A simple self-help assessment tool to determine if you might need help with alcohol consumption
Decades ago Hollywood and mainstream entertainment stereotyped the “alcoholic”. Most people describe one as someone with shaking hands, unemployed or struggling at work, disheveled looking, relatively violent near or on a complete wreck.
This image still exists in reality, but they are the minority today. There are more alcohol problems that just don’t look the part.
Nowadays, science and medicine have made it known that alcohol problems have a more accessible minimum. So you might not realize it, but you could be an alcoholic, addicted to alcohol, or at least prone to alcohol problems.
Whether you drink every day, every weekend, occasionally, or too casually, how much you drink at a time will determine whether or not you need to change things.
How much should I drink?
The rule of thumb is that if you are a man having four or more drinks a day or a woman having two or more, you have minimal problems. The general minimum of “correct” drinks is 14 for men and 7 for women.
Of course, it’s best if you don’t drink at all.
However, these measurements are averages, and the human body has its peculiarities – size, age, sex, etc. Thus, some people metabolize, tolerate or treat alcohol differently from others.
Some people are high level alcoholics, and some abuse drinks to an almost imperceptible level.
Sometimes a person’s body apparently responds well poison, but the liver, pancreas, lungs, heart, kidneys and nervous system are still in pain short and long term. You risk or will always damage your physical, mental and emotional health with alcohol.
Alcohol is bad for you.
If you are here reading this article, you are probably thinking that you might need to take a step back from your drinking.
Maybe you are feeling some pains that you have learned are associated with addiction or addiction. Or you are already at a point where you are unsure or confused if you are hungover or drunk at any time.
Whether you drink to enhance your personality, celebrate, focus on work, show courage, relieve stress, help sleep, or temper depressive thoughts and feelings, the “benefits” you get are not worth the problems. You will lose years, months, days, hours and seconds of quality of life.
Your drinking is bad for the people around you.
Also, in the process, you will become unfair to the people you live and work with, including yourself. Nobody takes the best of you more, and you potentially become a heavy baggage or an abusive person.
At least, a drunkard you are subject to accidents, seriously damaging decisions and imminent death by any unfortunate event, including alcohol poisoning. If you’ve heard of water poisoning, please consider the worst effects of alcohol poisoning.
Remember that accidents can be fatal not only for you, but also for the person driving the car you might be in an accident with or the person in your back seat. In addition, your carelessness can make you pregnant or get pregnant without knowing it.
Another downside for others is that when you are suffering from serious alcohol-related health issues, you might need an expensive hospitalization that your family will have to cover – we can try not to make you feel guilty, but that is. reality.
Therefore, it is time to break the habit. And the first thing to do is to make a good diagnosis.
Evaluate yourself and your health.
If you are not feeling well or are concerned about your situation with alcohol, the best thing to do is to consult an expert. See a doctor for help.
When you do, you can expect the doctor to check you for physical damage to your body through your alcohol consumption. Also, the general practitioner assess your physical and mental ability to stop drinking.
At any level, the doctor will advise you to do a alcohol detox.
If you don’t have a serious drinking problem, you can go through cleaning with regular outpatient examinations with the doctor and a psychiatrist.
If you are a candidate for alcohol withdrawal syndrome, you will need to go to a medical facility or drug rehabilitation center.
You will benefit from a full medical follow-up, prescriptions to relieve the pains and discomforts of withdrawal, and an atmosphere that will help you reduce drinks, cravings and triggered attacks in an alcoholic detoxification center.
What is alcohol detox?
Alcohol detoxification occurs when you stop drinking alcohol for a long time after consecutive abuse of any level. Abuse officially begins when you exceed the average recommended amounts for a month or less, depending on your physical and mental health.
While detox can free you from alcohol in a week or two, this can only be true for the slightest of alcohol problems. Severe alcoholics take longer to recover.
Since the variation from one alcohol problem to another can be somewhat vague or at least too broad, it can be complex to determine for yourself whether you need a drug rehab or not.
A doctor will effectively help you determine this, but you may have qualifying questions that can tell you if you need to make changes quickly.
Here are 7 questions to ask yourself to determine if you might need an alcohol detox
If you have severe symptoms, drink alcohol all day, or binge drink every night, you should get immediate help.
Otherwise, you consider these questions.
- Do you drink a little or entirely on purpose at gatherings?
- Is getting drunk or getting drunk a weekend requirement?
- Do you need a drink to sleep?
- Do you sometimes drive after a drink?
- Do you sometimes go to work with a hangover or a little drunk at night?
- Do you drink a controlled dose at a specific time every day?
- Can you go a week without drinking? How about a month?
If your answer to any of items 1 to 6 is yes or 7 is no, then you are probably a potential alcoholic or already have a mild to moderate alcohol addiction. So you have to go see a professional or at least consult a loved one and help yourself to better assess yourself.
To help you a little more, here are the signs and symptoms of alcoholism.
Evaluate yourself, get help, and live better.
Interesting Related Article: “Tips for Detoxifying From Alcohol”