This video is short but gets the basics across for identifying alcoholism. However, they don’t really explain too much about how to identify the first stage. I’m going to try to explain it a little more in-depth because it’s the stage that is most effective to catch and help prevent a problem. If you’re worried a friend or family member may have a drinking problem look for subtle signs they may be losing control of their drinking. For example, let’s say it’s the middle of the week and you have school and they show up drunk. Obviously, they might just be annoyed with going to school so they drank to make it more fun, but that teaches the habit of using alcohol to solve issues. Another sign to look at is if their drinking to have fun or drinking their emotions away. Destressing is one alcohol helps with but if you’re trying to solve depression with it that can cause a heavy addiction. finally, look for how eager they are for drinking if there new to drinking they may be just excited to have fun but if your friend is an experienced drinker and the only thing they’re looking forward to is drinking they may be developing a problem. For example, if you’re spending the night with a couple friends and someone is trying to start drinking mid-day instead of waiting and they start getting impatient they may be developing a problem. It’s always good to check on friends because they may be drinking without you knowing so they might be developing a problem and it’s always good to help make sure they stay safe and healthy.

This is another video I found that is very helpful. The reason I find it so helpful is that if you don’t want to join a program or you just want to tackle the problem by yourself it’s good to have some strategies. Simon brings up good tips that I’ve never even thought of even if they seem very basic such as the journal. The reason a journal can be helpful is that you can look back and see the progress you’ve made. It’s like if you started learning an instrument when you’re constantly hearing yourself practice it doesn’t feel like you’ve made much progress but if you hear yourself a month ago you’d be able to hear the progress. I also really liked his idea of having a good mindset about it. You are not weak for quitting and your not giving up a part of yourself, you’re trying to better yourself and improve. You’re showing you don’t need a substance to be happy or confident. It’s important to have a good mindset.

One thing I’d like to add is you don’t always need to try to quit forever. Now it’s a big accomplishment to do so. However, some people, are able to transition back into drinking after taking a break. Also if you’re like me once you make progress after a certain time you just want to keep that progress going. So don’t always look for the longest time. Find a pace that works for you and stick to your plan.

For most of these posts I’ve been sharing a lot about alcohol abuse but now I want to show a little about the science behind drinking. So this video they compare whether it’s better to drink during the day or during the night. There were surprisingly more benefits to day drinking than I’d thought there be. The biggest argument made for it was sleep. When you sleep while still intoxicated you’re not getting real sleep. They compare it in the video to being put to sleep like anesthesia. They also explain how alcohol gets into your system and how it affects the brain while you drink. It affects the prefrontal cortex and causes you to lose the ability to do big things like noticing your surroundings, decision-making, and remembering things. I think this video does a good job of explaining it as very simple and fun. They goof around a lot in it but do share a lot of good information to understand alcohol.

This video covers the short-term effects of drinking. For a lot of this website, I’ve covered the long-term physical and mental effects of alcohol. How fast you get drunk depends a lot on how fast you drink, how much you’ve eaten, and how much you weigh. When you drink you’ll lose control of your bladder and depending on how much you drink determines your chances of blackout and death. 

One part I found interesting was how breathalyzers read your BAC on your breath. Once the alcohol starts leaving your body it gets absorbed into your lungs making it come off your breath. This is why you can’t trick a breathalyzer.

There are a few stages of being drunk. One is subliminal intoxication, which is when your start to feel drunk but you’re not showing obvious signs of it. The next is the euphoric stage, this is when you feel amazing, you’re in the sweet spot of not being sober but not being uncontrollably drunk. It’s also very dangerous because this is the feeling you constantly try to chase. After those stages, you progressively get in worse and worse shape because your inhibitions are completely gone but you’re still conscious. This is the point where if you keep drinking you’ll either pass out or die.