How Do I Know If I Actually Have a Drinking Problem?

How do you know if you actually have a drinking problem?

You make rules about when you’ll drink. You negotiate how many you’re going to have. You promise yourself tonight will be different. You replay last night trying to figure out exactly what happened. You take breaks, make new rules, Google questions, take quizzes, compare yourself to other people—and somehow alcohol keeps requiring more and more of your attention.

At some point, that’s worth looking at.

In this episode of Addiction Unlimited, we’re getting away from arbitrary drinking counts and labels and looking at something far more revealing: your actual relationship with alcohol.

In this episode, we’re getting away from labels and arbitrary drinking counts and looking at something far more useful: your actual relationship with alcohol.

Is it really a drinking problem?

The surprisingly revealing question that has nothing to do with how much or how often you drink

Why taking 30 days off alcohol may not prove what you think it proves

The difference between having a plan for the night and actually being in control of what happens

When researching your drinking stops giving you answers—and starts becoming part of the answer

And after all the research, analyzing and comparing—you already have enough information—you just have to be willing to do something with it.

Because sometimes the amount of work you’re doing to prove alcohol isn’t a problem tells you more than another quiz ever will.

You don’t have to decide what to call yourself today. You don’t need the perfect label or one more piece of evidence. You can simply acknowledge that your relationship with alcohol isn’t working anymore—and let that be enough truth to take the next step.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Book A Call Here: addictionunlimited.com/call

Sober Society Membership: addictionunlimited.com/membership

Related Episode: Why Am I An Alcoholic – the Bio-Psycho-Social Truth About Addiction

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Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/addictionunlimited

Prefer to read instead of listen? Here’s the full transcript of this episode. 455 Transcript

Angela (00:07.374)

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Addiction Unlimited podcast. I’m your coach, Angela Pugh. How do I know if I actually have a drinking problem? This is probably one of the most common questions people ask themselves when they start getting uncomfortable with their drinking. Am I really an alcoholic? Do I actually have a problem? Or am I just drinking a little too much right now? Maybe I just need to cut back. Maybe I need to take a break.Maybe I should stop drinking during the week and only drink on weekends. We will create an entire strategic plan around drinking before we’ll sit down and ask ourselves the most obvious question. What the hell is going on with me and alcohol? And here’s the first thing I want you to understand. I am not going to give you a diagnostic quiz today. I’m not interested in do you drink X number of drinks on X number of nights?

Have you had X number of consequences? Check seven boxes and congratulations, here’s your label. That’s not how I look at this. And I never tell people.

Angela (01:52.102)

And I never tell people they’re alcoholics. First of all, way too many people can’t handle that word. We have some very delicate sensitivities these days. And I’m a little different about that stuff. I am a no BS human. Tell me the truth so I can figure out the solution. I don’t need you to beat around the bush or hold my hand or find the softest, prettiest language possible.

If I’m trying to fix a major problem in my life, I just let’s get on with it. I don’t particularly care what we call it. I care about how I’m fucking up and what I need to do to stop fucking up. I also understand that not everybody feels that way. So when somebody says to me, I don’t know if I’m an alcoholic, I think maybe I just drink too much sometimes. The first thing I notice