When someone is called an alcoholic, people start worrying wether they are not overdrinking and don’t fall into this category. This is partly due to the fact that many people do not know the difference between social drinkers and alcohol problem. There is also a lack of understanding what exactly are the warning signs of alcoholism.
Social drinkers are those people whose drinking habbits are risky. According to experts, those who fall into this group are women drinking less than 7 units of alcohol a week. In men this number is less than 14 units of alcohol a week and no more than 4 unints per day. 1 unit means 10 ml of pure alcohol (in a standard bottle of wine there are 9.5 units of alcohol).
Social drinkers and their habits are different from alcoholics. In fact, according to some researchers, 72% of people have experienced alcoholism period, lasting from three to four years, usually between 18 and 24. Beginners tend to understate their drinking and, as it often happens, they do not meet the stereotype of typical alcoholic. However, alcoholics are determined not how they look to the surrounding world but what’s his relationship with alcohol. Here are some of these warning signs:
1. Incapability to control the alcohol intake.
2. Incapability to control the thoughts about alcohol.
3. Behavior after drinking does not meet normal personality.
4. Relationship with others alcoholics.
5. Drinking before going to parties and bars.
6. Denial of drinking because of taking successful and professional and personal sphere of life.
7. Inability to count the drinking rate (three drinks a night three days a week).
8. Driving when being drunk.
9. The need to drink own or another person’s alcoholic beverage.
10. The use of alcohol as a reward.
11. Drinking every day.
12. The double life of separate drinker and social person.