Think About Your Drinking

For most adults, moderate drinking is pretty harmless. Moderate drinking is defined as up to two drinks a day for men and up to one drink a day for women.

However, drinking too much can cause problems. If you down too much alcohol and lose control or put yourself or others at risk, it may be time to think about your drinking. Your alcohol use may be a problem if your drinking behaviors harm your health, relationships and/or ability to do your job.

Ask yourself if anything on this list applies to you.

Do You…

• Believe alcohol is necessary to have fun?
• Drink more or longer than you planned?
• Blow off friends or family to drink alcohol?
• Miss work or school often because of alcohol (or its effects, like hangovers)?
• Lie about how much you drink?
• Have to drink more to get the “effect” that smaller amounts of alcohol used to give you?
• Feel depressed, anxious or on edge during or after drinking?
• Get drunk alone regularly?
• Have frequent hangovers?
• Experience blackouts (periods of memory loss for events that happened while drinking)?
• Put yourself in dangerous or harmful situations while drunk?
• Get in trouble with the law or the military police because of something you did while drinking?

Still not sure?

Still wondering if your drinking is a problem? Try these steps the next time you go out:

• Keep track of how many drinks you have in a night. Make a tally in your phone or write it on your hand. When you realize just how many drinks you throw back on a typical night out (as well as the costs), you may decide it’s time to cut back.
• Make a list of pros and cons. Weigh the pros and cons of drinking to see if cutting back might benefit you. Use this list from Rethinking Drinking to get started.
• Take note of how drinking makes you feel. Do you get sad or angry? Do you feel sick the next day? If you are not sure, ask a friend what they notice. Maybe drunk you isn’t the best you out there.

If you can relate to anything on the list above, it may be time to get help with your drinking habits. Keep reading to find out how.