OT= Should I Worry About This?

[phaeton]

Ok, i know we'll probably have a lot of fun with this topic, but it's something that's possibly kinda serious.

 

Basically it's a matter of me wanting a beer. All day long. It's not pressing or anything, but most of the day i am thinking it'd be really nice to drink a Leinenkugel Red. I can taste it in my mind and it tastes good.

 

Also, i notice that usually when i do drink beer, right around the time i start getting a buzz, i want to drink more and more.

 

Now, i know that the following equations are true:

 

BEER == GOOD

MORE BEER == MORE GOOD

 

(for best results, read with a James Hetfield voice)

 

The odd thing is that i used to notice many years ago, the desire to keep drinking beer when i first started, but i would usually reach a point where i didn't want to drink any more and i was fine until the next time around. The next time around would mean weeks, months or even years.

 

But lately, it's like I am pining for the taste of beer all day. Leinenkugel beer. Either Red or Creamy Dark. If you put mixed drinks or some crap-ass Miller Lite in front of me i won't touch it. This is probably a good sign, but i don't know if this leads up to something.

 

I've probably drank more beer in the last month than i have in the previous 2 years.

 

Where does alcoholism start? I know that alcoholics have a chemical imbalance in the brain, and it isn't their fault that they are the way they are. It's an illness.

 

But if you are an alcoholic, are you born that way, or does it develop gradually over time?

 

All i know is it's 11 am and i'm thinking about beer.

[doug osborne]

Leinenkugel beer. Either Red or Creamy Dark.

As long as it's good beer, keep up the good work.

 

So many people want to tell you that your impulses and desires are bad these days, especially the ones that don't agree with their beliefs. Don't let a fundamentalist culture, whether Vegan, Islamic, or Christian, tell you that you are bad - an alcoholic - for wanting a beer or two. And don't accept a label, easily mainstreamed in this 12-step-concious society, that really doesn't apply.

 

Fermented grain beverages are the world's oldest manufactured food product. Travelers would carry these instead of water (as they would carry fermented dairy - yogurt - for food) where sources for potable water couldn't be expected. There seems to be a primal taste, or even need, for these.

 

As long as you aren't numbing an emotional need with the effect of alcohol, spending money that you need for food, clothing, or shelter, or spending time drinking that you should be spending with loved ones, don't worry.

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

Here ya go... from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence

 

Definition of Alcoholism

"Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by continuous or periodic: impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial."

 

"Primary" refers to the nature of alcoholism as a disease entity in addition to and separate from other pathophysiologic states which may be associated with it.

 

"Primary" suggests that alcoholism, as an addiction, is not a symptom of an underlying disease state.

 

"Disease" means an involuntary disability. It represents the sum of the abnormal phenomena displayed by a group of individuals. These phenomena are associated with a specified common set of characteristics by which these individuals differ from the norm, and which places them at a disadvantage.

 

"Often progressive and fatal" means that the disease persists over time and that physical, emotional, and social changes are often cumulative and may progress as drinking continues. Alcoholism causes premature death through overdose, organic complications involving the brain, liver, heart and many other organs, and by contributing to suicide, homicide, motor vehicle crashes, and other traumatic events.

 

"Impaired control" means the inability to limit alcohol use or to consistently limit on any drinking occasion the duration of the episode, the quantity consumed, and/or the behavioral consequences of drinking.

 

"Preoccupation" in association with alcohol use indicates excessive, focused attention given to the drug alcohol, its effects, and/or its use. The relative value thus assigned to alcohol by the individual often leads to a diversion of energies away from important life concerns.

 

"Adverse consequences" are alcohol-related problems or impairments in such areas as: physical health (e.g., alcohol withdrawal syndromes, liver disease, gastritis, anemia, neurological disorders); psychological functioning (e.g., impairments in cognition, changes in mood and behavior); interpersonal functioning (e.g., marital problems and child abuse, impaired social relationships); occupational functioning (e.g., scholastic or job problems); and legal, financial, or spiritual problems.

 

"Denial" is used here not only in the psychoanalytic sense of a single psychological defense mechanism disavowing the significance of events, but more broadly to include a range of psychological maneuvers designed to reduce awareness of the fact that alcohol use is the cause of an individual's problems rather than a solution to those problems. Denial becomes an integral part of the disease and a major obstacle to recovery.

 

- Jeff

[Programgirl]

One person I know drinks a LOT of beer on the weekends. He doesn't drink all week, and he skips weekends here or there, but the average person would look at him and think "binge" and grab the big book. However, he isn't an addict because the choice is still his.

 

Another person I know - you couldn't have a bottle of anything in the house, because he was compelled to sit down and drink it until it was gone. He literally could not sleep knowing that bottle was in the house.

 

The question isn't 'do you have an addiction', the real question is 'do you have control'. If you can answer yes to that, you're probably fine.

[Rog]

Would you 'like' a beer or do you 'need' a beer?

[Pretzel logic]

Kurt Rosenwinkle doesn't need beer, and niether do I. I love jazz though.

[Wewus432]

Oh Dendy, Jim! Help!

[phaeton]

Would you 'like' a beer or do you 'need' a beer?

 

Rog, i think i would just like a beer.

 

As long as it's good beer, keep up the good work.

 

It's good quality beer. And good to my tastes, at least. Dunno what y'all like. You can put it in the same category as stuff like Heffeweisen and Sam Adams (also good beer). I don't know if Leinenkugel's exists outside of Wisconsin. It's sort of a local brand, like New Glarus Spotted Cow (New Glarus, WI) or the stuff that comes down the pike from Deschutes River Brewery in Beaverton, Oregon that i used to enjoy when i lived there.

 

I wish people from other countries that rag on "american beer" would have an opportunity to try something other than Coors, Bud, Miller, Busch, etc. These beers may have their place, but someone coming from say, the UK or European continent usually seem to be dissapointed.

 

I'm sure that the brands that escape from Soviet Canada (Labatts, Moosehead etc) aren't wholly representative of Canadian Brewing, either.

 

Jeff- thanks for the data, it helped to reinforce my knowledge about alcoholism. It didn't mention anything about its hereditary qualities. I do have a grandfather that is a `reformed' alcoholic (clinical), and two aunts that are. One died from liver and kidney failure 3 years ago.

 

Note that my desire for beer hasn't disrupted my life or made any significant changes to it. Also, i still think that having a taste for a specific kind of beer, but not wanting any other brands of beer or hard liquor seem to be good.

 

It's the bitterness and maltiness that i have a taste for.

 

Another person I know - you couldn't have a bottle of anything in the house, because he was compelled to sit down and drink it until it was gone. He literally could not sleep knowing that bottle was in the house.

 

The question isn't 'do you have an addiction', the real question is 'do you have control'. If you can answer yes to that, you're probably fine.

 

I guess i don't know where control stops or starts. I think that if someone set a beer in front of me right now, and told me it was perfectly ok to drink it, i know that i could keep myself from drinking it, but i'd really really want to drink it.

 

I mean, i kicked 15 years of smoking cold turkey, so that probably says something. On the same token, i've felt this sort of desire for specific foods, too- particularly this one Chinese Fast Food joint i used to hit all the time. When I noticed that I was eating there 4-7 times a week, I started to wonder if MSG was habit-forming.

 

Wewus-

Shut up and bring me a beer, and understand that i'll love you anyways. With the fury of a thousand suns. Or will I?

[polyt]

Ya, that stuff makes it out as far as Denver at least.

 

On hot days I feel exactly the same way for Lienny's original. The red is pretty spectacular. One of the smoothest full bodies out there.

[theblue1]

Originally posted by phaeton:

...

 

Where does alcoholism start? I know that alcoholics have a chemical imbalance in the brain, and it isn't their fault that they are the way they are. It's an illness.

 

But if you are an alcoholic, are you born that way, or does it develop gradually over time?

 

All i know is it's 11 am and i'm thinking about beer.

As someone who swore growing up he'd never drink -- and then drank steadily, enthusiastically for a couple decades, I think it probably helps if there is/are drinkers in your family. But I've certainly known fellow alcoholics who came from teetotaler families.

 

I do believe alcoholic addiction is progressive.

 

While you might be able to back off on your drinking to a certain extent, I think once you've become habituated to a certain level that it will be a constant fight to hold yourself below that level.

 

That's why it's apparently easier for a lot of us to not drink at all than to drink moderately. I quite "temporarily" for the better part of a year and that went so well I decided to let myself have a beer every once in a while, like after playing a show. And that went so well, I decided to have a beer after every show. And that went so well, I decided I could afford to have a beer before the show. And that went so well I decided I could let myself have a beer with dinner every night. And that went so well I let myself have a beer after dinner. And then I let myself have two beers after dinner. Then unlimited beers after dinner. Then a beer before dinner. Then a beer with breakfast. By the time I decided two beers with or before breakfast (I got into stopping at this one alcky bar on the way to breakfast) I was starting to think I might be slipping back into drinking... by then I was nailing a 12 pack a day, not bad for a guy with a 5'10" frame.

 

I remember the night I decided I probably ought to quit. It was about 11:30 pm and I was getting up to get my 12 beer of the day. I was watching a pair of back-to-back Cheers re-runs... I'd stopped going out at night because I was afraid of getting picked up for DUI. (I'd had 6 field sobriety tests during my drinking carreer, most of them before the Cali cops got serious about popping drunks.) I got up the next morning and I felt so all around run down and funky I could barelyl get through my first beer. I looked at my face... the capillaries were breaking across my nose and I could see the signs of collagen breakdown in my skin, that, puffy, saggy thing... It was time.

 

At first it was hard to get out of the habit. There are so many reminders, adverts, billboards, just the beer cooler at the market...

 

But it was time and I haven't regretted it since. Even when things got kind of bad for awhile due to some accumulated other stuff, at least I could say, well, at least I'm not drinking.

 

And the funny thing is, I (personally) really don't miss the alcohol. I think I'd done everything you could do with the experience of being drunk. But I do miss the taste of a nice Negra Modelo or my local brew pub's "strawberry blonde." Ah well. I shouldn't have let myself go in the first place...

[TheFunkman]

I sometimes get similar cravings for certain types of food, and it feels like some sort of "chemical need:" as if my body needs some MSG, guacamole, cranberry juice, or whatever. But I've never had that kind of feeling about alcohol, gambling, hashish or cocaine (in international waters, of course!) So does it take one to know one? Maybe, and if so, I'm not qualified...

 

The central question you should ask is, "Are you doing it, or is it doing you." And don't bullshit yourself!

 

http://www.pubcrawler.com/logos/l101911-05232002-880.jpg

 

Leinenkugel...Good stuff!

[Wewus432]

You are so fucked Phaeton, I don't know what you thought you were doing, you've altered your body chemistry...... or something. OH my God, you're fucked......bad, but let's look at the upside......... damn you're fucked. That's not even funny, you're so fucked.

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

Beer really is good, though.

 

Mmmm. Beer.

 

http://www.mgdriversclub.com/pub.images/newcastle.brown.jpg

http://www.bottledbeer.co.uk/photos/harp.jpg

http://embruns.net/images/guinness.jpg

http://www.realbeer.com/edu/images/homer.jpg

 

 

- Jeff

[antimatter]

Isn't Alcoholism a religion?

 

This should be on the Political forum.

 

Just kidding.

 

[Odyssian]

Jeff - LOL!!

 

My drinking habits have changes over the years. they've gone from heavy drinking every day, to not a drop for over two years (did that twice, in fact) and everything in between.

 

I agree with what Doug Osborne mentioned above - That as long as it doesn't interfere with your job, family or finances, don't worry about it too much. I'd like to add that you should consider having someone else drive if you are drinking heavily.

[Raymar]

Well it is summer, a hot one at that. Do you crave beer in cold weather?

 

I do about 6-7 beers a year, in fact I had two Heinekins last friday in a jazz club in L.A. with some incredible nachos w/black beans, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream, calorie city.

 

A couple weeks back I was reading about a place in another state that was serving Schlitz beer. I thought they went out of business, haven't had one of those in about 30 years and I remember how great they were, very unique(or it seemed at the time) and I perused a few liquor stores for a can but couldn't find any, didn't bother getting a substitute.

 

Anyway I won't have another beer for awhile, I am curious though as to what microbeer is like. There's a brewery near by that also serves fish and I might try that out once.

 

steve

[TheFunkman]

Eh, Weasel, speaking of Harp and Guinness, have you ever tried Beamish? It doesn't have the "bitter finish" that I associate with Guinness. Throw down a pint sometime...Släinte!

 

http://www.beamish.ie/img/get/01.jpg

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

I had not heard of the Beamish before now. Thanks for the tip!

 

- Jeff

[phaeton]

I'm drinking beer!

 

Well, actually....

 

I have drank beer!

 

I've got these Berghoff Lagers that i bought this weekend when the liquor store was out of Leinies. They're "ok", but just aren't what i'm after.

 

Leinenkugel is what would hit the spot. I hope Heroe's in Green Bay has them this weekend

 

Pontiac Blues and Wisconsin Ale. w00t!

[nursers]

What's beer??

 

It sounds evil.

[wraub]

Evil? Have no fear, it's only beer.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[boosh]

http://www.frantic-nutbush.com/heineken.jpg

[phaeton]

You know Boosh...

 

I often wonder just how different European brands taste in Europe vs. the U.S., and vice versa...

 

Anyone who's had beer on both sides of the atlantic able to comment?

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

I do NOT like Heineken here in the US. It's go a hideous aftertaste that settles in the back of your throat like a streptococcus virus. However, I've had Heineken in Europe and it seems much better to me.

 

Any thoughts on this important topic?

 

- Jeff

[boosh]

Originally posted by Jeff Da Weasel:

I do NOT like Heineken here in the US. It's go a hideous aftertaste that settles in the back of your throat like a streptococcus virus. However, I've had Heineken in Europe and it seems much better to me.

 

Any thoughts on this important topic?

 

- Jeff

Don't tell me you came up with the idea that we send you guys the Good stuff and we keep the crap!?

[Jimbroni]

Yeah, I'm worried about you, man. You shouldn't be limiting yourself to Leinenkugel Red's like that. Here this will help. http://www.beeradvocate.com/

Find yourself a Chimay and enjoy.

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

Originally posted by boosh:

Don't tell me you came up with the idea that we send you guys the Good stuff and we keep the crap!?

Booshy, I know people, many people, in the US that love Heineken. That when they order a Heineken, they think they're having an upscale beer.

 

Yech! I can't stand it! Its aftertaste is almost metallic.

 

I suppose beer is as subjective as music. Luckily, there's a lot of different beers from which to -hic!- choose.

 

- Jeff

[Gus Lozada]

I don't like alcohol and beer is included and onle drink one in very special times... but I can spare a beer from here... we have LOTS of these:

 

http://beerpictures.net/corona/tt/corona-beer-pictures-02.jpg

 

Corona, anyone?

[Guitar Geezer]

Originally posted by Jeff Da Weasel:

I do NOT like Heineken here in the US. It's go a hideous aftertaste that settles in the back of your throat like a streptococcus virus. However, I've had Heineken in Europe and it seems much better to me.

 

Any thoughts on this important topic?

 

- Jeff

Tecate in Puerto Vallarta is a TOTALLY different beer than what you buy here! (Higher % of alcohol I believe)

However Corona is corona is corona (actually a "Cheap" Beer down there

 

my2¢ worth of beerology

[boosh]

Originally posted by Gus Lozada:

I don't like alcohol and beer is included and onle drink one in very special times... but I can spare a beer from here...

 

http://www.frantic-nutbush.com/amstel.jpg

Are you just a plain Liar? Nuh,...think this was a special occasion

Gus drinking Amstel Beer instead of Corona ,bet he fell asleep in the plane after that