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Although joyful for many, the “holiday season” is not a joyous time for all. In fact, during this time of year people all over the world are often struggling with the question, “Do I have a drinking problem?” Then come January, attendance at AA meetings increases right alongside the annual spike in fitness center memberships.
Painful and unwanted memories, feelings, and emotions tend to rise to the surface during this season more than ever, and those who choose to drink alcohol as their external method of seeking internal relief, confidence, and comfort may also be asking themselves this question.
If you are one of the many asking yourself, “Do I have a drinking problem?” consider if, and how, you can relate to the following 5 statements related to a drinking problem. This is a beautiful opportunity to dive deep into your inner-most self and the experiences that are making you, breaking you, or blocking you.
Self-Reflection Questions on a Drinking Problem
1. Do you feel restless or irritable when you feel you need a drink and are unable to have one?
As many move into dependence on alcohol, early warning signs can be feelings of irritability, restlessness, and overall feeling discontent until you have that next drink.
“To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable, and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks which they see others taking with impunity.”
– Alcoholics Anonymous p. 35
2. Have you found a need to try to manage or control your drinking?
There is a glaring sign presenting itself in those who have found a need to try to manage, control, or limit their drinking. This often occurs after one’s drinking has gotten “out of control” or problematic in some way. A drinking problem is often a progressively worsening illness. Meanwhile, denial keeps those who are afflicted stuck in their suffering.
“There is the type of man who is unwilling to admit that he cannot take a drink. He plans various ways of drinking. He changes his brand or his environment. There is the type who always believes that after a period of time he can take a drink without danger. There is the manic depressive type, who is, perhaps, the lest understood by his friends, and about whom a whole chapter could be written.
Then there are the type entirely normal in every respect except in the effect alcohol has upon them. They are often able, intelligent, friendly people.”
– Alcoholics Anonymous p. 7
3. Have you felt justified in getting drunk?
Do you find yourself setting out to drink with friends and then regretting the events or problems that result afterwards? Meanwhile, others who drank with you do not have the same consequences as you? Then, you come to find this happens over and over again as you make justifications for how it happened?
There is a saying often said in AA meetings that goes something like, “If you knew what I’ve been through, what was done to me, how bad I hurt, then you would drink like me too.”
“In some circumstances we have gone out deliberately to get drunk, feeling ourselves justified by nervousness, anger, worry, depression, jealousy, or the like. But even in this type of beginning we are obliged to admit that our justification for a spree was insanely insufficient in the light of what always happened….”
– Alcoholics Anonymous p. 48
4. Do you hide the amount that you are actually drinking?
Once an individual begins to have a few secret drinks, or shots, in the hopes that nobody will know – there is a problem. Even if you do not identify the problem as being with alcohol, maybe your mind will open to the idea that something is the matter.
“He told how he lived in constant worry about those who might find out about his alcoholism. He had, of course, the familiar alcoholic obsession that few knew of his drinking.”
– Alcoholics Anonymous p. 169
5. Do you drink for relief from mental suffering and uncontrollable thoughts?
If you can relate, you are not alone. There is a Solution.
“Thoughts…stop this mad merry-go-round. And worst of all this mental suffering – the hating yourself – the feeling of absurd, irrational weakness – the unworthiness. Out that window! Use the gun in the drawer! What about poison?…Isn’t there some one who understands? Thoughts…please, oh please, stop…I’m going nuts…or am I nuts now?”
– Alcoholics Anonymous p. 198
So, What’s The Verdict?
If you can relate to any, some, or all of the above experiences shared then this does not mean that you necessarily have a drinking problem. However, it does mean that something is the matter.
If alcohol is not your problem, there is an underlying problem that you may be using the effects of alcohol to medicate or relieve.
Only we can decide for ourselves by being rigorously honest if alcohol is becoming a problem in our lives. It makes little difference when we drink, how much we drink, or why we drink; if drinking alcohol has begun to cause problems in our lives and within ourselves then it may be time to sober up. At least long enough to find out if you, in fact, have a drinking problem. Because if you do, simply trying to quit will not be easy. Not because remaining sober is difficult, but because dealing with what rises to the surface without the relief of a drink can be very difficult.
Explore more Self-Discovery and Spiritual Recovery articles and posts on The Hollywood and Vine Recovery Center’s website and Recovery Blog. Click the links below for hope and solution: