downs at least four drinks in a row — can lead to the same health risks and social problems associated with alcoholism. The more you drink, the greater the risks. Binge drinking, which often occurs with teenagers and young adults, may lead to faster development of alcoholism.
He's a binge drinker headed into becoming an alcoholic.
If he's has an obsession of the mind, if he has frequent blackouts, if he's totaling cars... he's "a little more than that."
Is Mayo Clinic trying to "rationalize" alcoholism? Seems that way with the "Problem Drinker" label.
Hey, alcohol is socially acceptable. I get it. People will go to any lengths to rationalize it and what becomes an addiction to it.
Crack cocaine is not socially acceptable, so, there will be no "rationalizing" (the dreaded curse) the addiction from Mayo. No "Problem Crack Smokers" that just do it frequently, with problems resulting, but not actually "dependent on crack" yet.
But then Mayo derives its business on curing the sick not preventing sickness.
Alcoholism is progressive. It only gets worse. And while I know many in A.A. are loathed to be associated with the "losers" of C.A. and N.A. or that is to say drug addicts, alcoholics are frequently known to beat the sh*t out of their wives, children, or husbands. They commit homicides in vehicles (no "crack driving" or "heroin driving") and they wake up with injuries from fights the don't remember.
Might look at the Physician's Story but more especially the Black-American woman's story: Another Chance. From the mouths of drunks themselves.
She lived a life worse than many crackheads. Totally ghetto. Not buying shoes for her kids. Waking up with black eyes. Thefts from stores (she didn't remember). Then going to prison for a murder she committed in a blackout.
Give up the booze or set a hard limit. My limit is two because it's not worth the risk to me or anyone else. A DUI or injuring someone is a life changer or a career changer. Also have you ever noticed what booze can do to the body?
Never let anything control you. If your going go drink do it in moderation and set like I said a hard limit. You can feel sober and still be over or close to the limit. It's not worth it.
... For me going into the 4th drink is bad. I can sit and enjoy a band and the surroundings for a couple of hours on my three drinks and leave with no problem.
One of the first things I noticed after I stopped drinking was that most people do drink responsibly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frihed89
...I don't care if it's a disease; a bad habit; a sign of a weak willed person; controllable; or hereditary. Whatever it is and no matter what causes it, I have it. I don't drink. End of story.
Agree. It doesn't really matter why I had a hard time stopping after a few drinks but I did. Now does this mean I weak-willed? Do I have a disease? Or am I just plain ****ed up? I really don't know. All I know is that it's best that I don't pick up that first drink.
I can drink moderately if I really want to. If something the following morning is sufficiently important to me, then I can have a beer or two and then call it quits and set my alarm. And if I'm around a crowd where it's socially unacceptable to get drunk, I can resist the urge. But the urge is always there. It feels like an itch I have to scratch. When I start drinking, I never feel "satisfactorily drunk." I have a lot of inhibitions. Whereas most people need just a drink or two to loosen themselves up, I don't feel sufficiently uninhibited until I'm at least 10 drinks deep, usually blacked out at that point, depending on my tolerance. The only times I've really felt comfortable in my own skin and am talkative and touchy-feely are when I'm very ****ed up on alcohol and/or drugs. Unfortunately the amount of alcohol it takes to get me to that point has me blacked-out and doing stupid things like totalling cars .
People who don't have a drinking problem typically don't have to ask others if they have a drinking problem.
People with a real drinking problem would never ask the question, do I have a drinking problem. Denial is a longtime friend to alcoholics. Anyone that has been with or had the problem knows when asked the question how many beers or drinks have you had ... reply "oh a couple" meaning 5, 6, 10 but just a couple will be the reply.
If available wherever you live attend an AA meeting. You don't have to do anything, pay anything or even speak. My husband has been dry for years thanks to AA but he is still an alcoholic and will always make it one day at a time. When he realized he had a problem he first sought professional help. He was prescribed drugs!!!! Sort of out of the frying pan into the fire with that diagnosis. Then he attended his first AA meeting. It was a difficult path to follow but with the support system he made it.
I can drink moderately if I really want to. If something the following morning is sufficiently important to me, then I can have a beer or two and then call it quits and set my alarm. And if I'm around a crowd where it's socially unacceptable to get drunk, I can resist the urge. But the urge is always there. It feels like an itch I have to scratch. When I start drinking, I never feel "satisfactorily drunk." I have a lot of inhibitions. Whereas most people need just a drink or two to loosen themselves up, I don't feel sufficiently uninhibited until I'm at least 10 drinks deep, usually blacked out at that point, depending on my tolerance. The only times I've really felt comfortable in my own skin and am talkative and touchy-feely are when I'm very ****ed up on alcohol and/or drugs. Unfortunately the amount of alcohol it takes to get me to that point has me blacked-out and doing stupid things like totalling cars .
Definitely not an alcoholic but you have traits that could lead you there if not improved. I assume you live in the USA? Most of the country is not alcohol friendly. First of all it's a nation constructed for cars not people so drinking and getting around is impossible. Furthermore almost the entire country prohibits drinking out doors. Meaning unless it's a bar with an open roof: the society wants you to drink in your own home or inside a bar, away from the general public.
The issue I had to overcome was "having fun while sober". Basically finding the incentive to BS talk with a stranger while sober.
I can drink moderately if I really want to. If something the following morning is sufficiently important to me, then I can have a beer or two and then call it quits and set my alarm. And if I'm around a crowd where it's socially unacceptable to get drunk, I can resist the urge. But the urge is always there. It feels like an itch I have to scratch. When I start drinking, I never feel "satisfactorily drunk." I have a lot of inhibitions. Whereas most people need just a drink or two to loosen themselves up, I don't feel sufficiently uninhibited until I'm at least 10 drinks deep, usually blacked out at that point, depending on my tolerance. The only times I've really felt comfortable in my own skin and am talkative and touchy-feely are when I'm very ****ed up on alcohol and/or drugs. Unfortunately the amount of alcohol it takes to get me to that point has me blacked-out and doing stupid things like totalling cars .
If you walk like a duck
and quack like a duck
you are a duck~~
I can drink moderately if I really want to. If something the following morning is sufficiently important to me, then I can have a beer or two and then call it quits and set my alarm. And if I'm around a crowd where it's socially unacceptable to get drunk, I can resist the urge. But the urge is always there. It feels like an itch I have to scratch. When I start drinking, I never feel "satisfactorily drunk." I have a lot of inhibitions. Whereas most people need just a drink or two to loosen themselves up, I don't feel sufficiently uninhibited until I'm at least 10 drinks deep, usually blacked out at that point, depending on my tolerance. The only times I've really felt comfortable in my own skin and am talkative and touchy-feely are when I'm very ****ed up on alcohol and/or drugs. Unfortunately the amount of alcohol it takes to get me to that point has me blacked-out and doing stupid things like totalling cars .
Absolutely you are, this post could be used as a model of functional alcoholism. The guys in ditches drinking out of a bag were all you at one point. If I were you, I would stop drinking all together, while you have some control over it, because it's going to slowly but surely the slope you are on will become more and more slippery. Like an itch, the urge to scratch will only disappear if you stop itching.
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