Do you have a problem with alcohol? Three signs to know that you have a drinking problem

Do you have a problem with alcohol?

Three signs to know that you have a drinking problem

It’s easy to wonder if you have a drinking problem; according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, close to 15 million Americans have Alcohol Abuse Disorder. And that is only in one country.

Have you been wondering if you have a drinking problem?

Do you wake up the morning after a night of drinking and think, did I take it too far? You cannot remember much after a certain point of the night, or every time you drink the next day, your anxiety has increased.

These are common thoughts and common side effects of alcohol. Alcohol does not come with a warning label like medications and cigarettes do. It does not say on the bottle that it is one of the most addictive substances of all time. Some people do not even know that alcohol will cause such a huge problem until it does.

I had a drinking problem for ten years, and I have been sober for the last eleven years. It took me a few years before I quit to know I had a drinking problem. It wasn’t until I got sober that I saw the full picture of my alcohol addiction.

These three signs I share below are ones I lived with for years.

Here are three signs that you have a drinking problem.

1) Blackouts or forgetting what you did while drinking: If this is happening to you now, its time to reconsider your relationship with alcohol. Once the blackouts start, they will continue. Alcohol takes over your brain and changes its chemistry.  Even if you brown out a little bit. A brownout is when some of the night is fuzzy like you feel like you were in a dream. None of it’s good and causes damage to the brain.

2)Drinking more than you intended: How many times have you said to yourself before you started drinking, “I am only going to have two.” Then, all of a sudden, you have had five drinks and are stumbling into bed. You wake up the next day and feel disappointed in yourself because you tried setting a limit and broke it. Maybe you also noticed this happens more and more now because the one to two drinks you used to have are no longer doing the trick for you.

3)You think about alcohol all the time: Is alcohol all you think about? How many hours in a day do you think about when you get to drink again? Or how many hours in a day do you think about what happened the night before because you drank? You spend most of your day in a mental tailspin because you know you have a problem with alcohol and want to do something about it but don’t know where to start. It is a continuous cycle, and I believe if you sat and wrote out how much time you think about alcohol, you would see that it has more power over you mentally than you would have ever thought.

If you do have a drinking problem and are looking for a sign for help, this is it. Your problem with alcohol is never going to get better, and there are tons of options for support in 2023. Rehabs, Twelve Step Programs, Therapists, and Sober/Recovery coaches are great places to look for help. Instagram has a huge sober community of many recovering out loud. Fill your feed with sober inspiration. You can live a sober, thriving life; I am proof of it.

I have never regretted giving up alcohol, and neither will you.

Grab your Sober Not Boring calendar for resources of things to do without alcohol.

Courtney Andersen is an Author, Host of the Sober Vibes Podcast, Founder of National Sober Day, and Sober Coach. She helps women quit drinking alcohol and thrive in Sobriety. She founded Sober Vibes in 2016, an online community for Sober and Sober curious women.