Alcohol Abuse Signs
Our current society condones social drinking as well as drinking alone to a large extent.
It even condones, or maybe just ignores, alcohol abuse to some degree. Actually, society will ignore alcohol abuse or alcoholism until it becomes an embarrassment. If the alcoholic can slide through life without causing any major upheavals or embarrassment to himself or others, or bringing attention to the amount of alcohol he actually consumes, he may never be labeled as an alcohol abuser. That is, he may not be labeled until his alcohol abuse begins to show up in other ways, such as health or mental problems due to his abuse.
* Society as a whole needs to be more observant when it comes to alcohol abuse.
Alcohol abuse can cause physical and psychological damage, some of the damage may be reversible, and fixable, other damage is permanent.
The first sign is when drinking becomes increasingly more important to the abuser. Often without even the actual abuser’s awareness of the increasing dependency. Alcohol becomes more important than his job, friends and even family. For example, there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary when a business executive with a highly stressful job comes in and mixes himself a drink before sitting down to unwind. Alcohol abuse should be suspected when this same executive cannot do anything else until he has that drink upon returning home. Another sign of alcohol abuse is when the person will attend social functions only if they include drinking. Alcohol has become his focus, and that is alcohol abuse.
- Physical signs of alcohol abuse include weight loss, redness in the cheek area of the face, numbness and tingling in both the feet and hands, and an unexplained recurrent upset stomach. Other telltale signs are clumsiness and unsteadiness along with dizziness and slurred speech while intoxicated, and blackouts of memory after drinking enough to pass out.
- Mental signs of alcohol abuse may start with avoiding events that do not give him the opportunity to drink, to being unable to control his level of drinking. Irritability, agitation, anxiety, and anger are increased, as well as excessive weeping and emotional displays uncommon to the general nature of the abuser. He will also begin to have unexplained absences from school or work and have a hard time in making a commitment.
In teenagers, the signs may be as subtle as starting to have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. Older adults, on the other hand, may be able to hide their alcohol abuse for a while by doing most of their drinking at home, where mild problems with day to day activities may go unnoticed by others in the family.
* Because drinking is so widely accepted, the signs that go along with alcohol abuse are often overlooked.
If someone you suspect or someone you love is abusing alcohol, you may need to observe him very closely to actually determine if the signs of alcohol abuse are there.
