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Old 18th January 2018, 03:23
hollowone hollowone is offline
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Default Are you worried about your drinking?

If someone's worried that they're drinking too much, there's this binary, you'r either a normal social drinker or your an alcoholic (drinking every day, drunk all the time, drinking 1st think in the morning). That's a pretty unhelpful criteria in my view. I think there's three important reasons to really give this question a look into;
  • Am I drinking to cope with problems; am I drinking to feel less anxious or to fill a gap in my life? Is my life so shit that the state induced by drinking gives me relief?*
  • Is drinking causing me problems; Is it damaging you health, ruining your sleep patterns, ruining your finances, damaging your work performance or resulting in too many hangovers
  • Are there any signs that you might be dependent; psychologically; do certain times of the day, certain activities or thoughts trigger a strong desire to start drinking? Physically (if you've been drinking regularly for a long time); do you sweat, feel more anxious than normal if you have had a break?

I define alcohol dependence by 4 threshold criteria;
  • Increased tolerance
  • Presence of cravings
  • Presence of withdrawal symptoms
  • Presence of relief drinking
A mild degree might include cravings only, similar to a smoker lighting up a cigarette, and with or without raised tolerance; finding they can handle their drink better than when younger.

A more severe degree of dependence would include withdrawal symptoms. This doesn't have to be in the form of the shakes, this can be things like hangover-like symptoms persisting more than the hangover day, feeling more anxious than normal & getting sweats.

The most severe degree of dependence is when you get withdrawals that are so bad, that you drink specifically to avoid experiencing withdrawal symptoms; 'relief drinking'. This is what many people think of when they think of an alcoholic; drinking in the morning. All the core criteria are checked.

Other signs of dependence might include (based on DSM criteria);
  • Previous failed attempts to stop or cut down
  • Not being able to stop once started/drinking more than intended
  • Spending large amounts of time hungover
  • Hiding your drinking; this could include lying or withdrawing socially
  • Drinking despite awareness of negative consequences
I think that's a much more helpful way to look at it.
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