Alcohol is the most widely used addictive substance in the world, and the problem keeps growing. More than 17 million people live with alcohol addiction worldwide. Several million binge drink almost every day.

It’s hard to recognize the exact point when drinking alcohol becomes an addiction, but these signs will tell you whether you or someone you love has a drinking problem.

Physical signs of alcoholism

Are you shaking, sweating or nauseous when you do not drink? Can you fall asleep without it? Insomnia that will not quit is a real sign of alcohol addiction. Do you need more alcohol now to get the buzz two drinks used to give you? Tolerance is another common sign.

Are you neglecting your responsibilities?

Neglecting your everyday obligations at home, school or work and replacing them with drinking sessions usually means one thing. You have an addiction. If drinking has gone from something occasional and fun to something that causes trouble and damages your life and the lives of the people around you, you have a serious problem.

Are you hiding your drinking?

People without an alcohol problem have no reason to lie about how much they drink. Social drinkers drink in front of other people. If you drink in secret so it looks smaller than it is, and you feel guilty or ashamed afterward, that can be a sign of serious alcohol addiction. It is also hard for family and friends to spot.

Do you drink when you really shouldn’t?

Drinking before you drive, or against your doctor’s orders while you are on medication, usually means alcohol addiction. It puts your life in danger, and everyone else’s. Every time you drive after drinking you risk the lives of every other person on the road. Taking that risk means alcohol has become the thing that comes first.

Do you often forget things?

Blacking out, no memory of the night before, waking up sorry you drank at all: that is a red flag for addiction. Losing whole stretches of an evening means that you have had far too much alcohol. Nobody needs to lose the whole night to have had a good one. Something else is going on, and it is probably an addiction.

Are you unable to stop drinking?

Maybe you already know the drinking is a problem, or someone in your family told you so. Maybe you have tried to stop and could not. Trying to stop and not being able to is one of the clearest signs of alcohol addiction. It is also the point where getting better starts. None of it is easy.

Help is available

Almost 90 thousand people die from alcohol misuse every year. That makes alcoholism the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States, just after tobacco use and poor diet. One or two of these signs does not mean you are addicted to alcohol. Recognizing yourself in most of them does. If alcohol is causing problems in your life, you probably have an addiction.

Addiction is a disease and it happens to anybody. If you or someone close to you has a problem with alcohol, contact us today.

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