Alcohol Use Disorder: What It Is, Risks & Treatment

Environmental factors, such as lifestyle and role models, are also important influences. Even if your loved one seeks help, you may still need help and support to overcome the effects. Many people refer to alcoholism as a “family disease” because it can have a major impact on all members of the family whether they realize it or not. If you drink more alcohol than that, consider cutting back or quitting. Either way, fluctuations in a person’s appetite, as a result of alcohol consumption, can lead to changes in their weight. Severe alcohol consumption can impair the immune system, which can leave a person at greater risk of infections and skin sores (abscesses).

People with severe liver disease have a yellowish color to their skin and eyes. They typically have stomach pain, itchy skin, dark urine, swelling in the legs, nausea and lethargy. Over time the liver may struggle to process the large amounts of alcohol consumed each day and can begin to fail, causing the skin and eyes of the affected individual to take on a yellow hue.

Symptoms of Alcohol Use Disorder

Other ways to get help include talking with a mental health professional or seeking help from a support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or a similar type of self-help group. Mutual-support groups provide peer support for stopping or reducing drinking. Group meetings are available in most communities at low or no cost, and at convenient times and locations—including an increasing presence online. This means they can be especially helpful to individuals at risk for relapse to drinking. Combined with medications and behavioral treatment provided by health care professionals, mutual-support groups can offer a valuable added layer of support. Alcohol use disorder is a progressive disease that includes a beginning, middle, and end stage, which can result in life-threatening health conditions.

• Alcohol use disorder includes a level of drinking that’s sometimes called alcoholism.
• They drink less frequently than the other subtypes, but when they do drink, they’re likely to overdo it and binge.
• Tolerance symptoms include a need to drink more than you once did to achieve the desired level of intoxication.
• For heavy drinkers and those with an alcohol use disorder, the remaining alcohol leaves the body via breath, sweat, and urine.
• Also, 290,000 Americans are injured in car crashes caused by alcohol every year.
• If a person tries to quit drinking on their own during end-stage alcoholism, they may experience severe symptoms of withdrawal, including tremors and hallucinations.

But more recent research suggests there’s really no “safe” amount of alcohol since even moderate drinking can negatively impact brain health. Anxiety, insomnia, sweating, nausea and high heart rate are all signs of alcoholism. A health care provider might ask the following questions to assess a person’s symptoms.

Drinking patterns

Alcohol use can factor into mental health symptoms that closely resemble those of other mental health conditions. Our highly credentialed staff members offer a full range of progressive treatment options based on each patient’s individual needs, including teletherapy. We’re ready to help your loved one begin the journey to recovery — contact us to learn more about personalized, comprehensive treatment plans. Long after the acute effects of intoxication have faded, excessive alcohol consumption can continue to cause health risks. There are both immediate and long-term effects of alcohol abuse on the body and brain. Your doctor can see how well your liver is functioning by testing the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine
aminotransferase (ALT).

Over time, heavy alcohol use and binge drinking may increase the chances of developing alcohol use disorder. While there’s no specific blood test that can diagnose an alcohol use disorder, certain lab results can point to chronic
alcohol abuse and possible alcohol addiction. If you’ve had two or three of those symptoms in the past year, that’s a mild alcohol use disorder. Alcohol use disorder (sometimes called alcoholism) is a medical condition. It involves heavy or frequent alcohol drinking even when it causes problems, emotional distress or physical harm.

Conditions

This is of particular concern when you’re taking certain medications that also depress the brain’s function. Over time there is a progression of liver disease from hepatitis (inflammation) to fibrosis (hardening) and eventually to scarring of the tissue (cirrhosis). Recovered is not a medical, healthcare or therapeutic services provider and no medical, psychiatric, psychological or physical treatment or advice is being provided by Recovered.

This often causes an unpleasant smell that resembles rancid alcohol. Alcohol also affects sleep, meaning eyes are often saggy and darker after long periods of alcohol consumption. It also means that individuals who physical signs of alcoholism abuse alcohol are more likely to be drowsy during the day, making driving and working potentially dangerous. The liver is unable to regulate chemicals in the blood or excrete toxins which include excess alcohol.

How can I prevent alcohol use disorder?

Heavy drinking in and of itself doesn’t make someone an alcoholic. In fact, an estimated 40 million adults in America drink
too much, and most — 90 percent — are not alcoholics. Many individuals with alcoholism are in denial or unaware that they have a problem.