Drinking Alone: What Does It Mean?
Men and women worldwide drink alone at home after work to relax after a stressful working day.
More and more stressed parents are putting their kids to bed and calling for wine-o-clock.
However, regular use of alcohol to cope with the pressures of life can swiftly become dependency and alcohol addiction.
Is drinking alone an indicator of alcohol addiction?
Please read my blog today and find out…
It is not automatically a big fat red flag when somebody drinks alone in the home.
However, it is a habit that can result in alcohol addiction. It’s more of a worry if you drink alone in public places.
Before you celebrate your solo drinking habit! You should know that we now know that at-home drinkers have a higher likelihood of clinical depression.
The Stop Drinking Expert has helped over 200,000 people to quit drinking in the last few years. Probably around 90% of them admitted that they routinely drank alcohol alone.
Drinking Alone: What’s The Reason?
The substantial use of alcohol is a complicated anomaly that is unique to each drinker.
I refer to alcohol as ‘Attractively Packaged Poison’ because it does what it says on the tin. Alcohol poisons you and causes serious health problems as a result.
Does drinking alone create problem drinkers?
When alcohol is used among friends and family, it is almost an expected part of life. However, drinking alone is typically thought to be bad.
Why do individuals consume alcohol on their own anyway?
A few of the claimed ‘perks’ of drinking alcohol on your own involve:
- Being in control of where you drink
- Determining the speed at which you drink
- Escaping social tension or social awkwardness
- Enjoying quality time with yourself
You probably don’t need us to point out that all those statements are evidence of denial. Are you using any of them?
It is not an issue if you have an infrequent glass of wine on your own and it is not causing addiction or misery. However, introverted solo alcohol use may be connected with substantial physical, passionate, and cultural repercussions. Plus, there is a social judgment related to this habit.
Drinking Alone: Is It Always Bad?
It is not unusual for somebody to grab a bottle of lager or pour a glass of red at the end of a stressful day at the office. There is even a spurious myth that a glass of red wine with your dinner is good for your heart!
If you are new in town, then it’s almost a given that you will hit the bars to make some new friends. Drinking alone occasionally and in small amounts is not always an unsafe practice. Nevertheless, when alcohol is used in seclusion more regularly, it can suggest you need to sit up and take notice.
For instance, if somebody has a lot of friends and yet is predisposed to drinking on their own. It might be a sign of clinical depression or disintegration of social relationships. Many men and women consume alcohol alone to conceal their problem drinking from friends and family.
I Can Stop Drinking Anytime I Like!
Many are downing alcohol secretly as a way to deal with social anxiety. This practice of ‘enjoying’ alcohol on your own may quickly become problem drinking – it happens so easily.
While alcohol in small amounts is claimed by many to be relatively risk-free, there is no refuting the connection between drinking alone and alcohol addiction.
People assume they will be able to control their drinking if it ever gets out of hand. This same mistake is made thousands of times a day around the world.
Alcohol is very good at what it does. Tricking people like you and me.
The Adverse Consequences of Drinking Alone
Drinking alcohol often makes an individual less socially awkward, chilled out, and sometimes disoriented. The use of alcohol affects intelligence. This cultural use slowly grows into binge or problem drinking in many individuals. This can rapidly become a severe dependency.
Drinking alone can put a person at serious risk.
This is a remarkably accurate statement for women. Drink spiking is not unusual, and being female, drunk alone is a high-risk situation.
Individuals who consume alcohol alone may be harmful to other people around them. Drunk driving, drunken behavior, and brawls and scuffles (particularly in males). Add to that criminal damage, and you have a few of the effects of excessive use.
Without having good friends or relatives about to protect you, these events are more prone to spiral out of control.
Is It an Indicator of Clinical depression?
Many people who consume alcohol on their own do this in the solitude of their house or apartment. Obviously, if somebody is on their own in the home and has a beer or two, it does not always indicate there is something to worry about.
However, if somebody is constantly drinking alcohol alone. Perhaps to alleviate sleeping disorders or cope with social anxiety or psychological distress.
This can suggest a significant issue and perhaps problem drinking.
Alcohol: Medicine or Poison?
Using alcohol to deal with other health concerns may have serious negative side effects. Particularly when combined with other prescribed medicines.
Many individuals drink on their own due to a feeling of embarrassment about their drinking. Others drink alone to escape loneliness and hide from the world. This serious type of social dysfunction may result in a failure to cope with life in a healthy way.
When unchecked, drinking alone may lead to alcohol addiction in these types of folks.
Remarkably, drinking alone is a habit mostly born in our adolescent years. At a younger age, it is straightforward to develop hazardous routines that can result in alcohol addiction down the road in life.
Surveys have revealed that teens are susceptible to use drinking alcohol alone to deal with the psychological turmoils of puberty.
Drinking Alone: A Hazardous Practice
We know that alcohol and crime go hand in hand. There is also a highly legitimate danger of experiencing a physical injury when drunk.
When somebody heads out to a pub with a bunch of buddies, there is a gentleman’s agreement that friends will watch out for each other.
If someone else monitors his friend’s drinking alcohol, it may be a precious level of protection. When you are drunk, it’s always safer to have friends around. Friends will often prevent someone from choosing to drive home drunk.
There is some protection against other bad choices, like going home with an unknown person. Or stupidly attempting dangerous stunts to impress the opposite sex etc.
When somebody drinks alone in a public place, nobody can protect them or provide support if required. Solo drinkers in a pub impact other individuals too.
It’s widespread to see someone drinking alone lose control and initiate or take part in a confrontation. Or damage public property without good friends to calm down the scenario.
Danger For Women
Extreme solo alcohol usage can also put a female at serious, tangible risk. For example, if a woman is by herself at a pub, nobody can spot if she behaves oddly after a guy buys her a glass of wine. Nobody can evaluate the woman’s conduct after consumption of a possible date rape drug.
If an individual begins behaving oddly after a drink and there are no loved ones about it. Nobody can inquire about any medicines that might interact negatively with the booze. This can result in severe health problems.
For that reason, the safe tactic is to have somebody watching behavior and counting the number of drinks an individual has had. Drinking alone in public spaces places an individual in danger because there is nobody to spot if something is amiss.
Why is Drinking Alone Harmful?
Alcohol Poisoning:
For somebody who is misusing alcohol, alcohol toxic accumulation is a risk that could prove deadly. Especially if it happens when the individual is on their own, with no one to assist. Alcohol poisoning has hazardous consequences on the body.
Throwing up without a gag reflex can see someone to suffocate on their own sick. This is particularly harmful while an individual is at home on their own. If a drunk individual loses consciousness and is on their back, they can easily choke on their own sick.
Additional signs and symptoms of alcohol poisoning, like fitting, are also dangerous when a person is by themselves because they can cause accidents. Alcohol poisoning impacts an individual’s pulse and respiration, which sometimes might stop altogether.
If an individual is alone, nobody can call for an ambulance.
Clinical depression:
Maybe one of the awful repercussions of drinking alcohol by one’s self, mainly when carried out at home, is clinical depression. Investigations have revealed that drinking generates oppressive feelings. In some cases result in suicide attempts.
The link between drinking, mental health, and sudden death cannot be downplayed.
Lots of people, including young adults, make a regrettable, impulsive choice to end their life under the influence of alcohol. Stats reveal that this issue is much more significant in men and women with a substance abuse background and those who have experienced physical violence.
Social Failure:
Much study has been carried out on adolescent alcohol consumption and how often young adults consume alcohol in seclusion these days. Many problem drinkers confess that the actual start of their troubles was when they started to prefer drinking alone.
Our teenage years are often linked with stress to look ‘cool’ in front of classmates at get-togethers. Where many people first start to try out alcoholic drinks.
However, what if a teen has no event to attend? Drinking alcohol in the home on their own, separated from other people. This might be a means to dodge demanding social situations. An adolescent who is having a challenging time at college. For instance, with bullying or when they don’t have good friends, they are more prone to consume alcohol independently.
Self-Medication:
Individuals of any age are at danger of making use of booze for self-medication. Many people have a lager or a glass of wine to “chill out.” This appears to provide enhanced self-confidence and a sensation of comfort and wellness. This is the stimulus element of drinking.
However, if somebody carries on drinking past a ‘safe’ limit, they start to encounter the oppressive consequences of drinking. These consequences include sleepiness, foggy thinking, and intoxicated judgment. When an individual attempts to self-medicate with booze, they are looking for one or both of these impacts.
A Solution To What?
The adolescent years are a difficult and challenging time for most people. Alcohol is a remedy that is immediately accessible in numerous homes and is a socially adequate means of coping with stress and anxiety.
This is why underage alcohol consumption is an issue in The United States and worldwide. Alcohol is often the first thing teens look to when attempting to cope with the stress of puberty. This is an incredibly harmful practice because it can produce a reliance on life.
Relying on drinking to reduce challenging emotions. Rather than experiencing and conquering them is the initial landmark on the path to alcohol addiction.
Teens who drink alcohol alone in the home are likely to consume more and do it more often. The objective of drinking alcohol alone in the house is different in adolescents than in grownups.
Booze helps a teen relax and be more friendly at friends gatherings. Adults are more likely to drink alone because they want to conceal their drinking amount.
Aggression and Drinking Alone
Drinking makes individuals more rash and spontaneous. This can result in dangerous judgments. Individuals who drink alcohol alone in public are likelier to become aggressive targets.
The dangers are unique for males and females, even though the circ*mstances could be dangerous for both genders. Guys are more likely to get into physical brawls under the influence of alcohol without evaluating the possible end results.
No good friends or loved ones are present to help remove the heat from a situation. There is a genuine risk of the event turning unpleasant. Without having the capacity to think logically when drinking alcohol on your own, trouble is never far away.
Along with the physical health hazards connected with excessive alcohol use. Women who consume alcohol on their own in pubs and nightclubs are in escalated danger of sexual offense or rape. Encircled by unfamiliar people and intoxicated, a woman might not see somebody sliding something into her glass of wine.
Actually, drink spiking happens all the time these days. Women who are intoxicated and on their own are more likely to attract trouble. Or being persuaded to go with someone or do something they would not usually do.
Heavy drinking on your own is connected with dangerous sexual practices in both males and females.
This kind of conduct is far less likely when alcohol is used among family and friends.
Does Drinking Alone Make You an Alcoholic?
Alcohol use by yourself is a huge social no-no in society. In some ways, social alcohol consumption is okay, but drinking alone is not. The picture of a guy alone at a bar is linked with alcohol addiction, while the image of good friends drinking alcohol with each other at a get-together represents excellent times.
The press regularly restates the story that good times and drinking are interchangeable.
Drinking alone does not always result in alcohol addiction, but it can raise the danger of becoming addicted to alcohol.
Psychologists advise anyone who consumes alcohol alone to ask themselves if they:
- Look forward to or eagerly anticipate alcohol consumption when they are on their own
- They cannot regulate their secluded alcohol consumption
- Are drinking alcohol alone to deal with a dilemma or cope with solitude
- Are they letting drinking impact their well-being and job
- Drive a car after drinking alcohol on their own
Ready to get the real you back?
If you are worried about your drinking and now see that drinking alone is a huge sign that you need to take action. Click here to find out why more and more people are using the Stop Drinking Expert online course and live seminars.
Our powerful ‘go at your own pace’ program is highly rated and respected worldwide for a good reason.
