The First Symptoms of Alcoholism
When you are attempting to figure out if your an alcoholic or not it is absolutely essential that you look for these early signs that you are developing problems with alcohol. If you can identify these warning signs early it will greatly improve the chances that you can get your problem under control before spiraling out of control. Alcoholism must occur over a long period of time, where you develop the habit of drinking. The Twelve Steps says that an alcoholic is someone who no longer has control over their drinking.
The first initial symptom of alcoholism is when you start experiencing bipolar moods. You will be on top of the world one minute and then be depressed or violently angry the next. Your ability to drink more and more alcohol before feeling the effects will also increase. Drinking to cover the varying emotions that you can’t deal with will begin to occur.
When you start to notice mood swings while drinking in yourself or in a friend, you have seen what could be the first sign of a problem drinker. You will go from feeling humorous and happy about everything to having strong feelings of depression or even the desire to fight others. If you’ve been around people who drink frequently, then there is no doubt that you’ve seen this kind of behavior before.
The 12 Steps – Step 2
The second step of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is one that many people really struggle with. It is the agnostics and atheists, those who don’t believe in a higher power, that initially struggle with this step. You will find it helpful to attend many Twelve Step meetings and hear stories of people who were in a similar situation. Once you’ve realized that you are powerless over your addiction, you must find something outside of yourself for help. Otherwise you will never be able to experience recovery.
Attend your Twelve Step meetings and hear other people’s stories about the powerlessness they experienced – the complete lack of control over their addiction. Once you see how they were able to regain control with the help of a higher power, the connection should become apparent. You need to meet people who had the same loss of control over their addiction, but have now been sober for sometime with the help of their higher power.
