In this site you do not need to call yourself an alcoholic. You do not need to attend meetings. You can receive support or work your way through change anytime you want and from anywhere you have internet access. You can make the changes at your own pace
Alcoholism is a term used to describe behaviour where someone continually or regularly drinks too much and appears unable to stop or control their drinking. For a clinical definition go here.
A quick and common way to diagnose alcoholism is using the CAGE questionnaire which consists of the following 4 questions.
- Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking?
- Have people Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
- Have you ever felt Guilty about drinking?
- Have you ever felt you needed a drink first thing in the morning (Eye-opener) to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?
(For instructions on how to score see foot of page)
An alcoholic generally has problems in a number of areas of their lives. These are listed below with some illustrations, please note this list is in no way exhaustive.
Relationships: often suffer as the alcoholic puts alcohol before the needs and wishes of the family and this can lead to difficulties.
- Arguments with partners
- Losing friends
- Less invitations to social occasions
Finance: the alcoholic’s job can be in danger through missing work and/or lost productivity and money may be spent on alcohol that is needed for other things.
- Employment or business will suffer
- Will incur debt
- Will be broke all the time / no money for family luxuries
Legal: many, but by no means all, alcoholics can find themselves in trouble with the legal system.
- Lose driving licence through drinking under influence
- Get in trouble for drunken behaviour
- Be violent
Health: there are many health problems that accompany alcoholism, some are physical and some are psychological.
- Liver problems
- Sleep problems
- Sexual dysfunction, eg men may have impotence problems
Many of these problems can be reduced or even eradicated however it requires the alcoholic to address their drinking problem. There are a number of ways that they can do that.
Ways of Addressing Alcoholism
When most people think of changing an alcohol problem, they think about either medical help or Alcoholics Anonymous. Medical help often means a period in detox, attending group therapy or one-to-one counselling. It may entail taking prescribed medication and it may be very expensive. Alcoholics Anonymous is inexpensive, in fact apart from a voluntary donation it is free. Generally it means attending meetings where you admit to being an alcoholic and work through a program of recovery.
In terms of the duration of treatment, the medical treatment may last anything from 14 days to a year. This is a short time compared to AA, where the treatment lasts for the rest of your life.
Are they effective? Yes and no, most treatments are effective for some but no one treatment is effective for all. Some people love AA while others would never go near it. Medical treatment is similar, some get great benefits some don’t. The one’s who benefit from any treatment are those who feel comfortable with the approach on offer and feel that it speaks to them direct.
Bottled Up Yourself as a Method of Change
This website offers an unique facility to promote change. It offers you scientifically researched tools designed to help you to change your life. It shows you in step by step, how-to videos, the best way of assessing your problems and your life in general, gives you other tools to help the change process, provides a unique tool to help you decide the best goal for you, offers you information on alcoholism and recovery, provides you with the audios of the experience of others to help you, provides you with the tools to evaluate your progress, provides programmed courses on topics such as self-esteem and anger management and provides daily support through messages to your personal mail-box.
In this site you do not need to call yourself an alcoholic (but you can if you want). You do not need to attend meetings. You can receive support or work your way through change anytime you want and from anywhere you have internet access. You can make the changes at your own pace.
If you answered the CAGE questionnaire, here is how to score it.
CAGE scoring
If you have answered yes to 1 question
Then the probability of you having an alcohol problem is about 25%
If you have answered yes to 2 questions
Then the probability of you having an alcohol problem is about 50%
If you have answered yes to 3 questions
Then the probability of you having an alcohol problem is about 75%
If you have answered yes to 4 questions
Then the probability of you having an alcohol problem is about 95%