How do you identify the fact that you have a problem with your drinking? When is it plain to see that you are engaging in alcohol abuse?
If you have ineffectively tried to quit drinking or if you sworn to yourself that your drinking days are behind you and then you recognized that you were drinking abusively just a few days later, chances are extremely good that you have a drinking problem. The point to highlight is that if you have tried to terminate your drinking and cannot get this accomplished, then your drinking is controlling you, instead of the other way around.
In a similar manner, if it takes greater amounts of alcohol to get the same “high,” you probably need to realize that you have a problem with your drinking.
You may be telling yourself that the justification for your drinking is so that you can lower your apprehension or get rid of the distress that you feel. Likewise, you may be trying to avoid an unsafe circumstance and may be looking for something better, more helpful, or less regretful.
As you continue to drink, nonetheless, you will understand that drinking does not bring about the same high and you will also realize that drinking doesn’t help do away with whatever brought about your misery in the first place.
As you continue to drink in an abusive manner, unfortunately, you may become addicted to alcohol and, as a consequence, you may add another major difficulty to manage rather than finding more productive and healthy ways of coping with your alcohol-related predicament.
The Requirement for an Alcohol Assessment
If you have concluded that you have a problem with your drinking, perhaps the most beneficial thing you can do for yourself is to call your doctor or healthcare practitioner and arrange for an appointment for a physical and for an assessment of your drinking situation.
If you really feel that you have a crucial problem with your drinking, it may be a good idea to get prepared to hear that you need to get alcohol counseling.
At this point, what are your alternatives? You can surely refuse to see your physician and continue your pattern of excessive drinking.
It truly doesn’t take a mastermind, nonetheless, to have a handle on the fact that chronic, abusive drinking, if left untreated, will get worse over time and most likely set in motion an early death. As a result, your most expedient alternative is to face up to your drinking problem and get the alcohol treatment you need.
The Deception of the Functioning Alcohol Dependent Person
It is somewhat odd to note the fact that numerous alcohol dependent individuals lead busy and active lives and have vehicles, jobs, pets, houses, families, and any number of material possessions similar to individuals who are not addicted to alcohol.
Many of these “functional” alcohol addicted people may have never been cited for a DUI and may have been lucky enough to avoid all alcohol induced legal problems. Despite this fortunate circumstance, then again, these alcohol dependent people need to drink in order to deal with life on a regular basis while maintaining their facade as they interact with people outside their family.
Ask anyone who has seen them when they are engaging in one of their drinking binges or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcohol addiction, nonetheless, and they will be quick to maintain the truth of the drinker’s situation and the essentials about the alcoholic’s drinking condition and about his or her alcohol induced difficulties.
Why Do People Addicted to Alcohol Fail to See Their Drinking Problems?
As alcohol dependency research and statistics on alcohol abuse have underlined, no matter how evident the alcohol generated issues seem to those who interact with the alcohol addicted person, alcohol dependent individuals normally deny that drinking is the source of their alcohol-related predicaments. Not only this, but alcohol addicted individuals usually blame their alcohol induced problems on other people or upon other situations around them instead of seeing their part in the difficulty.
The root of the issue is that alcoholism is a disease of the brain. Once the problem drinker has become addicted to alcohol, he or she regularly resorts to denial, manipulation, and lying as a way of coping with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make things more difficult, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms characteristically circumvents the alcohol dependent individual’s rare attempts to abruptly abstain from drinking. As dismal as the alcohol dependent person’s existence is, to the contrary, the positive news is that quality help is typically accessible – if the alcohol dependent person reaches out and tries to get alcoholism rehab.
Conclusion
Admitting the fact that drinking is triggering problems in your day to day functioning is probably the easiest way to determine if you have a drinking problem. More to the point, if your drinking is triggering issues with your health, at work, in your relationships, with your finances, at school, or with the legal system, then you have a drinking problem that needs to be tackled.
If you have a drinking problem, moreover, this means that you are getting involved with abusive drinking.
While some individuals may be able to detect their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their difficulties, and substantially decrease the quantity and rate of their drinking, others, nonetheless, need to deal with their drinking problems by getting professional alcoholism rehab. Furthermore, due to their propensity to deny the facts and bend the truth, alcohol addicted individuals unquestionably require competent alcohol counseling for their out-of-control drinking.
Filed under Health by on Sep 9th, 2009. 2 Comments.