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.

Until a few months ago, I was drinking a bottle of wine and two gin and tonics a night. I knew I had a major drink problem and I really didn't know how to stop.

I drank even though I was terrified of getting ill, I drank even though my family were worried, I drank even though I barely had any money to spend on booze.

Did I get drink? Yes. Every night. I would usually stagger to bed and be passed out by 8 pm.

Then I contacted the doctor and told her about my drinking. A blood test showed that my liver was in trouble.

Well, I have not touched a drop since. I feel like I have my life back. All my booze related worries have gone.

Really, OP, it's not whether or not you feel drunk that is the issue. The fact is that drink is a carcinogenic substance and a poison. Even in small amounts it damages health.

Drinking is also progressive. I started off by sharing a bottle of wine with my husband two or three times a week. Within a year or two, I was drinking at least half a bottle of wine every night. Then it was a whole bottle, then it a bottle and two gins.

On the occasions I went out, pre lockdown, I would always get horribly drunk and usually made an arse of myself. It was awful, frightening, lonely...

You may read my post and feel relieved that you are not at the stage I was. However, you don't need to drink as much as I did to store up trouble for yourself.

@Propercrimboselecta

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.

Interesting point! I rarely drink spirits but when I do, I get tipsy faster....

It's so variable for everyone. Your weight and height will affect it, as well as all sorts of hormonal stuff. When I was in my late teens/early twenties I could drink a couple of bottles of wine in a couple of hours and not even feel it.

I have steadily drank less and less as I've gotten older, and after 2 pregnancies very close together which meant I drank nothing at all for almost 2 years, I am now at a point where 3 glasses of wine spread out over the course of 4 or 5 hours would make me feel very tipsy. I usually stick to 2, if I'm bothering to drink at all.

Everyone's different
It takes a lot to get me pished.
If I'm out in a pub the measures are rubbish at home I probably drink more.

So a bottle of wine is 10 units according to Google? So you're talking more than a whole bottle. Or 5-6 pints of beer. Just to get tipsy?

Based only on myself and my friends/family, I would say yes that's a very high tolerance. I would be very drunk on that and everyone I know closely would be somewhere between very tipsy and drunk.

Given you are reportedly drinking close to the entire week's recommended maximum number of units in one day (in some countries, women are only recommended 10 units per week, and only 4 units in one day), rather than spreading the 14 units over three or four days in a given week, I would think you have a problem with alcohol, and at some point, your poor liver will feed back this information to you... Whether that be by raised LFTs, or Fatty Liver Disease, or Cirrhosis.

@Hammonds

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

Wish that was the case...

Oh my long-lost youth. I remember drinking at least 12 gin-and-tonics one evening, because my friend's boss was buying -- yes, I remember it all clearly, including the cold night air hitting me outside the bar as I slid so gently and elegantly onto the pavement ...

Happy days. I would be in A&E after three G&Ts now.

@Nat6999

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.

Wow that had brought it home 😟

I’m 9st 5lbs, a size 10, bmi 22

@Pukkatea

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.

I wound say about 20 a week maximum for me. You’re right right though, I think people embellish the truth

@rawalpindithelabrador

Never ever start a food or drink thread on MN.

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

😂😂😂

@AlternativePerspective

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.

I can’t do disagree with you at all. You talk absolute sense, you’re right.

I must say though, of all the organs, o thought the liver was able to rewgrow... in a way that others organs can’t

As a teen I probably drank upto 15 units on an average 'big' night out and it'd make me wasted. Now i rarely drink and would be sick if I had more than a few units. I'm tipsy after 2, but i only drink very occasionally.

Do you feel good drinking so much on your own? I've had bottles of wine in lockdown but trying to finish them by myself was difficult and I didn't enjoy being tipsy or drunk by myself at home, it seemed a bit pointless. I'm probably silly and entertaining enough to myself though to not need it and at other times boring enough that a nice coffee and piece of cake is more satisfying. I enjoy a glass of wine with food and sometimes another glass after i'm done eating, but again i'd struggle to feel any desire to keep on and finish the whole bottle. I'd be worried for my health if I was having 12 units twice a week, and would also question why i'm doing that to myself and what other helpful things I could look into instead.

I'm the opposite, pre-pandemic when we were allowed to go out I'd drink 2 or 3 drinks on an evening out, now I have one max with dinner and still get a headache in the morning.
(I think its a combination of wfh on a laptop plus homeschooling...too much screen time!)

I'm actually pissed off the one but still keep going 😂

Nah 12 units in 3 hours would (sadly-)these days see me pretty merry.
I rarely drink anymore so it just depends on your tolerance level..
Be careful you dont go down the path of functioning alkie like many fellow middle-agers I know.

Alcohol is so expensive though now if you drink a lot.
I am not drinking at all at the moment.
My sister died of a stroke at 58.
She was probably an alcoholic.

I’d be really pissed with that and very ill as I rarely drink these days. It would have been pretty normal amount 20 years ago. My dh is still drinking a lot at the weekend. Yes, tolerance is greatly affected by what you drink. It’s a lot. I can’t preach though. My vice is sugar, which also has a very bad impact on the liver.

When I was student I'd drink a bottle of wine getting ready to go out, then drink snakebite, vodka, all sorts. A bottle of wine over a few hours would now put me on my arse, I tend to not drink most of the time at home and when I do I have spritzers with soda, about 25% wine 75% soda and I might have two over an evening. I seem to be able to tolerate more when I'm out, or maybe don't feel as consciously tipsy as I do when I'm just in my living room.

Well I can drink a lot without feeling drunk, even if I am, so I know what you mean. But you appear to use it to justify drinking at dangerous levels. It must cost a lot of money as well. You need to cut down, or better, stop.

It just depends on the evening for me (I only have a drink on a couple of days a week). Last night I had three 175ml glasses of red with food and struggled to drink the third. That's about 7 units. I wasn't drunk but definitely wouldn't have tried to do anything which required concentration.

I think 12 units would make me very merry indeed or asleep most of the time though, and I'd definitely have a hangover.

Looking at this dispassionately, yes, 12 units in three hours is a lot. The recommended weekly maximum is 14 units spread over multiple days, but it is healthier to drink less.

12 units exceeds the definition of binge drinking used in the NHS: www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-support/binge-drinking-effects/

Many people will minimise this because there is widespread problem drinking across the UK, but both physical and mental healthwise it would be better to cut the amount you drink on any given day back.

After one glass of wine, I feel pleasantly relaxed. Two glasses and I'm a bit tipsy and may feel a bit groggy the next morning. Three glasses, I'm drunk and will feel rubbish the next day although still able to function. Anymore than three glasses just isn't worth the hang over the next morning.
I've got more tolerance for gin and can have a couple of large g and ts without feeling too bad but wine is bad!!