The Peril Of Drinking By Yourself

From someone who knows.

I was researching something this morning and came across this article on “The Sadness and Thrill of Drinking Alone.” I have drank alone more times than I could possibly count, so the article was interesting to me, especially this little ditty near the late-middle portion:

The stigma attached to this drives addicts to hide our solitary bingeing from our closest friends and family until we’ve hit bottom and have no choice but to reveal it. A 2017 study found that one in eight Americans is an alcoholic, but Constantine Diakolios, a medical director at Sunrise Health Treatment Center in New Jersey, says we don’t know how many of those people drink alone.

In my specific case, I’ve been married twice since 2013. I’ve been in other relationships before that. I’ve had a few 20+ year friends, and I’ve been in and out of probably 11–12 different groups since I turned 22. I would highly doubt anyone in those subsets, including the people I’ve lived with, knows exactly how much I’ve drank alone.