Sure, you like to drink. Who doesn’t? Drinking is part of just about every party and a regular part of business dinners and lunches. You may have had a few hangovers, but in general, you’ve got it under control, right?
Not necessarily.
Heavy drinking and problem drinking are not necessarily the same thing. Some people can drink heavily and carry on successful lives and healthy relationships. Although their drinking may not exactly be good for them, they don’t get caught up in a progressive downward spiral.
Other people can’t seem to pick up a drink without something unpredictable happening, and the longer they drink, the worse it gets The Hader Clinic alcohol rehabilitation.
The first group of people are heavy drinkers, the second group are probably suffering from alcoholism. Alcoholism is a progressive disease, marked by changes in brain function and increasingly severe physical and behavioral symptoms. You can’t fix alcoholism on your own anymore than you can fix diabetes or depression on your own.
The key factor is not how much you drink but what happens after you start. Do things seems to spiral out of control when you’re out on the town? Do you regularly feel sick and tired after a night of ‘fun’? Is it almost impossible to imagine having a good time without alcohol? The very fact that you are asking yourself these kinds of questions is evidence that drinking has become a problem in your life.
You don’t have to go it alone. Check yourself now and you may well save yourself a lifetime of suffering.
Here are 5 of the top reasons you may be drinking too much:
1) You regularly miss work or school because of your drinking.
If you take sick days because you drank too much or miss important meetings because of your drinking, you may have a drinking problem. Drinking that threatens your future or your financial security is out of control drinking.
2) People close to you have expressed concern about your drinking.
If drinking is causing trouble in your relationships, or if friends, family, and loved ones have asked you to stop drinking so much, you may have a drinking problem. If you are having fights about your drinking or about how often or when you get drunk, it’s time to seek outside help before you find yourself drunk and alone.
3) You lose time, can’t remember what you did, or have black-outs when you drink.
If you can’t predict what will happen after you pick up a drink, it may be time to reach out and talk to someone who understands how alcoholism changes your brain and your neurological responses. Stories about sleeping it off in a park or driving home unconscious may seem funny for awhile, but blackout drinking and memory problems put your life and the lives of others in serious danger.
4) You drink alone or hide your drinking.
People who drink alone are usually self-medicating some other problem. Everyone has challenges in dealing with stress, depression, anxiety, and personal problems, but drinking tends to make all of these problems worse, not better. Often you just end up with the original problem unchanged and a drinking problem on top of it. If you hide your drinking from others to prevent their disapproval, chances are good they already know you are drinking to excess on a regular basis. You really are only fooling yourself.
5) You’ve tried to quit on your own and you always end up drinking again anyway.
If you’ve tried to stop on your own and you can’t seem to manage to stay away from alcohol, you probably have already become alcohol dependent and you will need to reach out for help in order to stop the progression of the disease. It isn’t your fault, but it is your responsibility to seek appropriate treatment and care for yourself before your drinking does permanent harm to your own health and the lives of those you love.
If you identify with one or more of these consequences, consider seeking expert help right now by looking into professional treatment for alcohol addiction. Alcoholism is a disease, not a character flaw, and it is a progressive disease, meaning it will only get worse, it won’t just go away.
The modern medical community recognizes alcoholism as a genuine disease and many forms of treatment are covered by health insurance or even worker’s compensation. Treatment groups, rehabilitation facilities, twelve-step groups, and counseling can help you to decide what form of healing is best for you.
Are you tired of feeling sick and tired? Do you feel alone? Good times without suffering are possible. Make the call today, and start living the good life you deserve.
