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According to SAMHSA, 10.1% of young adults in Ohio in 2019 were recorded having AUD, alcohol use disorder. The regular consumption of alcohol becomes an alcohol use disorder when your ability to stop or control your alcohol use is severely impaired, even if it negatively impacts your social or professional life.
At SUN Behavioral Health Columbus, we want to see our community live the lives they desire. We understand the difficulties that come with stopping a substance use disorder and want to be there to offer support for both our patients and their families. We offer many methods to help our patients, starting as simple as the educational content we provide on our site, all the way to our treatment options, and helping patients once they leave our doors.
It can be hard, sometimes, to know exactly when alcohol use becomes a problem. You can look out for many things in yourself or a loved one, from the physical and mental side effects to behavior patterns and other things. Not all who drink have alcohol use disorder, nor does everyone who’s binge drank once or twice develop it either. Today we’re going to look at some of the symptoms and signs you can look out for when trying to help someone (including yourself) who might have AUD.
Not all regular alcohol consumption constitutes someone developing AUD, but there are certain factors that can leave someone at a higher risk of developing it. Here are some of the key things to note:
Even if you have a few of these boxes ticked off for yourself, that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to have AUD nor does it mean it’s too late to seek out help to reduce your risk.
AUD can impact your life in more ways than you might realize. Here are some questions you should ask yourself if you think you might have AUD but aren’t certain.
If you answered yes to more than one of these questions, it might be important to seek the advice of a medical professional.
Long-term alcohol consumption does more than just impact your social life. Having alcohol in the body often can cause damage to some of your organs and impact the way your brain functions. Many of these effects can be reversed over time once consumption has stopped.
Not every symptom of alcohol use disorder is as noticeable as some others, so let’s take a look and see exactly how AUD can alter the mind and body.
Alcohol is a depressant. For those already suffering from depression, this can leave you more vulnerable to the side effects of depression. In addition, depression can develop over time for those who didn’t already have it but use alcohol on a long-term basis.
Other mental concerns that can arise from AUD include anxiety, irritability, and mood disturbances. Alcohol alters your brain when it’s consumed, affecting communication pathways, which can lead to changes in your mood or behavior that you might not have had or chosen to have while not under the influence.
Alcohol can impact many different organs in your body, but the ones that are most impacted include the liver, pancreas, and heart. Long-term alcohol consumption can leave you at risk for “alcohol-associated cancer,” which is any cancer that develops due to heavy use of alcohol.
Here are just some of the conditions that you can develop due to AUD:
In addition, your immune system can be impacted by chronic drinking. This leaves you open to a higher risk of contracting illnesses. Those who have AUD are also more likely to contract diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism did a study in 2019 to get a better idea of what range of people were impacted by AUD. They found that over 14 million adults had AUD as well as over 400,000 minors ages 12-17.
Their studies also found a high correlation between the age people started drinking in their life and the development of AUD. People who were currently 26 and older who began drinking before the age of 15 were 5x more likely to develop AUD than those who started drinking at the age of 21.
It’s important to note that even if you fall into any of these statistics, you are not stuck there if you don’t want to be. Recovery is an option and we can help you achieve that here at SUN Behavioral Health.
Here at SUN, we understand how unique everyone in our community is, which is why we offer a variety of alcohol addiction services to help you reach your goals in a way that suits you best. We can guide you through the alcohol detox process to make your withdrawal symptoms as manageable as possible. From there, we will help you determine what level of care will best fit your recovery journey. We offer on-site, inpatient, and outpatient services.
If you or a loved one is looking for help with alcohol use disorder, give us a call today at 614-706-2786 to get started.
If you’re craving drinks to the point you can’t focus, not doing things you enjoy anymore in order to drink, or unable to stop drinking even if you want to – these are the symptoms of alcoholism. .
Many insurance companies do cover detox and inpatient/outpatient treatments, but your coverage will vary from facility to facility. If you have any questions about your insurance and coverage options, give us a call today at 614-706-2786.
If your loved one’s life is being impacted by alcohol, whether their behavior has changed, they’ve stopped doing things they enjoy just to drink, they find it hard not to drink even if they don’t want to, or have had many instances where drinking has impacted their social life - they’re probably at risk for developing Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).
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