Do I have a problem with alcohol?

Whether it's wine with dinner or drinks at a party, many of us enjoy indulging in alcoholic beverages from time to time. But when does it move from moderate social drinking to something more serious? How can you tell if you're drinking too much? And what should you do if you think you or your loved one has a problem with alcohol?

How much is too much?
According to the World Health Organization's guidelines for low risk drinking, men should consume 14 standard drinks or less per week, and women 9 standard drinks or less.  A standard drink equals 13.6 grams of alcohol, or the equivalent of one 5oz (143 mL) glass of wine, one 12oz (341 mL)  beer, or a 1.5 oz (43 mL) glass of spirits.

"If you drink more than that, that might be problematic drinking," says Dr. Tony George, Professor and Chair in Addiction Psychiatry and Head of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. "So that can be a red flag to you."

Additionally, Dr. George says rather than just basing whether you have a problem on numbers, you should also examine whether your drinking habits are having a negative effect on your personal, work or social life to assess whether you should be quitting or cutting down. Have you driven while impaired? Do you find you are repeatedly late for work or school or calling in sick because of alcohol? Are you arguing with loved ones about your drinking, or developing health issues? These are all warning signs that your drinking is out of control.

Another quick way to gauge whether you have a problem is by using the internationally recognized CAGE Assessment tool, developed by  Dr. John A. Ewing, founding director of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This short four-question survey is used by physicians to screen patients for problems with alcohol:

Do you feel the need to Cut down on your drinking?
Have you felt Annoyed by people criticizing your drinking?
Have you felt bad or Guilty about your drinking?
Have you felt the need for an Eye-opener drink, first thing in the morning?

"If you answer yes to two of four those four questions, you have a 90 per cent probability of having an alcohol problem," says Dr. George.

Page 1 of 2 - on page 2: find out what to do if your loved one has a problem.