how much does an alcohol habit cost?

roid · Post by **roid** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 6:53 pm

if someone is drinking to numb painful childhood memorys. what kinda ballpark $ figures would they be burning through a week?

it's just occured to me that people say that they don't have money for counciling/therapy routes. but drinking so much alcohol that it's considered a "problem" must be an expensive self-therapy. i wonder if alcohol is actually the MORE expensive route.
*ponders*
ideas?

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 7:00 pm

Alcoholism is a desease. It changes your way of thinking and rationalizing, just like being a drug addict.

If you are either of these, then you never think that seeing someone is a cheaper route cause you always tihnk, we'll until I'm done I have toi be able to afford my addiction.

It's a sad thing but to many people are affected by this condition.

bash · Post by **bash** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 7:03 pm

Sorta like asking how much does a blue car cost. I imagine one buys the best one can afford, be it $300 scotch or a 99 cent tube of glue. Reminds me of the old joke that states you don't have a coke problem if you can afford it.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 7:57 pm

I am not sure but my ex burned through $60,000 in nine months last year. Her basic monthly living expenses were roughly :

$375 Rent
$75 Gas
$100 Food (She's aneroxic)
$125 Utilities
$200 Car
-----------------
$875/month
$7875/6 months

Wonder where the extra $52,125 went? She has nothing to show for it ...

BfDiDDy · Post by **BfDiDDy** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:05 pm

Iceman wrote:I am not sure but my ex burned through $60,000 in nine months last year. Her basic monthly living expenses were roughly :

$375 Rent
$75 Gas
$100 Food (She's aneroxic)
$125 Utilities
$200 Car
-----------------
$875/month
$7875/6 months

Wonder where the extra $52,125 went? She has nothing to show for it ...

TheCops · Post by **TheCops** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:19 pm

it all dependsâ?¦
iâ??ve gone through plenty of 6 pack joe phases. if i was drinking miller genuine draft it was about six bux a day (minus 1 day in minnesota because they donâ??t sell on sundaysâ?¦. unless you want 3.2 beer <- vomit), guinness is maybe 8 bux.

so in a year thatâ??d be 6x6x4x12= 1728 (according to the windows calculator)

coffee: 2x7x4x12 = 672 <- same calculator

eating out: 6 (3 times a day.. not married)x7x4x12 = 6048

cigarettes: 3x7x4x12 = 1008

oh waitâ?¦ this isnâ??t a budget thread this an addiction thread.

;-0

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:19 pm

3 bucks a pack in Minnesota? Jeez... $5 and up here.

Tyranny · Post by **Tyranny** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:35 pm

DCrazy wrote:3 bucks a pack in Minnesota? Jeez... $5 and up here.

Same, friggin sucks.

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:15 pm

Then maybe you people should quit smoking.

Sligar · Post by **Sligar** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:20 pm

Hmmm, alcohol 'therapy' doesn't really address any emotional problems (it just avoids them), while it can create many other problems. With a serious alcohol problem you run the risk of other expenses, like DUI, job loss, injuries due to extreme drunk dumbassedness, exposure to and subsequent addiction to other substances, etc. Not to mention physical problems related to drinking. I knew someone who got sober and ended up dying 3 years later due to physical problems from her drinking. Another guy I know has had two hip replacements due to alcohol related necrosis of the bone. My uncle became a full time drinker and eventually had a stroke, now he can barely walk. But getting a serious drinker in that league to get help is difficult to say the least. Withdrawals from serious alcohol use can actually be fatal, unlike heroin withdrawal, so bad drunks like that are pretty leery of quitting. Plus when you quit you still have all the problems to deal with that you should have gone to therapy for in the first place!

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:57 pm

ROTFL @ BFDD! I believe you are so right.

roid · Post by **roid** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:57 am

yes Sligar i know this. i refer to it as alcohol "therapy" because it cannot be denied that it is being used as a form of self-medication for mental issues. just as a prescribed drug could do the same. however society generally does not refer to it in such terms.

most recreational drugs have uses such as these.

it's definitely not a good idea to use alcohol for this purpose, for the exact reasons you put forward.

it's common, and this is a real case here.
i have a friend i am worried about, he's doing the traditional "drinking to numb the pain" thing that we have all seen before. he can't talk about his past, which is what he's drinking away. he's a brilliant old guy none-the-less.

alcohol, as a recreational drug, is quite cheap. but it doesn't do much to help the long term problem. i had a chat with the friend's wife and brought this up to her: "alcohol is very dangerous (duh), it's one of the most dangerous drugs. if he's going to be taking drugs to calm/fix his mental anguish, i could recommend some better ones (alcohol can't do much to heal his problem)".
i gave her a crashcourse history of the historical psychiatric use of extasy, and then offered the suggestion to her.

she freaked out. but she'll no doubt think about it and i'll have another chat with her later.

to those that may have worked it out. initially i was trying to work out how much more (or even less) traditional mental healthcare would cost than your run of the mill alcoholic's bill. coz mentalhealthcare is what this guy needs (and has had experience with), but i'm of the understanding it's not covered by medicare (and his private health insurance doesn't cover it).

i don't know his normal drinking habits, but i'd say a ballpark figure of 1-2 bottles of spirit a week would be an issue. that's about $50 a week. that's about a session of therapy (approx $90) every 2 weeks.
not really enough :-/

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:27 am

I can drink 3/4 of a bottle of tequila on a very drunk night...and that's in my current 'cheap date' state.

A true alcoholic would down a fifth a day...easily.

Topher · Post by **Topher** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:40 am

*My* alcohol habbit costs about 10x what it does when I go to a bar as opposed to buying my own liquor. Bottle of Captain is about 15 bucks, which makes quite a few drinks for one person (so it will probably last me all year). When I go out, rum and coke is like 5 bucks for a single shot.

Zuruck · Post by **Zuruck** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:51 am

I spend roughly 150-200 bucks a week on booze and cigarettes. Add another 60 for an eighth of green.

Unix · Post by **Unix** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 11:18 am

IMO, you should cut the ciggs and add the green budget.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 11:34 am

A true alkie can take down 2 fifths a day. One person I know would take 1/5 Creme De Menthe and 1/5 ..uh.. whatever you use to make stingers, vodka? Every night after work. Rounding, that's $40 a night.

If you did all your drinking at the bar, that number would triple.

I think I spend $10 a month on alcohol. I never get around to actually getting it, and I only go to the bar but twice a year.

Sligar · Post by **Sligar** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 6:03 pm

roid, if the guy really has a drinking problem, then the cheapest therapeutic solution is AA, which is free. When people go through alcohol treatment, they often take them to AA meetings, and then most treatment centers recommend continued AA attendance afterward. AA offers a sort of amateur group/individual therapy environment on a nightly basis if need be.

Phoenix Red · Post by **Phoenix Red** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 6:35 pm

I dunno much about $ figures, but I would definitely not go the E route. It's probably many times worse at ruining his respect for himself, and ruining anyone who finds out's respect for him (including the wife, as you saw). That doesn't help "mental anguish" at all. There's also the whole get caught, go to jail thing.

Besides which, he'd almost definitely not cut the booze just because he started up on ex.

Sligar: dunno if AA is the same/exists in Auz

roid · Post by **roid** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:11 am

respect? what?

his problems are his mental scars. alcohol is nothing but a symptom of that.

what E will do is open him up.

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:48 am

How much does an alcohol habit cost?

it almost cost me my life.

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:55 am

Zuruck wrote:I spend roughly 150-200 bucks a week on booze and cigarettes. Add another 60 for an eighth of green.

Dear Lord. How are you even coherent?

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:12 am

Top Gun wrote:
Zuruck wrote:I spend roughly 150-200 bucks a week on booze and cigarettes. Add another 60 for an eighth of green.
Dear Lord. How are you even coherent?

That explains everything...

Flabby Chick · Post by **Flabby Chick** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:54 am

When you guys say 1/5th what do you mean??

In my early twenties i was doing a bottle of Arac or Vodka a day, but it didn't cost me so much 'cause the places i was living had dirt cheap alcohol. One bottle was one and a half litres.

I drink about twenty beers a week now, and don't intend to cut down any further, 'cause i like it.

Darkside Heartless · Post by **Darkside Heartless** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:04 am

roid wrote: his problems are his mental scars. alcohol is nothing but a symptom of that.

what E will do is open him up.

Roid, what XTC does to the brain is open up chemical relesing sections of the brain, depleting them totally.
Yea, it'll open him up, until he winds up in an irreversable depression and has to take XTC to feel even the way he is now.
What a great choice

Phoenix Red · Post by **Phoenix Red** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:36 am

roid wrote:respect? what?

his problems are his mental scars. alcohol is nothing but a symptom of that.

what E will do is open him up.

Ever done anything you're ashamed of? Not because of what it makes others think, or others feel, but because it was not something you thought you should have done and made you think about yourself in a bad light? Ever done anything that upset you solely because it made you hate yourself, wonder if you're as strong and good a person as you thought?

Would you want to be addicted to that? To have to do it every day, even if you knew it would just make you hate yourself again?

Would you want your co-workers to find out you were the sort of person that, in your mind, is the worst version of yourself, the one you'd feel like above? What would you do then if they did, and thought exactly that? "I have no respect for those people" is an extremely common phrase concerning addicts. Would making everyone who could find out your secret feel justified looking down their nose at you be some sort of improvement?

Maybe as a mostly detatched third party this doesn't make sense to you. But alchohol is going to be bad enough, and it's an "acceptable" drug.

Think of the real scenario, not the chemical effects of the drug.

Defender · Post by **Defender** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 8:21 am

Avder wrote:Then maybe you people should quit smoking.

x2

Zuruck · Post by **Zuruck** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 8:24 am

I work 5:45 - 3pm...sleep an hour when I get home, load up the equipment, go play somewhere, go out to a bar, get home at 2:30 in the morning, get two and half hours of sleep, wake up, do a couple lines, come to work all pissed off, hence my negative opinion about most things.

TheCops · Post by **TheCops** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 8:26 am

health nut, eh z?

;-0

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:34 am

Zuruck wrote:I work 5:45 - 3pm...sleep an hour when I get home, load up the equipment, go play somewhere, go out to a bar, get home at 2:30 in the morning, get two and half hours of sleep, wake up, do a couple lines, come to work all pissed off, hence my negative opinion about most things.

Lothar wrote:
Top Gun wrote:
Zuruck wrote:I spend roughly 150-200 bucks a week on booze and cigarettes. Add another 60 for an eighth of green.
Dear Lord. How are you even coherent?
That explains everything...

Bingo

Plebeian · Post by **Plebeian** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:32 am

Flabby Chick wrote:When you guys say 1/5th what do you mean??

A "fifth" is 1/5 of a gallon, or about 3/4 of a liter. So basically a 750ml bottle of the hard stuff.

BAAL · Post by **BAAL** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:28 am

In other terms a fifth is also known as a 26er or 26oz.

TheCops · Post by **TheCops** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:39 pm

man thats nuts.
your body would be shaking and your skin always red on a 1/5 a day.... and how could you hold down a job?

and btw... "that explains everything" don't explain much to me. i thought zuruck was a nice guy in person and funny as hell to boot.
;-0

roid · Post by **roid** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 2:05 am

you have a point Darkside Heartless, i don't think he'd find rolling every night a very pleasant experience.
but really i'm not suggesting as such. i hope that he'll find the experiences controlled, helpful, and therapeutic.

he can always go back to his current state, but i hope he'l take something good from the experience back with him. it can always be built on again later.

Pheonix Red, this form of respect you are talking about seems conditional, and therefore foreign.