Many people ask when social drinking becomes Problem Drinking. To know yourself better do the following test on yourself.

Ask yourself ?

• When you drink, do you tell yourself that you will have only two drinks? If so do you follow that or nine out of 10, you continue to drink upto four- five drinks? Do you drink everyday and exceed three-four drinks?
• Have you ever had a blackout? A blackout occurs when a person is unable to recall what he/she did the day previously when they were drinking? During a blackout, a person walks, talks, even drives normally but has no recollection of it afterwards.
• Are you constantly thinking about when will you have your next drink? " I wish the day would pass soon so that I can have my first drink."
• Do you feel like having a drink first thing in the morning?
• Have your family members and friends been commenting on your drinking heavily?
• If you do not drink for a few days, do you have trouble sleeping, tremors, anxiety, and restlessness – this means that you have developed withdrawal symptoms.
• Do you require more alcohol to achieve the same effect than you did previously? This means you have developed tolerance to drinking and you may need four- five drinks to get the same feeling that earlier you did with one- two drinks.
• Due to guilt about your drinking, do you avoid discussing the topic of drinking if someone talks about your drinking, do you avoid talking about it and divert the topic.
• Do you justify your drinking by making excuses: " I just drink because I am tired, or because my wife nags me, or because I do not have anything to do, or because you live alone and you have no one to talk to? " Often the excuse changes but the drinking continues.
• Often people may stop drinking for a few days or a month or so to justify to themselves that they can control their drinking but after some time go back to the same pattern of heavy drinking?  Do you do that?
• Often they tell doctors, "oh, I'm okay. I've been drinking for years and never had any trouble. " alcohol slowly but surely causes damage – it maybe what had caused your hypertension, it may even have caused a fatty liver.
• Often people may become suspicious of their wives or partners as alcohol affects the brain as well.
• Alcohol can cause depression as well contrary to the opinion that it is a mood elevator. Often people snap out of depression within a week or two of stopping alcohol.