How to Tell if You are an Alcoholic
How can you determine if you have an addiction to alcohol?
To anyone who is not struggling with alcoholism, such a question might seem bizarre because they think the answer should be obvious. This can really be a tricky situation for some people, especially if you are still in the phase of drinking where you still have fun with it but at the same time you get into trouble sometimes.
In some circumstances, there are drunks who can go for long periods of time without drinking anything at all, but then when they do get drunk they tend to go overboard. So this could be tricky to diagnose by yourself, because the binge drinker often goes for long periods of time without having any problems at all. In such cases the person might not realize that they should in fact stop drinking.
So how can you know for sure?These are some things you might try to help you out:
1) Try to control your alcohol intake. Set a limit on the amount of drinking and cut it down to one beer or shot or glass of wine per day, maximum. Keep this up for at least 12 months continuous.
2) Self diagnosis. This is the only method. Others cannot diagnose you with an alcohol problem. You must accept this reality for your own self. If you merely admit it this is not enough. You will need to come to full acceptance of your condition without any reservation about it.
3) Consider this statement: “I didn’t get into trouble every time I drank, but every time I got into trouble, I had been drinking.” Is this true for you? If this is the case then this might be a big warning sign that you have alcoholism.
4) Consider this statement: “When I control my drinking, I don’t have any fun. When I really enjoy my alcohol, I frequently will lose control of myself.” Another strong indicator if this rings true for you.
So go through those suggestions and give them some thought. Attempt to limit the amounts that you drink over a long period of time (say like 6 months or a year) and then also notice how you feel about having to limit your consumption. If you come to the conclusion that something needs to change then you might want to start exploring how to stop drinking.
