QUOTE (jpmartin59 @ Oct 12 2008, 09:56 PM)
Memo to F&M: People who consume more than 20 drinks weekly are alcoholics. They need to be identified and required to attend groups and monitered as DUI's are, ostracized and prohibited from influencing others.
I strongly disagree with this. you can easily drink 20 drinks a week and not be a alcoholic.
here is a normal test to see if you are dependant to alcohol, 3 or more in the past year means you probably are.
Have you had times when you ended up drinking more than you meant to, or kept on drinking for longer than you intended?
Have you, more than once, wanted to, or tried to stop or cut down on your drinking but found you couldn’t?
Have you found that you have to drink much more than you once did to get the effect you want, or that your usual number of drinks has much less effect on you than it once did?
When the effects of alcohol are wearing off, have you had trouble sleeping, or experienced physical symptoms such as shaking, feeling nervous, nauseous, restless, sweating or rapid heartbeat? Have you sensed things that aren’t really there, felt bugs crawling on your skin, or had seizures?
Have you taken a drink or used any drug or medicine (other than over-the-counter pain relievers) to avoid having bad after-effects of drinking, or to get over an after-effect of alcohol use, or hangover?
Have you continued to drink even though you knew it was making you feel depressed or anxious, causing a health problem or making one worse, or has caused a blackout?
Have you had a period when you spent a lot of time drinking, being sick, or getting over the negative after-effects of drinking?
In order to drink, have you given up, or cut down on activities that were important to you, interesting or pleasurable?
You cant say that 20 or more drinks a week requires classes and all that it is absurd. If you only had an idea how many people in this country drink more then 20 drinks in a week and are contributing members to our society your head would spin. It is obvious that you do not get out much that or you earn less then 30k a year because studies have shown people with low income look down upon drinking more then others with significant income.