Am I an alcoholic, not sure...

[savexourxship]

I think I drink out of boredom... Also over time I've realized that I enjoy myself and my surroundings much more while intoxicated.  I dont enjoy being sober, granted I don't obsess over getting a drink when I am.  But, I can't go out or hangout with my friends without drinking.  I work overnight, and almost everyday I come home at 730am, wait for the store to open at 8, and then go get 4 40's.  And on my two nights off a week I drink aswell, usually more because I know I have a those days to recover...  I truly believe that I am NOT self medicating since I am long since 99% cured of anxiety...  Isnt there a more in depth definition of alcoholic/alcoholism.  At this point, the only thing that upsets me about my habit is the fact that I do things that I wish I hadn't when I drink.  We all do, but when you drink at this rate, it really adds up...  The kinda stuff when you wake up you already know you did something dumb, or said something or sent an email or a text.  Now you just have to hope it can be deleted or the other person was smashed and forgets too.  PS, I havent been drinking today...  Although I think im about to get up and go get something cause im bored and I cant sleep.  And you know what really pisses me off, when im standing in line behind all these crackhead scratch ticket addicts who scratch at the counter.  And I think to myself, "and i think i have a problem, atleast I get something out of my pissed away money"...

[laa43]

Hi! Well I'm definitely not in a position to tell you wether or not you are an alcoholic or not as I am not a professional on the subject nor a doctor. I did however find this site that may be able to discern if you could possibly be an alcoholic   http://www.campral.com/rec_symptoms.aspx . The fact that you notice that there may be a problem is a good thing. I don't drink much now but I drank incessantly in college. Much of it was mostly for an escape but also I did find that when I drank I was no longer shy and "seemed" to be more comfortable and "fun" in social situations......all of that was just an excuse. The "doing stupid things when you drink" is personally enough reason to look into wether you have a drinking problem or not. You don't want to end up doing something that you REALLY regret or that potentially could end up causing harm to you or someone else. 

And I think to myself, "and i think i have a problem, atleast I get something out of my pissed away money"...

    do you really? potential and possibly deadly health problems among many other things is not worth the trade off. Take care and I wish you the best.

[Copper]

Drinking a twelve pack every day would probably qualify as alcoholism by any definition.

[JAnn]

Yeah you probably are. When it becomes such a part of your life you are becoming an alcoholic. I used to be one as well.

[sickandtired]

I am a recovering alcoholic, been sober for 4 years now, but also have been suffering from anxiety and panic and agorophobia for almost 16 years.

For me, I had to overcome the drinking first to work on attacking the anxiety. 

But I would have to have a drink in a social situation to feel comfortable, or have a few cocktails before I went into a social setting and try to get relaxed, but when you have anxiety, getting relaxed from booze doesn't work!

Now I look back, I was just nervous to be around people, but also not comfortable in my own skin.

I had to become comfortable with myself first and know who I was and be able to be around a lot of people. Once I did that, I really didn't care who I was around in a social situation and I didn't have to have my security blanket, (the alcohol) :)

To stop drinking was difficult at first, but after drinking for 14 years and losing almost everyone in my life, family and friends I pushed away over the years due to my drinking, my mind and body couldn't take it anymore, and I wanted to start "living" my life than just getting drunk and obliterated.

I owed it to myself to stop drinking.  You may owe it to yourself too!

I was self destructing myself, I wanted to live, I wasn't ready to die and I thought that would be a pretty crappy way to go, drinking myself to death, drinking and driving and killing someone on the road, hitting someone or 0669,

or not functioning at work and on the job like I should be, interfering with my relationships, people so close to me that really cared about me and I pushed them away, SO STUPID.

The thought of going out and getting wasted and feeling like s*** the next day or maybe the next 3 or 4 days, depending on how bad my anxiety was, just wasn't making sense to me, I was waking up.

I did it out of boredom too, but I thought there were so many other things, productive things I could be doing, like working on my life, re-learning how to live and be a good person, not that person you see at the bar or restaurant tossing back drinks and being the most obnoxious person in the place, you know?  I didn't want to be that person.

The anxiety after a night of drinking was getting so old too, thinking about what I might have said, might have done, how I could have died, just beating myself up all the time.

I can tell you one thing is for sure, now that I am sober and have kicked the alcohol out of my life, there is no more drama, chaos and misery in my life, I also used to hate being around people, I used to judge and put them down and think I was right all the time and I knew it all and they didn't, I didn't know s***! LOL

I had to learn how to live and grow and take responsiblity for things in my life, and "deal with" life on life's terms and not drink and think the problem or issue or something I had to do would just go away

I drank everyday after work, I would go to the bar or just go home and get hammered, go home and pass out and wake up go to work, get hammered after work, then the anxiety was right along with me the entire time I was getting sloshed and then when I was hungover, it NEVER went away!

I had to learn how to overcome things that happened in my life to be able to say to myself, I really don't need to drink because of "it" anymore.  And "it" can be anything! Issues in your life, your past, boredom, relationship issues (parents, friends, wife, husband), the list goes on and on...

I would suggest you may want to find other things to do when you are bored, because you may end up down a road you don't want to be on, the best of luck to you!

[reneseth]

Some of the symptoms of alcohol addiction are

Inability to control drinking
Drinking to relax
Placing drinking at higher priority

If you find one of these behaviors in you then you are addicted to it. Refer Alcoholabuse.com to get more information on alcoholism.