Are you a “Problem Alcohol User”
Are you a “Problem Alcohol User
No one should use the word “Alcoholic”, at least not in medical practice. Anyone who drinks alcohol is an ‘alcohol user’. It is how you handle your alcohol that defines your relation with alcohol.
I would analyze your “Alcohol Problem” in the following way.
What is your drinking pattern? | At how much risk are you for ‘Alcohol related problems’? | Has alcohol already caused organ injury? | What are the barriers to intervention? | How much amenable to change are you already |
A ‘sensible drinker’ | Mild | Neurologic | Family support | Precontemplative “I see no problem, others disapprove” |
A ‘hazardous drinker’ | Moderate | Liver | Finance / Job | Contemplative “I am weighing the pros & cons for change” |
| Alcohol may have caused ‘harm’ to you or others | Severe | Pancreas | Psychiatric issues. | Determinism “I express interest in the ideas of change” |
| You are ‘dependent’ on alcohol already | Heart | Unresolved issues in society | Active change “I put my decisions into practice” | |
| Nutritional | Maintenance “I am sober now” |
As a specialist in diseases of the liver and the digestive system, it will be my first duty to address the organ injury you have come to me with. But I will be happy to go along and help you understand what could be done about the causal agent; because no one has a drug to make you stop using alcohol. And just telling you to stop is not working, you know that already.
