When does one know that they are an alcoholic?!


Question: So I'm not a binge drinker nor do I drink to get drunk but lately I've been "craving" a glass of wine every night. I'd stopped drinking completely to help my husband overcome his need to drink because I believe that he can have alcoholic symptoms. The weird thing is that now I desire it. As soon as I get home I think about having a glass of wine. I psych myself out and it goes away but I've never felt like this before...some background information may be that it really began after I started taking 10 mgs. of prozac for PMDD. Just writing this is helping me to stay home and not to go get a bottle of wine. Could the anti-depressant cause craving for alcohol? I'm not stressed, I'm pretty happy in general and do feel better emotionally since beginning the meds but am worried that I'm developing another problem. I need advice on this.


Answers: So I'm not a binge drinker nor do I drink to get drunk but lately I've been "craving" a glass of wine every night. I'd stopped drinking completely to help my husband overcome his need to drink because I believe that he can have alcoholic symptoms. The weird thing is that now I desire it. As soon as I get home I think about having a glass of wine. I psych myself out and it goes away but I've never felt like this before...some background information may be that it really began after I started taking 10 mgs. of prozac for PMDD. Just writing this is helping me to stay home and not to go get a bottle of wine. Could the anti-depressant cause craving for alcohol? I'm not stressed, I'm pretty happy in general and do feel better emotionally since beginning the meds but am worried that I'm developing another problem. I need advice on this.

Go to the AA website. They have a questionaire. You'll get better insight as to wether you are. If you are having only one glass of wine a night, then I wouldn't worry. After all, the docs say that one glass of wine daily is good for us. If however you are downing the whole bottle and can't wait to get home to do so, and hiding it, then maybe you are developing a prob. Good luck.

You don't have to be a binge drinker, or a person who drinks to get drunk, to be an alcoholic.

One of the clues is an increased tolerance. Does it take 2-3 drinks to do what one used to do?

Another is withdrawal. Do you have any symptoms of withdrawal when you don't have a drink for awhile? (That could include craving.)

The third symptom is dependence. Are you able to stop for say, a month?

There is no reason I know of that Prozac would create a craving for alcohol. Never heard of that and find it most unlikely.

I would add that if you had stopped drinking for your husbands sake, is he less valuable today? Or are you finding you can't do it...

You know that you are becoming one when you start asking this question. And... reading what you've written, I'd say that you are starting to have a real problem. Dealing with it now will be much easier than dealing with it later.

The reason you are having this experience now is --because you are denying yourself the drink in support of your husband. That's why people can't quit any habits. as soon as we tell ourselves that we are going to stop doing it, then we notice an urge to do just the thing that we don't want to do. I'm going through the same thing with chocolate before bed. I've decided that I need to lose a few pounds and the first thing on my list to cut was the chocolate before bed. And I still want chocolate and its been about three weeks now. Just hang in there and support your husband. It will pass. Good luck.





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