Flack wrote:Here are a few questions to get the keg rolling.
01. Define alcoholism. Does that mean you drink daily, or does it mean you drink too much when you drink?
Someone I know is one so I've seen all of it.
An "alcoholic" is someone who has an addiction to consumption of alcohol which interferes with their ability to live their life.
If you drink, but you don't lose the ability to function without alcohol then you're not an alcoholic. There are some men who are heavy drinkers, but they drink socially, they don't drink on the job and they don't let liquor affect the rest of their lives, so while they do drink heavily, they're not alcoholics.
02. Financially, how much does being an alcoholic cost?
Depends. If you realized you were and stopped, nothing. If you're still a practicing alcoholic, it might not be much. If getting sloshed only takes two beers a day, it might not be a lot of money. But most alcoholics become tolerant of booze. This is a problem because there is one safety factor. Your body will pass out when you reach your limit. If you drank more than would cause yu to pass out you can die of alcohol poisoning.
Since alcohol is legal it's not that expensive compared to say a heroin or coke addiction, but alcoholics can and do spend all they have supporting their habit. Some resort to stealing if they run out of money.
Although if you get a high enough tolerance that can be a lot. About a year or so a guy was busted in Pennsylvania for drunk driving, and registered something like 3.0. Note that the legal limit to be intoxicated is <s>0.10</s> 0.08. This guy registered the highest blood alcohol level in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Thirty times the limit. I'm surprised he was still alive.
03. Have you ever gone to work drunk and/or drank while on the job?
That's the definition of a "functional alcoholic." They had an episode of the Twilight Zone about that. Newspaper reporter comes in every night, three sheets to the wind, sits down and types out incredibly great copy, as he's done (both) every day for twenty years.
Then he stops drinking. Almost nobody recognized him because he was clean shaven, he was wearing a freshly pressed suit, and he talked to people. His son is coming to see him, and he decides to take time off to take his son on a trip around the world. He goes into his boss' office and tells the editor his son is dying of cancer and he wants to spend his son's last few months with him.
The editor meets the young man, who asks if he might be able to come work for the paper. The editor realizes - without saying anything to the son - that the reporter was lying, he is the one who's dying and wants to spend his own last few months with his son. So the editor tells him that they'd be delighted to have him start as a cub reporter.
The staff on the paper get regular post cards as the ship travels around the world. Then they get a telegram informing them that one of them is returning.
They anxiously await the return of the young man, as they hear the elevator coming from the lobby.
In walks the reporter, sloshed three sheets to the wind, as he has been every night for twenty years, who goes back to his desk and pounds out great copy, just like before.
Yeah, some people are fully functional alcoholics.
04. What made you become an alcoholic and what will it take for you to stop?
An alcoholic is compensating for something, and believes drinking eases the pain of whatever it is. You can't make an alcoholic - or any addict - stop drinking - or drugging - they have to hit bottom and choose to stop because continuing to be an addict is no longer fun.
