I've been drinking for two weeks now. Am I an alcoholic?

No. Alcohol addiction cannot be diagnosed by the amount of alcohol consumed. You can suspect addiction based on certain reactions of the body to alcohol and various unpleasant changes in life.

There is a whole list of criteria . Here are the most common reasons to start worrying or even go to the doctor. The more such symptoms, the more severe the situation.

Alcohol prevents you from doing what you should.

Because of alcohol, you miss a deadline, cancel meetings with family, forget to pick up your child from kindergarten, spend the money you saved for an apartment, and then don’t know how to get out.

You continue to drink no matter what.

A loved one left you because he could no longer tolerate the consequences of your relationship with alcohol. You were fired from your job. Your fingers are numb and your stomach hurts terribly. Your parents constantly start talking about you drinking a lot, and it all ends in scandal. But you continue to drink alcohol.

To get drunk, you need more than before.

Increasing tolerance to alcohol - that's what it's called.

You drink almost every day, and if you don't drink, you feel physically ill.

Withdrawal syndrome is when you feel chills, you can't sleep, you feel nauseous, and you feel anxious.

If you drink in the evening, you will have a hangover in the morning. But this is not the hangover that many people without addiction have: in fact, they develop intoxication, that is, alcohol poisoning; in such a situation, a glass of vodka will only make things worse. But people with alcohol addiction have a real hangover, and if they drink, it will go away.

You drink more than you planned.

When you try to stop, you can't.

You often think about alcohol and really want to drink.

You are not interested in alternative ways to relax and unwind.

You can start with tests. There are several questionnaires that help doctors diagnose alcohol dependence. The most popular of them is AUDIT (one unit of alcohol there is 10 grams of alcohol ; a glass of wine, a glass of vodka and a bottle of beer contains about 15 grams of alcohol). If you score more than 8 points, you can suspect alcohol abuse; if you score more than 20, you can suspect alcohol dependence. In these cases, it is better to contact a narcologist: he will have good advice for you and maybe even pills.

Take your time. If you don't have an addiction, that's good, but that doesn't mean everything is okay. For example, people over 65 and women who drink about 100 grams of alcohol per week (which is approximately equal to a liter of wine, 2.5 liters of beer or six glasses of vodka) are on the path to addiction. If you drink not so often, but a lot, that is, about 40 grams of alcohol (that’s about half a liter of wine, a liter of beer, or a little more than two glasses of vodka at a time) - this is also dangerous. In some countries, it is believed that the norm is higher for men, and for them risky behavior is to drink a little less than 200 grams of alcohol per week (two liters of wine, five liters of beer or 12 glasses of vodka) or 50 grams of alcohol (about half a liter of wine, one and a half liters of beer or 3.5 glasses of vodka) at a time.

Alcohol abuse increases the risk of developing a variety of diseases - this formal phrase is absolutely fair. Alcohol can harm almost any organ, any system. At first it may be insomnia, heartburn, high blood pressure, but the further you go, the more pronounced the harm will be.

If you usually do not exceed the norm, but, having decided to relax, get very drunk, this is called binge drinking (probably the most accurate translation is “regular drinking”). This also has its risks. When a woman drinks about 50 grams of alcohol in two hours (a little more than half a liter of wine, one and a half liters of beer or 3.5 glasses of vodka) and when a man drinks 60 grams of alcohol (0.7 liters of wine, 1.8 liters of beer or 4 glasses of vodka), this often ends in injuries, sexually transmitted infections , alcohol poisoning and other troubles (these are American standards; the British consider them dangerous even smaller doses). All this in the long term can lead to stroke, liver disease and other troubles.

Standards can vary greatly from country to country. For example, according to American standards, a man can drink 28 grams of alcohol per day without harm to his health (almost 2 glasses of wine, or 2 bottles of beer or 2 glasses of vodka), a woman - half as much. The World Health Organization considers the norm to be 20 grams of alcohol per day, no more than five days a week. That is, a little more than a glass of wine, a bottle of beer or a glass of vodka per day.

Daria Sargsyan