Some signs that may suggest a tendency to alcoholism are:
- you can’t stop drinking
- annoyed by people pointing out how much they are drinking
- you feel guilty when you think about your relationship with alcohol
- you feel the need to drink when you wake up in the morning to relax your nerves or to recover from a hangover
Some warning signs:
- it regularly exceeds the recommended doses of alcohol
- sometimes you are unable to remember what happened the night before because you drank too much
- Missing appointments or failing to show up for work due to being drunk or having a hangover
How much does an alcoholic drink?
Note that, according to the definition, the alcoholic is the person, while alcoholism is the disease. An alcoholic suffers from alcoholism. Alcoholism is a chronic disease. Furthermore, it is important to point out that there is a growing trend in using the term alcoholic in a derogatory way. Instead of this term, it is therefore possible to hear expressions such as “a person suffering from an alcohol consumption disorder”.
Alcoholics are obsessed with alcohol and cannot control how much they consume, even if it causes serious problems at home, at work and financially.
Moderate alcohol consumption will not cause any psychological or physiological harm. However, for some individuals, drinking for social reasons leads to gradually increasing alcohol consumption, which can cause serious health damage.
Usually, the last person who realizes he has a problem with alcohol is the person concerned, who often denies the evidence. Some signs and symptoms include:
- Drink alone
- Drink in secret
- Not being able to limit alcohol consumption
- Having gaps in memory, not being able to remember periods of time
- Having rituals and getting irritated when they are disturbed or judged. For example drinking before / during / after meals or after work
- Stop performing activities and hobbies that raise the person’s pleasure
- Loss of interest
- Feeling the need to drink
- Feeling irritable when it comes time to drink. This feeling intensifies if alcohol is not available or if it seems that it may not be
- Having alcohol reserves in unlikely places
- Drink so you get drunk first to feel good
Having relationship problems
Having trouble with the law (caused by drinking)
- Having problems at work (caused by drinking or rooted in drinking)
- Having money problems (caused by drinking)
- Need to drink more and more alcohol to feel its effect
- Nausea, sweating or shaking when not drinking
A person who abuses alcohol may have many of these signs and symptoms, but they do not have any withdrawal syndrome, unlike alcoholics, and they do not have the same degree of compulsion to drink.