Alcoholism Signs and Symptoms

Often alcoholism signs are viewed as being subjective, that is only oneself can decide whether we are alcoholic. This is of course not true! There are methods of diagnosis and assessment that do not depend on an the drinker admitting to being an alcoholic but instead look for alcoholism signs in the behaviour being exhibited. For example one simple method of screening for alcoholism is the CAGE questionnaire which you can find here.

However even with self diagnosis there are still quite clear alcoholism signs that would indicate that someone was drinking like an alcoholic. Below is a list of some of the most prominent ones.

Drink more than their friends - sometimes excuses such as "they are a boring bunch that drink too slow" are offered and there may be some truth there. Nevertheless it is clear that he is almost always drinking more than the company, on almost every occasion.

Hiding how much they drink - this can take many forms, for example in a social situation she may buy and quickly consume extra drinks when she thinks no one is looking or he may carry his own bottle or hip flask and top up his drink, again when he thinks no one is looking. In a non-social situation she may hide alcohol around the house and the back of drawers or he may hide empty bottles in the neighbours rubbish bins.

Drinking more than intended - good intentions that “this time he will only have one drink, or maybe two drinks, definitely three at the most” seem to be eroded and any intended limits go by the wayside as he gets drunk again.

Lying about how much they drink - this can consist of denying having been drinking at all or minimising the amount, despite it obviously being untrue. Accusations along the lines of “You have obviously been drinking” only appear to bring an automatic denial and ever increasing defensiveness.

Increasing difficulty of functioning without a drink - for many drinkers, not just those with a problem, some situations like meeting strangers or relaxing at parties are accomplished much easier if they have had a drink to put them at ease. However most people could still relax and have a good time without alcohol. Some problem drinkers can come to depend on alcohol to relax them and take away the social unease, in fact without alcohol they can become even more awkward and nervous. One explanation of why this occurs can be found in the conditioning models of addiction.

Increasing difficulty abstaining from drinking - she will have great difficulty refusing a drink when offered and also she will drink at times and situations that she would not have had a drink previously. For example a shopping trip that would have included a coffee break may now have a wine break, or working at home may now have a cocktail break included.

More frequent and severe withdrawal symptoms - he may start to experience withdrawals such as tremors (hands shaking) and sweating, these are viewed as classic alcoholism signs. At first these symptoms may be fairly mild and easily controllable or concealed, however with time they become more severe and start to affect functioning as they are usually accompanied by other symptoms.

Anxiety and guilt feelings in the morning - the feelings of anxiety and guilt can exacerbate the shakes and conversely the anxiety can exacerbate the shakes. The whole package leads to an extremely uncomfortable time and can escalate to panic attacks.

Morning drinking - one obvious way to alleviate such bad feelings is to take a little drink – hair of the dog that bit you. This will settle the anxiety and shakes, at least it will for a while. It is also obvious that when the effect of that drink wears off the anxiety and shakes will return and another drink will be needed and the spiral of alcoholism signs really begins.

In brief there is a feeling of a behaviour (drinking) that is initially slipping out of control, just a little bit to begin with. The drinker usually feels that they could control it any time they want, normally tomorrow rather than today. Sometimes they succeed, often they don’t and then drinking seems to take over and problems accelerate. If you feel that you may have a problem and are showing alcoholism signs take the alcohol problem test. Click here for the alcohol problem test.

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