Addictions Series IV

BEWARE OF ADDICTION TO ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

(Adapted and compiled from various sources)

If you take alcoholic drinks, read each of the following questions carefully and answer YES or NO to each question honestly. If you answer YES to five or more questions, then you are an alcoholic. Remember, if you cheat, you're only cheating yourself.

1.     Do you often forget what you spoke, what you did, what you ate and where you went when you were drunk? (This is called a black-out.)

2.     Do you feel a strong craving or desire, a mysterious magnetic pull towards your favourite drink when you do your work or any other activity? (This is called a mental obsession for drink.)

3.     Do you find yourself often absent from duty, meetings, church attendance, college, etc., due to drinking?

4.     Has your drinking caused frequent fights and unrest at home?

5.     Do you swear or make solemn promises that you will never drink again (sometimes even by touching sacred objects/images/Scriptures) when confronted by others, but break your promises repeatedly?   

6.     Do you get terribly irritated and annoyed when people advise you to stop or control your drinking and wish that they should mind their own business instead?       

7.     Do you experience a hang-over (= heaviness of body, giddiness, dullness, etc.) when you wake up in the morning after heavy drinking of the previous night, and feel like drinking in the morning itself in order to feel ‘fresh’??

8.     Do you often feel guilty about your bad behaviour (like abusive words, fights, acts of violence, crime, immorality, etc.) when you were drunk and feel like drinking again to forget about it?                          

9.     Has your economic situation considerably deteriorated due to drinking, that is you are not able to save money or meet needs of your family well in spite of earning?

10.  Do you drink alone and secretly thinking that nobody will notice it?

11.  Has any doctor advised you not to drink when you went for medical check up?

12.  Do you try to drink on the way before reaching a party or anywhere as a guest, thinking that you may not get enough in that place?

13.  When you don't have money to buy your drinks, do you collect money from people by telling lies or by dishonest means?

14.  Have you ever decided to stop drinking for a week or so, but only lasted for a couple of days?

15.  Do you tell yourself and others that you can stop drinking any time if you want to, even though you keep getting drunk when you don't want to?

If you have said yes to at least five questions, then it is not you who are drinking alcohol, but alcohol is drinking you. Learn how to get liberation from its slavery. [Follow up these lessons till the end of the series.]