Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD): Signs, Risks, and How to Get Help

Going out with friends on a Friday night to blow off some steam usually involves hitting the club or bar for a few drinks. There’s nothing wrong with cutting loose from time to time and having some fun, but when your drinking becomes problematic, it starts to affect your health.

We’re not talking about the occasional hangover where you feel like death the next day. We’re talking about when you’re drinking daily to excess and the impact it’s having on your health. Not only do you feel off all day after a hard night hitting the bottle, but there’s some serious risks setting up in your body that you’re probably not aware of.

Alcohol dependency wrecks your health is so many ways, but most people living with AUD don’t really pay attention to it because its such a gradual process. But sooner or later, something breaks, and your health takes a turn down the wrong path.

At this stage, you’re scared. You know somethings wrong with you, but you don’t know what. Forget about going to the doctor, you know what they’re going to say anyway, right? They’re just going to tell you to stop drinking, and you can’t deal with that right now. The content malaise produced by the anxiety of knowing that your health is failing adds to your woes, and your mental health issues.

If this scenario sounds familiar to you, or if you have  loved one living with AUD, we hope this post educates you on the short-term and long-term health risks associated with AUD, and what you can do to take control and get into recovery.

How Alcohol Affects Your Brain and Nervous System

Let’s start with exploring how alcohol affects the brain and nervous system. Alcohol is officially classified as a “depressant,” meaning it slows the CNS down, making you feel relaxed while lowering your inhibitions. We all know its effects, but what’s the science behind what’s really going on with your body chemistry?

Alcohol disrupts the production of three “neurotransmitters” in the brain and CNS. GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) and dopamine skyrocket, relaxing your body and mind while giving you that feeling of slight euphoria associated with the start of an alcohol buzz.

As the night goes on, glutamate takes a knock and your motor skills nose dive. That’s why you start to have issues with balance, slurred speech, and one of the main reason why when you drink to much you struggle to remember what happened to you the previous night when you wake up the next morning.

The evolution of our brain created the perfect neurotransmitter balance to ensure cognitive longevity. But there’s research showing that when we drink to excess, it actually dumbs us down. Studies show that brain size shrinks over time as the AUD patient spirals further into their addiction.

Sure, it doesn’t happen overnight, and having the odd drink with friends every now and again or a bender on your birthday probably won’t do much to dampen your intelligence. But persistent alcoholism will ruin cognitive function affecting your short and long-term memory recall.

Understanding the Emergence and Progression of Alcoholism Symptoms to AUD

The reality is alcohol is a toxic substance, and it can impact our health, even when we use it in small amounts. No-one starts out with the goal of becoming dependent on alcohol—it’s a slow progression involving changes in brain chemistry, physiology, and behavior, and the symptoms are subtle at first, and become more critical towards the advanced stages of the condition.

AUD, or “Alcohol Use Disorder,” is defined by 11 criteria in “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).”

1. Failed attempts to cut down
2. Preoccupation with alcohol
3. Cravings
4. Neglect of responsibilities
5. Continued use despite consequences
6. Withdrawal from activities
7. Risky drinking behavior
8. Increased tolerance
9. Withdrawal symptoms
10. Persistent use despite harm
11. Loss of control

Let’s run through the symptoms and how they affect you in each stage of the disorder.

Casual Drinking and Escalation of Symptoms

If you’re a casual drinker, you probably have three or four of the symptoms relating to alcohol use, and the DSM-5 describes this condition as “mild.” You get a hangover from time to time when you party too hard, but it’s not like you’re out drinking every weekend all weekend.

Recognizing the Early Signs of Alcoholism

When your behavior changes and you start drinking several times a week, or binging hard every weekend, you might just think you’re enjoying life. In reality, you’re setting yourself up for alcohol dependency, and if you really examine your thought processes and behaviors, you’ll see that maybe you’re even going out and drinking all the time because you’re satisfying the craving to do so. In this stage of AUD you’ll commonly present four to five of the 11 symptoms.

Long-Term Physiological and Psychological Effects of Chronic Alcoholism

AUD becomes severe when the user displays six or more of the 11 symptoms. As they progress deeper into AUD, they’ll get closer to presenting all 11 symptoms as time passes. At this stage, you’re not only going out all the time and drinking to excess, but you’re drinking daily. You need that six pack of beer or bottle of wine to wind down after work, or maybe you’re going through several bottles of hard tack a week because your evening two or three times a week is now three our four every night.

The longer your behavior progresses, the more you rewire the neural pathways in your brain to search for that dopamine hit you get from drinking. Dopamine is a really powerful behavioral motivator, and you won’t even realize that that’s what’s causing you to experience cravings and pour yourself that next drink. Eventually, you end up totally dependent on alcohol to manage your life, and it becomes what you center your daily experience around.

Understanding Alcohol Dependence and Withdrawal Symptoms

Dependence to alcohol is as damaging to the body and brain—and as life-threatening—as dependence on hard drugs like heroin and fentanyl. Like these drugs, the depressant effects of alcohol become overly pleasurable, creating dopamine irregularities and the onset of dependence—leading to AUD.

AUD creates behavioral changes and severely affects your relationships. People you used to be close with seem to drift away from you, and you start to avoid your old acquaintances. Maybe you create a new set of friends at the local bar, or you decide to lock yourself away in your home, limiting your interactions with friends and family.

The physical, behavioral, and psychological impact of AUD changes your character, and not in a good way.

Behavioral and Emotional Changes Related to AUD

As your brain rewires itself to your new need for dopamine-charged drinking, your priorities in life change, and everything starts revolving around drinking. Your values change, and your values define your character. So, it makes sense that your emotional state flips out and your behavior becomes uncharacteristic.

Alcohol abuse and AUD affect everyone differently. As a depressant, it’s commonplace for people to take one of three directions in their behavior. They become more aggressive, and nasty, presenting extreme narcissism and perhaps even violence.

Some people will withdraw completely and experience the onset of mental health issues like depression or anxiety relating to their AUD. Others will simply become apathetic towards life and lose interest in their relationships and their life goals.

Alcohol’s Impact on Your Liver and Digestive System

AUD not only disrupts our neurotransmitter production, it affects our entire physiology, too—with the liver and digestive system taking the brunt of its toxicity. The liver is the body’s filter, and it processes the alcohol you consume. In the early stages of AUD, it’s common for people to develop “fatty liver,” and experience an elevation in liver enzyme production which is easy for doctors to detect with a simple blood test.

As the disease progresses, it leads to further damage to the organ, and scarring, which is known as “cirrhosis.” This advanced form of liver disease may also set the stage for cancer growth and severe liver-related illness. If you don’t take control of your drinking and enter recovery, it becomes a matter of time before you experience a life-threatening complication.

The digestive system also takes a beating. Your stomach becomes more prone to developing ulcers, and many advanced AUD patients will find they need to vomit in the morning because their ulcers flare and cause them to purge. Alcohol also affects the gut microbiome, and how your body absorbs and uses the nutrients in your food.

As a result of the damage to the gut lining and microbiome, man advanced AUD patients have severe issues with malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies, most commonly in vitamins C and B12, and minerals like zinc and potassium.

When Do AUD Symptoms Become Dangerous?

We’ve just discussed the impact of AUD on the liver and the nutrient deficiencies it creates in advanced patients. It takes years for these conditions to arise, and by then, the patient is deeply dependent on alcohol. It’s at this stage that the disorder becomes life-threatening, and the patient needs help to quit drinking and recover their health.

In the advanced stages of AUD, the patient is unable to quit drinking on their own. Even if they make a successful attempt and abstain from the cravings, the damage to the nervous system and its dependency on alcohol can cause seizures during the withdrawal process. A seizure could land the patient in a coma, and they might never wake up.

If the patient finds the strength to quit, they should act on their intention immediately and reach out to an inpatient recovery facility immediately. Waiting will only cause them to question their decision, lose motivation, and fall back into their current behavior patterns of abuse. Getting into recovery should be the patients top priority, starting is the toughest part of the process, but it gets the ball rolling, and the prospect of making a recovery possible.

Dual Diagnosis and the Link Between AUD and Mental Illness

When patients arrive at an inpatient facility, they’re medically assessed and psychologically evaluated in a process know and “dual diagnosis.” The issue with AUD is not only physical dependence. As we’ve covered here, many patients develop co-occurring mental health disorders alongside their addiction.

Studies on dual diagnosis and holistic recovery strategies involving treatment for both the physical and mental issues caused by the disease present better outcomes in patients who enter a holistic recovery program. The doctor will assess the patient’s physical condition and plan a medically assisted withdrawal process using medications like benzodiazepines to help the patient eliminate alcohol from their system and start the healing process.

The psychiatrist evaluates the patient’s mental health, looking for the signs of mental health disorders in their behavior and thought processes. They’ll work with a case manager to plan the patients’ therapy sessions and address the underlying mental health disorders.

The dual diagnosis approach to assessing patients yields far more positive outcomes, and it’s widely adopted across most recovery programs.

What to Do When You Recognize AUD in Yourself or Others and How to Get Help

After reading this post you should have a clear idea of what AUD is, the symptoms it presents, and the outcomes of the disease. If you want to break free from AUD, or you have a loved one battling with it, reach out for assistance. Inpatient programs can organize interventions for your loved ones to get them the help they need. If you’re looking into treatment for yourself, strike while the iron is hot and get yourself into a recovery program as soon as you can.

An inpatient program allows you to stay at the facility and receive personalized care from a qualified medical team experienced in helping patients overcome AUD. Give yourself the best chance of ending your dependency on alcohol and living a sober, healthy life. Reach out to our team right now and we’ll get you into our inpatient program or discuss how we can help your loved ones.