<p>Most alcoholics have questioned their ability to live sober long before they entertain the idea of seeking help. There is some level of confidence in the reference that an alcoholic is the last one to know they’re an alcoholic.</p>
<p>Once it becomes clear that putting the drink down is a problem, self-diagnosis is usually the first thing we try. Unfortunately, things such as rationalization and denial block us from reaching an honest personal diagnosis of our condition. To help determine the difference between a problem drinker and some who suffers from alcoholism, there are a number of questions.</p>
<p>When you do choose to consider an outpatient treatment center, an alcoholic diagnosis will be made. Here’s a series of questions you can begin asking yourself personally, questions that will help trained professionals determine the best course of action for you.</p>
<h2>Tried to Stop, but Couldn’t Stay Stopped</h2>
<p>This is an aspect of alcoholism that fools nearly every one of us. The majority of those who suffer from alcoholism aren’t necessarily daily drinkers. Most have heard the reference to a binge drinker. You may well have been successful at not drinking, but it didn’t last.</p>
<p>The question of trying to stop, but being unable to stay stopped, involves promises or sincere efforts not to drink, efforts which ultimately fail. You might avoid drinking prior to an important obligation, but then find yourself warped in the quagmire of an uncontrollable bender.</p>
<p>Alcoholics have sworn off the drink for weeks at a time, only to find that following a few short belts their back as bad as they were before they stopped. This is the focus of this diagnosis question. Have you tried to stop drinking, even if you were temporarily successful, but could not stay stopped?</p>
<h2>The Blank Moments</h2>
<p>Another very serious question to ask concerning your alcohol use actually involves to what degree you are unable to answer other questions. Anyone who has consumed alcohol to excess may report periods that they could not remember.</p>
<p>The alcoholic calls them blackouts. These are points where we’ve consumed so much alcohol that we cannot remember what we did, what we said or anything that happened after a certain point. These are blank moments in time caused by too much alcohol.</p>
<p>Maybe one such instance in our life doesn’t immediately prove we suffer from alcoholism. However, if you experience these blank moments in time very often, there is a strong indication you have a problem with alcohol.</p>
<p>When you have problems answering the question of what you did while you were drinking, you are confirming one answer. Drinking so much you cannot remember what you do answers another question that points to the distinct possibility that you suffer from alcoholism.</p>
<h2>A Drink is the Answer</h2>
<p>The third question, which is often asked as part of an outpatient treatment diagnosis, involves the answer to another question. Like the inability to answer truthfully what you do while you’re drinking, when a drink becomes a far too prevalent answer to address problems, you might suffer from alcoholism.</p>
<p>Many alcoholics traveling the happy road of recovery report thinking a drink was a good idea for nearly any occasion. We drank to drown our sorrows. We drank to celebrate triumphs and successes.</p>
<p>Not everyone who drinks to unwind is an alcoholic, but if can’t unwind without a drink you may suffer from alcoholism. The focus of this third question is not so much about the reasons why we drink, but the idea that a drink is the answer for too many of life’s questions.</p>
<p>Each of these three questions, regardless of whether you might suffer from alcoholism, requires rigorous honesty. That is the key reason to why they are best answered with the help of a trained professional. It is also why many are addressed during the early diagnosis stages of outpatient treatment.</p>
<p>We hope that you will smile at yourself when these questions are asked during your first steps in outpatient recovery. Most of us have thought about many of these questions long before we ever make the wise decision to seek help.</p>
<p>That’s what is most important. Don’t allow this dreadful disease to fool you. Alcoholism is a sickness that tries to convince us that we’re not really sick. The most important question you need to answer correctly is the one that says yes when you think you might need help.</p>
