What's the difference between an alcoholic and a heavy drinker?

Question

The joke goes that a heavy drinker takes the dishes out of the sink before having a p**s.. Really, though, is an alcoholic doomed..?

Answer 1

Alcoholics are only people in which Alcohol has affected their lives in a serious and permanent NEGATIVE manner (i.e. loss of job, relationships, etc...)

Answer 2

Alcoholics actually go through withdrawls. Physical as well as mental. You body needs it to balance out and feel ok. It's a proven fact that addicts have died undergoing withdrawls from aclohol.

a heavy drinker is someone who drinks hard in one sitting but could also go a very long time without any alcohol. Its more of a social need than an actual addiction.

Answer 3

One has a disease (alcoholism) and one is a a few beers away (heavy drinker). If you are in one of these categories, try your best to regain control of this habit. Alcohol is temporary solution with regrettable adverse effects in the long run.

Answer 4

an alchoholic is sum1 who NEEDS sum alchoholic substance to live (obv not as alchos have not drunk and still live) but its how nthey and there body think they need it where as a heavy drinker is sum1 who drinks  A LOT in one go

Answer 5

I'm not a professional alcohol therapist, but I know that they break people down in different categories based on their drinking habits.  One might be a problem drinker or a chronic drinker or something.  Eventually, if a person persists in alcohol consumption, they become physically and mentally dependent on alcohol.  These folks are alcoholics.  The most serious and chronic alcoholics must drink every day or they experience terrible withdrawal symptoms like delirium tremens (DTs), visions, auditory hallucinations and other bad stuff.  Some folks may consider themselves alcoholics even though they have never been dependent on alcohol; this may be because they experienced bad consequences from the drinking they did do (like drunk driving crashes or arrests, unwanted pregnancies, missed work or lost jobs, drunken stupidity allowing for the use of hard drugs etc.)

A heavy drinker is someone who drinks regularly but may not have ever experienced any negative ramifications.

There is a decent article below.  There are also tons of sites that offer helpful checklists useful for self-assessment for folks who are concerned that they drink too much.

Admitting one has a problem is the first step, after all....

Answer 6

about 10 pints a day

Answer 7

heavy drinkers like me dont like to call themselves alcoholics but they are the same thing to me

Answer 8

no he is not doomed,,its his choice to carry on or stop!!! simple,,and  message to    just m,,,i do hope you are ok,,all the best to you ok.

Answer 9

An alcoholic feels dependent on the alcohol.

Answer 10

alcoholism is an addiction, heavy drinking is a choice

Answer 11

Only the person themselves can determine if they are an alcoholic. If drinking is impacting their daily lives in a negative way. People will say you are an alcoholic if you drink everyday. I know plenty of people that have a drink when they get home from work, but still get up the next day and live a perfectly functional life.

Answer 12

one tells the truth, and the other is a liar,

the alcoholic is man enough to accept he is an alcoholic, but the heavy drinker deneis the fact he is an alcoholic and insists he just likes a few pint every night.

its a bit like saying, whats the difference between a heroin addict and somebody who takes heroin everyday ?

my parents are the classic example ,  my mother has 2 litre of red wine per day and my father has 12 pints of beer a day, but they insist they are not alcoholics,

makes me so mad

Answer 13

The difference is that an alcoholic needs to drink everyday because it's an addiction and a heavy drinker can drink a lot let's say in one night but doesn't need alcohol every single day to feel better

Answer 14

I was labelled an alcoholic a long time ago and when I asked the Doctor some years later why he did so, he said" You are dependent on it to survive", I was using alcohol as a crutch and it eventually made me have a bad fall and I was broke up after it. With good guidance I have not had a drink in over 8 years and I love my new life. It has not taken all my ailments away but I have learned to cope without it.

Answer 15

Alcoholics go to meetings.

Answer 16

Dependency. An alcoholic is addicted to alcohol. A heavy drinker can go without alcohol by choice, an alcoholic cannot. The same applies to drugs. One hit of heroin does not make a person an addict for example. When I was in the Navy, I was a very heavy drinker, but went out to sea on deployment for 90 day periods with no ill effects. I was NOT an alcoholic, though some people thought I might have a drinking problem. I have since cut way back on my consumption. Today, I might run through a case of beer in a month, but I used to go through 2 cases (or more) every weekend that I was in port and didnlt have to work...