To drink almost a bottle of wine everynight

[Mum21beauty]

I am not reliant on it . I just enjoy it every night though ...

You need to stop doing this. That’s 28 bottles per month and you are at risk of many health problems. Have a single gin with loads of tonic and berries in a massive glass and have that throughout the evening.

You will get loads of people on her saying you are a raging alcoholic OP. It is very common. I did it a lot through my late thirties and forties As did many people I knew. Mainly mothers of youngish children that also worked full time.

I wasn’t addicted, I could stop instantly, but I enjoyed it. It helped me unwind.

However I can truly say when I stopped doing it, I did feel a lot better for it.

I still love wine, and when I open a bottle I love to finish it, but these days it’s once a month or more.

I stopped because it made me fat. I won’t start again, because I will get fat again. And I feel younger and look better.

Slippery slope over a few years, been there, done that.....

OP no judgement from me, I adore wine, all booze actually, and can easily see away a bottle and more on a friday or Saturday.

I haven't read this thread as I know it'll be full of pious women calling you an alcoholic with their armchair psychology degrees and I'll get too wound up.

There's nothing wrong with loving your booze but yes you are drinking too much.

You do need to cut back it's no good for your liver, bank balance, skin, waistline...

Cut out one night a week. Make it bath night. Focus on how good you feel the next morning. Then two nights. Keep going. Get yourself down to three or four nights a week alcohol free by the end of the year.

It's just a habit, you can break it.

OP said she was posting as a cry for help. She knows it's not OK.

Dependency is insidious; but once you realise what has happened, you can start make changes.

At 70 units a week and daily drinking, you do need to make changes

Tbh I know plenty of people who drink a bottle of wine a night, it's not that uncommon, you are one of the few who actually admit to it, good for you.
No I don't drink a bottle per night but I drink a lot on the weekends maybe 2 bottles on a Saturday a bottle on Sunday & maybe a gin or 2.
Enjoy your wine, it's your life if it makes you happy so what life is too short to be worrying about little things. X

I drank a bottle of wine or more a day for years and years. Started dry Jan for the first time last year, not at all expecting to make it longer than a week, and listened to Alan Carr on Audible while I was driving around for work at the same time. I haven’t touched a drop since and won’t again. Never even think about it now.

I can recognise now that I was an alcoholic. It’s very hard to do that when you’re in the throws of it.

Try Alan Carr ❤️

I can easy drink way more than a bottle and not even be tipsy
That's nothing to brag about fhs, it just shows how heavy a drinker you must be 😳
I hope neither you or the OP ever drive whist being alcohol dependent and don't say you're perfectly safe because clearly your judgement is way off key!

Has anyone worked in a liver unit? There are not vast quantities of spare livers knocking about for transplants. The cost to transplant a liver is astronomical. Although the op says ‘ life’s too short’ that’s not how she will think when facing death. I think unless you are willing to stump up 50k plus for the cost of your treatment then you should pack it in!

So if this is a cry for help, what next OP? It is clearly WAY too much alcohol for someone to be drinking during a week. Your toddler being asleep upstairs doesn’t make it better.

I would advise going to your GP and expressing your concerns as a starting point.

You will find the vodka on your cornflakes, falling about in the street, drinking in the day alcoholics a comfortable comparison because that’s not you. But as others have said, alcoholism creeps up on you. No-one drinks and immediately becomes like ‘those’ alcoholics but at a bottle a night you are already well down the path. It is an insidious disease. You have identified a risk and a problem so now YOU and only you need to do something about it. I wish you huge amounts of luck.

@waitingfor40 - terrible advice from someone who admits to abusing alcohol to someone who has said that this thread is a cry for help. Still I guess if the OP carries on drinking that’s another person in your gang

Hi OP, was drawn to your thread as I love a drink, been kidding myself for years about amount I drink, almost daily. Had a bottle of wine last night, wasn't drink, no hangover, just a way to unwind after a day. However, I am gaining weight and generally feeling shit. Have just ordered Jason Vale's book, worth a go. Good luck to you x

Op, we sound similar, but I'm probably a year on from you. There are some nice support threads in alchohol support for cutting down. I should probably give it up forever, but I think I've got to a bit of a last chance scenario with cutting down.
I now only buy mini bottles, trying to make that my portion not a full bottle. It's hard to stop at that, but having non in house helps.

If you can't not drink it, at any time of day. you don't need to need it in the morning, you are reliant. How do I know? I grew up with a chronic alcoholic mother who NEVER drank during the day, only teatime inwards. It killed her. It will kill you too. You are in denial.

I grew up with a mother who thought it was ok to drink a bottle or so at night. I worried all through my teenage years, stopped having friends over when they picked up on the slurred speech. She always maintained that there wasn’t a problem, that it had no effect - it was bollocks, she was in denial. She had a heart attack and died in her early 60s - I’d been preparing for that day for 30 years.

That's not good. Could you try cutting down to just one glass each night?

According to statistics, only about 10% of alcoholics are on skid row. The other 90% are "functioning" alcoholics - they have jobs and families.

I urge everyone who thinks they may drink too much to check out the CAGE questionnaire. If you answer "yes" to two or more questions, it's likely that you have a problem.

Have you ever felt the need to Cut down on your drinking?
Have you ever felt Annoyed by someone criticizing your drinking?
Have you ever felt Guilty about your drinking?
Have you ever had a drink as an Eye-opener or to get rid of a hangover?

Love a drink here too and it’s something I feel is becoming a habit, the feeling when I get home from work and settle down, glass of wine or a G&T.

I want to stop drinking in the week.

I will come back to this thread later to pick up some tips.

I work for the NHS, your alcohol consumption is a problem for your physical health and you're using it as a coping mechanism for stress which is an unhealthy behaviour. Your DC seeing it's mother using alcohol to cope isn't a positive lesson, even if you only drink after you DC is asleep at some point they're going to get older and notice.

The fact that you've even asked if its a problem shows that some part of you suspects that it is. You're drinking 10 units of alcohol each night so 70 units a week. That's 5 times more than the upper maximum limit per week. Rationalising it by saying it's "just 2 large glasses" makes no difference, its the units that count not the volume of the container from which you drink it.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-support/calculating-alcohol-units/

You're by no means alone in this, I regularly speak to people through my work who think their alcohol intake is "normal" or "healthy". Unfortunately society and the media paint a picture that it's ok to use alcohol to de-stress or help sleep when that's actually very unhealthy.

Continuing to drink alcohol as you are will cause serious health problems including multiple cancers, heart disease, liver disease, obesity, stroke etc.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/alcohol-misuse/

Please get some help.

You're an alcoholic. Not wanting it in the day / having a job / having a husband are irrelevant. You're an alcoholic. Sorry but it's necessary to be blunt,youre killing yourself. Think of your baby and get help.

I think you're starting to realise that you are drinking more than is good for you, and that's great. I had my light bulb moment in 2015 when I totted up what I was having - 45 units a week. I was horrified, so I did a dry June. Honestly, it was great - I lost weight, slept better, had more energy, skin was better. I now drink only on weekends and still do two dry months a year. I'm comfortably within recommended limits and it's fine. It really is worth reading some of the self help books recommended on here and finding different ways to deal with a stressful life.

My late H drank way more than I did and started off where you are now - he died last year, just before our divorce could complete. Don't be him.

My DM is like you OP. In total denial about her alcoholic dependency. She's been incrediably lucky in that it doesn't seem to have caused any problems physically, but mentally it's clearly affecting her. She's moody, anxious and also becoming forgetful. She also avoid going to the Gp for even the most minor ailments, I believe this is because she is scared of having to explain her drinking, and/or being told to have a blood test which would show up a liver function issue.

She did once do try January. IMO to prove that she didn't have a problem. The difference in her was staggering. She also shaped like a barrel, with a huge share tyre around her middle. That had disappeared within about a fortnight, and she actually had a waist for the first time in years.

I was there until very recently OP. In fact I was worse, and told myself I was fine because I only drank at night. That I couldn't stop because I'd have to give it up completley and that scared me. I went to a counsellor with a local charity group, and have been more or less sober since the middle of March, and I can honestly say life is so much better without it. I am less stressed, so much more energy, the change in my skin is absolutely amazing. It really makes me realise how much damage I was doing. I don't want to get puritanical about, obviously it is a choice everyone makes for themselves. However, the fact you are posting about it on here makes me feel you are starting to question it. Consider speaking to someone about it if you are ready. I promise it's not as scary as it seems.

I just want to pick you up on your point about not being an alcoholic because you don't want it all day. I can't comment on whether you are or not but I can tell you about my dad. He doesn't drink a drop from Sunday at 7pm to Friday at 4pm when he gets home. He then drinks on average 3 bottles of vodka per weekend, 5 if its a bank holiday. There is no doubt he is an alcoholic but somehow manages to hold down a job so doesn't drink when he works.