An Otago University study has revealed alcohol to be the most harmful drug in New Zealand, but Kiwi's drinking habits may be changing.
Video / NZ Herald
An Australian couple has shocked the internet after revealing their weekly alcohol intake while holding down steady jobs and taking care of teenage children.
In a post on Reddit, a father of two teenagers asked whether he and his wife’s drinking habits were out of the ordinary after receiving a shocked reaction from work colleagues when admitting the quantities of alcohol the pair consumed weekly.
The post was titled: ‘Do I drink too much?’
“So, I work fulltime (45 hours per week) and we’re raising two teenagers,” the man’s post began.
“I’d get through about five bottles of vodka, whilst my wife (nurse who works 32 hours per week) would have about one bottle of vodka with three bottles of wine per week.
Reactions to the post included some readers describing the pair as “functioning alcoholics”.
“Yes, you are basically functioning alcoholics,” a user said, adding a link to the “stopdrinking” forum on Reddit.
“How are you not dead?” another asked.
“You are (not so) slowly killing yourselves. You are also providing terrible role models for your children,” said another reader.
“Categorically yes, that’s too much. That’s not normal. You both need to get sober,” another wrote.
While some questioned the validity of the post, a reader from New Zealand said they knew people who drank to excess but still functioned in society day-to-day.
“You’d be surprised how many functioning alcoholics there are out there. I live in NZ, which has a fairly similar drinking culture to Australia, and I know a quite lot of people - who would be considered perfectly normal by a casual acquaintance - who drink somewhere in the region of 30-50 standard drinks per week.”
Some Reddit users questioned how the couple could function while drinking so heavily on a daily basis. Photo / Getty Images.
Other readers revealed their own struggles with alcohol.
“I’m also a functioning alcoholic,” one person wrote. “I drink a bottle of wine a night on most nights. I’m keenly aware this is bad for my health and try to have at least two alcohol-free days a week.”
Another wrote: “I’m a functioning alcoholic and yes, that’s a lot of alcohol. I’m sorry to break it to you, but this is what alcoholism looks like. Alcoholics aren’t always messy, slurring drunks.”
One reader revealed he had had similar drinking habits.
“At the height of my alcoholism, I was consuming probably 16-25 drinks per day, so I believe your post could be real,” the post read.
“I was showing up to work on time and I was fulfilling all of my essential responsibilities. I was unhappy, which is why I was drinking, which over time made me more unhappy.”
Readers were also shocked by the cost of bingeing booze on a daily basis.
Other users pointed out risks to the pair and others.
“Your wife is at risk of being hungover at work and smelling of alcohol. Both of you are at risk of having a breathalyser [reading of] 0.05 or above in the morning.
