Alcoholism doesn’t develop in an instant, but slowly over time. If you are concerned you or a loved one might be struggling with alcoholism, look to these seven signs as the development of alcoholism.
- Tolerance: Developing a tolerance for alcohol is one of the earliest signs that an alcohol addiction is growing. Tolerance is what happens when the normal amount of alcohol no longer results in intoxication. The brain has grown tolerant to the amount of dopamine being produced and needs more in order to feel the same or greater effect. You’ll notice that your normal amount of drinking, even your highest amount of drinking, doesn’t get your drunk in the same way it used to, if drunk at all. You have to drink more and more on a regular basis to get the same effects.
- Symptoms Of Withdrawals: As you start to consume large quantities of alcohol, you experience greater symptoms of withdrawals. It might be subtle like a nastier hangover or needing a drink in the morning after being intoxicated. Gradually the symptoms become more problematic like shaking, sweating, and craving alcohol.
- Cravings: Cravings usually develop once the body and the brain have become completely chemically dependent on alcohol. You crave alcohol when you do not have alcohol. You might notice you crave alcohol for situations where you need to cope, as in stress, sadness, or frustration.
- Inability To Stop: Realizing your problem with alcohol is becoming unmanageable, you set limits on how much you drink. You don’t need to get drunk every time you drink, so you must be able to enjoy just drinking. Yet, every time you pick up that first drink it inevitably leads to more than you set a limit for, resulting in total inebriation.
- Breaking Your Own Rules: Unable to manage normal drinking, you decide to make drinking a special occasion. You set different rules about when, where, how much, and under what circumstances you can drink. However, if you are offered a drink outside of your rules or you feel a temptation, you are quick to justify having a drink, the justification most often being how many rules you’ve set, not how many rules you’ve followed.
- Denying You Have A Problem: Friends and family have made subtle and aggressive comments about your drinking, encouraging you to slow down, cut back, stop drinking, or even get some help. You’re aware you’re having a problem with drinking right now but you aren’t convinced you have a “real” problem with drinking. It is difficult to acknowledge that your ability to drink alcohol has become completely unmanageable. You aren’t alone in this.
- Knowing You Have A Problem: Most alcoholics know they have a problem with alcohol before they admit it. It takes courage, honesty, and humility to admit that drinking has become out of control to the point of needing to ask for help. Whether you are ready to ask for help or not, you know you have a problem and you cannot deny it.
Now is the time to ask for help. Cypress Lakes Lodge offers residential treatment programs and detox services for alcoholism from our beautiful lakefront home in the lush countryside of East Texas. Providing excellence in addiction treatment, our programs heal mind, body, and spirit, bringing balance and confidence back to our clients. For information, call us today at 877-938-1577.