There are a number of different ways to pick up on the signs and symptoms of alcoholism or drug addiction. Usually your instincts will tell you something is wrong, but we have a tendency to second-guess ourselves so some ‘hard facts’ are usually required.

Your opinion can also be affected depending on what perspective you’re looking at the problem from. Is it you that you’re worried about and so want to be able to recognize the signs of addiction for your own understanding?

Or are you concerned about a spouse, child, lover, or friend? There aren’t necessarily any infallible guidelines, but hopefully I can provide you with a few things to look out for and should you then want more information, just visit the links provided to my website.

A couple of the main physical signs of alcoholism or drug addiction are liver problems and high blood pressure, which can cause severe tiredness or even result in things like strokes and heart attacks. But unless you see a Doctor in time, you often won’t pick on them until it’s too late.

Signs of alcoholism and drug addiction that you are possibly likely to pick up on sooner – are for example making promises (even if it’s just to yourself) that you’re going to cut down or stop, which are obviously not kept; needing more and more to get the feeling you want; and withdrawals that become worse and worse.

For me the key indicator of a real problem is when your using or drinking starts to impact your sense of self, and when day to day things that have been fine before become effected – like work, school, relationships etc.

Another good way to test for addiction is to use psychometric type addiction and alcoholism tests – which are mostly very accurate in identifying a genuine addiction problem. I don’t unfortunately have enough space to put them here – but feel free to visit my website to try one.

So, being able to identify an addiction in yourself or someone you care about, can be done in a few different ways. Read up on the various symptoms and signs, try a psychometric type test, and you should then have a reasonably good idea if indeed there is a genuine problem.

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