What kind of alcholoic is this?

Question

In my Family there is a member who drink constantly... Vodka.. goes through a large bottle in 3 days. waste tons of money on them obviously- Mixes it with very light coke. SHe still pays her bills, goes to work.. but RIGHT after work she hits the bottle.. HARD sometimes its so bad that if we take her out she "sneaks" her vodka in a water bottle.. I cant stand it- its killing us.. BUt if we dare ever mention or talk about her drinking i think it would get so bad she wouldn't speak to us. And its not like oh happy drunk its like a mean drunk. Isnt there a name for those alcoholics? Im actually scared for her. Its been liek this for years for as long as i can remember

Answer 1

An alcoholic is just that and you are an Al-Anon. You can't fix her but you can fix you - join Al-Anon, get the support you need from people like you dealing with people like her. Good Luck!

Answer 2

Yes, Alcoholic.  According to AA there are practicing alcoholics, ones who still drink and recovering alcoholic., ones that don't.

Find an Al-Anon progran near you.  Alanon.com it think.

Answer 3

You talking about ME?

LOLOL I used to drink like that but one big bottle would only last 2 days, really!

She is a (as us alcoholics would call it) A FUNTIONAL DRUNK. .

One who pays their bills, goes to work, does everything that needs to be done.

Leave her alone and hope she changes like I did!!  

Answer 4

I don't know. What's a "large" bottle exactly? For example, a 70cl bottle in 3 days is not all that much - certainly nowhere near enough to have me thinking "wooh, danger!" That sort of quantity is normal drinking from my point of view. However, if she was putting away that much vodka every single day then it could very well be cause for concern.

Answer 5

A large bottle I assume to mean 1.75L.  Yeah, that's certainly a lot of vodka.  A regular (750mL) bottle in 3 days is still a lot; that's 5-6 drinks a day.  A handle in 3 days works out to 18-19 drinks a day... which is life threatening over the course of several years (perhaps 7; 5-6 drinks a day would take much longer to be life-threatening but would certainly cause problems).

Some people would call this a functional alcoholic.  Basically, there is certainly a dependence on alcohol, but it hasn't reached the point where it controls their life.  I would assume that given enough time, any functional alcoholic will turn into an alcoholic whose life is controlled by alcohol.  It's fairly biological, actually -- the alcohol molecule can take over the role of GABA in our brains; in that case the person can not live without alcohol since they no longer produce GABA.  Without alcohol they literally can die from withdrawl.

I think she needs real help to stop.  I don't mean AA, I mean rehab.  From the sound of it, I don't think she is ready to go, which certainly will make this extremely difficult.

Answer 6

Lol. I don't know. (: A hard drinker?

Answer 7

I found this site on WebMD, I hope it helps.  Sometimes alcohol is used to hide other problems like a mental illness/disorder.  I thought my mother-in-law was an alcoholic and then she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  She still drinks though, which can't be any good with her meds. =( I'm sorry you are going through this.  

  I disagree with the comments above.  If her drinking is causing problems and is hurting her or your family talk to her first and tell her that what she's doing is hurting you and give her a chance to straighten up, don't ignore the problem.  As for AA, it is one of the oldest alcohol programs, but is faith based and doesn't emphasize that the alcoholic has the power to change, and relinquishes the responsibility of overcoming the addiction to a higher power.  If this isn't your cup of tea, I would suggest a program with a hospital or a trained psychologist/pyschiatrist, in some cases in-patient clinics work best.  Good luck.

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/alcoh...

Answer 8

An alcoholic, is an alcoholic, is an alcoholic---wether or not they are happy or mean....this is a problem.....