How do you define an alcoholic?
I dunno. Someone whose behaviour changes without regular alcohol intake?
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I like the prefix âhigh functioningâ
I would say someone who is dependent on drinking, that cannot function without drinking and that requires assistance to stop. Someone whoâs first thought in the morning surrounds their first drink if the day. It is an addiction, a dependency like drugs or gambling.
An alcoholic might not drink everyday, but their drinking impacts on their ability to engage normally in society or to function at their optimal level.
The guy or girl that âlikes a drinkâ isnât an alcoholic if they can walk away from it.
Getting tanked up at the weekend is habit, ritual etc but if its not dependency they are not alcoholicsâŚ
Thatâs how I would define it, though there are probably other interpretations to consider.
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I know 2 blatant alcoholics who function perfectly despite being permanently over the limit. Other than that, agree completely. In my limited experience, alcoholics are rarely drunk as such. Drunks are, different thing. Some people are just born 3 drinks the other side of sober.
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I have found a really useful way to think about addiction is not from the physiological perspective but from the counselling perspective - the continued performance of an activity despite understanding the negative consequences of it.
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The word continued is key. We all do stuff we know we shouldnât. When that becomes the pattern and you are continually dealing with the negative consequences of that action yet you continue to act in the same way, then that is what counsellors will think of as an addiction.
This perspective can be really useful with booze. As you point out, there are ways people can use alcohol some might think of as a dependency but doesnât really result in negative consequences. On the other hand, you can have people who donât drink regularly, but when they do they drink to the point of blacking out. If you have someone who doesnt like that about themselves but continues to drink to that level when they drink, that will typically be considered as a form of addiction despite the fact theyâre not craving a drink when sober.
Functioning perfectly? Objectively are they functional at an optimal level?
Are they addicted?
Does that apply to people who continue to drive and fly, even though they know the negative consequences of their actions? 
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Do any of us function to our optimum level? All the time? I know I donât and I donât drink all day long. Maybe I should have said function acceptably, pretty much like we all do.
Went to a gig a few months ago, singer was drinking all the way through and was obviously oiled to start with. By far his best ever performance. Drinking does not always impair performance. Wouldnât like to see my brain surgeon necking a G&T before cutting my skull open though.
I have looked after a lot of people whose lives are decimated through drink and drugs.
I donât think any of them achieved their potential, because of drink or drugs.
There is no situation where addiction makes life better.
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words to live by, right there.
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I always thought an alcoholic was such when it becomes dangerous (health wise), for them to stop
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An alcoholic is like any other addiction, drugs or gambling or sexâŚit is a defining factor in the course of their life and cannot do without it.
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When you are being held hostage for that last bottle of beer and agreed to say Everton is not shite.
I knew a fella back in my TA days who drank all day every day. He worked in the stores and used to keep a couple of cans hidden away. I was told that even in his civvy job he would sneak away to his locker for a âsly oneâ. I remarked that Iâd never seen him drunk. I was told that Iâd never seen him sober. He just kept himself topped up to a certain level where he could get on with life.
I met another fella some years back who told a group of us that he wss an alcoholic. He was a youngish fella, fit and looked healthy. Someone asked him how many he drank a day. His reply was that he didnât drink. So we asked how he could be an alcoholic. He told us that when he was younger he would drink whatever he could get hold of and drink it to excess. He was hospitalised a few times and was eventually told by a Doctor that if he didnât stop he probably had about 6 months left to live. He had stopped I think he said 11 years earlier. But he knew that if he touched one drop again he wouldnât stop. 
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Yeah you may not recognise someone is an alcoholic if they appear to be âhigh functioningâ. My grandfather was a (mostly) functioning but mean alcoholic who drove my grandmother to drink by all accounts with very damaging emotional consequences for my dad who ironically (as nothing more than a social drinker of wine with food) is dying of liver failure. I know someone who greatly enjoyed drinking but remained incredibly high functioning while often actively shozzled - to the extent that they are genuinely a billionaire. As the dad of a school friend they always stood out to me (when I was young enough to have no sense that they otherwise unusual) as having a larrikin sparkle but also a real sense of danger and my friendsâ house could feel very different from one visit to the next. Now off the booze - but still describing themselves as an alcoholic - their drinking buddies and disgraces have been replaced by generally worthy philanthropy but they have never regained any closeness with their kids which they lost as an alcoholic. Thankfully all four (including my friend) are fairly well adjusted emotionally, thanks to their mother.
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Caught between the choice of any number of threads but this is as good a place as any.
The strange/worrying thing about this snip is that âequalâ weight is superficially proportioned between the yays and nays regarding the subject matter. It highlights an inadequacy of the current way information is de-/re-constructed, then disseminated to the consumer.
The militant right have been salivating for weeks over the prospect of violent liberal protests once the decision was made final so they can go out and meet fire with fire. This is being reports as both sides resorting to violence, despite the prospect of the pro-abortion protests being violent is almost exclusive a figment of the imagination of the militant right.
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Think they win either way - sadly.