Just wondered - I mean what is the true definition of 'alcoholic'?

Not the text book version but the 'real' person version?

I don't know what the text book answer is but I think it's someone who can't go without a drink for a full day.

Does it look like the lady in the mirror

Alcoholics go to meetings - otherwise your a drunk.

Yes

Well what about if you enjoy a drink on a regular basis but you NEVER get drunk - falling down drunk or even pissed?

Alcoholism isn't about getting legless all the time, it's about not being able to control the craving for a drink.

A bit like smoking, you are an addict if you need one. But some people can smoke just when they go out so therefore they are not addicted.

What if you don't NEED one but enjoy one? Say some nights you don't want a drink and some nights you do - if you can't refrain when you want one - then does that mean you are an addict? Like people who eat chocolate just because they don't eat chocolate all the time but have it every now and then because they enjoy it - does that make them an addict?

Why how much chocolate are you eating

My dad never ever got legless but he was an alcoholic. He would wake up in the morning and shake, it would take some time to get the lighter to the cigarette. He would be parked outside the pub before opening time lunch and evening (those were the days when they closed for the afternoon). He never got to hiding it because he just went to the pub. He could very occasionally get violent but only if he hadn't been to the pub, never after.

We got him into a rehab place and after three days I had to go and get him because he was crying and at the end of the day, he was an age when it was too late to solve the problem. Unfortunately she is still alive whilst he is now long gone.

It is no different from cigarette or drug addiction.

I don't know the real-life definition, but I have worked with people who have been referred to as 'functioning alcoholics', i.e. they can hold down a job, have a wife, family etc. But they like a drink.

Apparently they are still alcoholics.

Alternatively, I've heard alcoholics defined as people who let drink destroy their lives (a la George Best RIP)

I mean by certain definitions Winston Churchill and most of the wartime cabinet were alcos cos they always had a few sherries, a few ports and a few whiskeys etc every day. I'd guess they were all a bit merry by bedtime every night.

I think the proper definition is whether it controls your life.

JTL

In my opinion, an alcoholic is someone who wakes up in the morning and 'wants' a drink (like my brother who used to keep a couple of cans next to his bed). Someone who drinks in secret (like the lady that used to bring a bottle of milk into work only for us to eventually realise her erratic behaviour was because it was laced with vodka). Someone who wears a thick woolly jumper when it's roasting hot because they are so very cold and can never get warm and who turns up the pub and seems rather drunk and agressive after only one pint (because they've already been drinking all day but don't admit it), and someone who has excessive twitches when sitting next to you, like the jigging up and down of a knee (all the latter just like my poor friend whom we no longer see since he's attempted to face up to his alcohol addiction that was slowly killing him)

Would 50 bottles of wife beater a week count as a problem?

Yes I agree with you there

Are you permenantly pissed? Do you smell of special brew?
Do your friends call you a pisshead?
If so you are probably an alchoholic.

Glad to help.