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The functional alcoholic (not in recovery) is still attempting to control his own life and manage his secret addiction. He is a willing subject of King Alcohol. Therefore he hasn’t hit “bottom.” He is not ready to consider getting help even though he suspects he drinks too much and too often.

Why all this insistence that every A.A. must hit bottom first? The answer is that few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have hit bottom. ~ Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions 2011, p 24

In other words, the functional alcoholic is able to maintain denial of the problem. In fact, only those closest to him have any idea that he is held captive in the grips of alcoholism. You may have a family member or coworker who is a functioning alcoholic and not be aware of it.

In practical terms, here is an example of the behaviors of a functioning alcoholic:

• Preoccupation with the next time they can drink
• Only willing to eat where alcohol is available
• One drink always leads to a craving for the next, and the next
• Habitually drink before going out for meals or to the bar
• Increasing memory lapses or black outs
• Surround themselves with heavy drinkers
• Reputation for being able to ‘hold their liquor’ better than most
• Reluctant to leave an unfinished drink
• Cannot imagine life without alcohol
• Setting drinking limits and breaking them
• Exhibit personality changes when drinking
• Able to be dry for periods of time, then quickly increasing consumption again
• % of alcoholic content becomes increasingly important in drink choice
• Quickly become defensive if confronted about their drinking habits

PS: Are there other behaviors that you would add to the list?

How many of the above behaviors does it take to qualify as a functional alcoholic? Any 3 should be a red flag.

Many soldiers suffer from a variety of psychological problems including nightmares, flashbacks, paranoia and irrational anger for these reasons, Alcohol and Drug abuse is quickly becoming a growing problem among returning war vets, with the number of binge drinkers and narco-users nearly doubling in the past six years. Figures suggest that 11 out of every 1,000 soldiers suffered from alcohol abuse problems in the first have of 2009.

More often than not your body is in a state of cleaning house meaning that as you slumber your body isn’t really resting at all, therefore the quality of your sleep is affected, leaving you feeling tired and sometimes even hungover the next morning.

To avaiod this feeling of sleepiness, researchers suggest that you avoid drinking too much alcohol prior to bed time, this way your body has enough time to metabolize the alcohol. When you awake you’ll feel more refreshed, and you’ll have a lot less explaining to do, particularly if you had one too many shots of the bottle.

Since Alcohol use among youths has become a permanent fixture in the media, many argue “is it even wise to use an alcoholic component in such a meeting?” – surely it is not needed. This is the very same component that has Alocholics and many through out the recovery community up in arms.

Ironically, the alcoholic component injected into the meeting arose as a result of President Obama’s phone call to Sergeant Crowley, who unexpected took the call on his cell phone in a local police bar. It was later stated that “The idea of meeting for a beer seemed appropriate at the time.”

Now the world has inappropriately coined it the “Beer Summit”, leaving those with real alcohol and addiction problems filled with chagrin.

Many also argue that while the president is experiencing various sates of inebriation, desperately trying to stitch the wounds of his supposed “racial remarks”, many good American men and women are being killed over seas.

Daniel Wech, 21, Alex Stucki, 20, and a third man, Devin McClain, 21, have been charged in the death of another student from Geneseo State College, Arman Partamian which resulted from a night of binge drinking.

The 3 young men were each charged with criminally negligent homicide which could carry a prison sentence of up to 4 years. The men were also charged with multiple counts of hazing and dealing with underage drinking.

Arman Partamian’s body was discovered on the morning of March 1 in a fraternity-type club house after drinking heavily for three days. Partamian was one of three fraternity pledges known as “pigs” that were hazed during the alcohol fueled weekend. The hazing was part of an initiation into a fraternity house known as the Pig House.

An autopsy found that Arman Partamian’s death was a direct result of alcohol poisoning, as his blood-alcohol content was believed to be as high as 0.55 percent; almost 7 times the legal limit for driving. Arman Partamian, as well as the rest of the students being hazed, were all under aged. Witnesses say that the three pledges were forced to continue drinking by other Pig House members even though they were visibly intoxicated. One student mentioned the incident to a resident advisor on campus who in turn called 911. “The Pigs were forcing these individuals to drink entire bottles of alcohol around the fire.” The resident advisor told police. “They were, like falling over and vomiting and just, extreme, like hazing,”