# Are you an alcoholic?



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Take this test: http://alcoholism.about.com/od/tests/l/blquiz_alcohol.htm

I got 10/20 which puts me comfortably as an alcoholic in need of physician evaluation.

Screw that. Time for a drink.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

You answered 0 items out of 20 Yes.

I take that as a no.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Cnote11 said:


> You answered 0 items out of 20 Yes.
> 
> I take that as a no.


Do you drink at all?


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

My results.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

Couchie said:


> Do you drink at all?


No, so that explains that. Going to try some champagne soon though. Perhaps that will turn me into an alcoholic.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

*Do you drink because you are shy with other people?*
*Do you drink to build up your self-confidence?
*
These are fundamentally the same question. Let's peg shy people twice!

*Have you ever felt remorse after drinking?*
*Does drinking cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
Have you ever had a loss of memory as a result of drinking?
*
All related to being drunk. Which virtually every college student, or New Years, Birthday, or St. Patrick's day celebrator has been at least once in their life... "have you ever"... really?

*Do you turn to inferior companions and environments when drinking? 
*
"Inferior" companions and environments... like a _bar _and the people who go to them... really? What self-hating recovering-alcoholic wrote this thing?

*Do you crave a drink at a definite time daily?*

Yes, when I get home from work at 6 pm every weekday and just want to do some well-deserved unwinding with a nice cold beer.

*Has your efficiency decreased since drinking?
*
Well when I'm drinking I'm obviously not working on cold fusion, so this is a given for every drinker.

*Do you drink alone?*

No. I need somebody to hold my hand every time I want to have a beer and watch TV.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

I thought it was a bit silly and too cut-and-dry.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Dodecaplex said:


> My results.


Aren't you 17?


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Indeed, I am. But this does go nicely with my whole story about having a 3-day ******** with a harem of Victoria's Secret models, doesn't it?


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Dodecaplex said:


> Indeed, I am. But this does go nicely with my whole story about having a 3-day ************with a harem of Victoria's Secret models, doesn't it?


Oh dear, another variation on our favourite word to add to the blacklist!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Couchie said:


> ...
> I got 10/20 which puts me comfortably as an alcoholic in need of physician evaluation.
> 
> ...


I think if a lot of Australians answer this quiz honestly, they would be in the same boat. It's a big problem here. My result for this quiz was of no concern though. I am a social drinker only.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

Biggest load of tosh I've ever seen.

"You answered 4 items out of 20 Yes.
Your score is 20%. According to the Office of Health Care Programs, Johns Hopkins University Hospital, developers of this screening quiz, if you answered 3 of these questions with a Yes it is a definite sign that your drinking patterns are harmful and possibly considered alcohol dependent or alcoholic. You may want to seek an evaluation by a healthcare professional."

Completely fails to distinguish between regular or rare occurances.
"a definite sign that your drinking patterns are harmful"; good luck proving that one, buddy.
GG


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Couchie said:


> *Do you drink because you are shy with other people?*
> *Do you drink to build up your self-confidence?
> *
> These are fundamentally the same question. Let's peg shy people twice!
> ...


Being shy and drinking for self-confidence are two different things. I have never had a shy moment in my life. I haven't always had self-confidence.

These question poll things are always over simplistic and fail to take into account that people operate at a variety of levels. There was one alcohol poll where I scored enough points to prove that I was an alcoholic (also the have you ever ... type questions) when in fact I have never had an alcohol problem and was a Salvation Army officer living dry (as do all Salvationists) at the time.

The inferior friends and environments question had me. The one friend I sometimes have a drink with is very superior, a professor.  His home is in the smartest part of town. So are some of the other friends with whom I occasionally have a drink. 

The drinking alone thing also makes it seem bad to have a glass of wine with a meal if one is alone. There are lots of single people who have their meals alone - with a glass of wine.


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

16/20. 

I attend AA meetings regularly.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Medical definition of moderate drinking: 
No more than three alcoholic beverages per week (beer to vodka, 'don't matter.) Reason -- at that frequency, the liver has time to repair, and it will have little or no long-term damage to the brain.

Alcohol Lobby definition of moderate drinking: 
Three beverages per day. (Obviously, they are pushing that drug 

If you are habitually / reflexively reaching for a drink when you come home from work each day, and drink as much or more on weekends, you are substance dependent -- making you, mild and unobtrusive as it may seem, an alcoholic. No matter how you slice it or gloss it, it is a daily dependence upon a drug. That type of usage may stay the same, or slowly increase over the years. Daily = Dependent.

There is tons of rationale in a few answers here. those who so answer are already working around the fact they drink daily and that they are dependent.

Can anyone think of another drug around which there are thousands of synonymic words or phrases to describe varying degrees of 'highness?'

ADD P.S. No matter what you call the substance _*it is a drug*_, and the more that is recognized, by those who consume as well as those who do not, the more readily the use or misuse of it can be seen for what it is.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Take this test: http://alcoholism.about.com/od/tests/l/blquiz_alcohol.htm
> 
> I got 10/20 which puts me comfortably as an alcoholic in need of physician evaluation.
> 
> Screw that. Time for a drink.


That probably explains a lot!


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> Aren't you 17?


I didn't think he was even that old.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I agree with PetrB this time.

Funny how nobody is an alcoholic in this country. But out the back of my house, everyone fills recycling bins weekly, and they're mainly full of booze bottles. Or the alcohol related violence on every weekend (& bumping into drunken yobbos in the street if I go out on saturday night). Sometimes I think bring back (partial?) prohibition, or at least some tighter controls on alcohol consumption, esp. when a drunk gets randomly aggro with me or some other innocent bystander (gotta watch what you say, or you'll get your jaw broken, or worse).

But nope, this country has absolutely no problem with alcohol whatsoever. Drinking at home before you go out on saturday night, then drinking at a pub or club, then drinking when you get back home, that's entirely _normal_.

Being a bit extreme here & yes, the questionnaire is not perfect, but it doesn't mean that alcohol is not a huge problem. Well here it is, anyway. But ask the alcohol or pubs and clubs lobby, and they always try to downplay these deleterious effects of alcohol. In our Aboriginal communities, it's so bad, some of them (tribal elders) have effected total alcohol bans or tight control of it entering and being consumed in their communities. It's basically ripped these communities apart.

But we're soooooo liberal we have to just let it happen, cos otherwise, it's not democratic, dealing with it is taking away people's rights.

Let's tax it to the eyeballs like cigarettes, and spend the revenue on treating alcohol addiction - eg. counseling programs, support groups, rehab, etc.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Good points being raised. 

Alcohol use for OTHER people is bad. 

Seriously, for those who do not have an alcohol problem there is no problem. But one never knows who will or when they will develop a problem.

My father always said alcohol is a good servant but a bad master. I am grateful that I have been able to keep it at the good servant level for myself.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

About 6 days of the week I never feel the need for a drink. It's considered less unhealthy to have a couple of units daily rather than going out either Friday or Saturday for a social session, the amount of which I consume still adds up to less than what I could drink daily according a more sensible regimen. Yet according to this and other surveys I've still got a problem of sorts because I'm doing it all in one go. Next weekend my local pub is hosting its annual beer festival - I will be there.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I don't drink everyday but I always order a couple of pints while I'm out playing and I play almost everyday and,...wait a minute....


Ah, what the heck! :cheers:


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

PetrB said:


> ADD P.S. No matter what you call the substance _*it is a drug*_, and the more that is recognized, by those who consume as well as those who do not, the more readily the use or misuse of it can be seen for what it is.


I don't buy it. I have been a moderate drinker all my life (except for a bit more at university 30+ years ago), and scored 2/20 on this ridiculous test, based on what happened 30 years ago. If it is an addictive drug, there should be withdrawal symptoms. Well, I have gone without alcohol for periods of over 6 months four times in the past 20 years without any problems of that kind.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

While I don't have an alcohol problem, I certainly have a fine ale problem! I could and do sit around bottles full of liquor...I play at bars every week where I can get shot every ten minutes if I wanted...I've got a full bar at home...but all I like is me beer...and good beer, at that! 

It's all about the Micro! So alcoholic? Most certainly not. Beeraholic? Quite certain and happy to be!


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

According to my physician, and every 'medical' article I have read on the subject, I am an alcoholic. I very seldom get 'plastered' (maybe twice per decade), but seldom a day goes by without intake.

I have a theory about alcohol (and many other non-opiate drugs). There are people who become habituated to booze, and people who become addicted to it. It's probably unscientific to use withdrawal symptoms as the defining factor, but that's what I use.


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

Art Rock said:


> I don't buy it. I have been a moderate drinker all my life (except for a bit more at university 30+ years ago), and scored 2/20 on this ridiculous test, based on what happened 30 years ago. If it is an addictive drug, there should be withdrawal symptoms. Well, I have gone without alcohol for periods of over 6 months four times in the past 20 years without any problems of that kind.


Good for you then. Not everyone are able to simply stop drinking without experiencing withdrawal symptoms or other discomforts.

One of my friend's parents is an alcoholic and you can really see the damage it can cause even in a relatively short 2 years time. A liver that is on the verge of failing and a need for alcohol that extremely blurs the mind. The affected person becomes delusional and entirely loses control. It might be on the border of the extreme, but you can still see how bad itl can be. 
My father also had drinking problem, but we managed to help him and he's been sober for about 2 weeks now. But then again, it can change, like it happened before. Some people don't even have families that would help them in case of addiction.

I agree with Sid here about the need to somehow control the consumption of alcohol. In Lithuania they banned alcohol commercials from airing before 10pm, you can't buy alcohol after 10pm as well (as in many countries I guess) and you can't drink in public, but the effect is minimal to non existent. Children (13-16) can almost freely buy alcohol, maybe not in the centers of the bigger cities, but in the villages and the suburbs it's very easy to go to the store and say that you need to buy a beer or a bottle of vodka for your parents, because it's normal to be so drunk that you need to send your own kid to buy booze.

Overall, I'm not against alcohol, but against its over consumption. Maybe they should raise awareness of the possible detrimental effects of alcohol more frequently, maybe even similar to the way it's done with cigarettes. Maybe they should write on each bottle how many brain cells you are going to lose after drinking it.


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## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

I got *6/10* and fully embrace my love of beer. While others may prefer silent killers like sugar and processed food, i choose a healthy lifestyle that lets me enjoy a good craft beer once in a while, to keep the mind sharp. :cheers:

I think most of my positive answers reveal a lack of social skills, rather than alcoholism.


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## drwatson (May 15, 2012)

I actually do have problems with alcoholism - I hope people realise this is a serious illness.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Philip said:


> I think most of my positive answers reveal a lack of social skills, rather than alcoholism.


And I thought you were the _only_ TC member with social skills, seeing how you talked to clavi about his problems the other time and you handled it so well. But now, you completely annihilated that fantasy of mine. Ach, what treachery, Philip! What treachery!


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## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

Dodecaplex said:


> And I thought you were the _only_ TC member with social skills, seeing how you talked to clavi about his problems the other time and you handled it so well. But now, you completely annihilated that fantasy of mine. Ach, what treachery, Philip! What treachery!


You're right... but there's one thing i forgot to mention: this account is used by two people.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)




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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

I guess that explains why sometimes you can barely punctuate or use grammar correctly, while at other times you seem like the most educated individual on the planet. So which one of you is the Boolean algebra expert?


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## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

Dodecaplex said:


> I guess that explains why sometimes you can barely punctuate or use grammar correctly, while at other times you seem like the most educated individual on the planet. So which one of you is the Boolean algebra expert?


Boolean algebra (and discrete mathematics in general) is probably one of the simplest and easiest subset of mathematics!


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

And which one of you is the one on TCFI?


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## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

The smrat one.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

My first TC meeting. "Hi, I'm Vaneyes, and I like booze."


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Only one tangible benefit of alcohol in Down Under. During 19th century, the temperance movement - those anti-alcohol Christians - erected ornate drinking fountains in our cities and towns. Some made of stone, others of wrought iron. Here is one of the latter types from Melbourne below. Some remain, but a lot have been removed -


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Sid James said:


> Only one tangible benefit of alcohol in Down Under. During 19th century, the temperance movement - those anti-alcohol Christians - erected ornate drinking fountains in our cities and towns. Some made of stone, others of wrought iron. Here is one of the latter types from Melbourne below. Some remain, but a lot have been removed -


We never got anything this pretty from the temperance societies. This is gorgeous!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Moira said:


> We never got anything this pretty from the temperance societies. This is gorgeous!


Some of the old Victorian era (19th century) public toilets are also works of art. Funny how we kind of made these mundane monuments, lacking _real_ monuments like the Europeans. Also to mention the old breweries that made the booze here, some of them in historical buildings that are really gems. Pity that it's all gone sour with people not being able to drink in moderation, it's quite sad. Below is the historic Cascade brewery in Tasmania.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Anybody have one of these for caffeine? I bet I could get 20/20.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

drwatson said:


> I actually do have problems with alcoholism - I hope people realise this is a serious illness.


Whenever people talk about legalizing marijuana, this is what they fail to realize. When I was working with homeless people, about 1/3 of them were homeless because of alcoholism. It destroys people's lives, families and all, and it's no joke, but we don't take it seriously.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

science said:


> Whenever people talk about legalizing marijuana, this is what they fail to realize. When I was working with homeless people, about 1/3 of them were homeless because of alcoholism. It destroys people's lives, families and all, and it's no joke, but we don't take it seriously.


My observations lead me to believe that alcohol is _much_ more debilitating than pot, especially as an addiction. Plus, a pot buzz doesn't _dull_ the brain or motor reflexes much, if indeed at all. It certainly can be distracting, but that's a different thing.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Hilltroll72 said:


> My observations lead me to believe that alcohol is _much_ more debilitating than pot, especially as an addiction. Plus, a pot buzz doesn't _dull_ the brain or motor reflexes much, if indeed at all. It certainly can be distracting, but that's a different thing.


Re pot, I'd venture that the real good sh_t can do interesting things for most. So, I wouldn't want them driving a motor vehicle or suggesting a fine restaurant.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

YES, Yes, yes


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

science said:


> Whenever people talk about legalizing marijuana, this is what they fail to realize. When I was working with homeless people, about 1/3 of them were homeless because of alcoholism. It destroys people's lives, families and all, and it's no joke, but we don't take it seriously.


Yes, and a good deal of those homeless were having successful lives before the addiction got the better of them. I recently read Augusten Burroughs memoir titled _Dry_, about how he almost died from alcoholism. He was a successful advertising exec by day, alcoholic by night. Got so bad his work sent him to rehab. It went well but he eventually got back on the sauce, lured by an old drinking buddy. Anyway, it all ended well, he was able to beat the addiction with Alcoholics Anonymous support group. His childhood was traumatic, the prequel to this memoir was _Running with Scissors_, not an easy read, funny but with very dark humour. So often alcohol is like self-medicating for people with problems dealing with their past. I too have seen this. A lot of people who went through things like the war, eg. soldiers returning from wars, that's how they dealt with it.

So yes, it's no joke for some people at least, can get serious. But I don't have a problem with drinking in moderation. Sadly, here esp. on weekends, it's getting way out of control, binge drinking & alcohol related violence is like part of the culture now, which is kind of scary.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

1/20

I drink alone at home, but that only goes to show that I have good taste in drinking venues.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Crudblud said:


> 1/20
> 
> I drink alone at home, but that only goes to show that I have good taste in drinking venues.


And not a dearth of boon companions? I have lived in the boonies most of my life, and never seen one of those critturs.


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## Polyphemus (Nov 2, 2011)

I used to be till I found out it caused the hangovers.


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## Andy Loochazee (Aug 2, 2007)

I'm definitely not an alcoholic for the simple reason that I don't drink any alcohol. I used to do so in moderation, with never more than 2-3 standard units a day, and probably less than 15 in a week, up to about age 21. I'm now in my late 30's. This packing up wasn't done out of any religious convictions, or other social pressures; it was purely the result of my own best judgement based on long-term health and financial considerations. My wife is a GP in the UK's National Health Service and she sees alcoholics, and various alcohol-related illnesses, practically ever day of the week. Unfortunately, we've had very close experience of an alcoholic in our own family. From this I know exactly how a typical alcoholic behaves, the lies they tell to conceal their habit, the way it completely destroys their lives, and how it severely impacts on close family members. This particular individual first contracted early-stage cirrohsis at around age 21, and after several failed attempts to stop drinking finished up at age 35 in an intensive care unit at a big hospital. They couldn't save him and after suffering excrutiating pain he died of multiple organ failure (heart, liver, kidneys) following uncontrollable esophageal bleeding. If young people who drink too much but who think they'll be safe could be taken round a liver ward in hospital and see for themselves the disgusting way victims of excessive long-term intake of alcohol finish up it would definitely shock them. Alcoholics don't just fade away gracefully; there's usually a nasty ending of some description awaiting them in due course.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

[video] 



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Let's have a little fun.

Martin


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

No, but unfortunately my father is. He has been known to drink up to 20 beers in a day during the summer. But because he "doesn't drink liquor on a regular basis" he thinks he's not an alcoholic. He also thinks that because he was able to hold down a good job for thirty years also means that he's not an alcoholic. He lives in an extreme state of denial, and unfortunately I don't think he'll ever even get to the point where he thinks he might have a problem.


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