How can you know if you are an alcoholic?
To the normal person who is not suffering from addiction, this sort of question might seem ridiculous at first. This can be a tough question however, because some people are still at the stage of drinking where they are enjoying themselves and they are not yet getting into too much trouble with their habit.
In some circumstances, there are drunks who can go for long periods of time without drinking anything at all, but then when they do get drunk they tend to go overboard. So this could be tricky to diagnose by yourself, because the binge drinker often goes for long periods of time without having any problems at all. In such cases the person might not realize that they should in fact stop drinking.
So how can you know for sure?Here are some ways that you might go about learning more:
1) Try to control the amount you drink. Set a limit on the amount of drinking and cut it down to one beer or shot or glass of wine per day, maximum. Maintain this for at least one year.
2) Diagnosing yourself. This is the only way. No one else can tell you that you are an alcoholic. You have to accept it for yourself. Merely admitting to it is not helpful enough. You will need to come to full acceptance of your condition without any reservation about it.
3) Consider this statement: “I didn’t get into trouble every time I drank, but every time I got into trouble, I had been drinking.” Is this the case for you? If so then that is a huge indicator that you might be alcoholic.
4) Consider this statement: “When I control my drinking, I don’t have any fun. When I have fun with my drinking, I tend to lose control.” Another strong indicator if this rings true for you.
So take these ideas into consideration and think about them. Make an effort to cut down drastically on the amount of liquor that you consume over about a six month time frame and notice how you feel about limiting your drinking. If you come to the conclusion that something needs to change then you might want to start exploring how to stop drinking.
