If you think you or a loved one is suffering from addiction to alcohol, taking action is the best possible way to provide help. Our alcohol treatment programs are designed to provide exceptional support to you, providing you with tools to help your body finally stop relying on alcohol. Without a doubt, alcohol addiction will worsen over time, limiting relationships and career success and even leading to health complications. Yet, you can take action now to get the help you need to recover. If alcohol use runs in your family, you may be at increased risk of developing this disease yourself. If you are taking medicines, including over-the-counter drugs, check with your health care provider before drinking alcohol.

Alcohol use disorder is a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol or continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems. This disorder also involves having to drink more to get the same effect or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking. Alcohol use disorder includes https://curiousmindmagazine.com/selecting-the-most-suitable-sober-house-for-addiction-recovery/ a level of drinking that’s sometimes called alcoholism. Dr. Wakim-Fleming says excessive drinking is essentially the same as binge drinking. The CDC also includes underage drinking and drinking by women who are pregnant. Binge drinking is defined as drinking so much that your blood alcohol level reaches the legal limit of intoxication within a couple of hours.

Share this article via email

If you’re not consciously keeping track of the drinks you’ve chugged, it’s easy to go over these limits. Most countries across Europe use this 10 grams metric, however this can vary with several adopting 12 or 14 grams per unit. Alcohol is one of the world’s largest risk factors for premature death.

Long-term alcohol use can cause serious health complications, affecting virtually every organ in your body, including your brain. Problem drinking can also damage your emotional stability, finances, career, and your ability to build and sustain satisfying relationships. Alcoholism and alcohol abuse can also have an impact on your family, friends and the people you work with.

Start building healthier drinking habits today.

As you might have noticed, none of these criteria specify an amount of alcohol. The most recent edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)” includes AUD as a mental health diagnosis. “This study shows that, contrary to popular opinion, most people who drink too much are not alcohol dependent,” says Brewer.

For example, periodic intoxication can cause sickness necessitating days of absence from work. In a modern industrial community, this makes alcoholism similar to a disease. In a rural Andean society, however, the periodic drunkenness that occurs at appointed communal fiestas and results in sickness and suspension of work for several days is normal behaviour. It should be noted that this drunkenness at fiestas is a choice and does not produce regret.

Stages of Alcoholism

It’s not always easy to tell when your alcohol intake has crossed the line from moderate or social drinking to problem drinking. Drinking is so common in many cultures and the effects vary so widely from person to person, it can be hard to figure out if or when your alcohol intake has become a problem. However, if you consume alcohol to cope with difficulties or to avoid feeling bad, you’re in potentially dangerous territory. Stopping habitual behaviors can be difficult for anyone, but people who are addicted to alcohol need additional medical support. If you meet the criteria for AUD, get in touch with a doctor or counselor for a diagnosis and referrals to treatment.

While throwing up can make you feel miserable, it is one of your body’s self-defense mechanisms to remove excess toxins from the alcohol consumed. Additionally, heavy drinkers usually get most of their calories from alcohol. The problem is that alcohol is a wellspring of empty calories—which are calories with minimal nutritional value. Hence, consuming alcohol as your primary source of fuel will lead to poor nutrition and weight loss. Heavy drinking can lead to easy bruising and bleeding, and not just because you’re more prone to falling and hitting table corners when drunk.