How much do you have to drink before you have a drinking problem?
I asked google this, took a screening test, and got a red light.
Hmm… You know, it doesn’t bother me that I drink a lot. It’s just the hangovers that get me down.
So my friend Scott (to the right, thinking) helped me come up with a plan: 2 drinks a day. Yes, that’s 14 a week, which some consider a lot — but I’d still be cutting down my habit by more than a third. Scott’s suggestion: Do stuff other than happy hour or going to bars. “Go watch a movie,” he said.
Um, the last movie I watched, I had drinks before and after.
Somehow, most of my social activities now incorporate alcohol. Tomorrow, for ex, I’ll be at the Twilight Shopping Benefit. There will be many green and organic gifts. There will be yummy appetizers. And most importantly, there’ll be champaign. Or champers, as Kimmy calls it.
Originally, Kimmy wanted to hit a wine tasting / solar power presentation after this. That got nixed, not cuz of the alcohol issue but because the wine thing started at 6, and the twilight thing started at 5. We need more than 1 hour for shopping and champers.
Anyway — I’m more of an all-or-nothing girl, so just going cold turkey might actually be easier. But I don’t wanna go cold turkey. I kinda like how the world looks through wine-tinted eyes. Just not, you know, wine-soaked.
Yesterday I only had 1 glass of wine. Still didn’t get up before 10, but my head was pain-free when I did. Yey me!
Update, 7/16/06: An update on my drinking habit.
Twilight Shopping Benefit. An evening of shopping to benefit Habitat for Humanity and Global Green USA efforts in New Orleans. 5-10 pm. 1501 Main Street (corner of Main & Windward) Venice Beach. 310.581.6450.
What heresy is this? Drink up. We live in troubled times.
Comment by Rodger Jacobs — December 14, 2005 @ 6:27 pm
Putting on my social worker hat -remember, you DID ask ;)
If it’s bothering you, it’s a problem. I don’t necessarily think it’s a drinking problem in a medical sense, but it’s bugging you. You can change it.
For me, the key was in un-linking the notion of celebration and alcohol. It happened when I was about your age, and had (have) a dear friend who’s a recovering alcoholic. OF COURSE, you don’t serve wine when there’s a person with relatively new sobriety at your house. (Now we can; he doesn’t mind at all. But interestingly, I no longer feel the need to do it.) So we learned to entertain and be entertained without alcohol. Seriously, there’s been no loss of fun.
I still have …I don’t know… 2 or 3 glasses of wine a week. And I have a serious liking for micro-brews, but no one else in my family does, so I avoid that one usually. But a party without wine isn’t a problem.
Comment by Andrea — December 15, 2005 @ 6:16 am
Siel,
I doubt you have a ‘drinking problem.’ I disagree with Andrea’s analysis that if it is bugging you then its a problem. By that definition, Carry Nation had a drinking problem - drinking bugged her an awful lot, so she had a drinking problem? Thinking about George Bush bugs me a lot, so I should stop thinking about George Bush? Just because _other_ people might have a problem with how much you drink doesn’t mean _you_ have a problem. It’s _their_ problem if they can’t deal with the way you enjoy alcohol.
Modern American society has a very warped view about alochol. We think it is inherently bad, and yet most of us like it and do it. This strange ambivalence is unique in human history. I could pontificate for a long time on this topic, but wait, I did - it is all in my new book! It’s called Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World. But you’ll have to wait about nine months before it hits the shelves. Keep an eye on http://www.beeractivist.com for updates. The book should be out in Sept. 2006 on New Society Publishers. In it, you will find extensive and fun reading about why drinking a mere two daily glasses of wine (or beer, my beverage of choice) is not only _not_ a problem, but is very significantly GOOD for your overall health and well-being - and that’s not according to me, but to actual _scientists_.
Fermenting Revolution,
Chris O’Brien
Drink Beer. Save the World.
http://www.beeractivist.com
Comment by Chris 'Beer Activist' O'Brien — December 15, 2005 @ 6:53 am
hey:
chris, welcome back from ethiopia!
now, i have to say your comment up there is playing down siel’s question. i agree with andrea in that if you are walking around feeling guilty and out of control about drinking (or just physically bad), you might think about drinking in a way, or not drinking in a way, that makes you feel better.
the difference between feeling bad about W and feeling bad about drinking is that you can choose to change the drinking habit. W is another can of worms, he is outside the personal control of most of us (let’s not go there!).
the problem with our culture and alcohol (or cigarettes, weed, coffee, etc) is not prudishness, it is excess. 1 or 2 beers is pretty harmless for most of us, but we want more more more. so this stuff is not inherently bad, it is just that many of us insist on using substances in a way that does not appreciate what they do. a lot of societies in the past used substances in rituals, ceremonies, and special occasions. now we just throw them back out of sheer habit.
anyway, i hear you on the beauty of a little beer. but on the other hand, to me any habit that mentally of physically makes you feel lousy should be jettisoned from your life.
Comment by mateotemprano — December 15, 2005 @ 9:19 am
Chris — You’re back? Welcome back! You know I signed up for the beer activist newsletter a while back, but have never actually received one! What’s up with that, huh? ;) Wondering if a new one just isn’t out yet, or if I’ve been somehow excised from the list for trying to cut back…
Anyway, thanks everyone for weighing in :) My stance now: drinking good, hangover bad. I’m just trying to drink less so I’m hung over less.
Of course, since I’m down to 2 drinks a day, I’ve been thinking of buying bigger wine glasses…
Comment by Siel — December 15, 2005 @ 11:28 am
Hey to all Greens!
I am launching a ’social change’ blog about ethical utopian society and hope to generate extensive flow of information. please share what you think, I would appreciate it. If you like to affiliate with me, just let me know.
http://www.blackspotcafe.blogspot.com
Comment by Anonymous — December 15, 2005 @ 11:43 am
Huh? Where did I say you should stop thinking about things you deem to be a problem? What I said was that you should change things you deem to be a problem. And I meant-but didn’t say- things internal to yourself. Although I’m certainly open to the interpretation that George Bush bugs me; therfore I should do something about the fact that he’s technically speaking my president.
Comment by Andrea — December 15, 2005 @ 5:38 pm
I agree with Chris: American society does have a very warped view about alcohol. Our whole culture is built around over-consumption and guilt, it’s just that there’s a stigma attached to drinking more than other activities, such as binge eating or excessive shopping. I hear people do it all the time with food - but if you do with alcohol, suddenly you have a problem. Go figure.
Comment by BlondebutBright — December 16, 2005 @ 3:03 pm
Dubya bugs me so much. I drink to kill the pain — Which I s’pose brings me back to Rodger’s point –
BTW — I feel no real guilt about drinking. I do, however, feel some guilt about getting nothing done on my hungover days. By nothing, I mean only knitting. Not dissing knitting, but I’m supposed to be working on a dissertation ‘n stuff –
Comment by Siel — December 18, 2005 @ 6:01 pm