If You Have … Or A Loved One Has … Concern About The Use Of Alcohol Or Drugs … Some Questions To Ponder

If you find the answer is "yes" to even two or three of these questions, you should seriously consider the possibility that your alcohol or drug use is a problem. If there are more than a few "yes" answers, you should seek help now.

~ Have you ever felt you should cut down on, or tried to control (successfully or unsuccessfully) your drinking or drug use?

~ Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking or drug use?

~ Do you ever take a morning eye-opener to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover? Do you use drugs daily or weekly? Do you use prescription drugs more often than prescribed? Have you ever asked more than one doctor to prescribe a drug for you?

~ Are alcohol or drugs sometimes more important than other things in your life-your family, your job, your school, your values? Is drinking with your buddies more important than seeing your child in a school play? Is snorting coke more important than visiting your mom on her birthday? Is smoking pot all weekend more important than taking the make-up course you need to graduate?

~ Do you find yourself lying to your spouse, your kids, your friends, your employer, to cover up your drinking or drug use-though you really don't like lying?

~ Have you switched from one kind of a drink to another in the hope that this would keep you from getting drunk? Or from one drug to another to prove you're not addicted?

~ Have you had problems connected with drinking or drug use during the past year (DUI's or DWI's, lost work or school days, missed appointments, failed exams, financial problems, auto or other accidents with or without injury)?

~ Has your substance use caused trouble at home or work? Are those around you annoyed by or concerned about it? Do you become defensive?

~ Have you gone to work or driven a car while intoxicated, high, or in a drug-induced haze?

~ Have you been drunk or high more than four times in the past year? Do you sometimes stay drunk for days at a time?

~ Do you need to resort to chemical assistance in order to do something (start the day, work, have sex, socialize, for example) or to change how you feel (sad, scared, anxious, or angry), to banish shyness or bolster confidence?

~ Do you notice you need more alcohol or more of your drug of choice in order to get a reaction? Can you handle more than before? Or do you suddenly find you can't drink or drug as much?

~ Do you panic when you have to be somewhere where no booze or drugs will be available? Do you scrounge for extra drinks at parties because you feel you aren't getting enough? Do you keep going when everyone else has had enough?

~ Do you create situations where you can drink-like inviting friends over for a drink or arranging a meeting at a bar?

~ Do you panic when your bottle of pills gets low?

~ Do you sometimes carry booze or drugs around with you?

~ Do you tell yourself you can stop drinking or using drugs any time you want to, but find you keep getting drunk or high when you don't mean to?

~ Do you wake up the morning after with no memory of the night before? Have these blackouts-periods of which you have absolutely no memory-become more frequent?

~ Do the people you spend most of your time with drink too much or take drugs? Do you try to avoid other friends and family when you're drinking?

~ Do you do things while under the influence that you wouldn't do otherwise? Do you find yourself regretting them later?

~ Have you ever thought you your life might be better if you didn't drink or take drugs, or that life as it is just isn't worth living?

~ Has a doctor found signs of alcohol damage and warned you to stop drinking?

~ Are you taking illegal drugs?

If you'd like schedule an appointment with an EAP counselor to discuss your concerns, contact the DHMC Employee Assistance Program at 650-5819 (email: DHMC Employee Assistance Program).

SOURCE:

Mooney AJ, Eisenberg A, Eisenberg H: The Recovery Book, Workman Publishing, NY, 1992.

(September, 2005)