Most of us now understand that alcoholism is a disease, and no one intentionally tries to catch a disease. However, the cause of alcoholism is quite obvious - drinking alcohol. Yet most adults drink, at least occasionally, despite this knowledge.

Why take the risk? Of course there are pleasurable feelings associated with alcohol consumption. It loosens the inhibitions and makes it easier for some to meet and talk to new people. Social drinking is well accepted in most societies, and most people underestimate how much alcohol they consume. One person's social drinking is another's first stage of alcoholism. It is difficult to predict who will develop chronic alcoholism, and their own denial of excessive alcohol use is one part of the illness.

But there are warning signs. If you're worried about early states of alcoholism yourself, think about these things:

1. If you're starting to be concerned about the level of your drinking, you probably should be. Even if you're not dwelling on these types of thoughts, but they just occur to you from time to time, it's an indication you may have an abuse problem.

2. People who know and care about you are starting to mention their concerns over your drinking. Perhaps they don't even mention it, but you start to notice them steering you away from drinking-related activities. This is a sure sign of impending or current alcoholism is having had multiple run-ins with the law for alcohol-related offenses.

3. If you're drinking socially, you may lose some inhibitions, but your personality doesn't change. When you're suffering from alcoholism, drinking brings about very specific mood changes. These can vary from person to person, but could take the form of silliness, happiness, depression, irritability, or even something more aggressive and dangerous.

4. Your behavior changes when drinking to the point where you do things you would never consider doing when sober.

5. You move from an occasional, social drinker, to a regular or repetitive one. If you're drinking an amount exceeding legal limits every time you drink, and that is starting to happen more and more often, you definitely need to take a closer look at your relationship with alcohol.

From this list, alcoholism is not as far away as you thought. Plenty of people meet more than one of these five criteria, yet don't consider themselves alcoholics. Remember, the alcoholic will deny it as long as possible. He/she may need a drink every day, meet all the criteria above, and still swear up and down that he could stop any time, but they cannot and everyone around him knows it.

If you look at the above list and see that your drinking fits some or most of these signs, then consider the following suggestions:

First answer these questions:¹ 

1. Have you ever felt you need to  Cut  down on your drinking? 

2. Have people  Annoyed  you by criticising your drinking? 

3. Have you ever felt  Guilty  about your drinking? 

4. Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover ( Eye-opener)? 

1. Alcoholism is a disease of addiction, and the best single thing you can do to start on the road to recovery is join Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The addict in you will balk, but go to a meeting. Take charge. Take your life back.

2. Go to an exploratory meeting with an addiction counselor. They will help explore the path that led your to alcoholism and make you clearly see where your addiction will eventually lead you.

3. Just stop drinking. Although, fair warning, this is difficult and doesn't work for most people. You probably need the help of counseling or AA to rid yourself of your addiction. Maybe you're not far enough along, or maybe you are someone with the will power to pull it off.

4. Slow your drinking. Again, this probably won't work; it doesn't in most cases. However, if you're just starting to worry about alcoholism, it's possible you can still turn from the beginning stages of alcoholism  back to the moderate social drinking.

5. If none of these work for you, check yourself into a more intense "drying out" or in-house addiction treatment.

Alcoholism is a progressive disease, and if you can recognize the early warning signals and do not get help, your health, your family, your career and indeed your entire life will be adversely affected. Take action while you can!