Okay, an old drunk here who now works in the business of helping folks who NEED to stop drinking.

First, run from near beer. Don't drink it. Not only is it foul tasting it does have alcohol in it, just like decaf has caffeine in it. Near beer has 0.005% alcohol. So there is still alcohol in it which will affect your medications. Bottom line, a six pack of near beer has the same alcohol in it that a can of regular beer does. Not good if your alcohol is contraindicated for your meds.

And, sorry to tell you that if you miss it that much you probably have a problem. Social drinkers don't miss their booze when they're not drinking.

There are lots of drinker's check ups available on line.

American Medical Assn says if you're drinking more than four beers (or four shots) at one sitting you are binge drinking. That usually freaks people out since that's just a warm up for many of us.

We're talking chemistry and poison here. Alcohol is a poison. Same alcohol in your booze as in Lysol and Listerine (Kills germs) and racing fuel and gasoline in the winter.

The alcohol that makes us feel so good is an explosive poison.

The human liver will ALWAYS metabolize the poison alcohol into an even more potent poison called acetaldehyde. Then the liver breaks the acetaldehyde down into acetic acid/vinegar, then water.

Its a four step process that takes ONE HOUR to metabolize/break down/get rid of the alcohol in one shot or one can of beer.

When we drink more we back up the alcohol in our blood and that's what gives us "that feeling." Alcohol goes to every cell in our body except our hair and nails that have grown out. It goes inside our bones and inside our teeth. Every cell gets drunk. Not good if that cell is the one that tells your heart to beat, or is a muscle cell in your heart that needs to be coordinated, or a muscle cell in your arm or legs that needs to be coordinated while we drive.

And, as mentioned, long term use of alcohol will cause terminal damage. I had a client that died at 22 from Pancratitis. He was a tough bull rider out of central California. He thought the doctor who told him he would die if he drank again was full of it. He drank again and died. A client just buried her sister who died at 29 of cirrhosis of the liver.

Alcohol is a powerful poison. If you've developed a tolerance - HAVE to Have a lot (more than four drinks a night more than four times a week for men and three and three for women) that's a medical criteria for alcoholism.

If you have hangovers - that's a medical criteria for alcoholism.

If you keep trying to quit drinking but can't stay quit - that's a medical criteria for alcoholism

If you find yourself drinking more than you intend to or over a longer period than you intended to - that's a medical criteria for alcoholism.

If booze has become a very time consuming part of your life - hanging out at the bars, being a "connoisseur" of some carrier vehicle for alcohol, being hung over - that's a medical criteria for alcoholism.

If booze is causing you to miss work, social, or recreational time because you'd rather drink, or you're too hung over, or you're fired or not welcome because of your boozing - that's a medical criteria for alcoholism

And the most scary, most telling medical criteria for alcoholism is if you have a medical condition (or psychiatric condition) that's caused or made worse by booze and you drink anyway....that's a key indicator for me. The stuff is killing someone and they still can't stop.

The scary news is a person only has to qualify for THREE of the above seven criteria to be diagnosed as an alcoholic - or more properly "alcohol dependent."


The reason the drinking age is 21 and not 18 like everything else is that the human liver doesn't mature until its 21. Many of us have been heavy drinkers in our teen years and became alcoholics by beating up on our baby livers with massive quantities of booze.

Many alcoholics inherit the disease. I happen to come from generations of alcoholics. Its no surprise that I am too. The odds are about 70% that a person with an alcoholic parent will also become an alcoholic.

And, of course, anyone can drink enough booze often enough to become an alcoholic. Often slowly, over the years as tolerance rises. Kind of like the kid who first tries a cigarette at age 12 and coughs his lungs out. But he persists and by the time he's 22 he's smoking a pack or more a day.

And, as far as quitting, science has shown quitting all addictions at once is more effective than quitting one at a time. Sadly, most recovered alcoholics die of lung cancer. Nicotine kills five to one over booze.

And science has also shown that quitting cold is about 200 times more effective than tapering off.

If you're looking for support there's a group of sober kilties in the groups on this forum.

If you want more open your phone book to the white pages and look for your local number for Alcoholics Anonymous and give them a call. We're just drunks helping other drunks. No rules, no dues, no president, no membership card. Total anarchy - but it works.

Or you can Google up AA on the Internet and find the local meetings near you. Just normal people, a warm fellowship like this board, only face-to-face.

Nothing causes alcoholism. But ingesting the chemical alcohol causes hundreds of fatal diseases. The good news is it can be arrested.

The bad news is that science, medicine, phsychiatry, and religion totally failed at helping alcoholics over centuries. The only thing proven to work is another alcoholic. We help each other stay sober....hence the AA meetings.

There's an old saying in AA. There are two years I never want to repeat - my last year drinking and my first year sober.

If you have quit drinking its not like a light switch. Takes your body years to readjust. Some says as many years as you drank.

Some immediate effects are things like sleep disturbance - almost certain. Short term memory loss, having things just fall out of your hands, out of body experiences, loss of directional ability. Not everyone gets them all, but most get some. Just normal.

And watch the caffeine intake. A lot of folks get sober and load up on caffeine then get so wired they think, if this is sobriety - forget it!

Happy to get specific with anyone - feel free to PM me.

Hope I haven't preached. Lives are at stake as we well know from our recent sadness.

Ron