Spotting hidden alcoholics

Alcohol addiction is not always apparent, even to fellow alcohol addicts. The disease perfectly convinces individuals that they don’t require help, making them highly skilled at hiding their tell-tale signs from loved ones and colleagues.

Recognizing the signs of alcoholism can be a real challenge to identify and bring up with your loved ones. Alcoholism can potentially destroy an individual’s relationships, career, and dreams while slowly destroying them from the inside out, causing multiple life-threatening health issues down the line.

This blog will take you through the most significant warning signs of a hidden alcoholic. One of the first signs is an individual having an abnormal high alcohol tolerance.

Alcohol tolerance

Individuals who are currently dealing with alcoholism would have grown their tolerance to alcohol above the average person. If you witness a loved one drinking a substantial amount more than everyone around them in large quantities, then it is a cause for concern.

Not only is their tolerance for alcohol abnormally high, but the duration they can drink for is also a step above the rest. Individuals struggling with alcoholism tend to begin drinking before everyone else and continue drinking their way through the night even if everyone else has stopped.

Imbalanced Mood/behaviors

Alcohol acts as a depressant; it can cause an array of rapid negative changes in behavior and moods. Individuals who consume large amounts of alcohol in the morning after a night out with friends can be consumed with depressive symptoms.

Many alcoholics who are heavily under the influence can become severely aggressive, irritable, and violent towards themselves and others in various cases.

Alcohol has been medically proven to interfere with your REM sleeping pattern resulting in changes to a person mood with is often characterized by:

• Anxiety
• Depress
• Irritability

Lack of attention or focus

Many individuals who battle with alcoholism will show signs of a low attention span and lack of focus. When it comes to chronic alcoholics who have been drinking for a substantial number of years, they will spend their time thinking about alcohol. The total amount of their attention will be the thinking about things such as:

• Places they can get and drink alcohol quickly
• The best ways to hide their alcohol, whether that is at home, on the go, or in the workplace
• Wondering how long until they will be able to have a drink again
• Thinking about how or when they will be able to attain alcohol again

Alcoholics with lives that now, unfortunately, revolve around alcohol are continually suffering internally; their entire minds have become utterly focused on the addictive substance. They do not have the energy or will to take care of other elements within their personal life such as:

• Family
• Home
• Career
• Friends
• Finances
• Life
• Relationships

Alcoholism causes a chemical imbalance within the brain resulting in their attention span is short-lived.

Hiding alcohol

An alcoholics’ favorite drink is vodka; its main appeal is its transparent appearance, which is hard to notice. Unless you can get extremely close to the vodka to smell its potency, you could believe that it is just a glass of water.

If you begin to see random empty vodka bottles around the house, in the individual’s car or bags, this is a vital sign of a dependency problem. If you witness a loved one pouring a clear substance into their hot drinks or juice, it would be appropriate to assume this could be vodka.

Social withdrawal

To avoid being asked about their drinking habits, some alcoholics avoid attending social gatherings as a whole. This would be a significant red flag that there is a potential problem if the individual was a social butterfly for most of their lives.

Wanting to be alone constantly

Depression is a widespread mental health symptom that is significantly related to alcoholics due to the substances being labeled as a depressant. Associated with depression comes isolation; individuals are at peace when alone and do not enjoy being around anyone where they have to pretend they are something that they aren’t.

If you have noticed a loved one becoming slightly more secretive or isolating themselves,; individuals don’t be afraid to approach them and try to reach out.

Increased physical signs

Alcoholism has a detrimental impact physically and mentally, especially when intoxicated; the likelihood of an intoxicated person hurting themselves, falling over, or getting into a fight increases significantly. The immune system is lowered when intoxicated therefore leave the body’s immune system becomes susceptible to becoming ill.

High functioning alcoholics

When an individual is classed as a high functioning alcoholic, this refers to the fact that they can act and carry out daily tasks without showing any impairments commonly associated with individuals addicted to alcohol. Activities can include:

• Hygiene
• Jobs
• RelationshipsActivities
• Paying bills
• Child care
• Exercise

High-functioning alcoholics are challenging to spot as the individual will continue to perform well within life and have a pristine appearance on the outside. However, there are common signs you can keep an eye out for. These can include but are not limited to:

• Drinking excessively, heavily, and for long durations
• Justifying their drinking habits as a celebration or reward
• Drinking alone or at peculiar times during the day
• Individuals can become irritable, aggressive, restless, short-tempered after drinking heavily
• Storing alcohol in unusual places such as in their cars, work/gym bags
• Claiming that they drink expensive alcohol, which in their mind proves they do not have a problem.
• If they promise to cut down the amount of alcohol they drink but are unable to do so

Getting help for hidden alcoholics

There are many hidden signs that an alcoholic may be displaying without even noticing. If you believe you or a loved one is struggling with the amount of alcohol they are consuming, give Shoreline Sober Living a call. We know changing behavior and establishing new habits is vital to achieving sobriety. That’s why we offer a much-needed routine to the residents of our recovery home. Shoreline is designed and structured to enhance our residents’ personal and professional growth, helping them become reliable, responsible, and self-supporting.