The signs of alcoholism are not always apparent, what we perceive as a normal pattern of alcohol consumption, could be causing long term chronic health problems and in all probability may be impacting negatively in your every day life.
Alcohol dependency is a slow process of attrition, a relentless wearing down of both your mental and physical resistance; where once you had control of it, sadly it may now have control over you? What you face right now is a world dominated by a substance that once softened the blows of life, one that is consequently rendering you powerless to cope with even the trivial hurdles of normal existence. A prisoner of chemical abuse, in a cage of dependency, that is of your own making.
So how do you break free?
The first step is to ask four simple questions of yourself, the four fundamental questions of CAGE. CAGE is a questionnaire that is used widely as a screening test for alcoholism; it was developed originally to identify the "hidden alcoholic" in hospitals and primary health care settings. The word CAGE is an acronym of its four questions, Cut, Annoyed, Guilty and Eye-opener.
- Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking?
- Have peopleAnnoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
- Have you ever feltGuilty about drinking?
- Have you ever felt you needed a drink first thing in the morning (Eye-opener) to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?
To answer yes to 2 or more questions, indicates clinical significance and points to the fact that you may have alcohol dependence.
But how far down the line are you and what are the consequences?
One final test will reveal the true level of your dependency, accurately and give you a real indication of where you find yourself now. The test is called AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) and was commissioned by the World Health Organisation as a means to identifying persons with hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption.
AUDIT if a freely available test for health care professionals which scores your responses to multiple choice questions. This test is not a pass or fail, it merely acts as a screening test to highlight excessive drinking habits and acts as a framework for health care teams to help hazardous and harmful drinkers to reduce or cease they're alcohol consumption.
But what if you are not a health care professional and need answers right now - what good is it if you cannot interpret what it means?
Fortunately this is not a problem; this test can be readily found on-line in an automated format, it will take no more than a few minutes to complete and the results mirror perfectly the guidelines presented in the original AUDIT report, giving you the vital information you need to take action and seek recovery.
The signs of alcoholism are often masked by our everyday existence, we need that certain jolt that will open our eyes to the harm we are inflicting on ourselves. Alcohol dependency is not just the chronic street alcoholic, it's the problem drinker, the long term abuser, the person who drinks just to cope; everyday people like you and me who have tried to soften the daily blows of life with alcohol, but who have simply lost control.
