Signs of Alcohol Addiction & Treatment

The line between moderate, social drinking and full-blown alcoholism might be as thin as a razor’s edge or the width of a hair. It can be difficult to know when drinking casually has crossed this line into addiction and abuse. Also, it can be even harder to make a decision when you do realize you have a problem with alcohol. You need to first realize what addiction is and what the signs of you having it are.

Regardless, if the alcoholic and those around him are aware of the signs of alcohol addiction, it can be easier to determine when the addict in question should enter rehab like Lanna Rehab. This can also help stop the addiction cycle and begin work towards alcoholism recovery.

What Does Alcohol Abuse or Alcoholism Look Like?

According to the NIAAA or National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than 86 percent of Americans drink alcohol at least once in their lifetime. It’s commonplace for Americans to drink in the company of friends or at a party.

A sip or a whole glass of wine is fine, but when it borders on excess that it’s ruining your life, then that should be a huge red flag that there’s a problem already. To wit:

• Certain people drink more than just socially. They might even go overboard with their drinking.
• Some are full-blown alcoholics who drink heavily or do binge drinking all day and/or all night.
• Their liver takes quite the beating from their frequent or regular basis drinking.
• Certain drunkards are even violent drunks, leading to the domestic abuse of their spouses and family members.
• Sexual promiscuity is a common consequence of drunkenness along with various other ill-advised misbehaviors.
• Undisciplined alcoholics might even end up in car accidents because they don’t have the foresight to get a Grab, Uber, or taxi to get home.

However, it can be quite challenging to figure out when alcohol consumption crosses the line from acceptable to addiction and abuse, even with obvious red flags as domestic abuse and frequent trips to the police station due to DUIs.

This is because getting drunk, unlike getting high, is socially accepted in America. It’s even considered a rite of passage or a means to connect socially with others. What’s worse is that you can end up an alcoholic or having a drinking problem without being a stereotypical drunk dad in a wife-beater or a danger on the road as a drunk driver.

Determining When Someone Abuses Alcohol

It’s better to judge an alcoholic by how many drinks he has in one sitting or across the night rather than the consequences of his drunken behavior because many alcoholics are high-functioning ones who can hold their liquor.

Then again, those who can’t hold their liquor should immediately practice drinking in moderation since they’re the ones who’ll have the most problems and red flags when it comes to alcoholism.

The CDC or the Centers for Disease Control define alcohol abuse levels as follows:

1. Binge Drinking: Binge drinking occurs when a person consumes enough alcoholic drinks in one sitting to get the blood alcohol levels at 0.08 percent or more, which is what’s considered as legally impaired or inebriated.
2. Four to Five Drinks: An average of five drinks for males and four drinks for females within two hours can be considered as binge drinking as well, although this might vary in light of the alcohol concentration of the drink in question.
3. Heavy Drinking: If men were to drink 15 alcoholic drinks or if women were to drink eight alcoholic drinks, then that constitutes as heavy drinking. They’re considered as heavy or binge drinkers and they may or may not have alcohol addiction already.

The severity of your alcoholism depends on the effects of consuming alcohol on your relationships, ability to function, and life in general. Just remember the following points:

1. Alcohol Abuse Is Considered Regular Drinking: From the show “Cheers” to “The Drew Carey Show”, alcohol abuse is framed as regular drinking. Alcoholics are heralded as tough macho men or fun ladies since we live in a society that enables and encourages heavy, almost irresponsible drinking.
2. Alcohol Abuse Can Result in Harmful Consequences: The dangers of alcohol abuse, binge drinking, and heavy drinking can range from physical harm like liver failure and alcohol poisoning to damaging an individual’s relationships and responsibilities.
3. Alcohol Abuse Means More Than Just Consuming Available Alcohol: There’s more to alcohol abuse than an alcoholic drinking alcohol wherever available.  Dependence on the alcohol present is just part of alcoholism, alcohol addiction, or alcohol dependence. It’s actually more of a chronic condition and psychological disorder.
4. Alcoholism Is the Inability to Stop Drinking: A drinker who has an inability to stop drinking could be suffering from alcoholism. This is especially true if the alcoholic keeps on drinking even if it causes various problems in every aspect of his life, from potential liver failure to losing his job and home.

Checklist of Warning Signs

If you’re unsure regarding whether or not you or a loved one is an alcoholic, then you should check out this checklist of warning signs. Take careful note of these alcoholism warning signs and determine whether or not the following apply to you or someone else, because they can end up saving a life or several.

• Comments from Others: A big red flag for alcoholism usually comes in the form of comments from family and friends regarding the amount of drinking you’re doing. If they’re claiming that you drink too much or you drink at inappropriate times, then there might be a problem regardless if you respond with frustration and irritation or not.
• Legal Issues: If you’ve gotten in trouble with the law multiple times due to DUI or drinking under the influence or public intoxication, then you might have a drinking problem. Remember that drunk driving and being drunk in general is a direct result of excessive drinking.
• Relationship Issues: If you’re endured detrimental and tangible consequences to your body, romantic relationship, and career because of drinking and yet you can’t help yourself and still continue to drink, then you might be suffering from alcoholism and alcohol abuse.
• Inability to Focus and Withdrawal Symptoms: Throughout the days and weeks when you attempt to abstain from alcohol, you might end up having trouble focusing on anything other than getting another drink. These feelings are worsened by withdrawal symptoms from your alcohol consumption cessation, which includes:

• • Anxiety
  • Relapse
  • Seizures
  • Tremors
  • Insomnia
  • Psychosis
  • Headaches
  • Muscle pain
  • Panic attacks
  • Hallucinations
  • Delirium tremens
  • Heart palpitations
  • Digestive discomfort
  • Increased risk of severe symptoms with the next withdrawal attempt

• Physical Cravings: If you’re experiencing daily or hourly physical cravings for alcohol, then you should probably get into rehab. Even if you’re in denial of your cravings, your friends and family will also sense that mental preoccupation with drinking from you if it exists in the form of careless comments and weird behavior on your part.
• Agitation: Although agitation in and of itself isn’t necessarily a symptom of alcoholism, when paired up with all the other alcohol addiction red flags, it becomes a significantly indicative sign in and of itself. If you don’t have alcohol in your bloodstream and you feel discontent, agitated, and restless, then you might be an alcoholic.
• Promises to Not Drink: If it has become your catchphrase to promise that you won’t drink at a party, wedding, or meet-up, then you might be a heavy or binge drinker. You might claim you won’t drink because you’re the one driving or it’s an important weekend. Making this intrinsic pledge and outward offer to family and friends yet still breaking that promise regardless shows that you are an alcoholic.
• Doctor’s Opinion: Your family doctor or personal psychologist/psychiatrist may have suggested to you that you’re suffering from alcoholism in light of the amount of drinks you take. The problem here usually is that most people scoff at such a diagnosis until they face the consequences of their addiction in the form of health problems and relationship issues.
• Low Self-Esteem: There are many ways people cope with low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence. They might depend on what’s known as “liquid courage” in order to function or fill in the inner void or hole in their lives. Many individuals end up turning to the bottle in order to feel better about themselves or to forget their problems.
• Blackouts: Many binge or heavy drinkers end up blacking out or not remembering what happened the previous night of drinking and merriment. This can happen on nights where the alcoholic claims to “take it easy” in regards to drinking, only to have his impulses and bad habits get the better of him.
• Loads of Expenses: Alcohol isn’t cheap and even the cheapest beer will take its toll on your wallet the same way it’s taking a toll on your liver. If you’re spending an inordinate amount of your assets and income to fuel your drinking habit to your detriment and the detriment of others, then you might be addicted to alcohol.
• Drug Use when Alcohol Isn’t Available: Most non-abusive drinkers might not know this but alcoholics actually search for mind-altering substances and typically illicit drugs if alcohol is unavailable. This is dangerous because it can lead to polysubstance abuse, which is when multiple drugs and/or alcohol are abused at the same time.
• Physical Red Flags: The changes in an alcoholic aren’t just emotional or psychological in nature. Friends and family might also pick up on someone’s alcoholism by observing his physical changes. Aside from immediate withdrawal symptoms, the physical symptoms of alcohol addiction also include the following:

• • Dry skin
  • A flushed appearance
  • Brittle hair and fingernails
  • Notable weight loss or weight gain
  • Broken capillaries on the nose and face
  • Yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice)
  • Breath that smells of alcohol on a consistent basis
  • More rapid onset of the signs of aging, like the increase of age spots and wrinkles
  • Marked decrease in personal hygiene attention, such as neglecting dental care and showering, thus resulting in an unappealing appearance

What to Expect from an Alcoholic and Alcoholism

Like with the wide social acceptance of cigarettes back in the day, the wide social acceptance of alcohol has made it one of the most widespread addictions. Of course, Americans learned from the Prohibition Era that prohibiting alcohol isn’t the way to address the dangers of such a vice.

However, now that it’s perfectly legal for those of legal age to consume and imbibe alcoholic drinks, a measure of responsibility must be practiced when upholding this privilege. After all, it’s not only one of the most ubiquitous addictions out there but also one of the costliest as well.

• Most People Don’t Get Addicted: To be clear, many social drinkers never cross the line and understand the importance of drinking moderately. However, in light of the huge population of the U.S., even a small percentage of hundreds of millions can net millions of people who do have a tendency to develop physical dependence to alcohol.
• Drinking No Matter What: The true alcoholics out there who depend on alcohol like fish would to water will continue drinking hard drinks even at the cost of ruining their lives and their lives of others, particularly those who are close to them. This is one of the biggest red flags when it comes to alcoholism.
• Don’t Know When to Stop: When an addict compulsively drinks and can’t stop himself from drinking, they’ll end up destroying both their body and mind. This will affect his life in many ways. Lack of restraint and self-control serve as a clear red flag that things have gone awry and the addicted person should become a patient at alcohol rehab.
• No Regard for Consequences: Once you start compulsively and additively consuming alcohol, you’ll cease to have any regard for any of the consequences of your actions. He could end up withdrawn from his family, resulting in separation, divorce, or estrangement. Alcoholics often end up jobless and cannot retain a steady job for long.
• Genetic Predisposition: According to research, certain individuals are shown to have a genetic predisposition towards addiction in general and alcoholism in particular. Such tendencies stem from their family history and presumably their environment doesn’t help in abating their penchant to turn towards the bottle for comfort. It could be “nature” versus “nurture” or a little of both that leads them towards alcohol abuse.
• Other Factors That Make One Vulnerable to Alcoholism: As established, your environment can serve as a huge factor towards being alcoholic, like having an alcoholic parent or other family member. You can also undergo a transforming or traumatizing life event and drinking might be your only way to cope. Displaying anti-social behavior can also lead to you drinking excessively. Society’s acceptance of drinking certainly doesn’t help.
• An Intervention May Be Called For: If you’re instead a friend or family member of a non-self-aware alcoholic, then staging an intervention may be called for in order to wake this person up and realize his problem. Acknowledging the problem by gathering in a room and confronting the alcoholic about his alcoholism can be the first step to an addict’s recovery.
• Saving the Life of an Alcoholic: It’s rare for an alcoholic to realize and acknowledge that he has a problem, so usually he ends up in rehab because of a court mandate or his family and friends staging an intervention for him to help him recover. With that said, before an intervention could be staged, the warning signs should be noticed first.

The best way to help an alcoholic is through treatment. Alcoholism should be treated instead of ignored. Its myriad of red flags should not be ignored or else the alcohol addict could end up ruining his life due to his vicious condition.

Indeed, rehab is called for when it comes to dealing with alcohol abuse and dependence. Without it, alcoholics attempting to quite cold turkey will face severe withdrawal symptoms that could be fatal when push comes to shove.

Why Get Treatment for Alcoholism?

If any of the signs are present, then this indicates that you or a loved one could have alcoholism. When alcohol abuse turns into alcohol addiction, then this is a grave issue that requires an immediate response. Many lives are lost because of alcoholism. When someone who’s having issues with alcoholism or alcohol abuse (or his family and friends) recognize that there’s alcohol abuse happening, then it’s time to enter him into rehab for his own good.

Usually though, it’s the loved ones who have to realize and deal with an alcoholic rather than the alcoholic realizing before it’s too late that he has a problem. You have your interventions or a court-requested rehab due to the drunkard ending up drunk driving or driving under the influence of alcohol.

What’s the Deal with Entering Alcohol Rehab

The process of entering an inpatient alcohol rehabilitation center or attending an outpatient program like Alcoholics Anonymous might seem to be a daunting task. However, there are a number of resources available that can assist you.

Local and state governments often provide rehab info and resources for locally available services and facilities through their behavioral health or substance abuse divisions. These organizations can be found in the Directory of SSAs or Single State Agencies for Substance Abuse Services.

The SAMHSA or Substance Abuse Mental Health Services offers an online search engine to serve as your guide when searching for a facility near you. Or you can go the more cost-effective medical and rehab tourism route by availing of the services of Lanna Rehab in Thailand so that you can have a Thai vacation while at the same time treating your alcohol addiction.

Alcohol Abuse and Withdrawal Treatment at Lanna Rehab

The Thai wellness center of Lanna Rehabilitation Clinic comes complete with a staff and crew of internationally accredited doctors, nurses, therapists, counselors, sponsors, and caregivers who’ll assist you all throughout your alcohol rehabilitation treatment. They’re the ones you can depend on when it comes to detoxification, treatment, and recovery from alcoholism. Call Lanna’s 24-hour toll-free hotline for more information.