Is this guy just a “drunk” or an alcoholic?
Saturday, October 15th, 2011A young guy that is 23 years of age I know loves to get drunk…in fact he can drink a 24 case of beer in just one sitting. I know the signs of an alcoholic because, a close family members is a recovering alcoholic…you know, hiding the liquor, drinking alone, feeling bad about drinking and etc. This young man says he doesn’t feel bad about his drinking, he doesn’t drink alone, and he doesn’t feel bad about it and doesn’t see anything wrong with getting “messed up” and “stupid drunk” every weekend or several times a week if that is what he chooses to do. He just admitted recently that he is a drunk, but that it doesn’t affect him holding down a job and taking care of his personal business. I see it as a possible problem because, I have witness him in his drunkenness; he gets into fights with innocent people, he grab some woman’s butt one time at a beer fest and then he refused to apologize, he is either really nice or really mean and hostile when drunk, he will lose his wallet and phone…there were two instances where he got so drunk that he landed him in the hospital and another time he was stranded somewhere unknown in the dead of winter. This guy tells me that it is “normal” for his culture to drink (he is Mexican) and that it’s something he will slow down with age, but I beg to differ. Knowing how alcohol addiction can affect the addict and the loved ones, it’s not something that you wake up one day and say “I won’t drink anymore” it progresses. So if he has been drinking since the age of 15 and he is 23 now, at one point does he think he will be able to “slow down?” Esp. if he sees nothing wrong with it and his friends and family are drinking to drunk as well. I told him that it’s not enough to just have a job and take care of business, if he continues to think that drinking to get drunk is a way of having fun, he will ruin not only his life, but his health as well…his mother has talked to him about it, but he won’t stop…he says he won’t rather he will just “slow down” as he gets older.
What do you guys think? Is he right about just being a drunk and not an alcoholic? Is there a difference (I think it is based on my research and personal exp. in dealing with a loved one suffering from liver disease due to alcoholism)?