Are You an Alcoholic? How to Tell If You Have a Drink Problem

A drink problem can make life unbearable for you and for those in your immediate vicinity. Deciding if you are an alcoholic can be an important first step to recovery from alcohol addiction. What follows are my views on the issue. I am no expert on addiction, but I did spend almost two decades battling the booze. Much of my adult life was spent trying to investigate what made me the way I was; thankfully those days are now behind me.

What is an Alcoholic?

This is such a loaded question; for one thing the word alcoholic is contentious and some people would prefer to say they have alcohol dependence. It doesn't really matter what you call it; the real shame would be to allow pedanticism to be the cause of your death. The words don't matter at the end of the day so long as you don't allow addiction to ruin your life. I refer to myself as a reformed drunk, but most people prefer alcoholic; six of one and half a dozen of the other.

How to tell if you are an Alcoholic?

There are some online quizzes you can take to help you determine if you are an alcoholic. One of the most popular is provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and you can take this test by clicking here. I know some people complain that this WHO test is too broad and that a high score could just mean that you are going through a stage of heavy drinking; some people do manage to escape this period and return to social drinking. I still think that the test can help people see if there drinking is out of control.

My own advice is that if you think that you may have a drinking problem then you probably do. The fact that you feel the need to ask if you are alcoholic should be enough to set alarm bells ringing. If you try and stop and then find that you can't, well you can be almost certain that you have developed an addiction.

If drinking alcohol is making your life miserable then the obvious answer is to give it up. Once you start having problems with addiction it is always a downward spiral unless you can stop. You may find that you can't give up without help so you will need to look for some support; there is sure to be plenty available. Research your problem and ask for advice, but most importantly put this advice into action.

If you really don't want to be labeled as an alcoholic then fine; call it what you want but just stop drinking. You can tell people you are a "reformed ethanol enthusiast" if it makes you feel better.