Many people with alcohol problems will often deny it or even refuse to consider there is a problem. If you have a feeling you or someone in your family is developing a problem, here are a few signs you can look for if intervention needs to be in order:

• Irritability when alcohol isn’t available
• Keeping alcohol in unlikely places at home, at work or in the car
• Drink heavy amounts of alcohol alone or in secret
• Making a ritual of having drinks before, with or after dinner and becoming annoyed when this ritual is disturbed or questioned
• Losing interest in social and recreational activities that used to be enjoyable
• Feeling a need or compulsion to drink
• Gulping drinks, ordering doubles, becoming intoxicated intentionally to feel good or drinking to feel “normal”
• Being unable to limit the amount of alcohol you drink
• “Blacking out” during periods of drinking
• Having legal problems or problems with relationships, employment or finances
• Building a tolerance to alcohol so that you need an increasing number of drinks to feel alcohol’s effects
• Experiencing physical withdrawal symptoms — such as nausea, sweating and shaking — if you don’t drink