Alcoholism Symptoms - What You Must Know

If you have reached a juncture in your life at which you think you are having a problem with alcohol, you may be curious (if not downright concerned) about what are some of the alcoholism symptoms.

The same is the case if there is someone in your family, or perhaps a friend, who you think may be dealing with a drinking problem and who you think may be an alcoholic.

Alcoholism symptoms actually vary from one person to the next. However, there are some common alcoholism symptoms which do occur with some regularity when a person is afflicted with alcoholism. The alcoholism symptoms can appear in both physical and psychological form.

According to a 1997 report by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, alcohol abuse and alcoholism are a leading cause of death among young people, especially teenagers. Excessive and abusive drinking also contribute significantly to underage motor vehicle crashes and fatalities as well as to other traumatic alcohol-related issues and problems such as date rape, family, relationship, financial, and school difficulties, personal injuries, and suicide.

* nausea
* vomiting
* weight loss
* skin discoloration
* red eyes
* puffy face
* numbness in the legs or arms (or all limbs)
* liver damage
* damage to the brain

Over the last decade, sophisticated brain-imaging technologies have demonstrated that constant use of alcohol significantly alters the structure of the brain in ways that can last for months and even years, creating a chronic brain disease. With this knowledge in hand, the search is on for drugs that can restore the brain to its pre-drinking state.

* depression
* anxiety
* loss of self esteem
* blackouts (there is a physical element to blackouts as well)
* severe mood swings

Typically, a person afflicted with alcoholism will demonstrate multiple alcoholism symptoms on both the physical and psychological level at the same time. It is very rare that a person will demonstrate only one of the alcoholism symptoms. However, you do need to keep in mind in the rare instances in which only one of the alcoholism symptoms manifests itself, an individual could still be suffering from alcoholism.

Most alcoholics with cognitive impairment show at least some improvement in brain structure and functioning within a year of abstinence, though some people take much longer. Clinicians must consider a variety of treatment methods to help people stop drinking and to recover from alcohol–related brain impairments, and tailor these treatments to the individual patient.

The absolute and sad reality is that if the disease of alcoholism progresses, a person's life is at risk on both the physical and psychological levels. Alcoholism is a fatal disease. A person can end up dying from either the physical alcoholism symptoms (for example, liver failure) or from the psychological alcoholism symptoms (for example, suicide).

Alcoholism research has demonstrated the following: if you have sworn to yourself that you will never drink again and you have tried to stop drinking and found yourself drinking once again a few days later or a week or two down the road, it is very probably that you have a serious drinking problem. The bottom line is this: if you have tried to stop drinking and cannot, you are obviously no longer in control. To state the obvious: from a control perspective, alcohol is in control of your life rather than you being in control of your drinking. Consequently, you need to make an appointment with your doctor or with an alcoholism professional and get an assessment of your drinking situation.