[Closed] Do you drink too much?

One glass of wine every 2 days becomes one every night and so on until a bottle of night is the norm - seen it happen with family.

A few years ago Thursday evening was a bottle of redwine whilst watching River Cottage etc to unwind whilst mrshora went out.

It didn't last, I've been a half bottle of red ever since.

It only escalates if there any issues (cough money problems) in your life. For everyone else you take more out of the booze IMO.

I'm definitely at the high end of the scale. 40 years old and working from home. I usually drop into the local pub half way round the dog walk for a pint / natter / chapter of my Kindle book. Most nights I'll open and finish a bottle of wine [u]or[/u] three for a fiver ales.

So yes, almost certainly too much and I do occasionally make an effort and stop for a week. Does it bother me? A little. Will I ever stop altogether? Almost certainly not.

Didn't really drink at all until I was about 30 - was too busy getting off my head in other ways, so I do sometimes wonder if I'm making up for lost time...

It's the weekend! 😀

booze could be seen as one of the worst things ever self inflicted upon society

Except that booze is as old as society itself - humans have been making alcohol for thousands of years.

Modern society has bad attitudes to a lot of things, especially things that were once relatively rare and are now cheap and readily available, like fatty food and alcohol.

Responsible use is the key. My father has a glass of wine with dinner every night, but I've never seen him drunk, and similarly my daughter has never seen me drunk. Drinking isn't the problem, drinking to get drunk is.

I mentioned this thread to Mrs Daz last night and she had a good laugh at my estimate of 40 units per week. Seems it's more like 50-60 😯 She suggested I keep a booze diary but I fear that will only encourage me...

Try to drink nothing mon-thurs, but sometimes have a beer in the sun after a ride or a whisky nightcap. Friday is generally the biggest night with a couple of beers to start then moving on to shorts or homemade cocktails. Saturday involves less drink, especially if I'm riding the next morning. Sunday night I usually share a bottle of wine with Mrs CD in the evening.
Nearly all drinking is a home.

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Working yesterday ev so had one of these.

I'm a beer snob. I like a nice bottle of ale, I also brew my own.

I enjoy drinking beer. I would honestly miss it if I stopped completely. But then I'm having one a night, sometimes less, during the week and two or three at the weekend.

So 10 bottles of good beer a week is probably slightly above the recommended intake.

I do occasionally cut down but that's more to do with controlling weight than anything else

I would say the "signs of a problem drinker" are thinking:
it's an achievement to 'be off the drink' and tell people so at every opportunity
that certain situations automatically 'call for a drink'
any remotely stressful experience means they 'need a drink'
that getting wasted on upmarket drinks makes them a connoisseur rather than a drunk

I mentioned this thread to Mrs Daz last night and she had a good laugh at my estimate of 40 units per week. Seems it's more like 50-60 She suggested I keep a booze diary but I fear that will only encourage me...

If Mrs Daz is right and you were drinking pints thats about 25 pints and 4500 calories per week you are consuming... I think i would die!

I would say the "signs of a problem drinker" are thinking:
it's an achievement to 'be off the drink' and tell people so at every opportunity
that certain situations automatically 'call for a drink'
any remotely stressful experience means they 'need a drink'
that getting wasted on upmarket drinks makes them a connoisseur rather than a drunk

Totally agree with that statement - User-removed, do you consider yourself an alcoholic? It sounds like it, especially as you 'make an effort' to stop for only a week - I am not having a go here or making a judgement it just seems that not many heavy drinkers consider they have a problem.

So yes, almost certainly too much and I do occasionally make an effort and stop for a week. Does it bother me? A little. Will I ever stop altogether? Almost certainly not.

How many 'acceptable alcoholics' are there in this country, a vast amount i bet.

Yes,
Do I need to drink? No
Do I like it? yes
Sat in bed enjoying a 16 year old single malt tonight, after a few beers, it's been a shit day and I'm pissed off. I could meditate or have a tommy tank but a single malt works fine.

If you're going to start asking if people are alcoholics, you should at least define what it is first. Just so we're all clear 😉

If you're going to start asking if people are alcoholics, you should at least define what it is first. Just so we're all clear

I think only some government dribbler could define it - difficult to say who is and who isnt as there are so many different variables.

My definition is dependency; if you are dependent your an alcoholic.

Look at George Best. Everyone loved him. 1966 and all that. All the money, all the women and all he wanted was drink.
Poor bastard.
How many closet alcoholics in your office? If you insist on a drink every day maybe you're on the brink.
When did any of you guys get your blood tested? Maybe ask for your liver function results.

My definition is dependency; if you are dependent your an alcoholic.

Even that's a bit vague. Most addictions are defined by physical dependency, where you get withdrawal symptons if you stop. By that definition hardly anyone, even the heavy drinkers, will be alcoholics. Then there's mental dependency, which I guess is more what you're talking about, but good look with defining that. It could mean absolutely anything. The word 'alcoholic' is used far too much for my liking.

When did any of you guys get your blood tested? Maybe ask for your liver function results.

I had an MOT recently and my liver function was all normal. Very few weekends through my twenties didn't involve partying. And I'm not just talking about a few pints and a kebab at 11pm.

I would but the f**************s would charge me more.

As before I enjoy rather than need. Too much? Probably but thats life some of us don't fit the mold. I reckon living in hotels for 10+ years probably changed the way I feel about stuff like this.

The word 'alcoholic' is used far too much for my liking.

Thats probably because you drink 50-60 units per week and many people would consider you an alcoholic because of that....

Thats probably because you drink 50-60 units per week and many people would consider you an alcoholic because of that....

Well that didn't take long 😀

Haha, i am not anti drink in any way and its not a personal attack but you have to admit there are a lot of people who see things this way.

The real point is: Do you think you drink too much? Do you think it is negatively changing your life or health?, if not then who cares.... Its only societies problem when you overstep the mark with your body and the NHS has to try and find you a new liver....

A guy at work (who likes a drink) kept a log over a month in March to see how much he drank, it came out as a little over 150 pints, with only 2 nights in.

He initially did it to show his parents that he didn't drink as much as they thought he did, for the next month he then alternated with a beer and a soda and lime, but that soon died out. He's back to normal now.

I honestly have no idea how he does it, but he always makes me feel like anything I drink is nothing to worry about.

I did have a glass of red mostly for the sake of this thread last night 🙂

you have to admit there are a lot of people who see things this way.

Presumably those who don't understand the difference between an alcoholic and someone who drinks more than Joe Average?

Presumably those who don't understand the difference between an alcoholic and someone who drinks more than Joe Average?

Where do you draw the line then?

I'm not anti drink. The title of this thread is "do you drink too much".
I partied crazily hard most weekends from 17 to 30 sometimes waking up in a stranger's front garden. That was too much. I managed to keep down a well paid job.
I have since seen the other side and devastation alcohol can cause.
It would be nice to get a doctors perspective on this thread.

In answer to the OP, yes.

Do doctors drink too much?

Do doctors drink too much?

The alcoholic ones do....

 

Crankrider, I'm not wholly opposed to what you're saying. Just making the point that alcoholism is actually pretty clearly defined...dependent on alcohol (usually to the detriment of health).

However, there tends to be an assumption that an above average level of consumption equates to alcoholism. Although this obviously isn't always the case. Someone who needs to have a glass of wine when they finish work or they struggle to relax/sleep etc is probably closer to alcoholism that someone who usually drinks a bottle a night but can take it or leave it and suffers no ill effects (mentally or physically) from not drinking.

The problem is, I suppose, that many in both camps won't acknowledge how close they are to alcoholism. The one glass a night person will think it's not a problem because it's only one glass a night and some people drink a whole bottle. The bottle a night person probably thinks it will never happen to the because theyre able to take it or leave it (for a night....)

I frequently go weeks without booze. Sometimes the fancy for a bottle of Porter or something will strike me when I'm wandering round the supermarket but there's rarely beer in the house. And MrsSalmon and I often struggle to finish a bottle of wine between us!
Nights out these days are usually 3 pints and maybe a couple of whiskies and that's it.

Peterfile - I think thats about what i was trying to say, just written down with more common sense than i took time to do.

Thats exactly the problem with alcohol, the amount that is 'correct' to drink is totally open to perception and due to its nature where the body becomes tolerant to it, increasing your consumption is often just the nature of the beast.

This thread is making me really want a beer

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Luckily I have one of these in the fridge

Crankrider -

User-removed, do you consider yourself an alcoholic? It sounds like it, especially as you 'make an effort' to stop for only a week - I am not having a go here or making a judgement it just seems that not many heavy drinkers consider they have a problem.

No, I consider myself to be a heavy, regular and habitual drinker 😀

When I say, "make an effort" it's more just a case of checking to see if I still can, rather than it being in any way hard or unpleasant. I'm sure that makes me an alky in some peoples' minds. I had a liver function test earlier this year before being prescribed some strong medication and it came back all clear, fine and healthy.

Not sure why I end up drinking most nights - must just enjoy it! When we go and visit my parents, they don't drink, so neither do I - barely even notice it.

If you enjoy it and your health isnt a problem then there is no problem - Exactly the case of there being so many variables and opinions about alcohol.

A real example of an alcoholic is a man in my close family, 2-3 bottles of wine consumed every night without fail with weekends being a day long booze session... i am amazed he still holds his job down and isnt seriously ill.

Never seen the point in boozing and certainly can't understand people who booze in the week/on a school night.

Over the last 10 years I've probably averaged 2 pints a year.

I imagine the figures posted will not be at all representative of the population as a whole.

People who frequent this forum are keen mountain bikers, which means they are more likely to be fit, active, and to try and make the most of their weekend rides or be up early for a cycle commute - none of which are helped by heavy drinking.

I would expect that the same discussion amongst people who live less active lives would show a greater alcohol consumption.

Used to drink too much, certainly while at Uni, and for a while when I worked in London and spent a lot of lonely hours on the Eurostar which would inevitably lead to drinks. Never out of control but I ended up totally out of shape which to me is 'too much'

I drink mostly 'craft' beer now, so the volume is way down but the amount spent is static. Would much rather drink a few 1/3rds over an evening than cheaper pints now.

wtf is a 1/3rd!

You'd get the p@@@ ripped out of you for ordering a 1/2 where I grew up.

I remember reading a Mumsnet thread* which made my consumption look positively tiny. Was genuinely a bit shocked!

*I know. 😳

I dont drink that often but when I do drink i dont know when to stop. I might do 6 heavy sessions a year nowadays. 2 day hangovers stop me drinking more often.

Yes.
Sometimes , like PMK2060 I dont know when to stop.
I gave up booze for lent and felt better for it. If Im group riding or have a big day out planned I abstain the night before. I cant have just one or two drinks, no self control . Normally its a good few pints and I do genuinely enjoy it . the following day not so much .
Do I rely on booze after a crappy week ? Not really , a night ride can fill that dark space almost as well.
If the weather is awful and its winter then I drink alot more , but still only between 5pm and 10pm on fri and sat nights , nothing at all through the week.

Out of interest, what do the saintly people on here who don't drink have with their evening meal?

An appropriate glass of wine with dinner is a great pleasure, nothing else that I've yet found can come close to replacing it. I don't know whether the alcohol content is important or whether it's just the flavour.

Finished Uni and I pretty much stopped drinking at home all together, I would generally go out once a week and drink 8ish pints.

Now I never go out but I drink a few cans every other night at home, have done for the past year or so purely out of laziness. Going back to not drinking in the house after this can.

I've not read all of the responses but my response is yes, I usually drink more than the government recommended amount on an average week. Personally I think that stuff is a load of nonsense but only time will tell if I'm right on that one. I reckon a normal week is about 25-30 units for me. I never binge and never drink more than 5 pints in one go (usually do on Friday night). I'm fairly drunk after 5 pints and that's not changed for about 25 years. My personal rationalisation is that if I was cocking up my liver, I'd be able to drink more and more without getting drunk.

Hey ho. If it kills me then it's my own fault. I quite enjoy drinking so what of it.

[i]wtf is a 1/3rd!

You'd get the p@@@ ripped out of you for ordering a 1/2 where I grew up.[/i]

I'd rip the piss out of someone who'd never heard of thirds. 😉 You order three thirds in a real ale bar so you get a pint but it's a spread of the selection of ales.

Well since my original post I've since had one bottle of beer every night for the last 3 nights. Back to work tomorrow night though until next Friday morning so that's it for now.

Having kept an eye on this thread, what surprises me most is the seemingly ease that folk can say what their average unit consumption is. I've never been able to keep track as I seem to range from weeks where it is hardly any, to steady weeks and all the way into what some would call binge weekends (I prefer lost weekends) with no real reason other than having a sporadic social life. I never know what to say to the doctor when asked and just pluck a number from the sky. Has anyone ever worked out their real average over an extended period of time?
RM.

tlr - Member

Out of interest, what do the saintly people on here who don't drink have with their evening meal?

Who said they were saintly? 🙂
Tea usually.

Oh, btw, all the recovering alcoholics I've ever met, apart from 2, denied they had a problem until health issues forced them to admit it.
The other 2 are dead. 😀

I don't feel saintly or otherwise about how much I drink. This is because although I enjoy alcohol, I never ever feel the [i]need[/i] to have it, so I'm not being virtuous when it comes to my intake. What I do see is people in denial about the damage they are doing to themselves. It is pretty obvious that there are some very defensive answers given on this thread by people who clearly aren't drinking just because they like the taste of it. I would suggest they need to admit to themselves that they potentially have a problem

Drink too much? With som much wonderful booze out there witibg to be discomvered?

One can nverdrink too much.

😆

People who frequent this forum are keen mountain bikers, which means they are more likely to be fit,

Lol

I'd say so, I live in a town with lots of good pubs, although too many times I cross the line between a modest number of drinks and a binge. I mainly drink because I'm bored, don't have many friends nearby, and it chills me out (although not the next day). After a heavy binge, I think my anxiety levels and glumness goes through the roof.

Ive never heard of a 1/3 either and I've been drinking real ale for more years than I care to recall.

I don't think anyone whose posted is anything like an Alchy.... sure some of us drink too much occasionally, but it's when drink controls you is when you have a problem.

See the night out in Manchester thread for clues about the 1/3rd thing (does this real ale bar have a ping pong table by any chance?). I've only ever seen 1/3rds at large beer festivals, which makes sense, but taking it to a pub environment seems to me an exercise in ****ery. Even the best real ale pubs won't have much more than a dozen cask beers on, which can easily be covered by drinking halves, if drinking every beer in the house is what you want to do.

I definitely drank too much last night. 😳

an ale or a glass of tipple a night, about half the time.

so no, I don't.

Any more, at least, the same question to an unhealthy me in my twenties would have been "yes, definitely".

[url= http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0293.htm ]Among 20- to 64-year-olds, 9.8% of all mortality from 2006 to 2010 was attributable to excessive drinking[/url]

umop3pisdn - Member

Among 20- to 64-year-olds, 9.8% of all mortality from 2006 to 2010 was attributable to excessive drinking

If true that is insane, almost 10% of all mortality due to booze, frightening.

If true that is insane, almost 10% of all mortality due to booze, frightening.

That includes drink-driving though. And it's 10% of deaths [of course], not 10% of the entire population.

Still, even including drink driving and only taking into account 10% of deaths is that not an insanely high number?

Think about it - statistically that means if 10 people die in your family one of them died in connection to alcohol....

Still, even including drink driving and only taking into account 10% of deaths is that not an insanely high number?

No, I'd say the opposite - it strikes me as quite low, given the age group.

Still, even including drink driving and only taking into account 10% of deaths is that not an insanely high number?

And thats averaged nationally. Considering how many of those deaths are actually people from Glasgow, statistically the rest of us are safe as houses

Considering how many of those deaths are actually people from Glasgow, statistically the rest of us are safe as houses

Well in that case, mines a double!

Considering how many of those deaths are actually people from Glasgow, statistically the rest of us are safe as houses

I heard the average life expectancy in Newcastle is 10 years below the national average. On a par with Glasgow I'd imagine.

The study is in the US.

Regardless of where the study was conducted, you lot are on crack if you think 1 in 10 people dying in a drink related manner is low, especally if you condsider how many people dont drink at all.

I don't think it's particulatly high in the grand scheme of things.

Yes... but they all die happy. Yer me best fuggin mate yer are. I fuggin love yer.......

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crankrider - Member
Regardless of where the study was conducted, you lot are on crack if you think 1 in 10 people dying in a drink related manner is low, especally if you condsider how many people dont drink at all.

It's not 1 in 10 people dying from alcohol related causes, it's 1 in 10 deaths that are directly or indirectly due to alcohol. Big difference.

The age group was 20-64, which should mean relatively less deaths from diseases (cancer, age-related diseases such as alzheimer) etc., and a relatively greater number of deaths from accidents and violence - a lot of which are caused by alcohol use. (Note that the study is based on the US population, I'd expect the proportion to be higher than 1 in 10 here in Europe due to stiffer gun laws).

Well that bottle of red seemed smaller than usual 😆