Having a glass or two is normal for anyone who wants to indulge themselves with alcoholic beverages, however, having too much or too often is considered an abuse, dependency, or in short alcoholism.
In the medical term, alcoholism is known as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), which is very common around the world, where a lot of people suffer from it regardless if you are young, old, a celebrity, or just an average worker. Alcoholism does not choose any gender or even age. People as young as 14 can develop alcoholism if there is no proper guidance in the family or school and this could lead to serious problems in life and most especially in your health.
Alcoholism is always associated with chronic diseases and several health conditions. Alcoholics according to health surveys worldwide are the number one candidate of liver and colon cancers and are often exposed to liver diseases. Aside from developing diseases, alcohol addiction can also affect someone’s life, career and their relationship to their family as the alcohol takes over their entire life where they become solely dependent to it, which often times lead the person dependent to it to become violent, disoriented and unproductive.
If you happen to know someone who you believe is having trouble when it comes to alcohol consumption, you should remember these signs to tell if a person has alcoholism. Before you send your friend, family member or someone dear to you to any drug and alcohol rehab, you should remember these signs first.
- DRINKS MORE AND LONGER- Drinking a glass of wine, or a pint of beer is not bad to distress yourself from a hard day’s work but if you drink more than two glasses then you should be alarmed. People who drink alcohol every day will not avoid themselves from developing alcohol dependency because your body has become tolerant of alcohol than before that it also craves for it because of its intoxicating effect. Alcohol is a type of depressant that makes a person relaxed but too much of it can lead to nasty things.
- UNCONTROLLABLE THIRST FOR ALCOHOL- Drinking alcohol is somewhat satisfying and a perfect way to make yourself relaxed especially when you are stressed but when you start to look for it more often than before and you tried to stop consuming it, but you are tempted to drink more, be wary of this warning sign because you are developing alcoholism.
- CANNOT STOP THINKING OF ALCOHOL- Just like other forms of addiction, alcoholism can cause a person to crave for it, most people who are suffering from alcoholism have difficulties of diverting their minds to something else which turns more important things to the least because they prioritize binge drinking than attending to their work, family responsibilities, and studies that if they wanted alcohol so bad, they cannot think of anything else on their minds.
4. WITHDRAWING FROM PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES- Since alcohol is a depressant, once it intoxicates your body, you will become dehydrated, you will get the worst headaches, your stomach will turn, and you feel weak. Those are the common symptoms of a hangover after a night of binge drinking. Alcoholics are often experiencing hangovers because they cannot simply stop drinking enough which results from being unproductive, withdrawing from physical activities like exercising and engaging in sports or just by doing simple chores.
