Drinking Alone

[Lazymeatball]

Somebody define alcoholic for me, and don't give me some AA bullshit either. I'm thinking of somethign along the lines of an addiction being something that interferes with your work/ school/ family/ friends/ ability to live your day to day life. While blacking out is certainly not healthy, as long as it doesn't interfere with anything I don't think it makes one an alcoholic.

[gumpzilla]

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Somebody define alcoholic for me, and don't give me some AA bullshit either.

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This is a fair question, and I'll admit that I don't have a rigorous definition in my head. The way I use it day to day, I typically mean somebody who drinks idiotic amounts of alcohol often. Vague definition, I know, but if I never see somebody drinking without turning into a sloppy mess, I start to bandy the term about.

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I'm thinking of somethign along the lines of an addiction being something that interferes with your work/ school/ family/ friends/ ability to live your day to day life.

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By this standard, cigarettes are not an addiction, as far as I can tell.

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While blacking out is certainly not healthy, as long as it doesn't interfere with anything I don't think it makes one an alcoholic.

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I think you're attaching too much moral weight to the term alcoholic. I essentially mean somebody who drinks in an obviously unhealthy manner. I don't mean a moral degenerate. Sadly, people tend to connect the two.

[3rdEye]

Nothing wrong with drinking alone. There's a stigma attached to it, but a lot of the people who would look down on someone who drinks alone are the same people who have no problem with someone who smokes the occasional bowl while multi-tabling by himself.

[Ulysses]

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Are you people saying nobody else ever drinks to the point of blackout even in social scenes? Have you people ever been to college, or a good keg party?

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i would say at least twice a week i blackout when i'm the only one drinking.

That's what the OP wrote. That's very different than having a crazy night and blacking out.

[CardSharpCook]

As a reformed drug addict, this all sounds very bad to me. My brother is also an alcoholic. He can function societally as an alcoholic, just as I could as a drug addict, but that doesn't mean it isn't a serious plroblem. By making this post, you are clearly concerned that you might have a problem - this is usually an indication that there is, in fact, a problem. You drink every night, often alone, and frequently to the point of blacking out. I'm telling you what you already know when I say you have a problem. It is up to you whether or not you choose to do anything about it.

For me, I just quit one day. I just stopped. A few months later, I was having difficulty adjusting to sober life, so I walked into a NA meeting. It was the only one I went to. After that it was a personal and private struggle. Not the struggle to keep away from drugs - I was sure and committed to that, but the struggle to create a new life. I felt like a baby again. I didn't really understand how social relationships were supposed to work - all of my friends had been fellow drug addicts. But I'm getting off the subject. Point is, you have a problem.

CSC

[Ulysses]

You still a cook? If so, that's a tough industry to be in for someone w/ drug/alcohol problems. Congrats.

[CardSharpCook]

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You still a cook? If so, that's a tough industry to be in for someone w/ drug/alcohol problems. Congrats.

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I wish I could tell you, "no its not like that", but of course it is. The "tough" part is not staying away from insobreity, but being constantly around people who have a lifestyle that I have experienced and rejected. It is lonely more than anything else. So I post here.

CSC