Alcoholism And Women: Signs

Binge drinking culture has become normalized in our society. For women, drinking has become normalized through wine, rose, champagne, and other hyper-feminine alcoholic practices. The delusion of drinking like other people we see in media can keep us from recognizing that our own drinking patterns have become a problem. Here are some signs that your drinking may have reached the problem stage of alcoholism.

• You’ve developed a physical dependence: When you wake up in the morning, your first thought is you need a drink. You need a drink because you feel sick, you’re shaking, you’re weak, and anxious, and a drink is what will help you feel better.
• You’re drinking more than normal: In both quantity and frequency, the amount you’re drinking has increased. This could be for one of two reasons: you’re just drinking more, or more often; or, you’ve developed a tolerance and you need more to drink in order to achieve the effects you’re looking for.
• Your drinking is out of place: You keep the party going when the party isn’t going anymore, or when the party hasn’t even started. Your ability to discern the right time to drink or get drunk has been lost. You’re finding that your drinking decisions are happening at inappropriate times and you can’t seem to understand why others aren’t drinking or why you keep thinking drinking is okay.
• You feel out of place not drinking: On the opposite side of the coin, when you are forced not to drink in a certain situation or setting, you feel completely out of place. You aren’t comfortable without a drink in your hand anymore or not having at least some alcohol in your body.
• You drink a little every day: Science goes back and forth on the “daily glass of wine” idea that a glass of wine at night could be good for health. Plenty of people are daily drinkers, reaching for that cocktail after work, a beer when they get home, or that glass of wine with dinner. The difference for you is that there is no reason or particular time to take a drink. You have a drink everyday, and if you go a day without drinking, something feels amiss. You don’t see any reason not to have a drink every day, because that seems normal.
• You cannot have just one drink at a time: What isn’t normal is the inability to control your drinking. You cannot have just one drink a day, because you cannot have just one drink. Even if it happens slowly over time, you start to have a little more to drink each day until a physical dependence forms.
• Your friends and family are concerned: There’s a time and place when concern regarding your drinking does and does not matter. If you are consistently receiving feedback of care, concern, or even criticism regarding your drinking, it likely matters. Of course, there are times when other people just don’t know you. However, when the people who do know you know that something isn’t right, your health is at risk, and it all seems to be connected to your drinking, it’s time for you to be concerned, too.

Women’s recovery programs created by women, run by women, made for women, are key to helping women navigate the many layers of their world both internally and externally. Created with the female experience especially in mind, the RedCliff Recovery program has been designed to help women believe in hope, live in joy, and find the freedom they deserve. For more information on women’s wilderness, call us today: 801.370.2274