posted August 01, 2006 07:00 AM         

What are the symptoms of alcoholism? I am talking about the physical symptoms, not the astrological ones!

posted August 01, 2006 07:52 AM         

check this link, could be helpful --> http://wy.essortment.com/alcoholismsympt_rcpn.htm

posted August 01, 2006 03:32 PM         

I have much experience with alcoholism both professionally and personally. Will comment when you are able to give more specifics as to your query.

posted August 01, 2006 08:36 PM         

Last night we were chatting to each other and she started talking about her family, and the problems that have appeared in her family.
Anyway, during the discusson, she was speaking about herself and she mentioned something. What she stated, rang warning bells in my head. I thought to myself " Girl, you have a drinking problem!" However, I never mentioned anything to her.
Later on, I was thinking about the discussion and realised something. I have seen her drinking before, and she does drink heavily.

Therefore, that is why I think this girl is, or becoming, an alcoholic!

posted August 01, 2006 09:37 PM         

This will not be well recieved by most but here goes...

I have a problem with the term "drinking problem" or the diagnosis "alcoholic."

My credentials:
My huband drank heavily and killed himself while drunk when we were going through a divorce.
I have a dear friend who drank heavily also, and in trying to stop drinking (because that is what society and her family and friends dictated to her)she turned to heavy drugs and almost lost her RN license, not once but twice.
Many of my peers and friends from my generation drink regularly, socially, basically I grew up with it.
In my job as a RN I have seen the devestating effects of alcohol, not only psychological, and the traumatic effects suffered by friends and family, but the disabling effects on the body, GI bleeds, chirossis, liver damage, etc.
I suffer from PTSD from living with an "alcoholic" who threatened my life on a regular basis while drunk.

My statement: I beleive "alcoholism", just as depression, other mental disease, obesity, the list goes on and on, is just another expression of the soul. Who is society to lable someone because their chosen path for this lifetime is alcoholism, or who is society to lable obese people and tell them they eat too much, or the pot smoker should not smoke pot, or the heroine addict should not shoot up? By what standards do these people in society lable others? These are the paths these souls have chosen to walk.

I have seen so many people go through rehab for drugs and drinking, struggle each and every day just because society says they should. They were more happy in their addictions and more depressed in sobriety. Some do succeed, though, those are the ones who truely want to not drink and more power to them!

Many will argue that drugs, alcohol, hurt others, this is true. I, myself, chose to get out of a very abusive marriage because I had 2 children to be responsible for as well as my own peace of mind, but I never, ever in my 15 year marriage or the 9 years we were together before we got married, asked him to stop drinking. I felt it was not my place, it was his choice, but that did not mean that I had to be around it and expose my kids to it, so I left.

To this day, I choose not to be around people who drink excessively, but I choose not to lable them, it is their trip, their choice, I make mine and part ways with them.

As a Rn, I have suctioned blood from mouths of patients who have killed their livers with alcohol(the liver manufactures clotting factors of the blood.) I have changed linnens soaked in blood as it has moved through the body and passed in the normal route. I have bathed their heads as they vomit blood over and over again. I have cried with family members who have lost loved ones at young ages due to alcohol, still I maintain it is their choice.

Your friend can only help herself when and if she wants and you can only help her if she asks for it.

Sending peace, love and light

Terri

However, I pass no judgement, it is their decision, not mine.