What Type of Drinker Are You?
When cutting back keeps failing, the reason usually sits in when you drink rather than how much. Answer five questions to see which of four types your drinking is closest to, and what that type tends to trip over.
About 2 minutes · 5 questions · free · no sign-up. Your result opens on its own page.
This is a way to reflect on how you drink, not a medical diagnosis. Everything is worked out in your browser — your answers are never sent to a server.
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Answer all 5 questions and your type's page opens. Working out the result needs JavaScript — with it off, pick whichever of the four types below fits you best.
The four types
This quiz splits drinking by what sets it off, not by how much you drink. No type is better or worse than another — but the same goal of "drink less" calls for different tactics depending on which one you are.
The Routine Drinker
Drinking has become part of the shape of your day.
You rarely decide to drink — the time of day decides for you. Even if any single evening is modest, drinking every day leaves no room for your body to recover. Because the trigger sits in your routine rather than your mood, changing the routine tends to work better than relying on willpower.
See what works for The Routine Drinker →The Stress Drinker
You use a drink to change how you feel.
A rough day or a stretch of pressure is what puts a drink in your hand. Your intake swings a lot from day to day, and it climbs fastest in the hardest weeks. Using alcohol to manage stress is a pattern that is said to escalate over time, so having other ways to reset makes it easier to come back.
See what works for The Stress Drinker →The Social Drinker
The room sets your pace, not you.
On your own you barely drink, but the total climbs whenever you are with other people. The pace of the group wins over your own, and the awkwardness of saying no turns straight into volume. You do not have to cut out the occasions — deciding on your first drink and your way of declining in advance is usually what changes the outcome.
See what works for The Social Drinker →The Reward Drinker
A drink is how you pay yourself back.
The drink at the end of the day is how you mark that the work is over — the point is the punctuation, not the alcohol. That makes it easier to swap than most patterns, as long as something else does the marking. The catch is that the bar for "I earned this" keeps dropping until every day qualifies.
See what works for The Reward Drinker →How the quiz works
The five questions cover what makes you want a drink, how often and how much you drank over the past month, the way you usually drink, why you want to cut back, and what happened the last time you tried. Each option maps to exactly one of the four types, and whichever type collects the most answers is the one you get.
When two types tie, the first question — what makes you want a drink — decides it. How much and how often you drink moves around with the season of your life, but the trigger is the part people recognise in themselves, and it is the most useful thing to build a plan around. If you pick "Not yet" on the last question, that answer counts towards no type at all.
These four types are our own way of grouping drinking patterns, not a clinical classification. The quiz says nothing about whether the amount you drink has reached a risky level. For that, the drinking habits self-check built on the WHO AUDIT-C is the better fit.
Recognising yourself in more than one type is common. Plenty of people are a routine drinker on weeknights and a social drinker at the weekend. If that is you, start with the type that covers the situation you meet most often.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a medical diagnosis?
No. It sorts what triggers your drinking into four types, and it is not a medical diagnosis. If you want to know whether the amount you drink itself reaches a risky level, use our AUDIT-C based drinking habits self-check instead.
How long does it take?
Five multiple-choice questions, about two minutes. No sign-up and no email address needed.
Are my answers stored anywhere?
No. Everything is worked out in your browser — your answers are never sent to or stored on a server. Reloading the page clears them.
About this quiz: it is a way to reflect on how you drink, not a medical diagnosis. To gauge the risk level of the amount you drink, take the AUDIT-C based drinking habits self-check. If cutting back on your own feels difficult, talking to a doctor or an alcohol service is one option.
Once you know your type, keep track of it
SoberNow counts your alcohol-free days, the money you have saved, and the recovery milestones along the way.