Ireland: Blurring the meaning of ‘alcoholic’

Declan Lynch

Irish Independent

It’s no secret that Ireland is a nation of drinkers, said Declan Lynch. “There’s a lot of folks out there who have an unhappy relationship with the bottle.” But not every one of us is a full-fledged alcoholic. It’s easy to lose sight of this simple fact because the terminology surrounding problem drinking has been growing less precise.

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“Binge drinking,” for example, used to be defined as a bender lasting days, “if not weeks or even months.” In recent years, though, the Health Ministry has defined a binge as having four pints in a row. “At that rate, almost everyone can be regarded as a binge drinker” and the true alcoholic can shrug off his problem as not especially abnormal.

Similarly, the push to relabel alcoholism as “alcohol dependence” would water down the term until it loses its kick. The crucial moment of epiphany for a drinker is when he says, “I am an alcoholic.” Saying “I am alcohol dependent” doesn’t quite pack the same punch. It sounds as if you simply rely on a drink at the end of the day to relax, and well, who doesn’t?

We should save the term “binge” for the folks who can’t stop bingeing, while the term “alcoholic” should be reserved for those who are physically addicted. The rest of us are simply drinking like Irish people.