How to Be a Good Alcoholic

Abstract

Alcoholism is not one singular thing. It takes many forms, some more dignified and less destructive than others. This article explores how people drinking in the early hours of the day in bars present themselves and their relationship with alcohol and alcoholism. By means of ethnographic data, I analyze their strategies in dealing with the deviant use of alcohol. I find that the early morning drinkers use distinctions along three dimensions: managing drunkenness, taking breaks from drinking, and claiming certain motives for drinking. These distinctions are used in order to position oneself on a normative scale of different types of alcoholics.

Construction of group norms in a radical acceptance online forum for heavy alcohol users: A corpus-based discourse analysis

“…It has been ritualized and formalized in the tokens distributed at AA meetings to commemorate milestones of sober time. And as Skjaelaaen [59] noted, "taking breaks" is a common topic of conversation among heavy drinkers. Contributors to the forum uniformly identify that undertaking periods of sobriety is difficult and refer to being overwhelmed and compelled to drink again, thereby bringing an end to a sober spell.…”

Alene, sammen. Om former for fellesskap rundtmorgenpilsen

“…Det finnes imidlertid eksempler på situasjoner hvor ekskludering og fravaer av anerkjennelse forekommer. Det foregår normdannelser som ekskluderer og danner hierarkier, noe jeg har beskrevet i en annen artikkel fra samme studie (Skjaelaaen 2016). Noen går f.eks.…”