Do I Drink too much Alcohol?
The answer to the perennial question – “Do I drink too much?” is something that only you will truly be able to answer for yourself. But if you think you might drink too much alcohol, then you might be right!
The reason that we often ask ourselves this questions is because there are a whole range of indications that alcohol tends to lie to us about. And and we can easily overlook the obvious.
There is however, one simple answer – If you are not sure if you are drinking too much alcohol, then you likely are! If drinking too much alcohol is interfering with your ability to do your job, messing with your finances, ruining your health, or wrecking your relationships, then it is time to take back control from alcohol, and manage control over your own life.
Here are 10 signs to help you answer the question –
“Do I drink too much alcohol”?
- Discomfort and self-doubt when you make a plan to stop or cut back on drinking
- Withdrawal symptoms when you stop drinking alcohol
- General feeling of anxiety and unease around the time you usually associate with having your first drink of alcohol for the day
- Feelings of Loss of Control, Isolation, phobias, or other social problems
- Medical indications or health problems caused by alcohol
- Marital problems caused by drinking too much alcohol
- Problems with family relationships caused by drinking alcohol
- Alcohol causing you problems at work, or having problems finding or keeping a job
- Anger or aggression caused by drinking too much alcohol
- Legal problems caused by drinking too much alcohol
The problem with alcohol is that is an addictive drug, and psycho-active chemical. While I hate to take the fun out of it for you, I think it is extremely important that we all understand what we are up against every time we consume a single glass of alcohol.
And there lies another problem – how many of us can have just one glass of alcohol? We may all have good intentions, but once we start drinking alcohol, one glass leads to another and another, until we no longer have control over the situation. How much drinking is too much?
Worse still is that we probably believe that we are in total control of our alcohol consumption, but this is not necessarily the truth, and the problem with alcohol is that we don’t always want to admit the truth.
Let’s look at these 10 obvious signs that you may be drinking too much alcohol in a little more detail and try to uncover the reasons why they are not always so obvious.
1. Discomfort and doubt when you make a plan to stop drinking alcohol
Does the thought of quitting alcohol cause you a vague sense of unease, or maybe even a sense of loss of what you perceive you may miss out on? Trust me; you will not miss out on anything! How about that horrible hangover, or that nasty headache, or how sick you feel, or how angry, guilty or let down you feel for drinking too much alcohol.
The problem is not within you – the problem is that alcohol is an addictive drug which can affect that way you think about it. On top of that, because alcohol tends to be common in our society, and seems to socially acceptable, there are very few barriers to drinking alcohol. The problem is really caused by drinking too much alcohol, but the symptoms don’t appear until you try to stop drinking alcohol!
2. Withdrawal symptoms when you stop drinking alcohol
Withdrawal symptoms are a complex reaction in the body brought about by the severe cravings and urge to drink, which are ample evidence of the addictive nature of alcohol. When we consume alcohol, it creates a trigger in the brain to produce a flood of dopamine, which is the so called happy drug, which gives us the intense feel-good reaction. Interestingly, it is not the alcohol that we are addicted to, but actually the increase in dopamine, which gives us such a high.
After the alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream, it is broken down by the liver into another chemical called acetaldehyde, which although it is not as intoxicating as alcohol, but it is also poisonous and causes damage to the organs. It acts like an opiate and depresses the nervous system, and this is responsible for withdrawal symptoms when you try to stop drinking alcohol.
3. General feeling of anxiety and unease around the time you usually associate with having your first drink of alcohol for the day
The general feeling of anxiety that we feel each day is a different type of withdrawal symptom, but has nasty consequences if you are not aware of the risk of drinking alcohol every day…
If you had a drink of alcohol on the previous day, then you have unknowingly set off a chain reaction, which is about to impact on your body around 24 hours later. Because that is the 24 hour cycle of alcohol metabolism within the body. This cycle will be most noticeable at around the time of the day that you normally associate with having your first drink of alcohol. You will experience this effect as a general feeling of unease, graduating to a distinct sense of anxiety. Typically, these feelings occur at your most vulnerable time, when you are feeling a little low, after a long hard day.
The feelings of unease can gradually increase until you can no longer think objectively about the cause of feelings. But once you weaken and submit to the feelings of “I really need a drink of alcohol” you have unwittingly fallen into the alcohol trap. As soon as you consume a glass of alcohol (or two) the body goes into overdrive to metabolise the alcohol, deliver the dopamine that we crave, but also and more worryingly, resets the time clock in your brain, and you will be confronted with exactly the same problem in 24 hours time! No wonder people develop drinking problems! So how much is too much alcohol daily?
Can you see what a perpetuating cycle is caused by having a daily drink of alcohol, and can you also see how this insidious and addictive drug can take control of our lives?
4. Feelings of Loss of Control, Isolation, phobias, or other social problems
Because alcohol is an addictive and psycho-active drug, drinking too much alcohol causes a massive chemical overload in your brain. The brain is certainly not designed to cope with this chemical imbalance, and the result can be short term damage to brain cells, interruption to the development of nerve connections within the brain, and long term damage to the neurological pathways that affect our mental health. This is why we can have all types of long term issues caused by alcohol such as feelings of social isolation, anxiety, depression, and other social issues, which are difficult to address if alcohol has control over your life.
5. Medical indications or health problems caused by alcohol
Drinking too much alcohol can cause serious health issues, such as alcohol liver damage, pancreatitis, short term memory loss, and long term dementia. Over exposure to alcohol can cause cancer, and it causes several problems with the heart, as well as high blood pressure and increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
The problem is not all of these serious health issues are easy to be diagnosed in the early stages, and often only manifest themselves when the victim is unwittingly stuck in the alcohol trap.
For example, alcohol liver damage is very difficult to recognize, and can go completely undiagnosed until the liver is irreversibly damaged by alcohol liver cirrhosis. This condition is not able to be repaired, other than by organ transplant, and if the victim is not diagnosed early enough, will result in fatal organ failure.
6. Marital problems caused by drinking too much alcohol
Drinking too much alcohol can cause severe issues within a relationship, and especially if partners in a marriage also share their marriage with a relationship with alcohol. If one or both partners in a marriage share a greater proportion of their time drinking alcohol rather than spending time with their partner, then this is really an example of alcohol taking control over our lives. Maybe you have trouble with how to get someone to stop drinking – maybe we can help!
7. Problems with family relationships caused by drinking alcohol
Similar to the issues regarding a marital relationship, it is difficult to maintain normal and functional relationships with your family and friends when you also share a relationship with drinking too much alcohol. For example, your available time to spend with your kids may be compromised by spending too much time drinking alcohol. Because we allow alcohol to take control over our lives, we often miss out on valuable time that we could be spending with our loved ones.
8. Alcohol causing you problems at work, or having problems finding or keeping a job
You know you may have a problem drinking too much alcohol because you are stressed at work, or if you have trouble finding regular employment. If your financial situation is not as happy or as healthy as you would like, and if drinking too much alcohol is holding back your potential, then you need to take back control over your life.
9. Anger or aggression caused by drinking too much alcohol
Alcohol intoxication can cause a chemical imbalance in your brain that changes your normal emotions and can cause you to spiral out of control. Drinking too much alcohol can increase your emotional reactions to insignificant events, and cause unreasonable feeling of anger or aggression, for no good reason. If you are prone to these out of control emotional problems brought about by alcohol, then you have to be careful not to fall into the alcohol trap and to make sure that you are in control of your life.
10. Legal problems caused by drinking too much alcohol
If alcohol intoxication has resulted in a downward spiral that has caused you to lose control, you may find yourself subject to legal ramifications, or worse. Out of control emotions and out of control anger or aggression will never end well. The trouble with alcohol inebriation is that our inhibitions tend to get completely buried by the chemical imbalance in our brain. Once we become intoxicated, we simply do not have the mental capacity to wrestle back control of our emotions. Alcohol inebriation combined with the loss of inhibitions can mean that the line between fair and foul is easily crossed, and once you fall foul of the law, your life has changed for the worse.
Driving under the influence of alcohol, causing a public nuisance, or being involved in an altercation are all examples of where alcohol can mislead you or cause you to stray from your normal moral and ethical standing. If you do not wish to fall foul of the law, or be subject to any other legal ramifications, then make sure you are in control of alcohol, and beware the trap of allowing alcohol to control your life.
Summary – Do I Drink too Much?
Can you see what a vicious cycle is brought about by having a daily drink of alcohol, and can you also see how this insidious drug can take away our control? The general feeling of anxiety that we feel each day is often just a symptom of alcohol withdrawal, but has nasty consequences if you are not aware of the risk of drinking alcohol every day. By giving in to the urge to drink alcohol and the cravings to drink more alcohol, all we are really doing is resetting the 24-hour alcohol clock, which causes exactly the same urge to drink tomorrow!
If you are concerned by the question “Do I drink too much”, then let us show you a better way to handle the cravings and the urge to drink alcohol every day.