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karia
21-Feb-08, 19:20
Since we have been discussing various issues relating to alcohol sales perhaps it would be interesting to look at our consumption of the stuff.

Do you drink more than 14 units (women) 21 units (men) per week and if so do Government campaigns make any difference to what you consume?

I must confess that I drink a fair bit more than 14 units and I don't feel particularly influenced by Government campaigns....

........I am not advocating this, just being honest.;)

Thumper
21-Feb-08, 19:33
Depends on the day I am having...bad day= lots of alcohol but then again a good day = lots of alcohol sometimes too ;) I suppose if I am honest most weeks I do go over the 14 units but not always! x

Tugmistress
21-Feb-08, 19:36
what's a unit equate to? i drink 1 500ml can of 4.8% beer per night so you tell me what i drink lol

karia
21-Feb-08, 19:39
what's a unit equate to? i drink 1 500ml can of 4.8% beer per night so you tell me what i drink lol

You are a very moderate drinker with a happy liver!;)

Actually Tugs..I take that back..have just checked and I think you are a bit over Your units:eek:

my liver would still trade places with yours!

Highland Laddie
21-Feb-08, 19:39
I was drinking 5 or 6 bottles of whisky a week, but thought nothing of it,
the wife was always a bit worried about my alcohol intake.

I always used to reasure her, if alcohol began to affect my work
i would stop working. ;)

Julia
21-Feb-08, 19:45
One unit of alcohol is 10ml (1cl) by volume, or 8g by weight, of pure alcohol. For example:

one unit of alcohol is about equal to:
half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider (3-4% alcohol by volume), or
a small pub measure (25ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume), or
a standard pub measure (50ml) of fortified wine such as sherry or port (20% alcohol by volume).
there are one and a half units of alcohol in:
a small glass (125ml) of ordinary strength wine (12% alcohol by volume), or
a standard pub measure (35ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume)

Julia
21-Feb-08, 19:48
I was drinking 5 or 6 bottles of whisky a week, but thought nothing of it,
the wife was always a bit worried about my alcohol intake.

I always used to reasure her, if alcohol began to affect my work
i would stop working. ;)

Do you still drink that amount per week?

Riffman
21-Feb-08, 19:55
At the moment I drink less than 2 units a week! Mostly to keep myself fit to drive at no notice, and cos I am skint!

WeeBurd
21-Feb-08, 20:02
I can honestly say I drink none on the average week. Happy to get blootered on a night out, but they are few and far between since the WeeBurdies came along.

I think the government campaigns probably would influence me to an extent if I did like a bottle of wine of an evening or whatever, they would certainly make me think about how much I was drinking and what it could potentially be doing to me.:confused

northener
21-Feb-08, 20:02
Used to chuck a fair old amount of beer down my neck, probably about 4 pints a night, plus a couple of 'house' single malts.
Add into the equation a good skinful on a Saturday night and a few bottles of wine with meals over the weekend and it gets a bit scary. I've drunk like that since the age of 16 (I'm in my late forties now).

Since last September I'm lucky if i get a couple of pints a week, mainly because I'm 'available' 7 days a week at the moment.......but not for much longer;)

Highland Laddie
21-Feb-08, 20:03
Do you still drink that amount per week?


lol, no i may have a small whisky every now and again, the last time was at Christmas when my eldest son was home.

Highland Laddie
21-Feb-08, 20:06
I'm 'available' 7 days a week at the moment.......but not for much longer;)


Something you should be telling us Northener, i thought that was outlawed now, and large fines were handed out. :D

Solus
21-Feb-08, 20:36
Used to be a regular drinker, thursday friday sat and sunday, spend the next three days recovering. Now, I can go weeks without a beer, or take the odd beer of a night time, although on a night out I do like a good skin full :roll:

trix
21-Feb-08, 20:45
mmh....defo over ma 14 units

wine most nites (includin enite)

......................an a fair skelp o' whisky at 'e weekends :D

lassieinfife
21-Feb-08, 20:54
am I the only tea totaler... well coffee n diet irn bru actually:lol:

silverfox57
21-Feb-08, 20:56
hi as driving is a very important part of my life, i do not drink as alcohol can take 24 to 48 hours to safely pass a police breath test,there are to many drivers who think it is save to drive next morning?the ad on tv where driver can lose family ,house,and i lot more ,all because of one for the road,

northener
21-Feb-08, 21:34
Something you should be telling us Northener, i thought that was outlawed now, and large fines were handed out. :D

I visit discreetly.......

karia
21-Feb-08, 21:36
When I say I drink more than my 'allocated' 14 units I must add that doing so means only a couple of glasses of wine of an evening...with meals.

OH has a reasonable wine cellar and we don't have children...does that mean we are the new 'middle aged' problem drinkers?:eek:

Highland Laddie
21-Feb-08, 21:38
When I say I drink more than my 'allocated' 14 units I must add that doing so means only a couple of glasses of wine of an evening...with meals.

OH has a reasonable wine cellar and we don't have children...does that mean we are the new 'middle aged' problem drinkers?:eek:


Shame on you karia, i think you maybe a secret drinker, that the start on the slippery slope ;)

WeeBurd
21-Feb-08, 21:41
When I say I drink more than my 'allocated' 14 units I must add that doing so means only a couple of glasses of wine of an evening...with meals.

OH has a reasonable wine cellar and we don't have children...does that mean we are the new 'middle aged' problem drinkers?:eek:

I think that's a good point though, Karia, the government guidelines are quite tight aren't they? I personally don't have a problem with anyone drinking a glass or two of wine to relax of an evening (I just don't enjoy the taste of alcohol enough to do so myself). However in doing so, is that pushing people over the government limits?

balto
21-Feb-08, 21:45
i dont touch the stuff due to having to watch my partner drink way to much(surprised his liver hasnt packed in on him to be honest).:(:(

trix
21-Feb-08, 21:55
When I say I drink more than my 'allocated' 14 units I must add that doing so means only a couple of glasses of wine of an evening...with meals.

OH has a reasonable wine cellar and we don't have children...does that mean we are the new 'middle aged' problem drinkers?:eek:

not at all Ak, i widna hev ye any ither way.

an when i come doon for a holiday, i ken far il be sleepin....:lol:

Angela
21-Feb-08, 21:58
I wasn't allowed to drink at all for a year after having jaundice and a quick tour of the liver ward and the transplant unit has put me off the idea of alcohol for life! :eek:

cuddlepop
21-Feb-08, 22:07
I wasn't allowed to drink at all for a year after having jaundice and a quick tour of the liver ward and the transplant unit has put me off the idea of alcohol for life! :eek:
I had jaundice when I was growing up and was off school for months.
There's not suppose to be any lasting side effects but I just cant have more than a large glass of wine or a gin and lemon.
Not complaining just now I accept it.:D

karia
21-Feb-08, 22:08
an when i come doon for a holiday, i ken far il be sleepin....

In the cellar?:eek:

I might have to schooftie up a bit but yer aye welcome.;)

router
21-Feb-08, 22:10
personally i dont normally drink apart from the odd irish cream every 6 months or so

justine
21-Feb-08, 22:15
I was drinking 5 or 6 bottles of whisky a week, but thought nothing of it,
the wife was always a bit worried about my alcohol intake.

I always used to reasure her, if alcohol began to affect my work
i would stop working. ;)


Dont mean to pry, i used to have an alcahol problem and was drinking 2 bottles of southern comfort a day.:eek:.How long did it take you to come off that amount of booze.It took me three years to get over the effect of my drinking...i know it aint easy but if you no longer drink that much i must applaud you.it harder to et off it than on it..

Oh, back to the thread,sorry i dont drink a drop now, not even christmas or anything..

gemma89
21-Feb-08, 22:25
:eek:A daresay im well ovr th limit each wk then!!
Dnt touch drink thru th wk but nt very oftn a sit in on a sat ngt.. in the summer its thurs, fri, sat AND sunday drinkin!!(jst a few each ngt mind u.. exceptions on th sat!) bt then im only young :lol:

karia
21-Feb-08, 22:27
[quote=gemma89;343669 bt then im only young :lol:[/quote]

Thanks for your honesty gemma!

Highland Laddie
21-Feb-08, 22:40
Dont mean to pry, i used to have an alcahol problem and was drinking 2 bottles of southern comfort a day.:eek:.How long did it take you to come off that amount of booze.It took me three years to get over the effect of my drinking...i know it aint easy but if you no longer drink that much i must applaud you.it harder to et off it than on it..

Oh, back to the thread,sorry i dont drink a drop now, not even christmas or anything..

No time at all, i came home one night and fell down drunk in the bathroom, my 8 month pregnant wife had to lift me up and put me to bed, a few days later she had a threatened miscarriage. i stopped drinking.
I stayed off the drink for about 15 years, then started drinking sociably again.

Anne x
21-Feb-08, 23:30
When I say I drink more than my 'allocated' 14 units I must add that doing so means only a couple of glasses of wine of an evening...with meals.

OH has a reasonable wine cellar and we don't have children...does that mean we are the new 'middle aged' problem drinkers?:eek:

Our age group OH and I have been told we are the New Suburbia drinkers wine with meal etc we do not have children at home but have a good stock of wine and bubbles in the garage sorry Karia no cellar

I am very partial to a glass of Bubbles !!! OH from another life is very partial to a Port or 2, I most probably think we go over the limit but it does vary on a weekly basis on the otherhand OH in part of his working life does not see or taste alcohol for weeks

I still dislike all the stories of Binge drinking I hear from the young Thurs Fri Sat Nights throwing as much down ones throat as they can manage

so am I a case of pot calling the kettle black !!!

Ricco
21-Feb-08, 23:42
After a youth when most folk thought that I was so pickled that I would never age, I now drink 1 bottle of wine per week and the very occasional bottle of beer. Christmas festivities see an increase for about two weeks, then back to normal.

justine
22-Feb-08, 00:01
No time at all, i came home one night and fell down drunk in the bathroom, my 8 month pregnant wife had to lift me up and put me to bed, a few days later she had a threatened miscarriage. i stopped drinking.
I stayed off the drink for about 15 years, then started drinking sociably again.

Its amazing what can be a life changing event.....It was to do with my oldest that i quit.best thing i ever did....Cant stand the stuff these days....

karia
22-Feb-08, 00:14
so am I a case of pot calling the kettle black !!!

Not at all Anne..it's the Port that's calling!

The kettle comes into play later in the evening.;)

Julia
22-Feb-08, 00:22
Not at all Anne..it's the Port that's calling!

The kettle comes into play later in the evening.;)

Great minds think alike, I've just had a nice big glass of Dow's

bekisman
22-Feb-08, 00:27
44 years ago, back in November 1964, as a novice squaddie, tried to drink one tot from each bottle on the shelves in a German pub; unconscious for near three days; thought 'sod this for a game of monkeys' and I aint (I'm being totally honest) not touched a single drop of alcohol since.. I actually like Purdy's, yet my OH says it's horrible!

karia
22-Feb-08, 00:41
44 years ago, back in November 1964, as a novice squaddie, tried to drink one tot from each bottle on the shelves in a German pub; unconscious for near three days; thought 'sod this for a game of monkeys' and I aint (I'm being totally honest) not touched a single drop of alcohol since.. I actually like Purdy's, yet my OH says it's horrible!

That's a long time to hold a grudge bekisman!;)

percy toboggan
22-Feb-08, 18:10
When I say I drink more than my 'allocated' 14 units I must add that doing so means only a couple of glasses of wine of an evening...with meals.

OH has a reasonable wine cellar and we don't have children...does that mean we are the new 'middle aged' problem drinkers?:eek:


Quite probably, although you are only damaging yourselves. Your candour is to be applauded, and reciprocated for
you are in good company I suspect.

I usually drink half a bottle of red wine five evenings out of seven - much of it with food, which helps the system cope. My beer consumption has dropped to perhaps four cans per week.I seldom drink alone, but usually with my wife. Visits to pubs are rare....though I had a couple of hours...and a couple of pints in one only last night. I have usually finshed drinking by eight pm. during the week.

My health is monitored very regularly and blood pressure is normal.
We use small glasses - some of the buckets you can buy now are ridiculously over-sized.

I have listened very closely to medical experts and I realise I run a risk. However, life itself is a risk, and a glass of wine in the evening is a small reward for a life of work.I am seldom 'drunk' perhaps twice in the last year.I hardly ever touch spirits....although if it's there I'll drink it.

The liver is a unique organ in that it can repair itself quite quickly. However, by the time signs of damage emerge it may well be too late. A woman cannot cope with the same amounts of alcohol as a man...it is a medical fact.

I did not start drinking much in terms of volume until I was in my mid-twenties. Many kids these days are poisoning themselves and I'm afraid alcohol is fast becoming a scourge. A childs metabolism is not designed to cope with alcohol in any quantity and organs are vulnerable.End stage liver disease is now affecting twenty and thirty somethings on a regular basis.

THe middle'aged 'problem' drinkers you speak of are legion. I blame a constant diet of bad news...excessive work demands...cheap price and easy access...long winters and poor summers...there is something going rather wrong with British society and alcohol mis-use is one symptom. In other countries of similar latitudes alcohol is priced much higher. Perhaps we should go down the same route here.

A work colleague (booze cruiser)today offered me four bottles of Cabernet for a fiver and of course I took him up on it.

Having utilised cheap, strong cider in the past I feel it should be outlawed, and a maximum abv on long drinks be imposed at 5%....still potent, but some of the eight and nine percenters are merely a quickroute to oblivion in the short term...to the graveyard in the long term.

orkneylass
22-Feb-08, 18:14
I think that's a good point though, Karia, the government guidelines are quite tight aren't they? I personally don't have a problem with anyone drinking a glass or two of wine to relax of an evening (I just don't enjoy the taste of alcohol enough to do so myself). However in doing so, is that pushing people over the government limits?

Just bear in mind the size of the glass - the sort the govt is talking about would get you 7 glasses out of a bottle of wine, so pretty small...Even people who Only drink "a couple of glasses a night" might want to heed the advice to have 1 or 2 alcohol free days a week.

Angela
22-Feb-08, 18:25
I had jaundice when I was growing up and was off school for months.
There's not suppose to be any lasting side effects but I just cant have more than a large glass of wine or a gin and lemon.
Not complaining just now I accept it.

Our livers are very forgiving organs, but a scan done when I had jaundice showed I had some scarring. :(

I'd scarcely touched alcohol, except for special occasions, until I was in my thirties, but then gradually got into the habit of having a couple of glasses of wine most evenings, usually in company with my OH.

However, wine glasses are so much often larger than they used to be, and wine often much higher in alcohol too, so I must have easily been consuming over 20 units every week -too much for a woman.

It wouldn't kill me to have a small glass of wine now and then, but I don't want to take the risk of the units creeping up. This isn't true for everyone of course, and for most folk the benefits of a small glass of red far outweigh the risks. Just not for me - I want to see my granddaughter grow up! :D

balto
22-Feb-08, 22:00
No time at all, i came home one night and fell down drunk in the bathroom, my 8 month pregnant wife had to lift me up and put me to bed, a few days later she had a threatened miscarriage. i stopped drinking.
I stayed off the drink for about 15 years, then started drinking sociably again.
some people find that hard giving up the drink for so long then having a drink on social occasions , well done to you.

cuddlepop
22-Feb-08, 22:32
Anyone who recognises they have a problem and do something about it has my greatest respect.

I've had one gin tonight and know I cant have anymore cause it'll make me sick.
Alcohol destroys lifes.:(

Sapphire2803
22-Feb-08, 23:58
I go for months without having a drink and then I'll have a little fit of having one or two drinks every other evening or so. I doubt I'm up to my limit even then. I'm not a complete angel though (thank God) when my friend and I get together a couple of times a year, there is always at least one girlie night out and it ain't pretty!! We start off with the best of intentions and by the time we get home we can't even pronounce it!! :eek:
So yeah, sensible 99% of the time, but twice a year Portsmouth better duck and cover! :lol: