Do You Have Alcoholism

Do You Have Alcoholism

Am I an Alchol Dependent person?

The terms ‘alcoholism’ refers to the ailment of chronic addiction to alcoholic drinks. It is a sickness that, if left untreated, almost inevitably wrecks a person’s life, both through the damage the alcoholic substances does to the addicted person’s health and due to the wider effects on the alcoholic person’s job, family, social life, etc.

For clear reasons, most individuals shy away from applying the label ‘alcoholic’ to themselves. Even persons who often drink obsessively will say, “I know I drink a great deal, but I’m not an alcoholic”. For this reason it is valuable to have a list of objective indicators that can help identify whether someone is descending into complete alcohol addiction.

Ask them these nine questions:

1. Do you find yourself drinking alone regularly?

2. Do you find yourself making excuses in order to pour yourself another drink?

3. Do you sense an inability to finish drinking?

4. Is it hard to minimize your amount of alcohol drinking?

5. Is there a history of an addiction to alcohol in the family?

6. How do you respond if someone opposes you about your drinking? Do you get forceful?

7. Has your diet suffered since drinking regularly?

8. Are you having trouble maintaining your physical appearance?

9. Are you tempted to take a drink to the workplace with you, or drink one while driving?

Of course there is really only one question that defines alcoholism: ‘are you able to stop drinking?’, but most heavy drinkers who progress into an alcohol dependency do so while maintaining, “I can cease drinking any time I like!” For this rationale it is useful to have the nine questions. If they answer is ‘of course’ to most of them, that would suggeset that the person in question cannot stop drinking any time they want, despite their protestations to the contrary!

Of course, for a person to realize that they are an alcohlic can be very confronting, to say the least. Such a discovery can easily cause suicidal thoughts and tendencies. For this reason, once a person admits that they have the disease, they need to be affirmed that they have made the biggest and hardest step towards recovery, simply through this admission.

If the person joins an Alcoholics Anonymous group, they will find that every member of the group will undertake their time of sharing by giving their name, next by their confession, “I am an alcoholic”. Ask any AA member. Owning the label is the starting point to recovery!