Dh drank a whole bottle of whiskey

[howyoufeeling]

Seriously a whole bottle of Jameson.
Now dh is a good bloke, works his ass off in his own company, hands on dad, looks after us the best he can. He's got SADS, does every winter. He's upped his sertraline as recommended so waiting for that to take effect.
I took the little ones to bed last night and slept all night with them, he drank a whole bottle of whiskey. He didn't cause any trouble or anything you might expect from someone drinking that amount, wasn't sick or anything but couldn't get into bed as his head was spinning so slept downstairs. I've come down this morning and the whole bottle is gone.
Aibu or will this not fuck his liver ?! He's currently in bed dying, has work in a bit. Can't help but feel a little smug and so fucking grateful I don't feel how he does !!

This, which looks like it comes from a GP. Looks sensible and legit.

But op speak to your GP directly. Don't take medical advice from mumsnet generally. Very few of us know what we are talking about!

What do you think alcoholism is if not a product of MH issues? That is how it begins in most people.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter whether or not you want to label him as an 'alcoholic' - this is clearly a problem either way and he needs to seek some help with his mental health.

Unfortunately you can’t safely say, as this could be the beginning of it and you acknowledge it’s a slippery slope. Maybe not have any whiskey in for a while and see how he responds to the lack of supply?

OP I find it strange that you started a thread with concern, and now you’re minimising it. Your DH has a drink problem, without doubt. He turns to alcohol to “medicate” his mood, despite being on antidepressants. And his tolerance is so high that he can consume 28 units in a few hours. The fact that you have alcoholics in your family means you’ve probably been desensitised to it.

Having a drink problem doesn’t mean someone necessarily drinks excessively every day. It means they have an unhealthy and problematic relationship with alcohol. Drinking till you pass out on the sofa for your kids to find you in the morning, and be unable to drive to work, is definitely unhealthy and problematic.

It's been many a long moon since I touched spirits, but one single bottle of Scotch in one night isn't going to permanently damage your liver, nor does it mean you are certainly an alcoholic.

But this is Mumsnet which has some strange ( to me) views on alcohol.

It is a very strange thing to do.

A liver function blood test won’t tell him anything. Your liver can literally be on it’s last legs and still give you a normal LFT.

With mixer or straight?

You are aware hardened drinkers casually drink 3 without even feeling very ill?

Can't help but feel a little smug

This isn’t a man who has drank one glass too much and deserves a partner who feels ‘smug’ that he’s hungover. This is a person with a clinical problem who is harming himself and needs support and compassion.

I hope the next time he attempts to harm himself he’s still there for you to feel ‘smug’ because you might not be so lucky.

You both need help and fast!

OP has apologised for using that word so I think we can move on from it.

PP saying drinking a 700ml is not normal behaviour, well of course it's not. It also isn't normal behaviour for the OP's DH. He's going to feel like crap all day, but that's about it. MN is a very strange place to post about alcohol. I've seen people be accused of being an alcoholic for having one bottle of wine per week. Absolute doom merchants.

Thanks all for the replies, I am reading all of them.
He's on 50mg sertraline since his SADS last winter, they've been upped another 50mg recently.

He has got up and showered and gone to work. He's very shocked he finished the bottle, he thought I was joking at first when I said it's all gone. I said you can't do that again and he has agreed. So yes, hopefully just a one off due to feeling down. Yes not an excuse I know ! But sometimes you have to give the benefit of the doubt when it's a first occurrence of such a thing.
He said he's going to get himself a breakfast and I suspect he'll be home early today !

Normal liver function tests doesn't always mean that the liver is fine. It can be so much of the liver has died that it hasn't enough abnormal enzymes left to produce the high levels in the blood. Can happen before fulminant failure.

That's good. Try and relax now. If he does it again then hit the panic button but I wouldn't be worried if it was a blip. A lot of people have one-off stupid drinking sessions and never do it again.

If you ‘think’ you want to move on from it then move on and don't waste my time message me about it.

See how easy that is?

As a one off he’ll be fine I think.
i once drank half a bottle of whiskey as an extremely small and skinny 14 year old. I was sick a lot but no long term ill effects.
Keep him hydrated and don’t let him drink any more

You don't need to catasrophise this but do need to address why it happened. The immediate risk is chocking on his vomit or acute liver failure or an accident. None of these have happened so nobody needs to go on about what could have happened. You know it's not normal behavior with serious risks to his health or you wouldn't have posted. It's self medicating from what you've said, which is why most people drink. You don't need to label anything or anyone, but sit down and develop a strategy to improve mental health without using alcohol as a self medicating escapism. You can get help in doing this. If you find he can't do it without the alcohol then that is a serious new challenge that requires further professional help. Time to really look at what actions can be implemented. Good Luck.

The ‘label’ does matter. Very much so. The definition of alcoholism is a chronic disease in which a person craves alcohol and is unable to control their drinking and needs to drink greater amounts to get the same effect. They also have withdrawal symptoms after stopping drinking. There is also a difference between problem drinking and alcoholism. Problem drinking is using alcohol in a way that negatively impacts your health and your life, but the body is not physically dependent on alcohol itself. Alcoholism almost always includes physical addiction to alcohol in addition to the other negative effects.

Without knowing a lot more about OP’s circumstances and her DH’s drinking habits it’s impossible to know. And if this is a one off, then it’s more likely to be as a result of his previously diagnosed and currently treated MH condition, than an addiction to alcohol. I agree that OP has cause for concern, but treating him as though he has an alcohol problem after a one off binge is risking overlooking the underlying condition that caused it.

I did too when I was 16. I don’t know how much I drank but enough I blacked out. It was a very stupid thing to do. I’ve not touched it since and that was many years ago.

I am amazed he is fine to go to work. Hope he does not drive for a living.

Hydration and good diet essential - look up thiamine deficiency for example. Not being facetious, but if he's shocked he did it, how will he not do it again? As others have said, no point waiting for a dodgy LFT (unless using gamma-GT as a clue to identify abuse), or being reassured by a normal one.

I mean, I've done that on mad nights out but at home is definitely a little sad, he'll be fine just needs water

My relative was a retired BBC reporter on a very high pension. Every morning by 11:00 he would have four bottles of red lined up on the kitchen table, already open waiting for the day ahead. He went 25 years doing this, that's 36,500 bottles of wine before dying in his late 80s. Liver was slowly dying of course, but death was caused by falling over and hitting his head on the floor while changing his socks.

Let’s keep this thread on topic. Personal insults may make you feel better but it isn’t going to help OP or her husband.