/ck/ - Food & Cooking

You could be if you're the kind of alcoholic who doesn't try to get hammered.

I'm an alcoholic with beer as my primary drink. I like rum and bourbon, but don't really drink to get trashed/shitfaced, as much as just fairly drunk and lively yet still able to function highly. I also just like to drink all night with little/no hangover.

Need to cut back because of calories though.

>>5032304
This is how I feel. I don't drink to get so drunk that I'm crying and smashing bottles and tearing my family apart, but I definitely feel dependent on having a few pints every night to feel a bit merry and get to sleep. It's just the norm that I do that now, and to not do it either feels like an accomplishment or a waste of an evening, depending on what mood I'm in.

>>5032304
doesn't sound like much of an alcoholic

My uncle was an alcoholic who drank only Budweiser for... 25 years? Something like that. So yes.

>>5032349
It isn't but everyone has to be a special snowflake someway or another.

sounds like you'd get morbidly obese before getting cirrhosis.

beer has so many calories.

>>5032355
>>5032349
>confirmed not knowing anything about alcoholism

because beer tastes better

>>5032362
>beer has so many calories.

One bottle of beer will have at most like 180 calories, hardly breaking the scale.

>>5032574
That adds up quickly.

>Can you be an alcoholic with low ABV drinks like beer and cider?

True alcoholics, like all substance abusers, are usually constrained by budget. They will generally source the most cost efficient means of acquiring their drug of dependence.
If it's a cheaper way of getting shitfaced, an alcoholic would have no problem chugging a case of low ABV drinks.

>>5032574
thats alot. a shot of hard liquor has around 85. I'd like to get drunk every night on beer because its my favorite drink, but the whole weight loss thing and all. i just cut some cheap bourbon with water and sip.

there's a functioning alcoholic who works at a school near me. he stays sober all day then drinks an entire 30 pack of Coors to himself each night before passing out in his arm chair

>>5032656
how fat is he? thats like 5000 calories just in liquids.

>>5032656
One of the biggest alcoholics I've ever known drank nothing but Coors Light.

>>5032598
and this, friends, is why cisco and everclear are so popular amongst hobos.

>>5032706
I dunno, I think D-Link is a hell of a lot cheaper, unless the hobos have access to Cisco's financing program.

>>5032680

MTE, i'll never understand why people even drink beer. a shot of liquor will get you buzzed, tipsy if you're smaller, compared to the insult to time, stomach space, calories and taste that is beer. i don't get it.

The instructor in my alcohol counseling treatment (got your DUI yet?) sad that he would open a six pack of coors before he went to bed so that it would be flat and easy to drink when he woke up in the morning.
An real alcoholic, a functioning alcoholic, drinks all day just to keep from shaking. They don't get "drunk".
That's what I was taught in drug & alcohol school.

>>5034200
Because it tastes good and you can drink longer.

>>5034200
Not everyone drinks for the sole purpose of getting drunk. Some (most) people like the taste of a decent beer.

>>5034200
I am a bit of an alcoholic, after I finish my whiskey I drink beer the rest of the night/evening (because it is cheaper and the whiskey will have gotten me the buzz). The feeling of having an alcoholic drink is more important once buzzed than the actual alcohol content. I can't start on beer though or I will just get sleepy.

>pic unrelated

Anyone in this thread who is saying "I'm an alcoholic" or "I'm sort of an alcoholic but" is an idiot.

>>5032304
You, judging from your description, and reason for cutting back, have control over your intake. You also worry about the consequences of your drinking and your actions. This makes you NOT an alcoholic. An alcoholic doesn't give a shit about the hangover, or the calories. They don't care about how they function, or how long they can drink for. Do not call yourself an alcoholic. It's about as cool to pretend to be one anonymously online as it is to actually be one, i.e. not fucking very.
>>5032323
How many is a few? Do you purposefully leave nights unplanned with others in favour of a drinking opportunity arising? A couple's okay. If you find yourself accusing a night of being wasted more often than not when sober, you have a few things to ask yourself.
>>5032598
Spot on. Cheap deals are a treat for habitual abusers. And ease of ingestion comes into it too, where you could put away a bottle of spirits one night, and then cheap cans the next day because it's easier on the body for round two.
>>5034211
You get it, and that's a fine example of the tricks people will do to get drunk. And it shows the level of importance drink takes in the life of an alcoholic. It stops being about a good time, or a relax, it's just a routine coping method for the hangovers and depression.
>>5037352
There's no such thing as "a bit of an alcoholic". You are or you aren't, you don't decide you are when you feel the need to exaggerate your drinking.

Boasting about consumption doesn't make you one either. Hiding it does. Pretending it's not happening. Allowing it to take a center place in your life about the activities that usually accompany it does.
Everybody weighs up the price of beer before buying it. Buying cheap beer isn't alcoholic behaviour.
(cont'd)

>>5037682
I drink, by the way, before anyone gets on my case. And I get fucked up, and drink alone, and drink anything that comes to hand. It's the mentality you have on it, and how you let it affect your life that makes you an alcoholic. It's having to have a can before you start the day. Sneaking in a few pints after work and not telling anyone. It's not so much about quality or quantity, or how much you can or can't handle. It's about control.
Sorry about the rant. People pretending to be alcoholics drives me fucking mad. It's fine to have a drink, and hey, it's fine to get fucked up. IF you don't allow it control over yourself or your life. I've seen people come out of rehab equally as fucked up as when they went in, but sober. It sounds like bullshit, but anyone who knows an addict or a circle of them will know what I mean. Conversely, I've seen others come out of brutal addictions by learning self control, and though they still get fucked up on a variety of things, they know where to draw the line, and it doesn't hurt their life or family.
I'm no saint, but I'm learning a lot about control. Years ago, I used to have to finish all the drink in the house before I went to bed. I caught myself lying to my wife about my consumption. I HAD to have cans every night, spirits weren't my thing. But I'd lose count. Next day I'd work, and buy some after work just to ease the pain. Then get depressed from the comedown. Weekends, I'd often steal drinks at bars, and borrow money for more, which would rarely get repaid.
I was never trouble though, so I went unnoticed, except to my wife, who was worried about my health. I wasn't young enough to blame it on the folly of youth anymore, and realised that it was addiction.
(cont'd)

>>5037687
Quitting entirely isn't for me, though. I managed to halt my tendencies, and replaced a lot of drinking time with other plans. Made better uses for my money. 6 years later, and I can still put away a 24 without flinching, but I'd just rather have a 6 and a joint every few evenings, or maybe a nice beer with dinner.
I didn't expect to type this for as long as I did, and all I'll get for it is tl;dr, but fuck it, sometimes I feel like talking. And it all stems from people misreading the act of alcoholism in the first place, thinking that it's something to aspire to rather than a real affliction, generally because people tend to black out the bad shit that surrounds them rather than learn from it.
Overall:

Pretending to be an alcoholic is worse than being one. Don't do it.

Well I got told many times that I have a problem with alcohol but I don't think so. I don't drink to get hammered or shitfaced. For me its better to drink beer over the whole day to keep me in the mood and maybe something stronger for sleeping.

>>5037682
I say 'a bit of an alcoholic' because I know I drink too much but I don't think I have a problem. My family do, 50% of my friends do, but I really don't. I usually have a couple of sober days a week (plus a sleeping day). Give the liver a chance to heal, that will stop scarring and eventual failure. I certainly don't exaggerate my drinking either. I have made plain to the people I know how much I drink when I drink, I have hidden the odd week old half drunk beer consumed when I run out at 5 am, but surely everyone does that.

God forbid that anything does not align with your ideas though. Arrogant cunt.

>>5032268
Afiak, real alcoholics switch to hard liquor just because it involves less peeing.

Being an alcoholic with liquor is expensive.
The best way to be an alcoholic is with cheap wine, and if you disagree you don't know shit about anything.

>>5037682
>>5037687
>>5037695
Obviously you drink, bro nobody sober wallposts like this.

But yeah, there is actual an actual difference between alcoholics, alcohol abuse and heavy drinkers.

Alcoholism is a hopeless addiction to alcohol, who will actually die if they stop drinking. Alcoholism is a specific physiological problem.

Alcohol abuse is getting drunk, sexting your mom, driving while drunk, spending way more money then you can afford, ect. Where it causes self-destructive behavior.

Heavy drinking is just drinking a lot, if you just go a day or a few days between pounding a 12 pack in one sitting, you qualify for this. If you ever think, "man, I don't really feel like drinking today" you cannot qualify as an alcoholic.

These are pretty arbitrary categories and some people might add others and heavy drinking and turn into alcoholism. Some people think anything more then 3 beers a night is rampant alcohol abuse. It's not. If your drinking is only hurting your liver and you can go without it, you are just a 'heavy drinker'

>>5037829
So your family and friends have asked you to cut it back and you've said no? And you know you drink too much but don't see it as a problem? And yeah, I am an arrogant cunt, because it's better than being complacent and pretending everything will be fine if I just continue as is. "A bit of an alcoholic" is the type of bullshit students churn out when they happen to enjoy a few whiskeys. The phrase is absurd.

>>5037857
This is what I mean though. You get it, though I myself phrased it pretty poorly. There's a distinction between these. A lot of people fail to see where the lines blur, ignore theirs or others problems, or lend entirely to the general disregard of alcoholism as an actual disease by boasting about their abuse of the substance like it's nothing.
I'm not saying everybody has to change what they're doing because I wrote an essay here, I just felt like speaking out about my feelings on the casual attitudes towards alcoholism, and alcohol abuse.
Peer pressure, though laughed at nowadays as buzzword shit from secondary school, still exists in the form of social pressures and triggers. The way people can now pigeonhole themselves into whatever they want makes them susceptible to fold under external pressures at the cost of meeting their ideal "Me". Couple this with social media, tv, internet, advertisement, film, all portraying alcohol abuse as "having a few drinks", and people are lulled into thinking they can do this forever because it's who they want to be. They slip from a controlled drinker into an abuser, and unless interrupted, may degrade entirely into an alcoholic. Unfortunately, being so engrossed in all these methods of projecting the ideal "me", even on places like this, initiates the type of self-absorption so regularly associated with all addictions.
I digress, and there's more to this tangent than alcohol abuse itself so I'll stop before it goes too off topic. Oh, and I'm sober right now, so I don't even have that as an excuse for a wall of text!

i like booze

>>5037941
Oh, as a correction, I'm not saying media is the root of it here, that's not even a fraction of it, more just the idea of how the will to become something else can deform your character through absorbing poor traits that are projected around us as social norms but without control will do nothing but hold you back as a person. All addictions fall into this, but people are too easily fooled by the images of something else to see what they actually have on hand.

>>5037847
>not buying a jug of svedka for $10
you don't know jack shit.

>>5037847

Dis nigga don't know about Listerine.

If you depend on in order to feel functional/good, long for more than is normal, or constantly crave booze as an emotional crutch, no matter what kind of alcohol it is those are signs of alcoholism...
Snobbery aside, seriously, get help. AA is everywhere.

>>5032268
Likely because knocking back "a few beers/ciders" is seen as socially acceptable, and by going for fewer hard liquors fewer discover your habit is more than a few drinks a week.

>>5032268
Alcohol's just alcohol, how you take it all comes down to preference. If you're drinking 10+ beers a week, yeah I'd say you were an alcoholic

>>5038320
Oh shit, I guess i am an alcoholic then...

>>5038320
>If you're drinking 10+ beers a week, yeah I'd say you were an alcoholic

>>5038342
>>5038320
More like 10 a sitting. 1 or 2 are fine, 3 on occasion, but more is a waste.

>>5037847
UKalkie here. Your best bang for your pound is high strength white cider. It's also not about getting fall down hammered, it's about staying buzzed all the time. Being an alkie takes stamina, determination and an ability to hide it.

>>5038240
Jamesons and listerine, more commonly known as a "McNulty".

>>5038398
>tfw highly functional alcoholic
>maintain A's in uni
>never miss work, always on time
>never been in a DUI
>upbeat attitude, so no depression vibes

When I die of alcohol poisoning, everyone will be shocked and my family will likely push for a different coroner to do my autopsy, because there's no way I was a drinker. Hah.

>>5038320
Sad thing is, this is what Americans really believe. That if you drink 2 beers per night with supper, you're an alcoholic. This is why alcoholism is a much bigger problem in the US than it really should be. You HAVE to hide it if you drink 10+ beers a week and are not a college student, because puritanism. And hey, if you're hiding it anyway... well, slippery slope.

>>5038414
It's not so much how many, as how many per how often.
If you drink constantly and consistently to get DRUNK/buzzed/what have you, then you have a problem. Using any substance as a crutch is a very bad sign.
If you can handle your booze, fine, but still remember even if you can't feel it, it's taking its toll on your bodily functions in large amounts.

>>5038398
Get help. Being "buzzed all the time" is not healthy, and puts you (and if you drive, others) in danger.
http://www.aa.org/

>>5038444
UKalkie here. I don't drive; just because I'm killing myself slowly doesn't mean I have to take others down with me.

>>5038410
>claims to be alcoholic
>also claims everything is great
>nobody knows

Yeah, all these things mix perfectly together, I'm sure you're not either full of shit or too fucked up to judge reality.

>>5038444
>driving drunk

I'm drunk every night and I never do this

cager culture is one which condones casual manslaughter though. I view them as murderers but the law is lenient on what it ignorantly assumes to be a necessary evil.

>>5032598
Back when I was using I would drink pints of the shittiest vodka I could find. It was so cheap.

Alcohol sucks.

>>5038529
>pint of vodka

I think this speaks for itself.

>>5038398
This. White shite is probably the cheapest way to get drunk, and it doesn't taste terrible (at least, if you drink it continuously enough to not get the awful aftertaste).

Those kids and unemployed men on park benches, they know what they're doing.

>>5038498

Preach it, brother

>>5038320
>>5038414
I'm British and for some reason people I speak to find this shameful. I'm a crazy person so I end up talking to a lot of psychiatrists, nurses and students in training. As part of a standard assessment, they always ask if I drink.

"Do you drink?"
"Just a few pints every night."
"EVERY night?"
"Well, sometimes I have sober days."
"I see, so this is just socially..."
"No, I drink alone."
"You drink EVERY night ALONE?"

They're not always this obvious, but it's clear they're concerned.

Weren't alcoholic drinks the "main" drinks in the past? e.g. before clean water was commonplace, everyone drank mead and beer all day everyday. And "soft" drinks are in comparison to "hard" drinks, when soft drinks haven't been around all that long.
Not that I think "great-great-great-granddad used to do it, so it's fine" is a valid excuse, I just think the social stigma of drinking alcohol came out of nowhere. Especially when getting plastered at the club is considered a good time, but drinking some beer or wine at home is unacceptable behaviour.