I work in a bar. Recently a woman I work with who is 32 (I'm 31 myself) was admitted to the hospital with severe pancreatitis. After two days in the hospital (and without alcohol) she began to suffer from -very- serious alcohol withdrawl. She is having the DTs, really bad hallucinations, seizures, etc. She is still in the hospital and is on medication to help her recover. Now, this is a woman who drank nearly all day every day. That being said, it has me worried and phobic about my own drinking. I have about 2 beers or 2 glasses of wine a night 3 or 4 days a week and then 3 or 4 days a week I will have about 6-8 drinks total (including hard alcohol). It used to be more like 2 drinks a night 5 nights a week and then 2 nights a week I'd get snackered... but the last few months it's been more often due to a combination of stress (planning my wedding), and more friends going out more often. Now, when I'm at work, ironically enough, I almost -never- drink. I -could- if I wanted to... I'm allowed... I just don't ever want to. Part of it is that I work during the day and part of it is that it's just never seemed fun to me to get drunk at work. However, since I've been drinking this way for over 10 years I'm getting worried about it's overall effect on me. I'm also scared that if I cut back I'll get some horrific type of withdrawl or suffer brain damage. And, most of all what bothers me, is I don't -want- to cut back. I enjoy drinking. It doesn't interfere with my work, my relationships, I'm rarely hungover (maybe twice a month), etc. So, I'm just wondering based on what you guys think based on what I've said here. My fiance says I'm crazy and that "we may like to drink, but we are definitely not that bad" or he will say "I guess technically you could call us functional alcoholics, but we'd have to do a lot more to do real damage". Given that he's fairly laid back about health concerns and I'm...well.... the extreme opposite... I don't know what to think. I feel like I don't have the ability to judge correctly for myself anymore when it comes to my health. Atferall, I've seen doctors for countless "silly" things and had a few tests I didn't need.
Opinions?