friends,
I have just come across this ng and would like share my situation with you to see what thoughts you might have.
I have enjoyed import/micro beers for approximately 10 years now. I am very picky about what beers I will drink.. NO Budweiser, Miller, etc. I am considering building a kegerator at my house so that I can have the freshest beer available to me at all times and to save money. I tend to buy about 3 six-packs every two weeks and it will take me that two week period to go through those 18 bottles. I don't drink every night... sometimes it will be one or two and sometimes i will have four or five. I have NEVER finished off a six pack in one evening. I enjoy my beers when appropriate... at home during my own time (not at work, etc.).
Unfortunately, my family (wife and parents) are staging a bit of an intervention because they believe that I am too "wrapped up in beer" (their words). They have used online "tests" to determine that I am, in their opinion, an alcoholic. these tests are ridiculous... for example on one test it gives 25 questions to be answered by the "potential alcoholic". If you answer yes to ONE question than YOU ARE AN ALCOHOLIC and the questions are, in some cases, very leading (ex. do you enjoy drinking alcohol more now than when you started?). In another instance one question will go directly against another (ex. question #2 asks: Can you handle more alcohol now than when you started drinking? while question #21 asks: Have you noticed that you can't drink as much as you used to? - the answer to one of these questions is going to be YES and BINGO you too are an alcoholic)
Their contention that I am "too wrapped up in beer" does NOT constitute being an alcoholic. Maybe the fact that I am planning on going to the Great American Beer Festival next year and building a kegerator, etc proves that I enjoy the "beer lifestyle" too much. however, I still contend that it does NOT mean that I am an Alcoholic.
Anybody else had similar issues???? Any thoughts are welcome....