Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
I keep seeing the term "drinking normally" pop-up in our discussions. Can anyone define that term for me? And is drinking normally the same as drinking responsibly? If someone drinks 2 or 3 beers every day, is that considered drinking normally? Of course when 2 or 3 turns into 12, we would all probably agree that is not "normal" drinking, but why is 2 to 3 considered normal? It seems to me that all ingestion of alcohol is abnormal and unnatural for humans.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement
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I am indeed powerless over alcohol. It can strike at anytime without warning. 19 times in a row, I could have had 2-3 drinks and called it a night. But that 20th, was like a death mission.
If there was a fruit that caused me a potential occurence of violent vomiting, potential jail, hurting your family, embarrassing yourself, causing job loss and money loss I would avoid it like the plague, whether or not my buddy can eat four every time and be fine.
Movements...generally political or religious or both...that promoted the idea drinking in any form was unhealthy, immoral, unnatural, to be avoided etc...
These things always seem to end messily it seems :)
Lots of history on the subject which makes for interesting reading :)
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Yeah- trying to legalize the ban of alcohol... wow. Why should certain things be legal and others, not? It's such a random thing to me...
Tobacco- legal
coke- illegal
Coke- legal
Absinthe- illegal
McDonalds- legal
PCP- illegal
I certainly don't have any suggestions.
Oh, and by the way, if you don't want to participate in this discussion, then don't. I think you can even block messages from me (Butt Sag). How simple is that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f44i6MwjsGU
Besides, I think it's all relative.
Everyone has their own story, own pain, own bottom...
We're on here for our own reasons...
Back to the OP- I think "drinking responsibly" is an oxymoron... How does one do that??? I guess I can't... that's why I'm here. And why I stopped. : )
Yes of course it is all relative. And yes we all have our own story, and yes we are all here for our own reasons. I am not suggesting otherwise. I am only soliciting opinions as to what each of us uses as criteria to label themselves as an abnormal drinker, or not. Another way to phase the question would be: Do you think you are a normal or abnormal drinker (of alcohol), and why? What are the criteria to be a normal drinker versus an abnormal drinker for you? In an earlier posting one person said they felt drinking a couple glasses of wine every day was normal drinking. I disagreed, but that doesn't make me right. It is just my opinion on the matter.
I am curious though, at what point would you say you crossed over the line and became an abnormal drinker? The way you describe your change it sounds like it happened somewhat suddenly, almost like something triggered it. Would you say you were addicted to alcohol before that point?
More than most people I was always a little excited at the idea of drinking. But early days I would drink pretty slowly (albeit heavily). If I drank too much, I would either fall asleep or throw up.
i believe that is a pretty 'normal' physiological response to taking in too much booze. Stops us getting over drunk or developing alcohol poisoning.
Around 21/22 I learnt to drink quicker. I hardly ever feel asleep or got sock anymore. I was more likely to 'balloon' as they say instead...start to behave erratically, go through extreme emotional, lost chunks of memory and awareness (blackout), increase the volume and speed of what I drank etc etc. The volume of booze in my system increased, how I reacted to it changed.
From that point onwards I was more likely to balloon than pass out. I hardly ever had "a few" drinks or felt the next day that my drinking had been moderate. My tolerance went...some days I would drink not much bit be very drunk, other days I would drink huge amounts and not feel like I was drunk.
That for me represents a transition in me from a 'normallish' relationship with booze to an abnormal one. It will of course be different for everyone.
Sometimes I might have been physically addicted, other times I wouldn't have been but it feels appropriate to say once that relationship changed, it changed permanently.
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So dangerous.
Maybe that's the key. To realize that just the thought of a drink scares us because we know it had gotten out of control.
I don't think there was a certain line I crossed into abnormal or problem. But I do remember waking up for work still drunk from the night before. But it took me a few years to finally stop. And were it not for finding my DH who is Muslim, I still could have been drinking last night...
And my DH is leaving for ten weeks today and sometimes, I get tempted to have one... just to see. But I made the commitment when I converted that my faith bans all alcohol, so I've got God to keep me straight since I want to obey the word of God as I believe it... Muslims do not drink... or at least are not supposed to!