Am I an Alcoholic if I Drink Every Day?
What’s an alcoholic?
You’re here because you have an important question. You drink on a day-to-day basis, and you’re coming to that awful, nagging feeling that you’e an alcoholic. You don’t know if you need help or not, and, wisely, you don’t want to be in denial.
You come home from work and have a cocktail to unwind; maybe it’s a glass of wine with dinner; every few nights you hang out with Dave nd Luis and play some Xbox over half a six-pack. It just keeps creeping up on you, little amounts of harmless booze, and then, suddenly you’re wondering if you have a problem.
Wondering about the effects of your drinking is the right thing to do. But if you’re focusing on the “every day” issue, you may be asking the wrong question.
The question is probably something along the lines of “am I compelled to drink?” “Could I just stop drinking if I wanted to?” “Am I too dependent on drink?” You could drink three times a week or six times and level of dependence is absolutely the main issue. An alcoholic has a chemical addiction, and if you think you’ve gotten there, it’s time to do some soul searching.
One of the biggest problems of the alcoholic is the mindset behind consuming too frequently. That mindset is a problem in general, beyond the drinking question, but it’s also what causes you to feel the need to drink more, getting into the downward spiral. It’s the mindset that will keep you drinking and the mindset that will give you troubles once you quit.
However, I suppose we do need to give the frequency issue its due respect. I do feel that the issue of every day or every other day or nine ounces a day or whatever is not what classifies an alcoholic. But I”m not telling you that there aren’t any problems with drinking on a day-to-day basis.
While the body feels like it is in an enjoyable state of existing when you are under the influence of alcohol, it is actually the body’s inability to process the toxins, sugars, and the alcohol percentage that makes the body feel “buzzed.” So, if you keep going and keep going, you’re only pushing things, and that’s when your liver and other organs begin to think you’re an idiot. And then they think you just don’t like them.
What do I mean? Well, when you’re bending your elbow too frequently, you’re forcing your kidneys and liver to work overtime. What seems like just feeling dragged down and lethargic is a symptom of something larger, something whose effects might be gradual, but there are still real.
So, basically, if you’re in this zone, I’m afraid it’s time for you to cut back. This will allow your kidneys to get back to their day-to-day work of pushing the toxins out of your system. If you go into a rehab program and go completely dry, you’ll really undergo a nice detox, and you’ll be in the clear.
To conclude, while I do identify myself as a recovered alcoholic, alcoholism is just a label. You can be one or not, but frequent alcohol consumption will drag your health down. As for your spirit and soul, the relevant issue is your level of dependence.
Photo Credit River Source on Flickr
