alcoholish

I have a doctor's appointment next week. When they sent me the confirmation text, I had to click on a link and go through my medical history to confirm that nothing had changed. It pre-populated the fields with what was already in my file. I was scrolling through the fields when I got to one that made me do a double take.

Under alcohol use, I was categorized as a "heavy drinker." 

Say what?? I was offended!

So I looked it up. Apparently, medically speaking, the standard for women is, if you drink more than 7 drinks a week, you are considered a heavy drinker. Which seems awfully light to me. At 2 glasses every night, I never thought of myself as a heavy drinker. Moderate, maybe.

But maybe that's the problem... thinking that you don't drink as much as you do. 

So I got to thinking: One drink every night is fine, but two is too much? Is drinking every night even okay? Where did these definitions come from? Does it even matter? Is this a sign to take it down a notch? I don't get drunk every night, I just like one with dinner and one to wind down and get sleepy. I rarely have more than 3 drinks in one night because I know I'll feel like crap the next day. My doctor has never said to cut back but now I'm questioning if I drink too much.

I stopped drinking the week before surgery so it's been a while since I've had any alcohol. There have only been a couple of times in the last several weeks where I even wanted a glass of wine. Right now would be a really good time to do a hard reset and change my drinking habits. Maybe having a glass (or 2) of wine every night isn't the healthiest and I am trying to be healthier overall...

So I guess the new standard for Jen is to have less than 7 drinks a week. If I have 2 glasses 3 nights a week that's under the threshold... I never thought I'd have to overthink how much alcohol I drink!

Ok well that's a lie because alcoholism does run in the family (having both sides come from Wisconsin this is a normal thing actually) and I've always thought I was never even close to being a heavy drinker. I am able to say "no" and I am able to just have one drink and stop. When I do get drunk it's fun and it's never extreme. I feel like those are classic tests of alcohol problems. It still bugs me being classified as a heavy drinker though. 

Hm.