To think 12 units in 3 hours hardly makes you feel tipsy, never mind drink.

[TableFlowerss]

With lockdown I’ve been drinking more on a weekend. Like many, I’m sure.

I only drink when DC are with their (with him 2/3 night a week. (totally understand that’s not possible for everyone - to drink when DC aren’t at home, obviously if they have NC with dad)

I never drink when I’m at work the next day either and it’s usually over 2 night a week only.

Since lockdown though, it feels like I drink more 😳 so to get tipsy, I’d now need about 10-12 units. I’m totally fine the next day, no hangover etc.... but what’s the norm to feel tipsy?

I feel like my threshold is higher basically. So I might drink a bottle of wine and a couple of vodkas one night (so 12 units) but then I’d have only a couple the day after. So no more than 20 units a week at the absolute maximum. Sometimes if I don’t fancy it, obviously I won’t drink at all.

I’ve got a friend who can drink a bottle of wine each night 😳😳 5/6 night a week, then go to work in a very responsible job the next day 😳😳 absolutely no way i could do that!

Again, I never drink when kids are home (at messy 4 night a week if not 5) and I absolutely don’t feel like I have a problem. Sometimes I just fancy a cup of tea!

But a recall at one point just needing a glass of wine to feel tipsy, not it’s nearly a bottle 🙈🙈🙈

What about you? Talking to my friends, theyr thresholds have increased too.

Sorry I should have put symptoms of alcohol related liver damage. Be careful, that's all.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/alcohol-related-liver-disease-arld/

That's a lot. After my Dad passed I drank heavily for about 18 months. 5 or 6 g& t' s and I'd be too drunk to walk steady or have a conversation. I'd try & limit yourself to 3 or 4 because while you feel ok now, long term that amount does have an effect. I temped on a stroke ward years back, the Dr told me the heavy drinkers had worse strokes younger than average & never recovered as well. So , heavy drinkers have very dried out, battered looking skin, I can tell them a mile off. It ages you.

OP, having had to acknowledge myself as a "problem drinker" as a result of lockdown, it definitely sounds like you're building up an alcohol tolerance - speak to your GP if you feel you need to, I went for a whole range of tests recently thinking "surely this can't be that bad" and found my liver function is at a dangerous functioning level

*Also , not so.

I'd be drunk after that. Tbh if a whole bottle of wine doesn't even make you tipsy then that's a little bit worrying, I'd cut back.

A couple of large glasses and I'm tipsy.

However I have a much higher tolerance for spirits than wine. Can drink a lot of double vodkas before it equates to what wine does to me.

Ah your in the ‘I’m not even tipsy stage’ when actually your pissed!

I’m having wine now too

My tolerance goes up and down and I like my drink. Either way, I’m always tipsy after half a bottle of wine. Sometimes my appetite for drink is higher. So say, like tonight I’m happy with 1/2 a bottle of wine, on other nights I’d like a bottle of wine and a glass of something else. I don’t drink heavily more than once a week though. During the last lockdown I was severely depressed and I wanted to drink a lot more just to escape feeling conscious. It was horrible and I wouldn’t want to get to that stage again. If you think you’re having too much then you probably are. Put your foot down and be stern with yourself because it’s easy to start drinking too much. I know from experience and now I’m more careful. Making a note of what you drink through the week helps a lot.

On another note...I feel like I get more hammered off 1 pint of cider than a whole bottle of wine!! What is in the stuff?!

I feel tipsy from 1 glass of wine. 2 and It's very noticeable to others. 3 and I'm drunk. I'd not be able to drink what you drink each night.

Your alcohol consumption seems to be giving you pause for thought. Do you think you could go without completely for a couple of weeks? If that idea sounds unrealistic maybe some further reflection on what you think might be best for you and your long term health.

The amount youve described is over the recommended amount for women but you will get people responding who drink more than you in an evening and are 'fine'. What do you think about it? Are you happy with your consumption? No one can decide for you and make you cut down. This is a 'you' decision.

I would be sick the next day if I drank 12 units in 3 hours. And very definitely drunk.

A whole bottle of wine to myself and I'd be on the floor. Add the vodkas and I'd be flat out.

Just because your friend can drink a bottle of wine every night for several nights in a row doesn't mean that you should try to emulate that.

Tolerance isn't only through how much you drink, your weight plays a big part as well. When I weighed 10 stone a couple of drinks knocked me out, at 14 stone I could drink all night & still be sober. There are people who are heavy drinkers all their life & don't damage their liver & others who need a transplant after only a couple of years drinking.

I'd say i feel the alcohol (tipsy I suppose) after maybe 2-3 units. A bottle of wine i would be drunk, but not fall over, slurring words drunk, with a mild but manageable hangover and could easily work. Hangovers I find can vary wildly regardless of units, what did you eat, what did you mix etc.

I drink probably 15-25 units a week in lockdown, same as before but the change being I'm drinking more spirits and less wine.

Oh and just to say, while I don't agree with the binge drinking culture of the UK, many people here vastly underestimate their intake. I totted up a friends night out once and she had easily drunk 55 units, while most people on mumsnet claim they would pass out after 10.

@ErrolTheDragon

I don't think I could keep that much down. We don't drink much, a bottle of wine would last me and DH at least 2 days.

Same. I’d be staggering to the toilet to throw up before I finished that much. To be fair I’m not a regular drinker and actually feel I have a mild alcohol intolerance that mean I vomit before I get to the passing out or not being able to remember things stage.

Wine makes me more drunk than anything. I can drink a bottle of fizz over about 3/4 hours and I'm pretty tipsy, but a bottle of white wine and I'd be a bit drunk.

I'd be pretty tipsy if I had a bottle of wine on my own. And felt a bit rough the day after. On occasion DH and I have opened a second bottle, so I know this to be the case. We don't do it often.

I usually drink a 500ml bottle of cider twice a week, or if I’m feeling like it (maybe once a month?) I may have 2 bottles in an evening. Rekorderlig or something similar.
On the evenings I have 2 I do start to feel a little flushed and tipsy. If I were to have 3 I’d definitely be starting to feel drunk but that’s incredibly rare.

Wine goes straight to my head and I feel tipsy after 1 large glass!

I used to be able to drink absolutely loads back in my 20s and even when absolutely plastered I’d still keep going all night. But I have no desire at all to get drunk these days and even less desire to have a hangover.... the thought of a hangover with 2 young kids sounds awful!

And your friend who goes to work the next morning may well be over the limit when she goes to work.

Someone in my village ran a kid over outside the school at 8:30am and she was over the limit. She said she’d felt fine, not even tipsy. But admitted she drank heavily most nights.

Someone else in my village hit dh’s car after driving back from town. She blew 140. So 4x over the limit but had managed to drive ten miles before crashing the car. Again she said she felt fine to drive even though she’d had nearly 10 pints the copper reckoned. She said in court she said it had made her realise she was regularly drinking too much.

I think the problem is it’s quite easy to creep up on you as people build a tolerance up. If wine tastes nice and you can drink a bottle without feeling tipsy then it’s very tempting to drink a bottle.

Never ever start a food or drink thread on MN.

It's like throwing a lit grenade into the place.

Oh and lockdown hasn’t changed my drinking habits at all. DH has started enjoying more Alcohol free beers in place of alcoholic ones as he felt that his usual amount of 4 beers x 2 or 3 times a week without his usual exercise wasn’t ideal, so he was trying to find a way to balance it out a bit.

It's a lot. Too much in one sitting. Really not good for you in the slightest. I'm right there with you though!

I've been drinking a bottle of wine every Friday or Saturday night since Xmas. I definitely feel more than tipsy though. I usually get tipsy on the first glass depending on how much food I've had, if I had a particularly big dinner then I won't feel drunk at all, just really sluggish. Going to knock it on the head this weekend. It's not good for my mood, productivity or my skin. I'm also gaining weight from it and from eating junk the next day to feel better.

I could drink a bottle of wine a night. I don't get hangovers. But it all catches up with you eventually and I do need to drink less.

I rarely drink and get pissed from a glass of wine. It's why I rarely drink

Even if you drink mildly it will show up on a liver scan. People under estimate this.

I am teetotal but not for moralistic reasons - when younger I didn’t like the taste although would drink the occasional archers and lemonade or Prosecco and orange juice, but maybe only a couple of times a year. But now I am on medication which means I can’t drink at all.

About three years ago I had to go for a liver scan after I was admitted because of my heart and when he did the scan I said to him that I was teetotal and he said “yes, I know, even a small amount of alcohol would show up damage to your liver.”

I’m always a bit about people who suggest that it’s wrong to question someone’s drinking, as if they’re probably in denial about their own.

I’m not talking a glass or two a night, but 12 units in three hours is a lot. And if you can do it without feeling tipsy then that means you have scope to increase, and when you do then you will get to a point where you don’t feel tipsy on that extra amount and so you feel safe to increase again and that’s how serious drink problems occur.

And intoxication isn’t a feeling, it’s a physical state. Just because you don’t feel drunk, doesn’t mean that you’re not. At 12 units you will be at least 4 times over the legal limit. Your reactions will be impaired, and if you had a car accident it is unlikely you would be able to respond as quickly and safely as if you were sober. Added to which you would be charged with drunk driving, and if you killed someone that could well be increased to causing death by dangerous driving.

Don’t kid yourself that you’re sober after 12 units. You’re not.

It sounds like quite a lot, OP.

I tend to think of alcohol in terms of pints of beer because I can visualise it more easily.

12 units is 6 pints of normal beer.

I think most people would be more than tipsy after that much in 3hrs?

I'm not judging in any way - I've never been one to worry too much about the recommended limits - but I'd definitely know about it if I drank 12 units.