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Are you an alcoholic?

5K views 49 replies 25 participants last post by  Sonata 
#1 ·
#6 ·
Do you drink because you are shy with other people?
Do you drink to build up your self-confidence?

These are fundamentally the same question. Let's peg shy people twice!

Have you ever felt remorse after drinking?
Does drinking cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
Have you ever had a loss of memory as a result of drinking?

All related to being drunk. Which virtually every college student, or New Years, Birthday, or St. Patrick's day celebrator has been at least once in their life... "have you ever"... really?

Do you turn to inferior companions and environments when drinking?

"Inferior" companions and environments... like a bar and the people who go to them... really? What self-hating recovering-alcoholic wrote this thing?

Do you crave a drink at a definite time daily?

Yes, when I get home from work at 6 pm every weekday and just want to do some well-deserved unwinding with a nice cold beer.

Has your efficiency decreased since drinking?

Well when I'm drinking I'm obviously not working on cold fusion, so this is a given for every drinker.

Do you drink alone?

No. I need somebody to hold my hand every time I want to have a beer and watch TV.
 
#13 ·
Being shy and drinking for self-confidence are two different things. I have never had a shy moment in my life. I haven't always had self-confidence.

These question poll things are always over simplistic and fail to take into account that people operate at a variety of levels. There was one alcohol poll where I scored enough points to prove that I was an alcoholic (also the have you ever ... type questions) when in fact I have never had an alcohol problem and was a Salvation Army officer living dry (as do all Salvationists) at the time.

The inferior friends and environments question had me. The one friend I sometimes have a drink with is very superior, a professor. :) His home is in the smartest part of town. So are some of the other friends with whom I occasionally have a drink. :D

The drinking alone thing also makes it seem bad to have a glass of wine with a meal if one is alone. There are lots of single people who have their meals alone - with a glass of wine.
 
#12 ·
Biggest load of tosh I've ever seen.

"You answered 4 items out of 20 Yes.
Your score is 20%. According to the Office of Health Care Programs, Johns Hopkins University Hospital, developers of this screening quiz, if you answered 3 of these questions with a Yes it is a definite sign that your drinking patterns are harmful and possibly considered alcohol dependent or alcoholic. You may want to seek an evaluation by a healthcare professional."

Completely fails to distinguish between regular or rare occurances.
"a definite sign that your drinking patterns are harmful"; good luck proving that one, buddy.
GG
 
#15 · (Edited)
Medical definition of moderate drinking:
No more than three alcoholic beverages per week (beer to vodka, 'don't matter.) Reason -- at that frequency, the liver has time to repair, and it will have little or no long-term damage to the brain.

Alcohol Lobby definition of moderate drinking:
Three beverages per day. (Obviously, they are pushing that drug :)

If you are habitually / reflexively reaching for a drink when you come home from work each day, and drink as much or more on weekends, you are substance dependent -- making you, mild and unobtrusive as it may seem, an alcoholic. No matter how you slice it or gloss it, it is a daily dependence upon a drug. That type of usage may stay the same, or slowly increase over the years. Daily = Dependent.

There is tons of rationale in a few answers here. those who so answer are already working around the fact they drink daily and that they are dependent.

Can anyone think of another drug around which there are thousands of synonymic words or phrases to describe varying degrees of 'highness?'

ADD P.S. No matter what you call the substance it is a drug, and the more that is recognized, by those who consume as well as those who do not, the more readily the use or misuse of it can be seen for what it is.
 
#22 ·
ADD P.S. No matter what you call the substance it is a drug, and the more that is recognized, by those who consume as well as those who do not, the more readily the use or misuse of it can be seen for what it is.
I don't buy it. I have been a moderate drinker all my life (except for a bit more at university 30+ years ago), and scored 2/20 on this ridiculous test, based on what happened 30 years ago. If it is an addictive drug, there should be withdrawal symptoms. Well, I have gone without alcohol for periods of over 6 months four times in the past 20 years without any problems of that kind.
 
#18 · (Edited)
I agree with PetrB this time.

Funny how nobody is an alcoholic in this country. But out the back of my house, everyone fills recycling bins weekly, and they're mainly full of booze bottles. Or the alcohol related violence on every weekend (& bumping into drunken yobbos in the street if I go out on saturday night). Sometimes I think bring back (partial?) prohibition, or at least some tighter controls on alcohol consumption, esp. when a drunk gets randomly aggro with me or some other innocent bystander (gotta watch what you say, or you'll get your jaw broken, or worse).

But nope, this country has absolutely no problem with alcohol whatsoever. Drinking at home before you go out on saturday night, then drinking at a pub or club, then drinking when you get back home, that's entirely normal.

Being a bit extreme here & yes, the questionnaire is not perfect, but it doesn't mean that alcohol is not a huge problem. Well here it is, anyway. But ask the alcohol or pubs and clubs lobby, and they always try to downplay these deleterious effects of alcohol. In our Aboriginal communities, it's so bad, some of them (tribal elders) have effected total alcohol bans or tight control of it entering and being consumed in their communities. It's basically ripped these communities apart.

But we're soooooo liberal we have to just let it happen, cos otherwise, it's not democratic, dealing with it is taking away people's rights.

Let's tax it to the eyeballs like cigarettes, and spend the revenue on treating alcohol addiction - eg. counseling programs, support groups, rehab, etc.
 
#19 ·
Good points being raised.

Alcohol use for OTHER people is bad.

Seriously, for those who do not have an alcohol problem there is no problem. But one never knows who will or when they will develop a problem.

My father always said alcohol is a good servant but a bad master. I am grateful that I have been able to keep it at the good servant level for myself.
 
#20 ·
About 6 days of the week I never feel the need for a drink. It's considered less unhealthy to have a couple of units daily rather than going out either Friday or Saturday for a social session, the amount of which I consume still adds up to less than what I could drink daily according a more sensible regimen. Yet according to this and other surveys I've still got a problem of sorts because I'm doing it all in one go. Next weekend my local pub is hosting its annual beer festival - I will be there.
 
#23 ·
While I don't have an alcohol problem, I certainly have a fine ale problem! I could and do sit around bottles full of liquor...I play at bars every week where I can get shot every ten minutes if I wanted...I've got a full bar at home...but all I like is me beer...and good beer, at that!

It's all about the Micro! So alcoholic? Most certainly not. Beeraholic? Quite certain and happy to be!
 
#24 ·
According to my physician, and every 'medical' article I have read on the subject, I am an alcoholic. I very seldom get 'plastered' (maybe twice per decade), but seldom a day goes by without intake.

I have a theory about alcohol (and many other non-opiate drugs). There are people who become habituated to booze, and people who become addicted to it. It's probably unscientific to use withdrawal symptoms as the defining factor, but that's what I use.
 
#26 ·
I got 6/10 and fully embrace my love of beer. While others may prefer silent killers like sugar and processed food, i choose a healthy lifestyle that lets me enjoy a good craft beer once in a while, to keep the mind sharp. :cheers:

I think most of my positive answers reveal a lack of social skills, rather than alcoholism.
 
#28 ·
I think most of my positive answers reveal a lack of social skills, rather than alcoholism.
And I thought you were the only TC member with social skills, seeing how you talked to clavi about his problems the other time and you handled it so well. But now, you completely annihilated that fantasy of mine. Ach, what treachery, Philip! What treachery!
 
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