james can split off the other thread and out it here but I can set ball rolling.
The title is some of the descriptions I have used for myself over the years.
I did a talk at university on alcohol intake w.r.t. physiology and pathology in the 1980s and during my research, I was surprised find that there was not a solid description of a "alcoholic."
My views have changed over the years.
I have not checked before posting but I welcome views from
exchemist DaveC426913 Dave Lush (the name sorry)
Olga
Well there is a lot of stuff on this subject in the media, not always helpful or consistent, it seems to me. But for general health (nothing to do with alcoholism
per se) UK guidance now is something like 14 -20 units per week max (14 max for women, as they don't process it so well as a rule) with several no alcohol days, 2 of them to be consecutive to allow the liver a chance to clear it out totally.
Alcoholism is an addiction, so it's about psychological and physical dependence, rather than any set amount. But of course the people who get into alcoholism almost invariably are heavy drinkers to start with. There is a lot of hidden alcoholism in modern society, which I have become more conscious of since my heart arrythmia, which has made me count the units I consume pretty exactly. An awful lot of people seem not to be able to get through the day without a drink and by "a drink" I mean several. With those of my age, you see it in their faces, puffy, reddened, something in the eyes, and a rather desperate bonhomie...... I reckon about half the (rather elderly) members of my local choral society are alcoholic. Every time we have a sectional rehearsal in someone's house, out come the wine bottles. I think it's pretty dreadful. Apart from anything else, you sing flat when you've had a few. Now that I have to watch it, I've adopted a policy of drinking less but better. So I pass up the invitation to drink the sort of stuff served on these occasions.
I now drink probably 4 days out of 7, but limited to 3-4 units in an evening and always with food. I find it's enough too - any more and I wake in the night feeling hot and sweaty. But then I live alone, when my son is not around, and I don't socialise that much, so I'm not under social pressure to drink a lot. When my wife died, I resolved I was
not going to hit the bottle, as so many bereaved people seem to. I had a son to bring up - and my wife would have despised me from beyond the grave
. But I'm 71 now and winding down the drinking by degrees as I age. I do enjoy a nice bottle of wine though, and a couple of pints (and a I mean a couple, max, of a beer <4%) in the pub on rare occasions.
I friend of mine, same age, from rowing days became an alcoholic and it destroyed him. Talented chap, chemist, Merton College Oxford, worked as a city commodities trader, played the organ, good rowing coach. The trading got him: he used to work the Asian desk, starting early and finishing around 3pm, and then the team would decamp to the pub. He got so bad he used to steal alcohol if he came to stay, he lost his job and his wife and ended up living almost like a tramp. He once tried to come and stay with me, ringing me up with some preposterous story about having worked overseas for MI5 and not being able to get his flat back from the tenants on his return. I had to cut him off and not answer his calls: I did not want an addict in my house. Very sad. I went to his funeral last year.
