How long does it take to become an alcoholic?

[seep]

Say if I'm having like 6 drinks a day, every day: how long can I do this until I develop a dependence? Like, after which day can I no longer simply stop drinking without developing withdrawal symptoms?

 

[BurritoJimmy]

There are too many factors to answer this question. For me personally it took about a year of daily drinking between 4 and 10, the occasional binge where I'd have 15+ before I started experiencing withdrawals. Had I been more knowledgable I would have taken every other day off at least to avoid withdrawal.

 

[fermonos]

It's hard to say really, I think it can vary a lot from person to person and what kind of state your head is in at the time. I mean you can become mentally dependant very easily I would say but if you mean physically then it's probably going to take a lot longer.

I was a really heavy drinking for 3-4 days of the week for a good 7 or 8 month. I'd drink easily 10 pints of beer/lager plus a lot jager bombs/shots/vodka and cokes on the days I'd be drinking and I never came across any physical dependency luckily. However I was somewhat mentally dependant, I'd want to always go to the pub with the lads whenever I wasn't already at the pub drinking. I mean, they'd make other plans what didn't involve drinking and it'd just make me sad since I'd rather be having a drink in the pub because it was much more fun.

 

[keeping]

subjective. it takes quite a long time to become physically dependent but psychological addiction can come on pretty fast.
ymmv.