Table of contents:
- Signs and symptoms of alcoholism
- The dangers that lurk in your addiction to alcohol
- This is the safe limit for drinking alcohol so you don't get addicted
If you are accustomed to drinking large amounts of alcohol that you are unable to control, it means you are experiencing alcohol addiction. The effect given is of course the opposite, namely triggering various serious diseases. So, how much alcohol is classified as an addiction? This is the explanation.
Signs and symptoms of alcoholism
The main sign of someone experiencing alcohol addiction is getting used to drinking alcohol every day. Even if you rarely drink alcohol, you can also be said to be addicted if you get used to drinking a lot of alcohol at once.
Other signs and symptoms of alcoholism include:
- Likes to drink alcohol alone and in secret.
- Cannot limit the amount of alcohol consumed.
- Feeling nauseous, sweating, and shaking when you don't drink alcohol.
- Fainting and remembering nothing while drinking.
- Not happy when this "ritual" is disturbed or commented on by others.
- Storing a lot of alcohol in hidden places.
- Drink more alcohol to get drunk faster. The sooner you get drunk, the better your body will feel.
- Have a lot of problems in everyday life, both work problems, finances, to relationships.
Reporting from WebMD, a person can be said to be addicted to alcohol if you consume 3 or more glasses of alcohol for women, and 4 or more glasses of alcohol for men in one drink.
People who experience alcohol addiction can start with activities binge drinking or binge drinking. Binge drinking is an activity that causes a person to drink large amounts of liquor in a short period of time. Thus, his body will get used to drinking alcohol and always want more in the future.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, binge drinking defined as the activity of consuming 5 or more glasses of alcohol for men, and 4 or more glasses for women in a period of approximately 2 hours. This activity will cause the blood alcohol level to spike by 0.08 percent or more. As a result, a person becomes out of focus, dizzy head, wandering speech, and even loses consciousness.
The dangers that lurk in your addiction to alcohol
Alcohol that enters the body will be digested and broken down by the liver. However, the liver can only process small amounts of alcohol at a time. Too much alcohol will make the liver work harder because not all alcoholic liquids can be digested immediately at once.
Most of drinking alcohol can slowly damage liver cells and produce toxic chemicals. The more alcohol you drink, the greater your risk of developing a more serious disease.
A number of diseases that arise due to alcohol addiction are:
- Chronic diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, and various types of cancer
- Accidental injuries such as traffic accidents, falls, drowning, or burns
- Risk of violence, such as child abuse, murder, or suicide
- Defects in the fetus of pregnant women who like to drink alcohol
- Sudden infant death syndrome
This is the safe limit for drinking alcohol so you don't get addicted
Anything that is excessive is certainly not good, just like drinking alcohol. When you start to like or have a hobby of drinking alcohol, you need to limit yourself and even avoid getting to the stage of alcohol addiction which can further damage your health.
Neither men nor women are advised to drink more than 14 units of alcohol in one week. This limit also does not mean that you can drink it all at once in one day. At least give a break of about two to three days without drinking alcohol at all.
One unit of alcohol alone is roughly equivalent to the following:
- 240 to 280 ml (one glass of star fruit or half a glass) of beer with an alcohol content of 3-4 percent.
- 50 ml wine or sake with an alcohol content of 12-20 percent.
- 25 ml of liquor such as soju, whiskey, scotch, gin, vodka and tequila with an alcohol content of 40 percent.
But remember, each product contains a different alcohol content. Therefore, always pay attention and calculate the alcohol content that you will order. You should not drink more if you feel it has reached the safe limit.