Do you think I’m an alcoholic?
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Anonymous
The human body quickly habituates to any amount of regularly consumed caffeine whether coffee or tea or soda. The person then feels they cannot be as sharp or feel optimal without the substance, and will in fact experience a number of withdrawal symptoms if they choose to go off caffeine and those symptoms will last a number of days before the body re-habituates to the absence of the caffeine. The person might still struggle with urges related to the habit or ritual of consuming coffee or tea, but they are unlikely to experience intense cravings or struggle with disordered behavior related to the removal of the substance. However, there is a range of expression in the human brain and for some people, yes, it is extremely difficult to detox from any substance including caffeine - these are often the type of people who drink coffee all day long rather than being good with one or two in the morning. Sugar is also addictive to some people's brains whereas others can use it daily without triggering any sort of binge behavior. Most Americans eating a typical American diet heavy in processed foods are dependent on sugar but don't even know it because it has probably been years if not decades since they went a single day without consuming several teaspoons of sugar daily due to the hidden added sugars in nearly all shelf foods and many frozen foods. |
Anonymous
This is not true at all. I am an alcoholic. I know plenty of other alcoholics who have quit for all kinds of reasons, including dry January, to “prove” that they’re not an alcoholic. The difference is they always go back to drinking like they did, or more, after the “prescribed” time. Dry January should be part of a reset, not a sentence. |
Anonymous
Lemme guess....you're in a satisfying, happy, loving marriage? Just kidding, people who are never speaking to or about their spouse this way. My spouse has a profound impact on my life and me on his. That's actually how healthy longterm marriages (and relationships in general) work. Sad you don't experience that. OP - dry is dry. Just prove it to yourself and him that everything is fine. |
Anonymous
The war on alcohol is so bizarre. I think it's those few women who were alcoholics (that Naked Mind woman was a raging alcoholic by the way she described her drinking, but still only talked about cutting down on the "noise") and wrote books about it for all the lonely, stressed, naive women to eat up, without any real critical thinking. Light drinking became the thing they could avoid and now be safe, with no clue as to all the things that are posing a much greater risk to their health and longevity. |
Anonymous
Why does she have to prove to him that she can break a completely innocent habit? Why do you have to prove yourself to your husband? That doesn't sound healthy to me. |
Anonymous
If you're already thinking about your next drink, you may be more attached to alcohol than you think. Why do you need to drink with your friend? Why was your approach to the conversation snarky "jest" instead of honest communication? Yes to all the other posters raising red flags about your husband perhaps being controlling af, but let's separate that out for a second and stay on OP's topic. OP, if you can't go 30 days w/o thinking this much about when you're gonna drink next, you may have an alcohol use issue. If you're not dependent on it and don't need it to socialize, you wouldn't have asked, you'd have had a mocktail with your friend and moved on about your business. A LOT of people have an alcohol use issue. You probably won't get great advice here; alcoholics don't tend to want others to quit because it invites us to look at our own alcohol use and that can be unpleasant. -sober 6+ years |
Anonymous
+1. I probably average one drink a month, but I don’t think you are an alcoholic. I do think 7 drinks a week isn’t healthy and needing alcohol to relax isn’t a great coping mechanism. |
Anonymous
But the insinuation seems to be that anything you consume on a daily basis should be questioned as a dependency. |
Anonymous
Would you say this same thing to someone who has coffee every day and wants to quit but has one here and there within 30 days? Or after-dinner dessert? Nobody can quit a habit that easily and it doesn't mean it's a problem. I feel very unpleasant when I stop and look at my sugar misuse, do you? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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FFS no
Also, there is no "alcoholic" in a medical sense. There is "substance use disorder" but not sure you'd qualify. |
Anonymous
| I would suggest reading “quit like a woman” and see what you think after that. Fascinating book and it’s also funny. while on paper, one drink a day may not seem like an issue, I would take a look at your relationship with alcohol, how it feels if you can’t have it one day, are you thinking about what time you’re going to have it each day, and even how you’re feeling meeting with a friend and feeling like you want or need (don’t want put words in your mouth) to have one. Our culture thinks going out to dinner or meeting up with a friend means drinks but it really doesn’t have to. I drink but I have significantly reduced and changed my relationship with alcohol. |
Anonymous
The husband is concerned. Op alone can ease his worry by abstaining. Op has to decide if her apparent habituation to alcohol is more valuable than her dhs peace of mind. If they have children, their well being must be considered, too. |
Anonymous
So after she’s sober for 30 days do you think he will be fine with her resuming her daily drink? I doubt it; he will just move the goalposts. This is why you don’t indulge unreasonable requests—they lead to increasingly unreasonable requests. |
Anonymous
This is wrong. 15 years age my brother almost drank himself to death at 40, and then stopped when he miraculously recovered instead of dying. He hasn't touched it since. But he is, and will always be, an alcoholic. |