Define "alcoholic" in your own words.?

Question

What defines an alcoholic?

Someone who drinks to get drunk (yet does so rarely)

Someone who drinks more than x number of drinks a day, week, month?

Someone who drinks to where it effects their job (may drink a 12 pack a day, but still gets up and goes to work)

How do you define alcoholic?

Answer 1

Someone who has become powerless over their addiction.  They realize they are drinking too much maybe and they can't seem to actually do anything about it.

They say, oh I don't have to have any more than 4 or 5 drinks tonight, but by the end of the night they are hammered and this happens on a consistent basis.

Answer 2

From experience I can tell you my impression of an alcoholic.

First, alcohol is the number one thing in their mind.  It comes first, before food, family or reasoning.

They learn to conive, lie and will develop a knack of trying to convince you and everybody else that THEY are the victims and every thing that happens to them is some elses fault.

At work they will disappear and show up hours later or not at all.  They will always have beer, liquor and/or mouth wash on their breath.  

Answer 3

Someone who relies heavily on drink to get them througn most days, and even the smallest amount of stress

Someone who lies about it/hides drink/tries to disguise when they are drinking

Someone who drinks so much, it takes a huge amount of alcohol before they become drunk because they have built up such a tolerance to it

Someone who can't function without drinking alcohol

Someone who has it on their mind all the time

Someone who starts losing friends, relationships and their life to it.  

Answer 4

One becomes an alcoholic when drinking affects life negatively, e.g. spending on alcohol exceeds what he/she can afford, it affects his/her daily functioning for an extended period of time, exposes him/herself to dangers associated with drinking, e.g. drink driving.

In short, one is an alcoholic when he/she drinks more than what he/she can, should, must, can afford to.

Answer 5

a person who can not take one drink . because if he dose he will go back to drinking a case of beer or a bottle of booze  .. a person with a disease if he stops drinking his life is in remission, contengent on the first drink , its not the caboose that kills you its the engine.. so a alcoloalic is a person who can not drink one drink because they get drunk and cant control it  , aperson who drinks every day one drink can be an alcoholic try not drinking for 90 days and you will know if you are one ,, 20 yrs sober one day at a time not drinking from a alcoholic   a.a. is there to help you if you want it .

Answer 6

Someone who cannot live without alcohol, cannot get through a social event without having a drink.  Who cannot function normally without a drink.  Someone who never knows when they've had enough, because they never have had enough.  Basically it's a need where you feel you can not get through each day without a drink to take the edge off your worries, shyness, lack of confidence or whatever it is you feel you cannot handle.

Answer 7

First and foremost ``alcoholic`` is a label.  Individuals then paint a picture in their minds as to what the definition actually is and it differs from person to person.  Once the label is accepted as one`s own, the person then conforms and confirms.  The same applies to all other labels.

An addiction is a habit and we all have many.  We tend to make a much bigger deal about them than they deserve and then the label sticks.

If someone else pulls the label off, it hurts, which is why we resent answers like this one.  

Oddly enough the best way to shift our attention away from a habit is to develop new ones which will capture the attention.  We tend to think that habits or addictions are negative, but many are beneficial.

Either way we can`t live without them.  I even dare to say that at one level they are the reason for living.  They create strong desires and strong desires help in the creation process.

You see, it is all connected.   Cheers!  

Answer 8

               Someone who doesn't  think they are alcoholic.  

Answer 9

Someone who abuses alcohol

Answer 10

A person who keeps an esky of beer by their bed.

This same person who wakes in the night and reaches down for a stubby.

This person who doesn't even leave his bed to drink it.

This man lost his wife, his three daughters and his job.

In anyones words, this person is an alcoholic.

Answer 11

someone who is addicted to alcohol.  They may try to hide their drinking or downplay it.  They use it as a way of masking other deeper rooted problems.

Answer 12

Someone who drinks for the sole purpose of getting drunk, even if it's only on the weekends...

Answer 13

An alcoholic is someone who is addicted to alcohol.  Yes, alcohol can be addictive just like drugs if it is abused.