“Who cares if I enjoy unwinding from long days and weeks with a couple drinks? I’m grown, I’m doing a great job at all my responsibilities, and I deserve to relax and have a little fun!” If you’ve said anything like this before or do so regularly, to an extent you may be right.
For the most part, a few drinks here and there can enhance your life. Alcohol makes meals, holidays, and girls’ nights out that much sweeter. But if clicked on an article with this title in the first place, a small part of you is concerned that your drinking is out of control.
Though this list is not exhaustive, it’s a great place to start. As you consider each point, be totally honest – no judgment over here. Does this sound like you? If so, don’t worry! You’re not alone, and you don’t necessarily have to become a teetotaler if you don’t want to. You have options, and you’ll be okay.
Without further ado, here are 7 sure-fire signs your drinking is out of control.
7 Signs Your Drinking Is Out Of Control
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1-Lost productivity
This one can be tough to gauge. Some loss of productivity due to drinking is considered normal. Alcohol is a depressant after all, and it’s a known fact that it slows you down in more ways than one. You must dig deep and determine what is “okay” to you.
Maybe for now, slogging through the day with minimal effort on Mondays is was good enough to you by.
Think about many different areas of your life. Consider your career, your relationships, your health, your goals. What’s your threshold for lost productivity. Have you reached it? Have you passed it? Are you close?
2- Longer hangovers
Hangover recovery is no fun. While it leads to a loss in productivity and could technically be grouped in with #1, I believe it deserves a bullet point of its own. When they worsen in length and degree the way mine did, it becomes obvious that your drinking is out of control.
Over time, is it taking longer for you to recover from hangovers? Are your symptoms worsening?
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3- Can’t stop when you want
One of the things problem drinkers like to tell themselves is “I can stop anytime I want to, I just don’t want to”! This may seem true at first. For the most part if you never start drinking, you’ll be fine. It’s when you start and can’t stop that it might be time to take a closer look.
Do you ever find yourself drinking more than you intend to? Can you really stop whenever you want?
4- Finding more occasions when it’s appropriate
There are many occasions where drinking is totally appropriate. A glass of champagne to celebrate a new bride and groom. A cup of eggnog around the holidays. If you find yourself making excuses to drink on increasingly more occasions, however, your drinking may be out of control.
Think about your most recent behavior, say the last couple months. Do you drink when you’re happy or sad? Do you drink when you’re already having fun, or to cure boredom? Do you drink to be social, or do you drink alone? Are there situations where drinking is off limits? (They even serve beer at Chuck E Cheese so kid events aren’t automatically exempt).
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5- You need more and more for the same effects
Some people seem to keep a low tolerance while others don’t. When you first begin to drink, maybe it takes one or two drinks to have a strong buzz. But as your body grows more accustomed to liquor, you begin to need more and more for the same effects.
What about you? Do you find yourself needing to consume more alcohol to feel anything? If so, how does that make you feel?
6- Your drinking days outnumber the non
How many days in the past week have you had anything to drink? How about the past month? And how much each time? If you have alcohol on more days than you don’t, it may be a sign that your drinking is out of control.
This can be situational, however.
We’ve all heard that some alcohol is good for the heart, sure. It’s about moderation though. Someone who drinks exactly one glass of wine with every dinner is likely okay. Someone who drinks 8 cocktails every Friday, Saturday and Sunday probably isn’t.
That’s why it’s really important to be honest with yourself. Take note of your drinking patterns for a week, then substitute your behavior for that of a random stranger in a story. If a friend or even a stranger says “Tell me what you think. I drink maybe 3 to 4 glasses of wine a couple days a week, then let loose on weekends and might have 6 to 8 per night Friday to Sunday. Does that sound like a lot to you”?
The answer may surprise you.
7- You start hiding your behavior from others
Finally, feeling the need to hide your drinking from others in any capacity is a sign that your drinking is out of control.
People will go to great lengths to conceal their drinking habits from others.
If you do this to any degree, it may be a sign that your drinking is out of control.
Final Thoughts
If you are struggling with alcohol, you are in good company. It may seem like you’re the only one going through it, but you aren’t. People like to show the high points in their lives – the wins, rather the losses. I’m willing to bet you know quite a few people who have similar concerns, they just aren’t voicing them.
If you desire a change, remember you don’t have to do anything drastic unless you want to. The goal isn’t to make sure you never have another sip of champagne again. It’s to be in complete control and make decisions that enhance your quality of life, not diminish it.