Symptoms of addiction

One question I often get is how does a person know if they’re addicted, especially in the early stages of addiction. In the beginning, the symptoms of addiction are behavioral and psychological more than physical. When a person begins to drink or do drugs at inappropriate times, or when a person sets out to drink just a few drinks, or take just a little cocaine, then winds up drinking more or doing more drugs than they intended, it might be a sign of early addiction. Since it’s easier to write about one drug, we’ll use addiction to alcohol as the example.

Alcoholism has been called controlled and uncontrolled drinking. One would think that if a person can control their drinking they don’t have a problem, but this not necessarily true. Social drinkers don’t “control” their drinking in the real sense of control. The social drinker can take it or leave. Just like I don’t control drinking orange juice — sometimes I’ll drink orange juice and sometimes I won’t — orange juice is not something I obsess over and actively attempt to control. The alcoholic begins to lose control at times in the early stages, so they begin exerting great effort to control the amounts they drink. The early stage alcoholic can control their drinking at times, but then at other times they lose control and drink way more than they intended.

Another sign of early stage alcoholism is tolerance. Social drinkers don’t usually build up a tolerance, but alcoholics build up a tolerance to alcohol and can out-drink most people. The tolerance reduces in late stage alcoholism when the liver no longer functions properly, but, in the beginning, the early to middle stage alcoholic might brag that he/she can drink a lot of alcohol without getting drunk. This is not an accomplishment — it’s a sign of alcoholism and it can do great damage to the body.

In the later stages of addiction, there’s withdrawal when the person stops drinking, and these withdrawals become more severe as time goes on, including Delirium Tremens, what they call DTs, and seizures. At this late stage of alcoholism there’s little doubt, but early stage alcoholism is difficult to detect. If a person is showing signs and symptoms of drug addiction, they should speak with a professional counselor who specializes in addiction treatment. Untreated addiction is dangerous and leads to very bad, often fatal, consequences — it’s not something a person wants to ignore or deny. There should be no shame in seeking help — addiction happens to about 1 in 10 who drink or do other potentially addictive drugs. If you’re worried about your, or someone else’s, drinking or drug use, because you’ve noticed the symptoms of addiction, ask for help.