How do you know if someone is an alocholic?

Question

I ask because when my husband drinks which is probably once or twice a month he always gets baligerent. He is also a diabetic and I was told he shouldn't drink.

Answer 1

There are many signs: hiding bottles, drinking first thing in the morning, drinking to cure a hangover, blackouts, "needing" a drink, the "shakes", personality changes (especially unexplained rage or depression).
Any one or two of these may only indicate a short episode. Several of these may indicate alcoholism that needs treatment. Some folks have addictive personalities that make it impossible for them to regulate their consumption of alcohol. For them, the only way to handle it is to not drink at all.
If you know someone with several of these indicators, contact Alcoholics Anonymous.
www.alcoholics-anonymous.org
Cheers.

Answer 2

The American Medical Association has established four diagnostic criteria.
The biggy is called blackouts. Alcoholic people have periods of amnesia if they drink enough. They do not remember what happened during those times.Blackouts are real. Somepeople think that the alcoholic is lying to them. A lot of people in prisons cannot remember the crimes which they committed while in a blackout.
The other symptoms are shakes or hallucinations which occur while drinking but not at other times. And of course DTs or delerium tremens.
These things happen to alcoholics only, not to normal people.

Answer 3

Anybody who has to have as little as 3 drinks a day can be classed as an alcoholic, but our society lets this one slip.
I think, that , if the consumption of alcohol is enough to change someones personality, then you might say that person is truly an alcoholic.

Answer 4

They often drink alone.
Their breath reeks of booze.
They become very thin and hardly ever feel the need to eat.
They seek partners that are also alcoholics.
They deny they have a problem with alcohol;)

Answer 5

First history is important. Do they have alcoholism in the family to inherit the trait? Do they drink to their detriment regardless of damage to family, health and career?

Answer 6

They drink all the time and can't cope with life without drinking.

Answer 7

Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinker's normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. The resulting chronic use can result in many psychological and physiological disorders. Alcoholism is one of the world's most costly drug use problems; with the exception of nicotine addiction, alcoholism is more costly to most countries than all other drug use problems combined.

The biological mechanism of alcoholism is unknown. While alcohol use is required to trigger alcoholism, the majority of the population can drink alcoholic beverages with no danger of suffering from it. One of several other factors must exist for alcohol use to develop into alcoholism. These factors may include a person's social environment, emotional health and genetic predisposition. An alcoholic can develop several forms of addiction to alcohol simultaneously (psychological, metabolic, and neurochemical) and they all must be treated in order to effectively treat the condition.

Many terms are applied to a drinker's relationship with alcohol. Use, misuse, heavy use, abuse, addiction, and dependence are all in common use, but the actual meaning of these words can vary greatly depending upon the context in which they are used. Even within the medical field the definition can vary between areas of specialization, and the introduction of politics and religion can result in a hazardous level of ambiguity.

Use refers to simple use of a substance. An individual who drinks any alcoholic beverage is using alcohol.

Misuse and heavy use do not have standard definitions, but suggest consumption of alcohol beyond the point where it causes physical, social, or moral harm to the drinker. Social and moral harm are highly subjective and therefore differ from individual to individual.

The term abuse has a variety of possible meanings. Within psychiatry, the DSM-IV has a specific definition involving a set of life circumstances which take place as a result of substance use. Within politics, abuse is often used to refer to the illegal use of any substance. Within the broad field of medicine, abuse sometimes refers to use of prescribed medication in excess of the prescribed dosage or to use of a prescription drug without a prescription. Within religion, abuse can refer to any use of a poorly regarded substance. The term can therefore cause confusion due to the possibility that an audience doesn't share a single definition.

Dependence also has multiple definitions, but is not as commonly used as abuse outside of the medical profession. Physical medicine considers dependence to be the body's physical adaptation to the persistent presence of alcohol. Psychological medicine considers dependence to be a person's mental reliance upon something to maintain their mental status quo. These two are occasionally differentiated as physical and psychological dependence.

The precise definition of addiction is debated, but in general it refers to any condition which results in the continuation of behaviors demonstrated as harmful to that person. For alcoholism, that behavior is the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Some conditions which contribute to alcoholism include physical dependence, neurochemical conditioning, and a person's perception that alcohol benefits them psychologically or socially.

Answer 8

If you have to ask that question, the person is an alcoholic.

Answer 9

Go close to him and you will find him stinking with alcohol

Answer 10

If it effects their life. If they lose their job, marrige, freedom..