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... didn't need the A.A. program, or they are radical atheists who cannot take the spiritual nature of the Program, which requires a belief in a "Higher Power", that which is God, or they are taking money from alcohol and or drug rehabilitation and they are trying to make money off of the alcoholic/addict.
No, not "not that which is God," but rather the Higher Power is characterized in the program "as we understand it," or something close to that. I do not have any AA literature. But having been in the program in the late 1970's in the US, I can assure you that the meetings were very emphatic in not requiring a belief in God - and in characterizing Higher Power in other ways that were not religious, though many were religious believers.
...I can already hear the enraged cries of heavy drinkers about how absurd those limits are, but they are based on the best science currently available.
I'm sure the cries of "*uck science" are ringing across the land as I type.
I think societies give a lot of wiggle room to what is anti-social conduct when it comes to each society's allowed high. With Americans and Europeans that stuff is booze, in other cultures it is opium, or a local hallucinogen. The number of fellow workers I knew in the U.S., and the number of Brits I have seen here who cannot pass a day without getting obvious physically impaired by the amount they are drinking was (and is)quite amazing. But its the culture, and this kind of being drunk simply is disregarded by the society.
I read an interesting article about the Golden Triangle in SE Asian which used to be the opium center of the world. We Westerners, of course, simply do not allow the use of opium except for medical purposes, and most people would be shocked if they discovered that a friend or acquaintance had been smoking a pipe on weekends. The same guy, however, could be snot-flying drunk every weekend on booze, and many people would go out of their way to ignore it or more likely excuse it in terms like, "He just likes to feel good."
But, regarding the people of the Golden Triangle, in aside the writer commented on their attitude toward the use of the opium they were growing - all for export. Most people he claimed were not smokers, but quite a few were casual users who functioned normally within the society and no one care that they were users. And then there were those whose use was like that the chronic drunk and were unable to function normally, and these were highly stigmatized. Different stuff, but essentially similar attitudes.
As a long-time supervisor of clerical works and administrative assistants, I came across chronic alcohol use and chronic marijuana use among staff members repeatedly over the years. My experience over those years was that the heavy boozers and on-the-job drinkers were totally lousy employees - bad workers with high rates of calling in sick and lateness. On the other hand, the chronic users of grass - to my surprise - performed acceptably to excellently and their attendance pattern was not different from that of the staff members who were not to my knowledge regular users of alcohol or marijuana.
Every single one of the heavy, chronic drinkers on staff I had to fire and one transferred, with the marijuana smokers none were terminated for their drug habit.
I've always understood, and I might be totally wrong here, that the true test of alcoholism is whether you still get hangovers. The thinking goes that if you get a hangover you have sobered up, no hangover ever means the alcohol never fully leaves the system and you're drunk 24/7 - that's when you're in real trouble and need help. Is there truth in that or is it urban legend?
the hard drinkers/alcoholics ive known , have no governor- they dont or cant stop drinking,,no such thing as just a "couple" beers
I also knew a woman, that would start drinking a beer at 9 in the morning-drink all day, and you would never know or suspect this- she was a substance abuse counselor
the crowd i was in,,when younger,,,drank heavily, beer on the weekends,,and even weeknights...
we might go fishing on a saturday morning and be passing the beer around by 10 am...
thankfully, we all grew up and grew out of this...started families, etc.
hardly any of us drink anymore,,,we are too cheap to buy alcohol.
when talking with one of the old friends a month ago, we were discussing some old times, and he said- we all did some very stupid stuff-like driving, and he made an interesting point- if any of us got caught for DWI we would have been considered an alcoholic-because of our consumption-but because we didnt get caught-
we both said we all were very fortunate- no one got hurt, or we didnt drink much after we married and had kids-
we feel like "we had our fun and times" when younger - no need to be drinking alot now
For the past six months I've been having 2-3 beers per day at least 5 days per week. Tonight, I am currently on my 4th beer and feeling very guilty. Usually on weekends I drink more but am worried I am becoming an alcoholic. I usually take a couple of days off per week, but I'm not sure it does any good. I want to get my drinking back to only a few on the weekends and none during the week. Do I sound like an alcoholic?
Could be - or headed that way.
By the way, I can relate -and I did something about it.
When I was going through a very stressful time in my life, well into adulthood, I started drinking a couple of glasses of wine a night, just to unwind (I was in my thirties and had hardly ever even had anything to drink and prior to this had rarely even had beer or wine or any sort of alcohol in my house). Well, I decided I loved wine, and this little ritual became a way I "treated myself." The glasses got a little bigger - then there were three glasses instead of two. On a weekend night, I might polish off an entire bottle over about a six hour period.
TOO MUCH - and too fattening! I realized what was going on, but I so liked the ritual of coming home, kicking back with a book or a movie with a glass (with no bottom!) of wine that I just didn't want to let it go. Well, my alcohol tolerance level went up, of course, and slowly it became more common for me to get together with friends and drink more heavily on the weekend...and then I started having some hangovers - not fun. Wine headaches - not fun. HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
To be honest, none of this seemed all that serious because so much of it had no short term negative repercussions - no days off from work, no accidents, no apparent health issues, and I'm not weird when I've had too much to drink. I just get mellow. But I began to worry about long term effects, and about my dependency on this "ritual." I knew it wasn't healthy in the long run.
I replaced my nightly wine with hot tea. I mean, the full ritual - the loose tea, teapot, special cup and saucer (from England!), specialty teas, little crackers that go with tea, the whole nine yards. I LOVE IT! I can't remember the last time I bought a bottle of wine, though I will have a couple of glasses if my husband and I go out on the weekend (once or twice a month). The good thing is, I caught myself before my body became addicted to it, apparently, because it was simply no problem at all to replace one ritual with another.
And tea is a LOT less fattening! I drink herbal teas a lot as well - I even make some of my own herbal teas now! So - it was a great change for me. And I feel a lot better, and have lost a few pounds. Now that I look back on it, mornings weren't as easy on me when I was drinking that wine (or beer in the summer sometimes) at night.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover
If you have to ask, it's probably time to do something about it. 2-3 drinks a night isn't terribly excessive; but at this rate it is likely to become 3-4, then 5-6, then who knows. And beer is probably the worst alcoholic beverage to drink habitually, especially once you're at 3 or more per day. Malt is an excellent way to put on weight and compound your health issues.
So many of the responses in this thread seem to be based on using the alcohol consumption pattern of the individual responding as a sort of "norm". In other words, the thinking seems to be, "I drink X amount, so anything very much above that is too much but anything in that range is just normal and nothing to worry about." In a few cases, X amount is staggeringly large.
However, there is a way out of this radical relativity, and that is science. There is epidemiological as well as clinical evidence about how much alcohol consumption may be harmful and how much may be beneficial. (Yes, alcohol consumption of one or two drinks a day is actually beneficial health-wise). There are certain organizations which base their conclusions on evidence, not on speculation or pre-conceived notions, and I will cite two of them: The U.S. Surgeon General's Office and the American Heart Association.
According to those organizations, long-term alcohol consumption above two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women is not recommended. Above age 65, that drops down to one drink a day for men as well. One drink is defined as one 12-ounce beer, four or five ounces of wine, or one and a half ounces of 80 proof spirits or one ounce of 100 proof spirits.
I can already hear the enraged cries of heavy drinkers about how absurd those limits are, but they are based on the best science currently available.
these studies aren't definitive. A study comes out saying two drinks a day is beneficial. Then another study comes out and says two drinks a day is not.
I just don't buy it that if I have two drinks a day that it is good for me. I think if you're drinking two a day every day over time that it would be harmful to your health. But everyone is different. For some it may have no impact.
I drink a couple times a month and have anywhere from 5- 8 pints of lager. The night usually ends with my friends and I ending up at some greasy spoon. Is this bad for my health? It's possible. Binge drinking and eating a pile of chile cheese fries isn't exactly the healthiest thing to do. But I do it in moderation. And this is how I want to live my life.
I just don't buy it that if I have two drinks a day that it is good for me. I think if you're drinking two a day every day over time that it would be harmful to your health. But everyone is different. For some it may have no impact.
If your liver can process those two drinks efficiently every night, I don't see a problem. It's when the system is overloaded with alcohol and the liver is temporarily depleted of enzymes that I feel there's a problem. Of course, I am no expert on the subject.
Man has been drinking alcohol for thousands of years. In many cultures, 2 drinks a day was the bare minimum for most of the population. Not advocating the practice, but they managed fine.
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