Pete Hegseth Secretary of Defense
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My dad was a heavy drinker when I was younger. I went and worked with him the summer after graduating high school and the minute it hit 4:30, someone at the shop was at the liquor store buying a couple cases. That was every damn day. He wouldn't come home until late at night.
What I can say is he didn't drink during work hours, always waiting until 4:30. He drove a tire repair truck, so he wouldn't risk losing his job like that.
Thank God he met my stepmother. She set him straight, which my dad will readily admit. He hasn't had a drink in 10 years now. Super proud of him.
Had an old partner who was an alcoholic. One day a buddy of mine and Cortez’s came in town to visit and I was introducing him around at work and I go ahh shit he’s on the phone. My buddy goes I don’t think so. He was sitting behind his big desk passed out with the phone on his ear.
Best ever. We all made him go to rehab. So he’s at rehab at some group thing and this lady in a massive cast comes hobbling up and sits down next to him. After a while he turns to her and goes boy you really did yourself in.
What’d you do? Broke a bone. Tore some ligaments
Yikes how’d you do that?
I was carrying a bunch of boxes at work and slipped on a wet spot.
Ouch!!! You know you can file a claim for that.
Yeah. I did. I got a lawyer.
Well good. I’m Mike by the way.
Sarah.
Good to meet ya.
Then about ten minutes passed and he got to thinking and turned to her and goes. You’re probably not going to want to hear this. But I think I’m your lawyer.
She looked straight ahead and goes. I think so too 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
One client came in for a status update and he signed them up like a new case
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That’s a dead end alcoholic. There are functioning alcoholics like in Ohio and my experience.
Yeah apparently the rehab and AA meetings these guys know so many people. I could write drunk stories all day. We had a superfund lawyer. Finished top of his class at cal. Was a litigator for the great Willie Gary. I’ll never forget they had sun fest concerts and a beer truck as we were walking back from lunch and he goes want to grab a beer? I go okay. He got two for each hand and downed them in the 1/4 mile walk to the office.
We sued Jackson memorial hospital in Miami. Depo. All these lawyers there and the big dog from work asked him to pass some documents over. He turned to me and goes can you grab those. I go they’re the ones you have. He reached across the table with an arm shaking so badly everyone stopped talking. Fired.
Soccer buddy got super drunk and wrecked his car at the train crossing. Dwi. Train co sued him for wrecking his shit. Got to court and he immediately recognized the train company’s lawyer. He coached his son. As in literally that night.
On top of all the shit of being a drunk they go through so much humbling shit
You’re describing my uncles who owned an auto repair shop. Both were no doubt alcoholics and didn’t drink until shop closed. Alcoholism killed both.
It’s a fascinating thing. My best friend rarely drank. But if drunk was wild and meaner than shit. Stopped drinking altogether. And hasn’t had a drink in years. And I know that’s why he got into edibles, which by the way doesn’t have that impact on him at all. Nice as ever unlike booze
I don't think the term 'alcoholic' is a medical term. It's alcohol use disorder and it's on a spectrum.
My grandpa and uncle were both high functioning alcoholics. Never missed work, never drank until they got home. But when they did, they drank until they passed out. Killed both of them.
How old were they? Were they smokers?
I will say most of the heavy drinkers I’ve known were smokers. Probably had poor diets too.
What about the people whose personality totally changes when they drink? I don't think they're alcoholic, necessarily, but they become different people when they're drunk.
Guy on my floor at IU would just get crazy when drunk - not just him, but he was bad. He got into a fight with some frat guys, went over one night and set their house on fire. Killed a kid. No one knows how many years in prison he did, but it was over 30, I think.
That guy is on the cover of Sports Illlustrated, holding up Isiah Thomas as he cuts the nets. He was a student basketball manager.
My father-in-law drank himself to death after his wife died.
I used to go check on him and he'd be laying on the floor, passed out. Still kept his sense of humor - one time I was waking him up and he looked over, under the couch and saw dust and said the cleaning lady wasn't doing a good job. lol Great guy when he wasn't drunk, but his entire personality changed when he drank.
At the Chryler (now Stellantis) plant in Kokomo - the one in town - there is a liquor store across the street.
At lunch time, guys would be running across traffic to get to the liquor store during their 18 minute lunch time. It was like a herd of buffalo crossing the street.
lol Not trying to one up you, but I had a very similar thing happen.
My father-in-law wrecked his car and I went with him to the lawyer because he was being charged with DUI. So, we go in and talk to this guy for an hour. Explain his wife had just died and he was depressed (he was also an alcoholic), etc, etc. Name was Bill. As we were leaving, we chatted a bit - his daughter was at IU, so was mine. Pleasant guy. This was in late summer.
At Christmas, my father-in-law comes up to me and said look what I got - it was a Christmas card from...... the same BILL and his wife, my father-in-law's DAUGHTER from a previous marriage.
That SOB knew the entire time my father-in-law was HIS father-in-law, too, but never mentioned it. And, since this was my FIL's daugher's 4th or 5th marriage, my father-in-law didn't realize it was his son-in-law.
Still makes me laugh. And, this relationship played into an inheritance situation when his kids challenged my father-in-law's will, but it's complicated and hard to explain. Let's just say I pointed out to the lawyers that, being his lawyer at one time, Bill probably violated his lawyer-client relationship by giving out information.
Nope. I don't know where you got that idea. I was in the Army until '75 and started IU that Fall.
Mas was in 'Nam in '68, I think, and probably came back to IU during that time
Feb 4th '69 -Feb 4th '70 Cav RVN
Feb '70 - Sept '70 Big Red One Fort Riley KS
72-75 IU Communications. Double minor History/ American Studies.
So….everyone on here after midnight all screwed up suffer from alcohol use disorder?
Addiction is a complicated thing. Physical dependency is the hallmark of an addict. A lot of people suffer from lifestyle habits that lead to problems….and yes there is most definitely a psychological phenomenon with addiction that is enormous.
Most true addicts are just trying to maintain levels as to not go thru physical withdrawals.
Thats just good old fashioned fun. Our rivalry with SAE got so bad that they burnt our house down back in ‘97. Summarily some of us went over and took a sledge hammer to their lion statue and brought the head back.
The head remained in our house for nearly two decades until during my time there some dumb broad came in and showed it to an SAE. They came back in the middle of the night through the unlocked basement door and stole it back. A tragedy.
There are different levels of dependency, and most don't cause people to get DT's any time they are sober. Large numbers of alcoholics go through their day sober just fine and then drink after work. Some even stay dry all week and drink all weekend. Addiction isn't one size fits all.
You would have to define dependency. If it’s physical then they are going thru withdrawal without product. If it’s psychological then I agree with you. But they aren’t dependent on the product. It’s usually a time and place issue…they have a hard time saying no.
There are different levels of dependency. You are talking about the small minority who have it so bad, they must maintain some level of alcohol in their system of they might get DTs, seizures, etc. But it's far more common for someone to be dependent enough that if they quit, they will, say, suffer difficulty sleeping, or nausea.
That’s the same thing …physical dependency with varying degrees of symptoms…the question then becomes if they drink will the symptoms go away?
Yes, but the point is most alcoholics have withdrawal symptoms that are easily manageable, and that's why they are not hiding bottles in their desk or drinking first thing in the morning.
Cheers…we are not going to agree on what an addict means.
Now….lets go get a box of beer and celebrate.
Guilty, as charged, Your Honor
The hallmarks of an alcoholic have little to do with the amount or frequency, it's all about what happens once he starts.
An alcoholic will almost invariably drink more than he intends/should/wants once he starts. Think of the guy stopping at the corner tavern after work and planning to only have a couple who ends up closing the place down. This is common among those who know what happens once they start, and therefore never, ever start drinking at work or before noon or while the kids are around or whatever.
An alcoholic will also invariably behave in a manner that he wouldn't otherwise (once he starts drinking). The results can be mitigated to an extent by consciously or unconsciously placing yourself in a situation where otherwise untoward behavior is tolerated/expected, like drinking in a dive bar or posting on the Cooler.
Ah yes... The warm embrace and acceptance of the dive bar. Judgement free zone. In the trust tree.
Is it negatively impacting your life? Is it causing problems at home, at work, in your relationships, etc? Is it causing you health problems?
If yes to any you have a problem.
Does pissing people off on the Cooler count?
Does that negatively impact your life? Me, I'd call that life enhancing.
A problem does not necessarily equate to alcoholism. A physical dependency on alcohol.
In your example…90+ percent could be cured with a swift kick in the ass
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