I remember waking up many mornings completely hungover, feeling like shit and googling "how to know if you're an alcoholic". I thought if I could just figure out if I was an alcoholic then I'd have a reason to stop.
Later on in my recovery I learned that this wasn't exactly a helpful way to quit drinking.
Before we get much further into this article let's define "Alcohol Use Disorder", is a chronic relapsing brain disorder characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences."
Like I said earlier I read the criteria and decided that I didn't qualify as a text book alcoholic. This is problematic because it kept me from getting help earlier. I had to hit a personal rock bottom, (showing up to work drunk and going on a two day bender, more on that later,).
I think asking if you're an alcoholic isn't really the right question to ask.
Here are some alternative questions to ask yourself:
Is alcohol interfering with the way I want to live?
If you answered yes, How much longer am I willing to settle for that? (I found these questions from the website Tempest.)
So, long story short, determining if you're an alcoholic isn't black or white, and it's a conclusion you need to make for yourself. In society we often make things more difficult than they have to be. We label people a normal drinker or an alcoholic. If you don't like the impact alcohol is having on you, you can absolutely do something about it.