Am I becoming an alcoholic or am I at risk ?
living with an alcoholic wife February 3rd, 2010I am male 24 years old. I study and work. I cannot say I am extremely bothered by this possibility, but I keep constantly thinking about it.
My problem is in drinking habits for beer. Let me explain. I have not drunk heavy alcohol drinks for about 5 years. Simply I do not enjoy them. I don’t like the taste of vodka or whiskey. The only times I drink those – when I am flying, as I am freakishly afraid of flying and I simply get drunk before take off. I also do not care about wine or champagne. But I enjoy beer very much.
The thing is, even though I do not feel urge to go and buy beer, if I have one I’ll keep drinking until I it’s gone. Most of the time I like Stella, but occasionally enjoy Heineken or Corona. As they are sold in packs of six, if I have beer in the fridge, I’ll have it.Usually I will have 2 bottles a night, sometimes three, and will keep doing this every night until beer is gone. But then when it is gone again, I can simply live without it as long as I want, until my wife will buy me another pack. As I asked her to do the judgment for me, and I try not to buy beer myself anymore. My wife is really good with alcohol, the 6 pack she bought for herself is still a 4 pack in our fridge two weeks later.
Not long ago I was drinking beer again, and run out of Stella, the only thing left, was my wife’s beer, blue with taste of lemon. Strangely even after 2 bottles of Stella I did not like her’s and did not continue drinking.
I also feel a need in beer when I am hungry, maybe because it fills me up. But if I had a chance to eat before drinking, I do not really care about beer anymore. But as I said, if I have it in the fridge I might as well have it.
My father and both of my grandfathers are alcoholics.
SS
Well, the term "alcoholic" is outmoded, largely because the term itself (and the idea of "alcoholism" being a "disease") suggests that there is some sort of definitive line where your drinking is just fine on one side but addictive on the other.
This isn’t true. Drinking problems, like most other behavioral issues, occur along a continuum. This is why the American Psychiatric Association doesn’t even have a definition for alcoholism. Instead, it has categories for alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence:
http://www.fpnotebook.com/Psych/Exam/Alc…
You might want to look at these definitions and see where your behavior fits within them.
Another suggestion. I had a very severe drinking problem at one point in my life, but I quit drinking 11 years ago–completely. I don’t use a support group, but I am familiar with the SMART Recovery program which provides a useful tool for analyzing your drinking and whether it adds to or detracts from your life. It’s basically a cost-benefit analysis. You might want to give it a look, as well.
http://www.smartrecovery.org/resources/l…
http://www.smartrecovery.org
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:45 am
That is simply called "binge drinking" and you seem to think it is a problem so to even ask this question I would say something bad is going on.
The point is whether you CAN stop or not. It’s fine to like alcohol but we need to use our common sense and stop it because we know it’s not healthy, no matter how genuinely we just like the taste of it.
If you drink every night you have a drinking problem although I know many who do the same and see nothing wrong with it. Whether it is a bad habit or not is not the point. It is very unhealthy to the point of dangerous to drink every night, so not an alcoholic but you do need to change. If you find you can’t then you are an alcoholic.
If your wife is buying you beer basically every night she doesn’t have very good judgement (no offense) and is what is known as an ‘enabler’. Just because someone else is buying it doesn’t mean you escape responsibility for the drinking though. Cut it down to buying drinks once a week or cut down your drinking to just the weekend (or a few days of your choosing, say mon and tuesday) and see what happens.
References :
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:34 am
I think the fact that you think/worry about so much is kind of a warning sign. The fact that you have alcoholism in your family makes you much more susceptible to becoming an alcoholic yourself. You probably already know that. You can become an alcoholic even if you only drink beer. Maybe try not drinking at all for a couple of months or so and see how that goes. Or maybe you should talk to a counselor who is experienced in this area, maybe that would help you clarify where you’re headed or if you’re in danger.
References :
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
This sounds as if you know, with alcoholism in your very close family line, that you are tempting the fates, here. Something goes wrong for you and you may not be able to stop drinking. My father was an alcoholic, so I just don’t drink. I think, for myself, it is better to be safe than sorry. I drink Propel water all the time……more than most people. I know if I was drinking beer, it just might be more than most, as well. Take care. Good luck!
References :
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:52 am
Well, the term "alcoholic" is outmoded, largely because the term itself (and the idea of "alcoholism" being a "disease") suggests that there is some sort of definitive line where your drinking is just fine on one side but addictive on the other.
This isn’t true. Drinking problems, like most other behavioral issues, occur along a continuum. This is why the American Psychiatric Association doesn’t even have a definition for alcoholism. Instead, it has categories for alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence:
http://www.fpnotebook.com/Psych/Exam/Alc…
You might want to look at these definitions and see where your behavior fits within them.
Another suggestion. I had a very severe drinking problem at one point in my life, but I quit drinking 11 years ago–completely. I don’t use a support group, but I am familiar with the SMART Recovery program which provides a useful tool for analyzing your drinking and whether it adds to or detracts from your life. It’s basically a cost-benefit analysis. You might want to give it a look, as well.
http://www.smartrecovery.org/resources/l…
http://www.smartrecovery.org
References :
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:50 pm
I usually agree with your article content, but in this case I am sorry to say that I do not share your views.