The Signs of Alcoholism

Its how we label ourselves that can be huge stumbling block when coming to terms with a long term drinking problem - unless we recognise the signs of alcoholism, we could be easily falling into a trap that is very hard to get out of.

There is always the tendency to measure ourselves against the extremes of any addictive condition, so that we can justify our actions and create excuses not to stop. This is very much the case with alcohol dependency.

The typical image of an alcoholic, is the down and out street bum, who drinks from the bottle in the bag and sleeps on the park bench. But in reality the truth is far away from this traditional image.

There are far more functional alcoholics and problem drinkers than "hard core" alcoholics; in fact it is estimated that there are four problem drinkers for every traditional alcoholic. For the most part these people function within the boundaries of they're everyday lives, holding down jobs, raising families and following what beliefs they have.

The crunch time for this section of the populous comes when the long term effects of what alcohol does, starts to effect not only they're health, but also the structure that holds they're lives together.

Alcohol is an act of attrition on the whole fabric of our being, it gradually wears down both the body and the mind of the abuser. It has the potential to wreck your health, warp your perception, affect your relationships and drain your finances - it can do all of this, but it is not an instant effect.

There was a time when you could cope, alcohol was a right of passage, a thing that brought you into adulthood and you did it to socialise and to be accepted by your peers, yet some where down the line it became more than that, it started to softened the blows of life, gave you confidence when you needed it and removed the inhibitions that held you back. It was the thing you turned to lighten up the mood and helped you to face up to whatever the day threw at you.

Then one day (you will never remember when) the drinking started go that one step further, it did not stop at the social drink or the "livener" to get you in the party mood and it started to encroach on your daily life. The times for a tipple got earlier, more frequent and began to develop into a pattern that started to dominate your every action.

Now, this pattern is not to be confused with the fall down drunk (it is no where near that) it is a pattern that has a subtle way of invading your life and in all probability you may not even be aware that you have a drinking problem. You assure yourself that you are able to function, hold down a job and assume that your habit is nothing more than a way to wind down, or soften the daily blows of life; but to the outside world and to the ones that you love, it is all too apparent that you have a drinking problem.

The gradual descent into problem drinking, leaves you unaware of the trail of wreckage that you leave behind - the hurt, the mistakes, the poor performance, the broken promises, the lost days and the slow erosion of your self respect. All of it subtle, gradual and beyond recognition, all of it covered up with a blanket of alcohol.

Each day the clock ticks forward, month after month, year after year the damage increases, until finally it all hits critical mass and all that you love and have worked hard for implodes, leaving you with nothing more than the damage it created and the bottle that caused it all. What you are faced with is the very thing that you thought you where not, an alcoholic.

Its here that you have to be brutally honest with yourself and consider these two questions - do you really want your life to reach this point and will your health survive this constant abuse?

For today you may just be able to cope, your health may survive the harm that alcohol causes, but what about tomorrow or a few years down the line. What you have to be aware of is how you perceive your drinking habit and how you label yourself, for if you do not, there is a real possibility that you may just be fooling yourself.

What we must realise is this, that the signs of alcoholism are not just the chronic street alcoholic, it's the problem drinker, the long term abuser, the person who drinks just to cope; everyday people like you and me who have tried to soften the daily blows of life with alcohol, but who have simply lost control.

To discover how the signs of alcoholism are affecting your life and how you can once again regain control, take the AUDIT test today, by visiting http://www.signs-of-alcoholism.info The test will literally take no more than a couple of minutes, is completely confidential and has the potential to completely turn your life around.