The occasional glass of wine with your dinner after a day at work may at some point turn more frequent and start to become a concerning issue, a study has warned, prompting people to watch out for specific warning signs.
The UK’s National Healthcare Service (NHS) experts have been citing growing concerns about increased alcohol consumption, warning that there could be an additional 1,830 alcohol-related deaths in the country within two decades.
Experts at Private Rehab Clinic Delamere in Cheshire, England, have decided to help casual drinkers spot the early symptoms of alcoholism, either in themselves or another person, before the problem gets out of hand. Alcohol addiction is a chronic alcohol use disorder that is a medically-recognized physiological and psychological illness.
To the untrained eye, it’s hard to discern when heavy drinking transforms into full-blown alcoholism requiring immediate specialized treatment, but an expert can easily spot the red flags.
Alcohol addiction occurs when an individual loses the ability to control or moderate their drinking. Sometimes this happens over a period of time, on other occasions it progresses swiftly, driven by traumatic experiences, grief or other varying issues of self-esteem.
For each such person, the route from social drinking to heavy drinking to alcohol abuse and dependency is highly individual.
Here are the physical and psychological signs that experts suggest may indicate alcoholism.
Random Excuses to Drink
An early sign of alcoholism is if someone is looking for random excuses to knock back a drink, sometimes early in the day, arguing that they are going through a stressful time at their job or at home. Whether using alcohol to deal with challenging situations or simply drinking after the daily work is done, such a pattern should definitely raise flags, the research states.
Defense & Denial
Typically, those heading towards alcoholism might become defensive and deny they have a dependency problem. Sometimes, such individuals subconsciously hide bottles of alcohol in random places, such as the car or the office. Experts attribute this to the way the addiction affects the person’s brain, urging them to conceal their dependency.
‘Pre-Loading’
While drinking at certain social events is perceived as customary, ‘pre-loading’, or consuming alcohol before an event to boost confidence, or in other words, ‘Dutch courage,’ is cause for concern. Accordingly, if someone appears to be intoxicated at the early stages of a social event, it could be a warning sign.
Mood Swings & Cravings
If someone’s behavior turns erratic or overly emotional when intoxicated, it may signal that alcohol is already impairing their ability to accurately assess a situation. Often, this is manifested in paranoid behavior or undue risk-taking whilst inebriated. Feelings of guilt associated with drinking also typically assail such individuals.
People suffering increasingly severe alcohol dependency typically start to drink either in greater volumes or turn to stronger types of alcohol. This is explained by their developing tolerance to alcohol. Short-term memory impairment is also linked with alcohol as it affects areas of the brain that control the creation of new memories.
As alcohol is a toxin, damage caused to the dopamine system in the brain triggers progressively more anxiety and depression unless the cravings are satiated.
Specific withdrawal symptoms begin to display themselves when the body and brain need alcohol increasingly more often. The symptoms range from a hangover and mild shaking of the hands, to anxiety and insomnia, and severe, life-threatening symptoms including delirium tremens, hallucinations and alcoholic seizures.
The NHS recommends that adults consume no more than 14 units of alcohol per week. Drinking "in moderation" in line with the guidelines refers to consuming seven to 14 units of alcohol a week, equivalent to six pints of average-strength beer or seven glasses of wine.