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Alcohol Addiction
Alcohol addiction is a common disorder. Possibly fatal due to illness or accidents. Raising the alarm in time is therefore crucial. U-center offers help with your alcohol addiction.
When are you an alcohol addict?
We often associate alcohol with a comfortable lifestyle. Having a drink is a generally accepted thing. Without being aware, drinking may have become a daily habit. You become attached to it and actually can't live without it. From the moment you become dependent on alcohol and have no control over it, you may have developed an alcohol addiction. In popular speech, a person with an addiction to alcohol is often called an alcoholic. Usually this term has a negative connotation, which is why we do not use the term alcoholic in our treatment center.
When you have an alcohol addiction, consuming alcohol is no longer a choice, but you feel you need alcohol. Alcoholism is often difficult to recognize and usually develops very gradually. You are not addicted to alcohol overnight. An alcohol addiction occurs when you continue to drink despite the problems caused by this habit.
Alcohol addiction symptoms
Because drinking is socially accepted, it remains difficult to recognize alcohol addiction.
Characteristics of alcohol addiction
People who use too much also often deny it. There are varying degrees of alcohol use: from occasional, to the occasional drink too many, to problematic drinking with alcohol dependence and alcohol dependence. The main symptoms of alcohol dependence are:
– Increasingly large quantities of alcohol
– Drinking for years
– Unsuccesful attempts to stop
– Spending a lot of time obtaining alcohol
– Experiencing cravings
– Inability to fulfill commitments at work, school or home
– Despite negative consequences don’t quit
– Giving up other activities due to alcohol use
– Not stopping despite physical danger
– More and more alcohol needed for same effect
– Withdrawal symptoms
– Getting drunk less often while drinking a lot
– You secretly drink
– You no longer drink with others but alone
Causes of alcohol addiction
In fact, alcohol addiction can happen to anyone. Yet it appears that it is sometimes determined by genetic predisposition combined with circumstances and easy access to alcohol. If you grow up in an environment where alcoholism was prevalent, such as a parent with an alcohol addiction, you are more likely to develop an alcohol addiction yourself.
Alcohol addiction often does not occur alone, usually there are multiple problems. Consider a combination with depression, anxiety or trauma. Or another form of addiction, such as to cannabis(weed). So there may also be other causes that keep your addiction going. That's why we work from an integrated approach, in which we include everything that affects your life and your addiction. Consider also your personality, relationships, family situation, work and physical health.
Effects of alcohol addiction
Alcohol addiction can have serious consequences for your mental and physical health. When you drink a lot, it can cause serious health problems, such as damage to your liver and brain. In the long run, this can affect your memory and contribute to early dementia. When you consume a lot of alcohol, it can also cause tension in your relationships with family and friends and often negatively affects your work or studies. Causing accidents in traffic is also a major risk from driving under the influence.
How do you support someone with alcohol addiction?
Life with an alcohol addict is difficult and has a lot of tension, sadness and conflict. It is terrible for family, partner and friends to watch their loved one slip further and further into addiction. Contact slips through your fingers like sand. Denial can lead to a lot of frustration and anger, and you get the urge to control. With that, the tension rises even higher and furtive drinking is often the result. Together you are caught in a vicious cycle. Addiction destroys a lot. Indeed, "more than you love... Until one day you realize that it can't go on like this.
We know from experience that it takes a lot of effort to speak to someone about his/her alcohol consumption. There is still a taboo on it in the Netherlands. Moreover, most addicts think they do not have a problem. Therefore, do not go it alone and seek support and help from friends and family or professional counselors.
Get a grip on your
alcohol addiction
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Last updated on 26-09-2023
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