You're not an Alcoholic!

[dogsaremybusiness]

I watched a documentary last night, and this woman was saying that alcoholism ran in their family (she was one), and she kind of blamed her Dad because he was an alcoholic too.

It transpired though, that her Dad enjoyed a drink between the ages of 21 and 29, and then he never touched another drop, for the following FIFTY years until his death.

However, he made money touring around and giving pep talks to alcoholics and recovering alcoholics.

AIBU to think that if you drank in your 20's (which most of us do) and then you are Tee total in your 30's, 40's, 50's 60's and 70's that you are NOT a fucking alcoholic, and maybe you just enjoyed making money by claiming that you were?

Really got my back up, as I am the DD of an alcoholic, and do really struggle to keep my own drinking under control.

Equally deciding to abstain doesn’t necessarily mean you were an alcoholic

..

My thoughts exactly.

Yes, in the eyes of AA.

There's no right or wrong answer - it's whatever works for the individual.

If you do 12 steps based methods - i.e. AA, you'll always be a recovering alcoholic. If you do Rational Recovery/AVRT you're an ex-drinker.

I have never attended an AA meeting in my life so can't speak from personal experience but it seems rather disingenuous to claim it isn't based on religion when if you read the 12 steps, it clearly is religious. With Rational Recovery, you grasp the idea of the addictive voice, learn to recognise it and move on with your life.

The mind controls the body.
You always have the power over your actions.

You can always choose not to drink even if your body is better able genetically to counter alcohol poisoning.

It is religious but not one of the AA members I know is a Christian. In my group they always said that the ‘God’ in the steps etc stood for ‘group of drunks’. Aka the higher power was the community itself.

Yes AA is based on oxford group christianity, not for everyone.

It's just pathetic. We probably all have our first drink as teenagers and most enjoy it. Whatever 'profound effect' it had should not be a reason for his ongoing lack of self control.

Well its no ongoing now it killed him.

What I find pathetic is a non-alcoholic who is clueless about alcoholism pontificating about the effect that alcohol has on alcoholics.

*should not have been a reason for his ongoing lack of control.
I'm away he is sadly now dead .

So many of us sadly have experience with alcoholics. The enabling, the excuses, the delusions and denial.

We don't need to be one ourselves to have a great deal of awareness of the destructive lives they lead.

I have every sympathy for someone who admits their problems and does everything they can to address them. Sadly, that is rarely the case with addicts.

I have every sympathy for someone who admits their problems and does everything they can to address them. Sadly, that is rarely the case with addicts.

Happily for myself & the other recovering alcoholics who have posted on this thread we are proof that people can overcome alcohol dependency. It's not that unusual. Alcoholics either get better or they die.

Well it was a rather extreme reaction to a first drink and ultimately ruined him.

I didn't say it doesn't happen, I said it is rarely the case. Addicts are usually full of lies, denials and minimising.

Well done on abstaining though, genuinely I mean that . I bet your family and friends are hugely relieved.

Do you know the phrase in recovery? Many alcoholics spend decades in recovery, they’re still alcoholics but they are managing to keep control of it, you sound resentful of other people’s success, definitely unreasonable.

Right. If you are raised in a home with alcoholics, you are not doomed to be one. But drinking to intoxication has been modeled for you and might be an easier choice for you than for those that did not. However, it could also affect your determination to never be like that yourself. There are many factors that can contribute to being an alcoholic.

That’s my view too - I like the sound of the other programme people have mentioned more - several people o know have been sober for 10 years and definitely had a problem with alcohol before - they describe themselves as ex drinkers -I think for many that can be perfectly helpful

You're an idiot.

There are endless threads of people who say they cannot loose weight because the food noise it so strong. Of course alcoholism is on another level but if we accept one thing we should also accept the other.

Unless you have been in the throes of addiction you can not fully understand it. That is just a fact. Unless you understand shivering so strongly you can hardly get out of bed or having absolutely strong hallucinations. All things that can be controlled by drinking.

So what about all the people who died that are part of the 27 club? Were they not alcoholics? I got clean and sober at 28, I’m now 44. If I told you the things I did when I drank you’d know I am absolutely an alcoholic and must never, ever drink again.

There’s ’everyone drinks lots in their 20’s’ and there’s, ‘he drank so much in his 20’s he couldn’t function’ the second is an alcoholic, they will always be an alcoholic.

I bet you are the c0nt who says to alcoholics ‘just have one, it won’t hurt’ and puts a beer in their hand.

Addiction doesn’t go away just because you haven’t given into it for 30 years.

If you're an alcoholic in your 20s and you stop drinking, you're still an alcoholic.

Are you suggesting that 20 year olds can't be alcoholics because everyone drinks in their 20s?

How were they all alcoholics? Did they drink during the day? Couldn’t get through the day without a drink? Physically and psychologically dependant? Drank drove to get more alcohol?
Or just drank a lot during 20s socialising?