During Alcohol Awareness Month in April, L.A. CADA is taking a look at the effects of alcohol in our lives.

It’s important to remember that not everyone who drinks has a drinking problem. But, how can we tell if we have Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and do need help? Just like with other diseases, we can identify AUD by the symptoms we have. It has a specific set of conditions ,and the presence of two or more of these symptoms can qualify a person as having Alcohol Use Disorder.

In the past year, have you:

• Had times when you ended up drinking more, or longer, than you intended?

• Have you wanted to cut down or stop drinking more than once but couldn’t?

• Do you spend a lot of time drinking, being sick from drinking, getting over other aftereffects?

• Have you wanted a drink so badly you couldn’t think of anything else?

• Have you found that drinking, or being sick from drinking, often interfered with taking care of your home or family? Or caused job troubles? Or school problems?

• Have you continued to drink even though it was causing trouble with your family or friends?

• In order to drink, have you given up or cut back on activities that were important or interesting to you?

• Have you gotten into situations while or after drinking that increased your chances of getting hurt (such as driving, swimming, using machinery, walking in a dangerous area, or engaging in unsafe sexual behavior)?

• Have you continued to drink even though it was making you feel depressed or anxious or hurting your health? Or after having had an alcohol-related memory blackout?

• Have you had to drink much more than you once did to get the effect you want? Or found that your usual number of drinks had much less effect than before?

• Have you found that when the effects of alcohol were wearing off, you had withdrawal symptoms, such as trouble sleeping, shakiness, restlessness, nausea, sweating, a racing heart, dysphoria (feeling uneasy or unhappy), malaise (general sense of being unwell), feeling low, or a seizure? Or sensed things that were not there?

If you want help with your alcohol use, contact L.A. CADA at (562) 906-2676. Treatment is free.