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Can you stop drinking?

Darth Rotor said:
And I think it is a realistic choice to drink as much as you can handle, or as little as you can handle. Learn, adapt, and find your zone.
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Didn't South Park do an episode where Stan told his dad Randy something along those lines.
 
slingblade said:
Actually, no; tee-total is an adjective. Tee-totally is an adverb, and tee-totaller is the noun. Words often go through drift. Google is a noun that has been verbed. Tee-total is an adjective that has been nouned. In fact, verb and noun are nouns that have been verbed.

Isn't English fun!? :p
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You say "Actually, no", but I think you mean "Actually, yes" - it's only the derivation of the word that I'm driving at ;)

tkingdoll said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tee-totaller
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Their first suggestion - that a stammerer referered to "Tee-tee-total" is deeply suspicious. Any stammerer would surely render it "Tur-tur-total"?
 
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nosho said:
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I believe that a person who can't stop drinking for a month has a problem. But I don't believe everyone who drinks has a problem. I recognize that lots of people who drink do not have a problem.
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You can stop drinking for a month (or three, or more) and still have a problem.
 
DanishDynamite said:
And what might be the problem with that?

I mean, people have been drinking alcohol since before the ancient Egyptians, and yet we are still here.
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Well that can bring up the issue of if it was bread or beer that caused people to start agriculture. Of course with the Egyptains the difference between the two was not all that great
 
nosho said:
By making the statement, "There is no such thing as drinking responsibly," it seems I have insulted a few people who feel that when they drink, they do so responsibly. To those of you who feel insulted, my apologies. Obviously, it's your life, and nobody can tell you how to live it.
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That compleatly removes any need for the self help or advice industries. It seems to me that people can and do tell people how to live their lives all the time.
 
The Oxford English Dictionary (THE dictionary) lists "teetotal". No "teatotal". As a matter of fact, under the "teetotal" alternate spellings there is "Also erron. tea-" which means erroneous. Which means wrong.
 
Alow me to try again:

richardm said:
Actually, no - it is "tee-total", or "teetotal" if you prefer.
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Actually, teetotal is used with affixes, as well, and so teetotal is just the root. The words teetotaller and teetotally are also legitimate words, functioning as other parts of speech. Your phrasing gave the impression that there is no other word aside from "tee-total," but we can see this is not the case.

There; was that better? ;)
 
alfaniner said:
You can stop drinking for a month (or three, or more) and still have a problem.
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Absolutely....One of the common myths about alcoholism is that if you can go for a period of time without drinking everything's fine. Many alcoholics tend to have "bender" drinking habits which alternate between periods of extremely heavy drinking and days or weeks of abstinence.

A better indicator than abstinence would be to drink every day for say 60 days or so. The catch is - you can drink---but never more than 2 drinks per day. Personally--I never wanted "2 or 3" drinks in my life. I always wanted more. I would have a drink with responsible (non-alcholic) drinkers who who have one or two---& then stop. For the life of me--I couldn't understand why they were stopping after only having a couple.

The other big misconception I see here is that people assume if you're socially responsible (not peeing your pants,beating the crap out of your wife & kids--getting arrested) there's no problem.

Alcoholism is progressive--there are early-mid- and late stages. Most people are fairly functional through the early stages. The nasty stuff tends to occur in the later stages although many alcoholics get well into old age keeping their jobs, not getting arrested, and never beating up the kids.

Don't kid yourself into thinking you're OK though just because you've never been arrested for a DUI and got a a raise at work.
 
Ralph said:
Alcoholism is progressive--there are early-mid- and late stages. Most people are fairly functional through the early stages. The nasty stuff tends to occur in the later stages although many alcoholics get well into old age keeping their jobs, not getting arrested, and never beating up the kids.

Don't kid yourself into thinking you're OK though just because you've never been arrested for a DUI and got a a raise at work.
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Then what are the signs of alcoholism? How would you know that you're in the early stages and not just a well-adjusted guy who can handle his drink?
 
senorpogo said:
Then what are the signs of alcoholism? How would you know that you're in the early stages and not just a well-adjusted guy who can handle his drink?
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I'm not really qualified to diagnosis alcoholism............there are various things (referred to as signposts) that might indicate an indivual may be drifting into alcoholism.

Things like drinking alone or keeping it a secret...making excuses to drink......
memory blackouts (alcoholic blackouts do NOT involve loss of consciousness)....morning drinking.

Certainly any kind of problems--work-related--legal issues--due to one's excessive drinking are cause for concern.

It's said that if one thinks they have a problem, they probably do.
 
nosho said:
Alcohol is addictive in a way that most recreational behavior is not. Its use is also much more widespread and socially acceptable than any other type of mind-altering substance.
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Excellent points. I drink a bit. Like one screwdriver at night, maybe twice a week. Sometimes I go for a month or more with nothing. I've drunk to true excess no more than 5 times (been many years since the last time), so I don't think I have a problem with it. Maybe if everyone chose of their own accord to not drink, a lot of problems would go away. But many people aren't capable of letting other people make those choices, especially not their kids. My experience in Texas was that kids taught NEVER to drink EVER were the ones that had the big drinking problems in college. I was taught very early to drink responsibly; mom let me have wine on rare occasions from the time I was about 10.

An important point people miss is the ratio of (H) how much of a drug you need to get an effect, and (O) how much it takes to overdose. Alcohol has a very low ratio compared to say, pot. Looked at this way, alcohol is WAY more dangerous than pot. But which of these drugs do people get all upset about? :confused:

When it comes to drugs in general, Americans are just silly. Alcohol is fine, and pot isn't even though alcohol is easier to overdose on. Many drugs are controlled and require a prescription, which shows we don't trust people to chose their drugs; that makes sense. But then we allow drug companies to advertize these same drugs to the people whom we have already disqulified from choosing them.

:boxedin:
 
senorpogo said:
Then what are the signs of alcoholism? How would you know that you're in the early stages and not just a well-adjusted guy who can handle his drink?
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I was once engaged to an alcoholic. The two biggest signs of an alcoholic are:

1) Blacking out after getting drunk. You do not pass out, but rather take on a persona quite different than your sober persona. You can drive, make love, entertain at a party, but in the morning you recall nothing.

2) If you were ever in AA or other rehab services in your past, even for short times.

Below is a link to the book about Terry McGovern, George's daughter. It is shocking and informative, and taught me a lot about addiction. FYI-It's not a political read at all.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452278236/002-0907148-4407221?v=glance&n=283155
 
senorpogo said:
Then what are the signs of alcoholism? How would you know that you're in the early stages and not just a well-adjusted guy who can handle his drink?
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Well, you could look that up and make sure you're getting the right info, but I will tell you what I was told for years in Al-Anon, the support group for families of alcoholics:

"If your drinking is causing problems in your life, then you have a drinking problem. If you cannot choose to abstain from alcohol in spite of the problems it causes, then you are an alcoholic."

This doesn't just mean if your drinking is causing problems for you, specifically. If your spouse has asked you not to drink, or drink so much, and you ignore him or her, that's a problem. Whether you own responsibility for it or not doesn't make it any less so. If having that next drink is more important to you than the happiness of your spouse, you both have a problem.

I married an alcoholic, mostly because I mistakenly thought alcoholics were only winos in the gutter. I didn't know any better. I paid.
 
nosho said:
[soapbox]

Mel Gibson's case illustrates why the smartest choice is not to drink alcohol at all.

As a society, we have a drinking problem.

There's evidence that drinking alcohol is harmful to ourself and those around us.

Alcohol does something to your brain. People suffer tremendously as a direct consequence of drinking alcohol or being around people who drink alcohol. Every alcoholic starts with just one drink. Every drunken-driving death starts with just one drink.

Nobody sips that first drink thinking, "I'm going to ruin my life," or "I'm going to kill someone tonight." We all tend to think that just one drink is no big deal. But "just one drink" has a way of turning into another. And another.

OK, maybe you're strong enough and responsible enough to stop at just one drink. Maybe you've never, ever had too much to drink, or done something stupid or hurtful after drinking alcohol. You think you're a responsible drinker.

But the social reality in most cases is that when you drink, you encourage others to drink. When you drink, you teach your children to drink. When you drink, through your example you invite others to engage in an activity that, for some of them, will become harmful. Even deadly.

If you drink regularly in moderation, ask yourself, can you stop drinking for a month? If so, then do it, as an experiment. If you can't stop for a month, you have a problem. If you can stop for a month, why not do yourself and everyone else a favor and stop for another month? And then another?

Prohibition isn't the answer. Individual choice is. There's no such think as drinking responsibly.

[/soapbox]
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Sounds like you need a drink.

C'mon now, whatever alcohol did to you or a loved one I hope you can cope with it in a responsible manner.

In our society drinking alcohol is entertainment. It is a fun and safe way to relieve stress as well as being very affordable.

Why even suggest it is wrong to entertain one's self and encourage others to entertain themselves?

What would be next? Please stop having unmarried sex to reduce the amount of STD's being spread throughout the world? Try going without fornicating for a month then try going for another then another? Because when you fornicate you are influencing those around you to fornicate and it brings down our society as a whole? I know reproducing is a bodily function but so is relieving stress is it not?

I don't know if this is your story but, I knew a man who lost his wife and three children because of a drunk driver. He got up on a soapbox and started spitting off why alcohol is wrong and how its irresponsible to drink altogether. I asked him why he didn't have anything against cars? He got angry at first obviously but he started to think about it and we get along again now.

People will do stupid things, they will drink to much, eat to much, drive to fast, steal to much, shoot to much, buy to much, work to much, laugh to much, cry to much, and blame to much.

Why try to instill people around you with guilt about their choices? Why create a false sense of wrong doing if perhaps they cannot go a month without drinking a week or even a day? If a person can afford drinking every hour of every day finish their work without a problem and have numerous privately owned livers at their disposal to replace the ones they destroy would it be a problem if they enjoy what they are doing? Especially if he is not hurting anyone around him? Say his wife drank just as much as him and is very happy and fullfilled that they can drink together so much.

I haven't had a drink it about 3 months myself because I just haven't gotten around to it. But I assure you when I get off work this morning I am going to the store and buying a nice delicious six pack of Guiness to knock back while I watch the morning news.

Sure if everyone stopped drinking, in a couple of generations we would have a much more attracive society, but then there would be more wierd old men fantasizing about the highschool girls he see's when he picks up his son at school. We could have an epidemic of pedophiles!!!!!! and then..... Everyone please stop fantasizing about our beautiful people in our beautiful society and please drink some alcohol and get it on with your fat unattractive but well educated and humorous wives.

"P.S. I love the way the shop keepers look at me when I buy beer at 8 a.m. its very delightful"
 
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slingblade said:
If your spouse has asked you not to drink, or drink so much, and you ignore him or her, that's a problem. Whether you own responsibility for it or not doesn't make it any less so. If having that next drink is more important to you than the happiness of your spouse, you both have a problem.
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Surely that cuts both ways: if you NOT having a drink is more important to your spouse than your happiness, then you both have a problem? In other words it is a problem because of a difference of opinion between the spouses and the subject of that disagreement is irrelevant - it could be alcohol, golf or posting on JREF.
 
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