Beer Connoisseur or Alcoholic???

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....

Reply to
Dan Traveler
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I don't live with you, so I won't judge, but my mother and her boyfriend were actual alcoholics. Let me give you an average 24 hours with those nightmares...

Wake up in the morning and HAVE to drink to keep from puking violently. This was the "get well" drink just to be able to get to work. On the way home they would purchase 2, count 'em 2, suitcases of beer or a gallon of vodka and a case. Between the two of them they would finish ALL of the beer and beat each other up and then start all over in the morning. Keep in mind that we were given food by the local charity because they would spend every last dime on liquor!

Now that is a realistic view of an alcoholic. Not a couple of beers a day. Your family is probably programmed by the media and is taking it out on you. Or they are jealous that you are passionate about something they aren't...whose to say. But from your story you are NOT an alcoholic.

Keep on Truckin'

^_^ L

Reply to
Lauksna

The media portrays beer as something to be consumed in mass quantities for the purposes of getting drunk, so people tend to think of beer lovers as drunks. It doesn't sound to me that you're even close to being an alcoholic. That's less than a bottle and a half a day on average, which is a long way from being an alcoholic.

If your family is concerned, then that's definitely something to be concerned about, but based on the limited info you gave it doesn't sound like you have anything resembling a drinking problem. Sounds like what everyone needs is some old-fashioned education.

Reply to
Dan Iwerks

I had this problem with my mother-in-law a while ago. All went away when I had my first beer book published. Better get writing.

Seriously...your family's overreacting. If your family doctor isn't a wax-headed dipshit, set up an app't with them, take your wife along, and get the doc to do an inventory, and let THEM say whether you're an alkie. You aren't. My kid's teachers wanted me to believe he was ADD. I went to his doctor: no. I went to a counselor: no. I went to a pshrink: no. I took the no's back to the teachers and told them to shut up; haven't heard a word since. Enjoy your passion, and tell your family that you think it would be criminal to waste limited resources on you when REAL alcoholics go untreated. If that doesn't work, you better move.

Reply to
Lew Bryson

Been there, done that ...wore out that t-shirt. :)

Wake up tomorrow and try to go 30 days without touching a drop of alcohol. If you can't go 1 day, you're an alkie. If you can only go one week, you have some stress problems (job, marriage, etc). If you can go 30 days, you just have wife problems.

Seriously, I did exactly like you say for 25 years. I was beginning to wonder, too. Then one day I got gout. Didn't touch another drop for almost a year. I still drink, occasionally. Am even learning how to brew beer. But, with an alcoholic, there is no such thing as "occasionally.

nb

Reply to
notbob

There are some (quite controversial, mind you) studies out there that are actually attacking the very theory of addiction. Since suggesting that will no doubt "prove you're in denial", let me refer you to an editorial essay that appeared in Sunday's Washington Post:

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Now, after reading that, let's analyze whether you actually have a problem or not. Here are some guidelines:

Can you go a day/week/month without alcohol? Do you find you "need" it at all? If the doctor said, "I'm sorry, you have this condition, you must go on this medication for three months, and no alcoholic beverages whatsoever while you're on it", could you stand it?

Could you remove alcohol from your house if you had to? Could you only drink at a friend's house, or at a bar? Conversely, could you ONLY drink in one room of your house, at one table, and not in public?

How often do you get drunk? Never? Only at a beer festival? Once a month? Once a week? Would your relatives or friends say the same thing?

Again, you must emphasize the fallacious thinking of those tests. You pointed out a terrific fallacy already. That alone should negate that entire test. Groups like AA insist on ironclad all-or-nothing thinking, such as "never drinking again" or "if you answer yes to even one question, you're an alcoholic". Life is not like that. Not everyone who smokes tobacco or marijuana gets addicted. Not everyone who drinks becomes an alcoholic. Not every male who has sex becomes a sex addict. It's all in degrees.

A couple books I could recommend include "Drink: A Social History of America" by Andrew Barr, and "Drinking in America" by Lender & Martin; both may be in larger libraries.

Reply to
Alexander D. Mitchell IV

In my opinion, you are nowhere near being an alcoholic. Alkies need it all the time, as in bringing a flask to work with them. Alkies will actually shake and quiver for days if they can't have a drink. It's a physical thing, not a mental/emotional thing, in my opinion. I like alcohol, but I can stop for a few days and not start quaking / shaking.

The poster who mentioned the couple who bought the gallons of vodka and the " 2 suitcases" of beer has a handle on what real alkies are like.

Reply to
Lecher9000

I think there are low speed alkies. Have a neighbor who drinks near a half case per day, starting after work or early on weekends. No wake-up shots before work, no 3 drink lunches, no delerium tremens. But, every single night he drinks himself into bed, getting more argumentative and contrary as the evening wears on. He finally threatened a neighbor with a gun and got hauled in. Didn't slow him down a bit. Even I finally cut the guy loose. I'd say that qualifies as an alkie. It's one thing to drink every day. It's quite another to drink one's self into a near stupor every day.

nb

Reply to
notbob

Once you pass your early 20's this is always going to be yes.

Sure when I was in college I could drink six hours a night every night and kill kegs all weekend. Now trying to do that makes going to work a little tough in the morning, or even the afternoon.

- the answer to one of these

By some peoples definition if you even have to consider the question then, 'yes you are an alcoholic'.

Which is crap. Simple arguments.

  1. If you were an alcoholic you wouldn't be taking the time to plan and build a kegerator. You would be too busy looking for your next drink or being drunk.
  2. Being 'too wrapped up in beer' doesn't make you an alcoholic. Its, like gardening or working on cars.
  3. Going to a beer festival makes you as much of an alcoholic as going to a Star Trek convention makes you an astronaut.
Reply to
niteowlned

Reply to
Dan Traveler

Reply to
Dan Traveler

Reply to
Dan Traveler

I like your way of gauging alcoholic or not... I rutinely go days without a beer. In fact, I am going onto my second day without one now. I have also gone a week (perhaps more) without a beer. However, the chances of me going an entire month without a beer are about as good as Christopher Reeves walking... It COULD happen but I wouldn't bet a dime on it.

As far as stress... I HAVE A T>>

Reply to
Dan Traveler

Yes, if instructed by a doctor to stop drinking all togerher I believe that I could do it. I have actually thought about this since I am overweight. I fully expect that day to come at some time.

I have gone several days if not weeks without a drink. NOT a month..... ;-)

Yes, if instructed by a doctor to stop drinking all togerher I believe that I could do it. I have actually thought about this since I am overweight. I fully expect that day to come at some time. I have gone several days if not weeks without a drink. NOT a month..... ;-)

This is a tough question... Could I????... YES!!! Would I be willing???... I guess it would depend on the situations...

I probably get tipsy once ot twice a week. Drunk, as in throwing up and hung over the next day.... VERY seldom. Maybe once or twice a year. Would relatives agree...NO!!! To my wife and family any more than two beers is drunk. Whether you are showing it outwardly or not.

Reply to
Dan Traveler

Reply to
Dan Traveler

I always thought a good indication of someone with a drinking problem is the kind of drinker who cannot stop once they start. There is no such thing as one or two beers, its always a sixer or more. Drinking is not done for the pure enjoyment of the taste of the beverage but done with the intent in mind of getting drunk. Recent medical studies indicate that drinking one to two drinks a day is actualy good for you. More than two can be harmfull to your health.

--Dan E

Reply to
Braukuche

Yeah, I'm overweight. I've been on Atkins for awhile and beer is definitely high carb. Fortunately, wine is relatively low carb and spirits are very low carb. I keep promising to get myself a bottle of good tequila, but haven't got around to it. I WILL be detouring a little wine while helping my daughter prepare turkey dinner, though. :)

nb

Reply to
notbob

They have used online "tests" to determine that I am,

If it's on the Internet, it must be 100% valid.

Reply to
sinistersteve

Did six weeks once to prove to myself I was okay. Not too tough, though I did miss a beer with dinner. I did it over the holidays, and New Year's Eve with ginger ale was FUNNY! I don't drink on New Year's Eve anymore, it's amateur hour.

Reply to
Lew Bryson

I have a moderate amount to drink on NYE, but in the comfort of my home. I also drink minimally on that other nationwide amateur hour known as St. Patrick's Day. I also went a couple of months without beer back in 2000, which did assist in dropping a few pounds. Lately, I've preferred the beer to the fewer pounds. C'est la vie.

ObOnThreadTopic: Dan, you're not an alcoholic. Everyone has the potential to become one, perhaps, but so far, I don't think that describes you.

Reply to
dgs

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