Am I alcohol dependent?

Could you be dependent on alcohol?

If you find it difficult to enjoy yourself or relax without having a drink, it’s possible you’ve become dependent on alcohol.

This guide has information on how you can check if you’ve become dependent on alcohol, as well as advice on where to get help. Or, if you’re looking for advice on how to keep your drinking low-risk, read on for tips on how you can avoid becoming dependent.

If you have any physical withdrawal symptoms (for example shaking, sweating, or nausea) before you have your first drink of the day, it’s important to get medical advice before you stop drinking completely. It can be dangerous to stop drinking too quickly without proper support if you have these symptoms.

Are you alcohol dependent?

It might be surprising to hear you don’t always have to be drinking to extreme levels to become dependent on alcohol. Alcohol dependence operates on a spectrum – from mild, to moderate or severe.

Anyone who is drinking regularly could have a degree of alcohol dependency.

Between 2019 to 2020, there were an estimated 608,416 dependent adult drinkers in England.¹

If you’re worried you might be dependent on alcohol, ask yourself the following questions:

Do I often feel the need to have a drink and give priority to drinking over other activities or obligations such as work or family life?
Have I got into trouble because of my drinking?
Do I need to drink more to get the same effect?
Have other people warned me about how much I’m drinking?
Do I think my drinking is causing me problems for example effecting my physical and mental health?

In many cases, the first step of treating alcohol dependence is acknowledging there is a problem. As with many health problems the second step is to seek help from a healthcare professional, usually your local GP surgery, who can signpost you to a specialist local service.

Doctors assess whether someone is dependent on alcohol by working with their patient to check for signs they can’t regulate their drinking, and that they have a strong urge to drink alcohol.

Tips to avoid becoming dependent

If you find you have been drinking more recently, try these tips to improve your health and stop yourself from becoming dependent.

Stick to the UK low risk drinking guidelines

To keep health risks from alcohol low, the UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMOs’) advise it’s safest not to drink more than 14 units a week, make sure you have several drink-free days, and never binge drink.

Take regular drink-free days

Having more drink-free days could be an easy way to make a difference to your health. If you need some inspiration for activities, check out our ultimate guide for drink-free days below.

Could you take a break and reset your tolerance?

Finding it difficult to cut out alcohol on a Monday or a Tuesday, for example, could be a clear sign you have a degree of dependence. If you have physical withdrawal symptoms (like shaking or nausea) you need to get medical advice before you stop, but if you just want to cut down why not see how easy you find it to go a few days without drinking. See below for help on how to take a break and reset your tolerance.

Track your drinking

Knowledge is power, so if you do choose to drink, keeping track of how much you’re having is a clever way of staying on top of any warning signs. The free MyDrinkaware app is an easy way to do it – download it via the link below.

Don’t binge drink

The NHS defines binge drinking as ‘drinking heavily over a short period of time’. It can also be defined as drinking more than eight units in a single session for men and over six units for women.³

Binge drinking – whether you’re dependent on alcohol or not – can be dangerous because it increases your chances of accidents and falls.

Single session drinking (or binge drinking as it is commonly referred to) can increase your risk of:⁴

Accidents resulting in injury, causing death in some cases
Misjudging risky situations
Losing self-control, like having unprotected sex or getting involved in violence

If you drink a large amount of alcohol in a short time it can cause alcohol poisoning, a serious case can result in a coma or even death.⁵

Binge drinking can affect your mood and your memory too and, in the longer term, can lead to serious mental health problems.

How to get help

If you’re worried about your drinking, get in touch with your local GP surgery, who will be able to help. We also have a section of the website dedicated to support services, see below.

Find out more about how alcohol dependence is diagnosed and treated

If you think you may be drinking too much, or that your drinking is beginning to have a damaging effect on your life, we have a quick online test that can help you see if the amount you drink could be putting your health at serious risk.

It can also identify whether you might be at high risk of alcohol dependence and gives you advice tailored to your risk level.

Drinking Check