My best friend to this day, once asked me to drink with him when we were 16. I told him it was about time I stopped drinking because we were young and most importantly: I started drinking alcohol at the age of 14.

I had the means and the opportunities that allowed me to get involved with alcohol. I would go to parties every weekend, twice a weekend – sometimes – and just get hammered.

At some point during my junior year in high school, I used to bring a backpack full of beer or bottles and half the people I knew, would expect me to show up with it filled to the brim.

My backpack’s name was “Dennis,” in case you were wondering.

It’s definitely a bad thing that I started out so young, and over the years, I’ve always been called the “alcoholic” of my group of friends, no matter how I denied it.

I love beer, I like drinking it and I prefer to have a beer or two every now and then.

But drinking to get messed up and constantly drinking isn’t good for my wallet, my body or my life.

If you don’t know me, here’s a little bit about the man named Kinnakone Phil Sidavong:

I’m a 22-year-old English major and I attend El Camino.

I’m the current Managing Editor for both Warrior Life (general-interest magazine) and The Union (student-run newspaper).

I used to drink beer four to five times a week. Sometimes I’d throw in shots or mixed drinks.

I just started working at an ice cream place called “Smitten” at The Point in El Segundo.

I’ve never been in a fight drunk, I’ve never been arrested for drinking (or in general) and I’ve never been at the point where I couldn’t do any job or task because of alcohol.

So there was never a reason for me to think of myself as one, nor was there a reason for me to tell people about myself in general.

At some point, I got tired of all these people talking about it like a joke and I did research to see if I really was an alcoholic.

According to the alcoholics.about.com website, “For the functional alcoholic, the denial runs deep, because they have yet to encounter outward negative consequences. They go to work every day. They haven’t suffered financially. They have never been arrested. They don’t have a problem!”

Unfortunately this describes me perfectly, because for about five years until I turned 21, I denied, denied, denied any mention of me being an alcoholic. I never got into fights, I always went to work or school the next day and I was never getting “blasted” every night, so it didn’t occur to me that I really was one.

On the alcoholics.about.com website, I took a short test to screen what kind of alcoholic I am.

Results: I’m 35 percent alcoholic, and I don’t care.

I know I had a problem, I don’t deny it, but I kept my problem in check; and what I’ve learned through my journey of alcoholism is that it’s a terrible thing.

I currently enjoy a beer or two once a week or so, and I am as of now not an “alcoholic,” and I’ve never been.

But what I’ve learned as a “functioning alcoholic” is that if you don’t have the ability to control what you do and when you do it, you need to stop doing it, no matter what it is.

If you need help or know someone who needs help controlling themselves, you can contact any of these organizations or numbers:

http://www.aa.org/-

Alcoholics Anonymous website

https://addictiontosobriety.com – Addiction To Sobriety website

(877) 630-8282 – Addiction To Sobriety number