Drinking (I'll post about other stuff later)
As any constant reader to this blog knows, I am sorta paranoid/obsessive about pretty much everything in my life. I realise this, but infortunately sometimes my paranoia turns out to be true so I feel I have to follow up on my obsessive tendencies wherever they may lead.
This is where the problem comes from: I drink. When I'm working, my drinking is pretty restricted, but when I'm not working, I don't really see any reason to not have a drink if I want a drink. So after drinking like 4 nights in a row (I didn't drink a lot on any one night, but 4 nights in a row!) I became paranoid that now I'm an alcoholic. Or going to become one.
But like this list OE left for me, I feel like many definitions of an Alcoholic are not realistic. What self-respecting college student has NOT drank until they blacked out? Like Yours Truly said, if you live alone, you can't have a glass of wine with dinner? But I guess they know better, so here goes:
1. Do you lose time from work due to drinking?
No.
2. Is drinking making your home life unhappy?
No. Maybe the opposite is true :)
3. Do you drink because you are shy with other people?
Sometimes. (Don't a lot of people do this, at parties with lots of strangers and such?)
4. Is drinking affecting your reputation?
Not that I am aware of.
5. Have you ever felt remorse after drinking?
Yes. (see "what self-respecting college student" above)
6. Have you gotten into financial difficulties as a result of drinking?
No.
7. Do you turn to lower companions and an inferior environment when drinking?
No.
8. Does your drinking make you careless of your family's welfare?
No.
9. Has your ambition decreased since drinking?
No.
10. Do you crave a drink at a definite time of day?
No.
11. Do you want a drink the next morning?
No.
12. Does drinking cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
Sometimes.
13. Has your efficiency decreased since drinking?
No.
14. Is drinking jeopardizing your job or business?
No.
15. Do you drink to escape from worries or trouble?
Sometimes.
16. Do you drink alone?
I have in the past, but not often.
17. Have you ever had a complete loss of memory as a result of drinking?
Yes. (College)
18. Has your physician ever treated you for drinking?
No.
19. Do you drink to build up your self-confidence?
No. (I tried once, for a video interview thing I had to do in College, WHAT A MISTAKE)
20. Have you ever been to a hospital or institution on account of drinking?"
No.
So, out of the 20, I have four "sometimes" and two yesses. But most of the yesses were things I would categorize as college things anyway. I don't know.
After all this trouble, and even after the list diagnosed me as an alcoholic, I'm not feeling as paranoid about this as I was yesterday anyway. I don't FEEL like an alcoholic, but I guess I'm an alcoholic and I just will have to watch it.
posted by gg @ 10:09 AM
3 Comments:
Frankly, I think that even a non-college student could probably answer 3 or more of those questions and not be in any great danger.
Just as an experiment, take that list and apply it to any other potential addiction, such as television. (i.e. do you watch television because you are shy with other people?). I tried that and got at least an 8 (for example, watching TV sometimes results in difficulty sleeping). Does that make me a TVaholic? I think not.
The mere act of drinking four nights in a row isn't a cause for concern, providing you weren't passing out all four nights. There are European countries where people drink every day, without fail.
Well, I am an Alcoholic, with almost 7 years sober. The only person who can decide if you are an alcoholic is you.
When I got to AA, I got a pamplhet called 44 questions, some of the questions are probably on your list. I answered them honestly and got an "A" in alcoholism.
The insidous thing about alcoholism is that it can creep up on you, you can cross the line between "normal drinker" to "alcoholic" without even realising it. I didn't have to have a drink every day for at first, not for years of drinking, in fact, sometimes I'd go for long periods w/out a drink. The last two years of my drinking, especially the last 6 months were very very bad, even then I thought I had relationship troubles, instead of alcohol troubles. AA has changed my life, but it's certainly not for everyone. Nothing wrong with drinking, even daily, if you don't have a problem with it. The difference between an alcoholic and a "normal" drinker is the pheonomena of "craving" the drink. It's a medical thing, but it's also very much a spirtual thing, too.
Probably more than you wanted to know, huh?
Not more than I wanted to know at all. Thanks, Spit, you gave me some clear delinations that I couldn't find anywhere else!
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