The 8 signs of alcohol addiction
Alcoholic beverages they are a part of the substances that, despite generating a great addiction, have a great social acceptance. This makes alcohol an element with a very widespread presence in all kinds of events; from weekend parties and family celebrations to meetings at friends' houses, through dinners and meals at home or in a restaurant.
However, this has a great disadvantage, the use and abuse of these drinks is so normalized that It is difficult to detect the first signs of alcohol addiction . It is a fact with serious consequences for the health of a good part of the population.
- Related article: "Addiction: disease or learning disorder?"
Warning signs of alcohol addiction
Below you can find a series of signs and symptoms that warn of the appearance of addiction to alcoholic beverages . They are orientative and do not cover exactly all the dimensions of alcoholism, but they can serve to prevent and act quickly in situations of risk.
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1. Saving time with alcohol
People who have alcohol problems, or who are starting to have them, tend to drink in anticipation of moments that "justify" the possibility of drinking more . For example, if you are waiting for friends to come home to watch a football game drinking beer cans, you start drinking a bottle of wine when there is still one hour left at the indicated time.
This is a way of "stretching" the socially accepted excuse to cover also the moments when there really is no social reason to consume alcohol.
2. Begins to consider "non-alcoholic" certain beverages
With alcoholism, the consumption of this substance becomes something so daily that the strange thing is to drink something that does not contain alcohol. For this reason, a good part of the people with this health problem start to consider that low-grade beverages, such as beer, they are not real alcoholic beverages . Therefore, they have an excuse to consume more.
3. In social contexts, always with a glass in your hand
This is true not only in parties, but also in momentary visits to houses of neighbors and, in general, in any social context. Any time you can not drink, even if it is very brief, is experienced as something that produces discomfort, especially if there are bottles in sight .
4. Review the drink reserves
One of the daily tasks is to ensure that there are bottles of leftovers and that the situation in which there is no alcohol will not be given. and there is no where to buy it . It is something that requires spending some time in it and breaking moments of concentration to go to review the pantry, but it is considered that it would be worse to run out of reserves.
5. When you arrive at a hotel room, check the mini-bar
It is one of the first movements that is made when arriving to a new room, and it is curious, since normally this class of dormitories lodges many novelties that can be explored long before opening the place in which the bottles are usually found .
Also, before deciding on that hotel in question, you will have sought confirmation that there is a mini-bar .
6. It uses a logic that allows "subtract bottles"
One of the signs of alcoholism has to do with the way you think about the amount of alcohol consumed per day or per week. Thus, in some cases it is done as if a less bottle had been drunk because it is thought that having been walking at a brisk pace for ten minutes the influence of alcohol has been compensated for, etc. What it's about is finding excuses , however original they may be, to believe that you do not have a problem drinking and still have a good image of yourself.
- Related article: "Cognitive dissonance: the theory that explains self-deception"
7. Drink very fast
This is one of the most striking signs that warn of alcohol addiction, and usually seen in meetings. Alcoholic people tend to drink more quickly that the rest, since others tend to take sips as "support" to the social context, and not as if it were one of the main tasks of the meeting.
Thus, where there is alcoholism, the action of drinking is in itself one of the main actions that must be carried out on a day-to-day basis, and therefore there is no time to waste.
8. It breaks contact with friends who do not drink
People with alcohol addiction structure their entire social life around meetings in which, by default, they drink. In this way, little by little the contact will deteriorate with people who are abstemious, or who drink little.
