Can you drink too much without being an alcoholic?

[Fuzz]

[Unrepentant Fenian]

1. Thousands do it every New Years Eve.

[Fumesucker]

3. The pros don't drink on New Years..

Or Fat Tuesday.

At least that is what one pro told me. :)

[XemaSab]

19. Or St Paddy's

:P

[Skink]

14. Alcoholics go to meetings.

drunks have all the fun:beer:

[seabeyond]

2. i drink every 3, 4, 5, months or more and ALWAYS too much. lol

hence why i hardly ever drink.

not thinkin that would qualify me as an alcoholic.

now regularly?

my hubby drinks every night. i dont think he is alcoholic. i have them in my family and there is nothing in him to suggest it. can he get off. i dont know. dont care. not seeing anything to be concerned about.

[MrScorpio]

4. Alcholism is a pathology

Hence, one can even be an alcoholic without drinking (any more)

[imdjh]

8. Alcohol is nothing more than a drug. It's not "mysterious, powerful, and cunning"

....nor is it a disease.

Addictionology is largely horsepoopy.

[MrScorpio]

13. Let me get this straight...

You're saying, on one hand, that alcohol is a drug and one the other hand, it's one that people DON'T get addicted to?

But yet the definition of alcohol (a drug) addiction as a disease is all wrong?

Please explain.

[imdjh]

15. behavior

You're saying, on one hand, that alcohol is a drug and one the other hand, it's one that people DON'T get addicted to?

Nope, didn't say that.

But yet the definition of alcohol (a drug) addiction as a disease is all wrong?

Did say that.

Please explain.

Alcohol and drug abuse is a destructive behavior.

[MrScorpio]

18. But doesn't prolonged substance abuse have a profound effect on brain chemistry?

So you're making a point that alcoholism is a moral failing, rather than physiological and psychological dependence on a substance?

[madeline_con]

5. Not on a regular basis. n/t

[positrac]

6. Current expertise is that one can be an alcoholic and drink not at all.

So I guess the answer is yes.

[boppers]

7. http://moderation.org/

There isn't an actual "disease" involved in alcoholism, the word itself is more about applying a label to a cluster of different issues.

[Speck Tater]

9. Other: Explained...

Once, 45 years ago, while in the Air Force, a bunch of friends and I drank way too much rum one night and had terrible hangovers the next day.

Once, 30 years ago, after a big fight with my wife, I went out with some friends and played pool all night and drank way too much beer, and had a terrible hangover the next morning.

Last July I bought my first six pack of beer for the year. I drank the last one a week ago. Being as it's fall, I probably won't buy any more beer until next June or July, since I never drink anything in the winter. Beer is for cooling off in the summer heat. Clearly that pattern of drinking does not make me an alcoholic.

You can certainly drink too much, once in a while without being an alcoholic. What matters is what you habitually do, day after day, week after week, all year round.

[Obamanaut]

10. I chose 'depends...' Here's what I learned from my own drinking,

and later working with other drinkers. The 'ic' suffix is (loosely) 'involved with' - so if one gets zonkered three times in his life and once he crashes a car, another time robs a store, and the third kills someone - that person was involved with alcohol three times and all three times it caused him problems, so my best guess is he is an alcoholic.

If, on the other hand, a person drinks responsibly and never has issues with it, and gets zonkered at a party, then goes home to sleep it off, I'd say no, even though he drank too much at the party.

I avoid adult beverages. I liked (like) them too much. Miz O prefers it this way, as do I.

[BrklynLiberal]

11. Define "too much"

;)

[appamado amata padam]

12. Yes, the same way that

Sarah Palin may be considered a significant politician without holding public office.

:-)

[Historic NY]

16. Define too much.

[Warpy]

17. What separates a problem drinker from an alcoholic is an off switch

A problem drinker often drinks to excess and can screw up his life over it, but there comes a time in every binge when he decides he's had enough and goes to sleep. He can also have physical symptoms if he stops suddenly. He won't crave alcohol, although he might dislike the idea of trying to spend a weekend sober.

An alcoholic just never has enough although he paces himself eventually when he starts maintenance drinking. A binge alcoholic won't stop until he is too physically sick to put more alcohol into his system and keep it there or runs out of the means to get more alcohol. Alcohol runs his life and he craves it all the time. With or without withdrawal symptoms, sobriety is unbearable and he's obsessed with the thought of alcohol.

Those are the differences I've seen.

[XemaSab]

20. This is my gut feeling:

Someone can drink pretty hard and not be an alcoholic.

I go on a good bender every few months, then I decide I'm going to cut back for a few months, then I go on another bender.

My "alcoholic" friend will get off work and go to a liquor store and get a mini-bottle for the ride home. She also gets really ugly when she drinks too much... one minute she's fine, and the next minute she's a totally different person.. and a not cool person, either. :(

[cherish44]

21. If you drink too much with great frequency you might be an alcoholic

If you overdo it once in awhile, probably not. By the time you hit your 30s or so you can usually tell which of your friends are alcoholics and which ones just like to party.

[Penguin31]

22. Depends on the frequency of the drinking. nt