Being an alcoholic means much more than being dependent on your next drink. Your focus may be on how to cope without a drink or how depressed you feel without the alcohol inside you. However, your decision to drink and your addiction to alcohol affect the lives of all the people around you. Your loved ones; family and friends and even co-workers will all be concerned for you. They will need to deal with the situations which you either avoid or even cause. They will also be the ones who can see the damage that is being done to you physically and mentally.
In fact, it is usually hardest for the person who is addicted to alcoholism to realize that they need help; it is normal for everyone else to see the issue first.
There are several tell tale signs that suggest your drinking has gone beyond a social matter. If you reach this stage then you will need to seek professional assistance and will probably need to use the services of an alcohol rehab centre.
If you display all or most of the following symptoms then seek professional help:
- Frequently drink more than you intended to.
- Realized that you might have a problem and attempted to cut down your drinking; without success.
- Spend much of your time drinking or recovering from a drinking session.
- Crave alcohol; this can be at any time of the day although it is often from the moment you wake up.
- Need alcohol to feel ‘normal’.
- The amount of time you spend drinking is having a detrimental effect on your relationships with your family, friends and loved ones. The effect will also be noticeable at work.
- Despite the knowledge that it is detrimental to your relationships you continue drinking.
- Dedicated all your time to drinking; at the expense of previously enjoyed hobbies and quality family time.
- Found yourself in a dangerous situation because of your drinking and this has happened more than once.
- Discovered that you need to drink more each time to get the same feeling; the effectiveness of the alcohol is wearing off.
- Know that drinking is making you depressed or is damaging your health and yet finding that you are unable to stop drinking.
- If you have stopped drinking for a short while, usually when you have fallen asleep or passed out, then you wake up and have noticeable withdrawal signs. These include trouble sleeping, irritability, nausea and anxiety.
To recovery from an alcohol addiction you will need to have assistance; the best solution is to be an inpatient in an alcohol rehab centre; this will ensure you are not tempted by alcohol.
If this is not an option then you can be treated as an outpatient but you must have a good support group and take any other help which is available; such as joining an alcoholic anonymous group. It is not an easy road to recovery and it is something that you will always need to be aware of; even a small drink in the future can trigger a new addiction phase.