Denny is an eighteen-year-old teenager who has at long last made up his mind to go and see his doctor about his careless and excessive drinking. At first, Denny thought he would be able to basically go online, look for some fundamental alcohol info and establish whether or not he was an alcoholic.

Not unexpectedly, he discovered quite a few websites that listed some of the general alcoholism symptoms. That’s the positive news. The less than encouraging news, unfortunately, was that Denny exhibited more than a few of these alcoholism symptoms.

Illustrations of Alcohol Addiction Symptoms

As an illustration, Denny has been drinking significantly more than normal and he has started to have more impassioned arguments with his girlfriend. Additionally, for the first time in his life he has been going through sleeping difficulties. If this wasn’t enough, Denny habitually has felt depressed and on an increasing basis he has been displaying less than usual concentration while at school. What is more, he has felt highly stressed and more edgy on a regular basis and for the past six or seven months he has shown evidence of questionable thinking while at school. Since Denny has been displaying all of these symptoms, he was excusably uncomfortable about his hazardous drinking.

So Denny eventually made up his mind that he needed to make a phone call to his healthcare practitioner and schedule an appointment. In point of fact, this was difficult for Denny because his physician was also his parents’ doctor. The root of his uneasiness was this: at the risk of embarrassing his family, he had to go and expose his abusive drinking behavior to his doctor.

When Denny arrived at the physician’s office, he truthfully informed the family healthcare practitioner about the concern he has about his irresponsible drinking behavior. When the family doctor asked what was prompting this apprehension, Denny mentioned that he had gone on the Internet and read about dependency on alcohol and especially about alcohol dependency symptoms. He then listed all of the alcohol addiction symptoms that he without a doubt thought he exhibits.

An Inclusive Physical Evaluation and Outpatient Alcohol Rehabilitation

The family healthcare practitioner notified Denny that it was wise of him to attend to his drinking problems, he gave Denny a comprehensive physical appraisal, and recommended that he talk to his Mom and Dad about entering into an out-patient alcohol rehabilitation center that was run by Doctor Meany, one of his doctor acquaintances who is an alcohol abuse and substance abuse specialist.

In much the same way, when Denny mentioned that he has been feeling depressed to an increasing degree, the family doctor notified Denny that alcoholism and depression on a fairly routine basis take place in the same person. Consequently, the healthcare professional also recommended that Denny talk to his parents about obtaining counseling in order to focus on his sense of gloom. In fact, Denny can go to the local mental health clinic and make an appointment with Doctor Jefferson, a well known clinical psychologist who specializes in treating teenagers.

The Value of Dealing With Your Drinking Problems and Getting Enthused About Making Positive and Healthy Changes in Your Life

The healthcare professional made it a point to notify Denny that he might not necessarily be an alcoholic, but that he was clearly drinking in a hazardous manner. In other words, Denny was engaging in teen alcohol abuse. The physician then informed Denny that the reason he suggested alcohol rehabilitation in the first place was because he wanted him to deal with his drinking issues, make sure that he stopped them from going from bad to worse, and start to live in a more healthy manner, even if it meant that he had to totally stop drinking.

Everything considered, by successfully treating his drinking problems, Denny would be able to get his drinking difficulties under control and quit the negative cycle that could doubtless lead to addiction to alcohol.

Denny plainly did not look forward to facing his parents about his depression and his drinking issues. And he definitely did not want to face the thought of getting admitted into an alcohol rehabilitation program. And finally, he was not elated about going to a therapist about his sense of despair. In spite of these fears, however, Denny in actual fact felt some emotional relief for the first time in quite a few months because in the end he gave up making excuses for himself and finally made up his mind that he needed to do something productive about his unhealthy and excessive drinking.

Recent alcohol abuse statistics demonstrate the fact that alcohol abuse among teenagers is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? More than a few alcohol abuse experts articulate that wine, liquor, and beer ads brought into being by the media are a significant reason for the escalation of teen alcohol abuse.

Other alcohol addiction authorities state that the increase in youth alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and accessibility of beer, liquor, and wine in our society.

Still other alcohol abuse experts assert that numerous teenagers get involved in harmful drinking because of the increased disquiet that they are subjected to.

From a slightly different viewpoint, since both parents in many families are employed, the lack of parental guidance surely has to play an important part in the spread of adolescent alcohol abuse. And as a final point, diverse substance abuse professionals declare that the spread of adolescent alcohol abuse is due, at some level, to our laissez-faire society.

Hazardous Drinking and Coping Skills

One component of teen alcohol abuse that seems to be somewhat incomplete in the chemical dependency research results, alternatively, is the insufficiency of educational programs that teach teens how to improve upon their coping skills so that their injurious drinking behavior is notably reduced or gotten rid of.

Stated more explicitly, scientific research has demonstrated that there is an indirect link between poor coping skills and abusive drinking. In essence, this means that the worse the coping skills, the greater the rate of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a valid contention, why isn’t coping skills instruction a key part of the educational core curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?

A Society That Emphasizes Adolescent Coping Skills

Let us construct a scenario for descriptive purposes. Let us imagine a society in which all people are taught how to develop solid coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their senior year in high school.

In such a society, when life gets difficult, people who are ”coping skills experts” will be able to respond in a healthier and more successful way, as opposed to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to implement their coping skills.

Stated more explicitly, students who exhibit high-quality coping skills will be more able to think proactively and engage in first-class decision making as opposed to teenagers who, because they lack top-of-the-line coping skills, are attracted to the “quick fix” of abusive drinking.

What would happen in the above “ideal” society, furthermore, if teens not only obtained exceptional coping skills training but also obtained an excellent education that outlined the long term and short term negative costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these types of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills education, it is declared, would help adolescents stay away from the clear attraction with underage drinking and, for that reason, would significantly lessen the dangerous drinking behavior undertaken by adolescents in our country.

Teen Excessive Drinking: Conclusion

There are without a doubt numerous well thought-out reasons why so many of our adolescents drink in a hazardous manner. Such a complex problem demands a comprehensive and more meaningful educational and preventative response by our parents, politicians, students, and educators so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s difficulties in a more productive and responsible manner instead of gravitating to harmful drinking behavior to solve their problems.

How do you identify the fact that you have a drinking problem? When is it obvious that you are engaging in excessive drinking?

If you have ineffectively tried to discontinue your drinking or if you have given your word to yourself that your drinking days are finished and then you realized that you were drinking in an excessive way just a few days later, the odds are very good that you have drinking problems. The point to highlight is that if you have tried to terminate your drinking and cannot do this, then your drinking is controlling you, rather than the other way around.

In a similar manner, if it takes greater amounts of alcohol to get the same “high,” more likely than not you need to become aware that you have a drinking problem.

You may be telling yourself that the justification for your drinking is so that you can decrease your nervousness or get rid of the sorrow that you feel. In much the same way, you may be trying to steer clear of an injurious circumstance and may be looking for something better, more helpful, or less sorrowful.

As you continue to drink, on the other hand, you will realize that drinking does not bring about the same high and you will also realize that drinking doesn’t help get rid of whatever triggered your pain in the first place.

As you continue to drink in an excessive way, regrettably, you may become addicted to alcohol and, as a result, you may add another fundamental issue to manage rather than finding out about more effective and healthy ways of managing your alcohol induced issues.

An Alcohol Appraisal is Probably Needed

If you have figured out that you have a drinking problem, maybe the best thing you can do for yourself is to call your physician or healthcare practitioner and arrange for an appointment for a thorough physical and for an appraisal of your drinking activities.

If you really think that you have a crucial drinking problem, it may be a good idea to get prepared to find out that you need to get alcohol counseling.

At this point, what are your alternatives? You can certainly say no and refuse to see your doctor and persevere with your pattern of abusive drinking.

It definitely doesn’t take a wiz kid, nonetheless, to have a handle on the fact that repeated, out-of-control drinking, if left untreated, will get worse over time and quite possibly set in motion an early death. For that reason, your most positive alternative is to confront your drinking circumstance and get the alcohol treatment you require.

The Deceit of the Functioning Alcoholic

It is ironic to note the fact that multitudes of individuals who are addicted to alcohol lead busy and active lives and have families, jobs, houses, vehicles, pets, and any number of material possessions just like people who are not addicted to alcohol.

Many of these “functional” alcohol dependent people may have never been cited for a DWI and may have been lucky enough to avoid all alcohol generated legal problems. In spite of this fortunate circumstance, nonetheless, these alcohol addicted individuals need to drink in order to function on a day to day basis while keeping up their facade as they associate with people outside their family.

Ask anyone who has seen them when they are out on a drunken binge or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcohol dependency, nevertheless, and they will be quick to affirm the truth of the drinker’s situation and the particulars about the alcohol addicted person’s drinking predicament and about his or her alcohol induced issues.

Why Do Alcohol Addicted Individuals Fail to Recognize Their Drinking Problems?

As alcoholism research and statistics on alcohol abuse have underscored, no matter how evident the alcohol induced difficulties seem to those who interact with the alcohol dependent individual, alcohol addicted individuals normally deny that drinking is the source of their alcohol generated problems. Not only this, but alcohol dependent individuals commonly blame their alcohol induced problems on other individuals or upon other circumstances around them rather than seeing their part in the difficulty.

The root of the difficulty is that alcoholism is a disease of the brain. Once the alcohol abuser has become alcohol dependent, he or she frequently resorts to denial, manipulation, and dishonesty as a way of coping with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make matters worse, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms usually thwarts the alcohol dependent individual’s rare attempts to abruptly quit drinking. As dreary as the alcohol addicted person’s life is, conversely, the positive news is that quality help is usually available – if the alcoholic reaches out and seeks alcohol therapy.

Conclusion

Coming to grips with the fact that drinking is producing issues in your day to day functioning is perchance the most trouble-free way to find out if you have a problem with your drinking. More to the point, if your drinking is eliciting difficulties with your health, at work, in your relationships, with your finances, at school, or with the law, then you have a drinking problem that needs to be addressed.

If you have a problem with your drinking, what is more, this means that you are engaging in excessive drinking.

While some drinkers may be able to come to grips with their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their difficulties, and significantly diminish the quantity and frequency of their drinking, other drinkers, to the contrary, need to deal with their drinking difficulties by getting quality alcohol rehabilitation. Additionally, due to their propensity to deny the facts and alter the truth, alcohol dependent people without a doubt require quality alcoholism therapy for their irresponsible drinking.