Medically reviewed:09/06/2018
Last updated:05/13/2019
Author:上瘾.com Medical Review
我是酗酒吗？
Recent studies have found that 12.7% of American adults—one in eight—officially meet the criteria to be diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. Whether these disorders are mild or severe, recognizing the signs of alcoholism and seeking help as soon as possible is crucial.
酒精ism is a chronic disease that often proves fatal without professional treatment. Alcohol kills 88,000 people a year in the United States—that’s over two times higher than the number of people who die of an opioid overdose.
休闲饮酒变成酒精滥用
As one of America’s favorite pastimes, alcohol consumption has become an expected indulgence for celebratory occasions and has become a part of many individuals’ everyday social life, especially with the widespread popularity of craft beers and cocktails. Being surrounded by regular drinkers can make it easy for an alcoholic to justify their drinking—after all, it’s normal behavior.
However, where casual drinking poses little to no risk for some people, individuals who are more susceptible to alcohol’s effects will have real difficulty keeping things legitimately casual. What starts as casual drinking can evolve into a self-perpetuating pattern of abuse and eventual addiction over time.
More often than not, casual or social drinking marks the starting point for alcohol abuse. In fact, mixing more often with other drinkers because it justifies one’s own drinking is a sign of alcohol addiction. By the time a person asks, “Am I an alcoholic?” many other signs and酒精滥用的影响可能已经在他或她的生命中造成了形状。
醇的影响
Tolerance Level Increases
Although drinking may provide a stimulating effect at first, alcohol is a depressant, slowing chemical interactions throughout the body via the brain and central nervous system. Concerns about being an alcoholic often take shape once a person or loved ones notice the steady increase in his or her alcohol consumption over time.
酒精通过干扰大脑中的血清素，加巴和谷氨酸神经递质分泌物而作用。频繁饮酒，大脑对酒精的影响产生耐受性，并且只要一个人不断饮酒就会继续持续耐受性水平的增加。有时候，一个人会声称他们正在喝酒但没有喝醉的事实，因为有证据表明，当相反的是真实的时，他们没有饮酒问题。能够在不成为陶醉的情况下消耗超过少量的酒精是酒精依赖的迹象。
Physical Dependency
物理依赖是酗酒的第一个迹象之一。对酒精的物理依赖性出现出大脑上升的容差水平。一旦物理依赖，一个人在饮酒时开始遇到戒断效果，或者不会像往常一样喝酒。
戒断效果响应大脑中生长的化学性失衡而形成。随着耐受性升高，大脑需要增加量的酒精，以便将身体的过程正常调节。
In the absence of more alcohol, withdrawal effects start to surface as various bodily processes break down. Someone who’s asking “am I an alcoholic?” had likely experienced more than a few withdrawal episodes, when they suffered symptoms such as a headache, nausea, brain fog, irritability, depression, or a general unwell feeling, which were only relieved by drinking alcohol. Hand tremors, another common withdrawal symptom that is most noticeable in the morning, is one of the hardest signs to conceal. Although tremors can be caused by other conditions, if it disappears with alcohol consumption, then it is a symptom of alcohol withdrawal.
Psychological Dependency
更重要的是,心理依赖marks one of the key signs of alcoholism. At first, this may show in seemingly harmless ways, such as when a person feels like they “need” alcohol to relax after work, or to de-stress in the midst of conflict. Individuals psychologically dependent on alcohol may begin planning their lives around drinking without even realizing it’s happening. For example, they may plan their social lives around drinking, only planning events that involve alcohol consumption and skipping events where drinking would be unacceptable. They are likely to become irritable if plans change at the last minute, delaying the time when they were expecting to be able to start drinking. They may withdraw from family and friends and isolate themselves to hide the effects of drinking or to hide from the concern of loved ones.
At this point, alcohol’s influence on the brain’s chemical system has “rewired” a person’s overall psychological make-up. Alcohol has become the center of his or her life, taking control of actions and reactions, leading to anxiety when the individual doesn’t have access to alcohol.
Am I an Alcoholic? – Questions to Ask
Have Withdrawal Effects Become the New “Normal”?
严重的酒精戒断效应通常采取以下形式：
- Persistent fatigue
- No appetite for food
- Profuse sweating
- Headaches
- Hand tremors
- Ongoing nausea
- Foggy thinking
Anyone frequently experiencing these symptoms can answer yes to the question, “am I an alcoholic?” Withdrawal effects play an active role in perpetuating theabuse/addiction cycle, as most heavy drinkers will drink more alcohol to gain relief from withdrawal symptoms.
Do I Binge Drink?
酒精能增加大脑的容忍水平quickly, especially in cases of frequent and heavy drinking. Once tolerance levels reach a certain point, drinkers must consume large amounts of alcohol in a short period to experience the desired “buzz” effect. This leads to binge drinking, defined as consuming four or more drinks within two hours for a woman, or five or more drinks for a man.
我有酒精/物质滥用的家族史吗？
酗酒具有遗传和环境组分。这意味着在重度饮酒者（或药物滥用者）家庭中的人们不仅仅是因为它们被虐待所包围的人，而且因为他们父母遗传的遗传构成使他们更容易发展依赖。在问“我是酗酒？”考虑您的家庭的药物滥用历史，以及您的过去和当前环境。酒精配偶，重要的其他人和亲密的朋友也可以随着时间的推移来引导一个人朝着沉重的饮酒行为。
我的饮酒造成了生活中的问题吗？
Once alcohol’s effects take over a person’s life, he or she will show little regard for any negative consequences that result from drinking. Negative consequences may take the form of:
- Problems on the job or losing a job
- Relationship conflicts or divorce
- Difficulty living up to responsibilities
- 法律问题
- Money problems
- 健康问题
- Mental health problems
Someone who continues to drink in spite of one or more of these consequences can answer yes to the question, “am I an alcoholic?”
我试图停止喝酒吗？
对饮酒行为的丧失丧失是一种清晰的成瘾警告标志。任何让多次尝试退出饮酒并失败的人都有充分的理由问：“我是酗酒吗？”因为这表明对酒精的影响有明显的控制。然而，这不应该作为个体无法克服酗酒的标志，但是，他或她需要合格，专业的帮助来克服它。
Am I an Alcoholic? – Early & Late Stage Symptoms
酒精中毒通常在阶段进行，早期和晚期症状沿途发展。酒精对一个人的身心健康有累积影响，而且人们越早寻求治疗，装备越好，他们将要恢复，所以它永远不会询问这个问题“我是酗酒的？”
早期阶段症状通常采取以下形式：
- 无法管理或应对每日压力源
- 喝酒以缓解压力
- Sleep problems
- Frequent nightmares
- Withdrawal episodes
- 由于免疫系统弱化而常急
酗酒的晚期症状包括：
- 停电剧集
- Drinking in the morning or at the start of the day
- 持续的酒精渴望
- 气促
- Numbness in the hands and feet
- Irregular heartbeat
- Yellowish skin tone
- Swelling in the feet
一旦一个人开始经历后期症状，有关“我是酗酒？”的担忧由于他或她的健康状况有很大的衰落，因此得到了很好的保证。没有必要治疗帮助，症状增加，严重程度随着时间的推移而恶化，到威胁危及生命的健康状况，例如肝病和心脏问题开始发展，以及损坏大脑。
The toll that alcohol addiction takes on the brain and body can be healed with effort over time, but only if individuals struggling with alcohol use disorder seek professional help before the damage done is too severe.