Important Ways to Determine Whether You Have Become an Alcoholic
Posted: Saturday, April 25, 2009
by Samantha James
As many people know, alcoholism is a disease characterized by the person who has the affliction exhibiting hallmark behaviors such as being unable to control when they drink, how much they drink, how often they drink, and as any person with a serious drinking problem or alcoholic knows, drinking alcohol at the worst possible time, for instance when you have an important engagement to attend. Here is a list of signs that will help you determine whether you have actually gone from the heavy drinker catagory to actually having become an alcoholic.
As to the causes of alcoholism, research is leaning towards alcohol addiction causes to include genetics, environmental factors, and psychological factors such as a propensity for depression can drive a drinker to dive headlong into alcohol dependence, since alcohol can relieve depression temporarily.
And just about anyone can become an alcoholic. A person of any age, sex, ethnic group, social class, or profession can become a victim. Alcoholics represent a cross-section of society that has no boundaries.
Here is a further list of the signs that illustrate that you may have gone from social drinking, to heavy drinking, and then to alcohol addiction:
- You use any excuse you can think of to drink.
- You discover you have a lack of control over your drinking, even if you are a weekend drinker or a binge drinker. And you can't guarantee the outcome once you get started.
- Here is the obvious one. Excessive consumption of alcohol.
- Denying you have a drinking problem and insisting you can control your drinking even when it has become apparent you have lost control (most of us know at some level that the situation has gotten out of hand).
- In some cases, you will develop a higher tolerance for alcohol, being able to drink a considerably higher volume compared to when you first started drinking. The flip side of this coin is when you have been drinking heavily for a long time; you get drunk on one or two drinks. This is an indication that your liver isn't functioning property and is unable to process the alcohol normally.
- Feeling defensive and annoyed if anyone criticizes your drinking, and you make every effort to minimize the situation or to "explain" it.
- Hiding alcohol in unusual places.
- Drinking first thing in the morning to stave the off sickness and shaking from a hangover.
- Being aggressive or abusive under the influence - your personality changes, sometimes dramatically.
- You drink alone.
And just about anyone can become an alcoholic. A person of any age, sex, ethnic group, social class, or profession can become a victim. Alcoholics represent a cross-section of society that has no boundaries.
Here is a further list of the signs that illustrate that you may have gone from social drinking, to heavy drinking, and then to alcohol addiction:
- You use any excuse you can think of to drink.
- You discover you have a lack of control over your drinking, even if you are a weekend drinker or a binge drinker. And you can't guarantee the outcome once you get started.
- Here is the obvious one. Excessive consumption of alcohol.
- Denying you have a drinking problem and insisting you can control your drinking even when it has become apparent you have lost control (most of us know at some level that the situation has gotten out of hand).
- In some cases, you will develop a higher tolerance for alcohol, being able to drink a considerably higher volume compared to when you first started drinking. The flip side of this coin is when you have been drinking heavily for a long time; you get drunk on one or two drinks. This is an indication that your liver isn't functioning property and is unable to process the alcohol normally.
- Feeling defensive and annoyed if anyone criticizes your drinking, and you make every effort to minimize the situation or to "explain" it.
- Hiding alcohol in unusual places.
- Drinking first thing in the morning to stave the off sickness and shaking from a hangover.
- Being aggressive or abusive under the influence - your personality changes, sometimes dramatically.
- You drink alone.
- You miss work due to hangovers.
- You experience more extreme mood swings.
- You skip out and start losing interest in what used to be your social activities.
- Your physical appearance isn't what it used to be. You may start neglecting your appearance and your health, diet included.
- You have blackouts from alcohol and notice an overall impaired memory.
- You are more irritable and have a darker outlook on life.
- Alcohol is interfering with your sleeping pattern.
- Alcohol is bringing on anxiety and/or anxiety attacks.
- Simple situations are harder to evaluate - confusion.
- Abdominal bloating and facial bloating.
- After drinking for some time, capillaries in the face and nose may appear, and bloodshot eyes can become a daily occurrence.
These symptoms will vary by individual. Alcoholism contrary to popular belief is not a weakness in your character or a sign of a moral deficiency on your part. It is officially a disease that is and has been for some time recognized by all of the medical communities.
This Article has been viewed 667 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.