Quote:
Originally Posted by crimsoncat
Ok so I have done some research and it seems to me you can have a mild to moderate drinking disorder without actually being dependent? Is that right????
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Sure, depending upon what is actually meant by the terms disorder, dependence, craving, obsession, compulsion and/or whatever else...and the same can even happen with doughnuts until we begin talking about actual alcoholism.
Concerning disorder, dependence and/or obsession:
Having a few drinks to be silly with some friends is one thing, but then "having a few" to try to change how we feel is something much different...and there is where I would guess "mild to moderate" might fit prior to actually becoming truly "dependent" (intellectually and/or emotionally) upon the effect in order to be able to function in life at all.
Separate from those kinds of things, however, and yet alongside them for certain people -- actual alcoholics -- are the matters of physical craving and/or physical compulsion...and those often get confused or mis-construed as being mental or emotional matters such as above. But at least as shared in A.A., some of us actually have some abnormal body chemistry or a so-called "physical allergy" (Dr. Silkworth, 1939) making controlled drinking impossible and beyond all mental control. So in A.A. we have two simple "tests" anyone can take for a bit of self-diagnosis:
1. Try to drink just two or three and quit abruptly (until another day) to see whether the phenomenon of physical craving takes over and keeps you drinking anyway;
2. Try to stop altogether for a year and see what happens.
Few drinkers will actually experience that first problem, but many might experience the second.