A straight answer
A drinking problem is not defined by how much you drink, but by what drinking is doing to you. Plain answers, the 3-question check GPs use, and free anonymous support near you.
If you are asking the question, you already deserve a straight answer, so here it is. A drinking problem is not defined by how much you drink, but by what drinking is doing to you. If alcohol is costing you more than money (sleep, honesty, mornings, relationships, self-respect) and you have tried to cut down and found it harder than expected, that is worth taking seriously. It does not mean you are "an alcoholic", and it does not mean you have to stop forever starting today. It means you are allowed to get support.
If you drink heavily every day, please do not stop suddenly. Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or call NHS 111 first so you can cut down safely.
Almost nobody googles this question idly. Usually something has happened: a rough morning, a comment from a partner, a blank patch in last night's memory. People whose drinking is genuinely fine almost never lie awake wondering whether it is. The asking is information.
Drinking problems are not a cliff edge. They are a slope, and most people on it are still going to work, still functioning, still nothing like the stereotype in their head. The useful question is not "am I as bad as that?" It is "is alcohol making my life smaller?"
No single sign settles it, but the more of these that feel familiar, the more your drinking deserves attention.
The UK guideline is the same for men and women: no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days. In drinks you would recognise, a 750ml bottle of wine at 13.5% is 10 units on its own. A standard 175ml glass is 2.1. A pint of higher-strength lager is 3 units, a lower-strength one is 2, and a single 25ml shot of spirits is 1. So 14 units is roughly five pints of strong lager, or a bottle and a third of wine, across a whole week.
Those numbers surprise most people, and a single pint of strong lager every evening is already 21 units a week, comfortably over the line.
But units answer a different question from the one you probably typed. They measure the risk to your body. They do not decide whether drinking has become a problem in your life, and there is no unit count at which a person turns into an alcoholic. Someone can drink well over 14 units for years without their life narrowing. Someone else can drink under it and still plan their whole week around when the next one is.
A bottle a night is around 70 units a week, five times the guideline. That is a great deal to ask of a liver, and it deserves saying plainly rather than gently. It also means stopping suddenly on your own could be genuinely dangerous, so that part belongs with a GP rather than with willpower.
What it does not do is answer your question. No amount makes someone an alcoholic, and no website can tell you what you are, including this one. People ask this same question about a bottle a night, about two cans after work, about never touching it Monday to Thursday and then not remembering Saturday. The amount changes. The worry underneath it is always the same one: could I stop if I decided to?
Only drinking at weekends is worth its own line, because people often assume it settles the matter. The guideline asks you to spread 14 units across three or more days, so saving the week's drinking for Friday and Saturday carries its own risk even when the weekly total looks reasonable.
Yes, and you do not need an appointment. The AUDIT-C is a three-question screen used across the NHS; GPs use the same questions. It takes about two minutes, it is scored instantly on your device, and nothing is saved or sent anywhere. You get a score from 0 to 12 with a plain-English explanation, and you can download your result as a PDF to show a GP or someone you trust.
No. You do not have to decide what you are before you are allowed to get help. The only requirement for walking into an AA meeting is a desire to stop drinking, and you can attend an open meeting with even less than that: just curiosity. If the spiritual flavour of AA is not for you, SMART Recovery meetings offer a practical, secular alternative.
If you drink heavily every day, stopping abruptly can be physically dangerous. Alcohol withdrawal can cause seizures and, in severe cases, can be life-threatening. Warning signs that your body may be dependent include morning shakes, sweating, anxiety relieved by a drink, or needing alcohol to sleep. If any of that sounds like you, contact your GP or call NHS 111 before cutting down sharply. They can help you reduce safely, sometimes with medication. This is routine for them, with no judgement.