Is there a specific standard to being considered an alcoholic?

[KelseyBunny]

i am 16 and i wonder if that is too early to be an alcoholic. i go to a school where partying on the weekends is a must, so it just seemed natural for me to drink. i soon became the girl who drinks too much, or the girl who ends up on the floor. but i had yet to see a problem. recently i realized things had to change when i woke up with no idea of how and when i got home, where my cell phone was and realized i had broken my nose from passing out in the middle of the street the night before. i was so embarassed, but didnt feel a burning desire to stop. finally after a few months of drinking, what starts out as just 1 beer, turns into everyones alcohol. but now i finally see how much i lack respect in myself for allowing myself to drink which leads to humiliating events. when i "postponed" my drinking, i regained peoples respect that had been lost. but a few days ago i threw any sort of progress away. i need help, but is an alcoholic site going to help someone like me?

[admin]

:67: Kelsey! :17: Glad to have you join us. Many of us use online recovery as part of our recovery. For you I suggest also going to face to face meetings so you can also have the face to face support you need. I have known quite a few young people in recovery. We do also have online meetings here http://www.cyberrecovery.net/forums/chat_mainpage.php . You can check the meeting schedule here http://www.cyberrecovery.net/forums/chatmeet.php for meeting times. Please feel free to continue to share with us here also. We are here for you. :42:

[kaistevens]

I'm Kai, I'm an alcoholic.

Our third tradition says: "The only requirement is the desire to stop drinking." The word alcoholic isn't even in there.

I heard a 17 year old girl, at a speaker meeting, she had 4 years sober. How much of a problem is your drinking? That's what seperates 'us', from 'normal' drinkers. To come to sobriety at such a young age, what a blessing. To think all the trouble that I could have missed, had I found this program when I was 16.

You are at the right place. We won't 'measure' whether or not you qualify. If alcohol, or drugs, is creating in your life, the problems that it created in ours, then you might need what we have here.

Boy, do I remember that waking up not knowing how I got here. Then, I graduated to waking up not knowing where 'here' is. I was a single mother of a 10 yr old son at the time. I can look back on many times, waking up in a strange place, where was my son? He was home alone, that's where. And he didn't call anybody for help, because he didn't want to get mom in trouble.

Keep coming back. You don't have to do all the things we've done before you get help.

Love ya later. Kai

[anniemac]

Hi Kelsey,

I don't believe that anyone is too young for alcoholism. Matter of fact, I believe that I was born an alcoholic. The actual drinking of alcohol was only a symptom of my alcoholism. We each make that downward descent at different rates; how quickly or how slowly that happens is not what qualifies us as alcoholics - it's what happens when we drink.

I can't tell you that you're an alcoholic; only you can make that determination. However, I suggest you attend some AA meetings and see if you feel you fit in. And by "fit in", I don't mean socially or economically or anything external; I mean, if you identify with what you hear when others talk at the meetings.

I don't know about your geographic area, but around here there are "Young People's" meetings that help young people better identify with each other.

I hope you'll stick around.

~ Anne

[bobnphred]

the definition for alcoholic driinking is
"the repetitive, chronic, ingestion of any drug, alcohol being just one of those drugs, that interfers with ones living function".....If it happens over and over again, that is a problem. If you cannot control it, that's a bigger problem. If you wanna quit and need help?????? well, your call!

[VisionsBob]

www.clbphoto.com/slideshows/Visions

[kaistevens]

I'm Kai, I'm an alcoholic.

I just watched the play on that link! I don't have sound, so all I had was the pictures. OH MY GOD!! I was touched sooooo deeply.

I had goose bumps from the time they started reaching up to a higher power to the end.

Thank You. Thank you.

Kai