You get up and you go to work every day, for the most part. You generally don’t feel very good, but you laugh that off with the old Frank Sinatra quote: “I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.” You do what you need to do on more days than not, and when you come home, you immediately head to the refrigerator and grab a beer or run to the cabinet and poor a drink. You have a few more and perhaps a few more, but again, you’re generally not missing work and you’re paying your bills.
However, the question still gnaws at you deep in the back of your mind: “Do I have a drinking problem?” You’re not a clinician, so you’re really not sure, but you don’t want to confront the possibility of cutting your drinking out or even down for a while, as you enjoy it too much and it helps get you from one day to the next, as you have a lot of stresses to deal with. Do you have a drinking problem? While there is no hard-and-fast answer that fits into a mathematical equation, there are certain signs of a drinking problem of which you should be aware. Swift Recovery Solutions is a team of addiction professionals who work with those who at least want to find out if they should get some help. As such, below we’re going to provide some examples of signs of a drinking problem that should warrant further analysis.
1. You Drink More Than You Used To
Perhaps you’ve noticed recently that when you go to the liquor store, instead of buying a 6-pack, you buy 12 or 24 beers at a time. Instead of buying one bottle of wine, you buy three. Not only that, but you go through your alcohol just as quickly if not faster than you used to, and instead of making one trip to the liquor store per week you’re making several. These are signs of a higher tolerance, as the body will eventually require more alcohol to feel the same effect as you did when you started drinking. It’s also one of the potential signs of a drinking problem.
2. You’re Starting to Hear About It From Others
Are your friends and/or loved ones starting to ask you about how much you’re drinking? If they’re not directly confronting you, are they starting to make subtle comments about your lifestyle and habits? Are you getting tired of answering questions or responding to comments with a general message of, “I have everything under control.”? Are you so tired of hearing about this that you’re starting to hide your drinking from those who’ve said these things? Do you lie about how much you’re drinking so these people will just leave you alone and let you live your life? It may not seem like it, but you should be grateful that people are speaking up, as they are likely seeing signs of a drinking problem and they’re starting to worry.
3. You’re Withdrawing from Your Usual Activities
Did you used to get up early every Saturday morning and join friends for a game of volleyball? Were you at one time not too long ago someone who looked forward to those half-day or day-long hikes on trails with your dog? Are you no longer doing those things because you’re too tired or simply don’t feel well enough to exert that kind of effort and energy? One of the signs of a drinking problem is the tendency to withdraw from activities that you once considered an important part of your life. This can extend to your professional life as well, and it’s something that’s pretty easy to overlook as time goes by.
4. You Plan Your Life Around Alcohol
If you’re like most people, you probably try to be what’s known as a “responsible” drinker. As such, you may wake up in the morning, run through your schedule that day and pinpoint opportunities to have some drinks. For instance, if you get home from work two hours before your spouse, do you think about how you can have a few drinks before he or she gets home, and no one will be the wiser? Do you move early-morning meetings to later the next day so you can sleep in and not have to worry about how late you’re up having cocktails? Placing alcohol at or even near the top of your priority list is one of the common signs of a drinking problem according to most experts.
5. You Suffer Physically and Mentally When You Can’t Drink
If you’re a busy person, as most of us are, there are probably days where there simply is no opportunity to drink. When that happens, do you find yourself getting irritable, anxious or even sweaty as the day goes along? This is known as withdrawal, and it can take hold quickly. It’s not only one of the signs of a drinking problem, but it’s also a very difficult process to go through for anyone. That’s because it’s physiological in nature, as your brain learns to crave the effects of alcohol and when it doesn’t get it in its usual doses, your brain will “rebel” and send your body signs that it’s time for that beer or that glass of wine.
Swift Recovery Solutions Can Help
What we’ve provided above are simply a handful of examples of warning signs of a drinking problem. There are several others, but many people, if they are truly honest with themselves, have at least a general sense that something is wrong. As we’ve discussed recently, alcoholism is a disease, and it’s a process that involves your own immune system.
Swift Recovery Solutions can help. We are here to, at least at the start, give you answers to the hard questions. You need to understand immediately that we’re not here to tell you what to do, to tell you that you have a problem or to scare you into doing something you’re not ready to do. We’d rather help you come to your own decision on how to get things turned around if that’s what is necessary. If you’d like to start simply by doing more research, all you need to do is go to our Members site and spend 10 seconds registering with us. Once inside our library, you’ll find a trove of information on alcoholism and warning signs of a drinking problem, along with other important information.
If you’re ready to talk to someone who understands and empathizes with what you’re dealing with, you should feel free to contact us at any time to tell us your story. We can help, and we’re ready to do just that.
