How do I know if someone is addicted to drugs?

The warning signs of abuse and addiction

Do you suspect that someone you love might be abusing drugs? Are you worried that your own drug or alcohol use is getting out of control?  How do you know when you or someone you love has a problem that needs to be addressed in residential treatment?

When it comes to evaluating a potential problem with drugs or alcohol, most professionals employ the following three categories: use, abuse and addiction. Depending upon a number of factors, use and abuse may or may not require residential treatment. When the problem progresses to addiction (or, in the case of alcohol, alcoholism), professional intervention is almost always called for.

Degrees of Problem Drinking

Moderate drinking is defined as one drink a day for women and two for men.

If you are drinking more than these amounts, you are moving out of alcohol use and into alcohol abuse. However, many alcohol abusers are still able to quit on their own. When they quit, they will not experience physical symptoms of withdrawal.

Binge drinking means having five or more drinks in one sitting. The object of binge drinking is to get intoxicated quickly. Binge drinkers are at risk for automobile accidents, physical and sexual assaults, falls, social embarrassment, hangovers, deteriorating family relationships, and arrests. Binge drinkers, however, are not necessarily alcoholics. They can often stop their behaviors without entering treatment centers.

From Use to Abuse

People who use illegal drugs at raves parties and other social occasions in order to relax and experience alternate states of consciousness are not necessarily drug addicts.

While drug abusers often create difficult problems for themselves such as getting in trouble with legal authorities and put themselves at risk of dying by overdose and at risk for addiction, they can usually quit on their own. They do not experience physical symptoms of withdrawal or extreme drug cravings the way drug addicts do when they quit.

Addiction means there is no choice but to keep using drugs or alcohol. Addicts and alcoholics will experience physical cravings and unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when they stop using drugs or drinking.

The symptoms and cravings of withdrawal can be unpleasant and severe.

• Opiate users, for example, experience severe flu-like symptoms such as chills, fevers, vomiting and tremors.
• Alcoholics can experience hallucinations and extreme depression, among other symptoms.
• Part of the addict’s dilemma is that they know they can “cure” themselves by taking another drink or using their drug of choice again.
• In this way, drug addicts and alcoholics keep using to avoid withdrawal symptoms, even though their habits have adverse consequences, such as citation for driving under the influence of drugs, taking sexual risks, underperforming at school or work, losing interest and more healthy activities, and allowing their family relationships to deteriorate.
• These people need professional interventions to recover or else they will eventually develop such severe health problems that they will die prematurely.

Another difference between abuse and addiction is the “lifestyle factor.”

• An alcoholic’s or drug addict’s life revolves around drinking or using drugs.
• Alcoholics often have drinking buddies and favorite places to drink, or else they drink alone at certain times of the day.
• The same is true for a drug addict, who may spend most of his waking hours pursuing and using drugs.
• Using drugs or alcohol becomes a person’s main priority in life, and they will sacrifice their career and family in order to continue in what they often know is a self-destructive lifestyle.

The CAGE TEST

This simple four-question test will help you determine if your alcohol or drug use is getting out of control.

Do you ever think about CUTTING down on your substance use?

Do your family members or friends ANNOY you with their criticism and nagging about your substance abuse?

Do you feel GUILTY about your substance abuse?

Do you wake up thinking about drugs or wanting an EYE-OPENER – a drink the first thing in the morning?

If you answer yes to even one question, you may have a problem with substance abuse.

If you suspect your teen of drug abuse

Different drugs produce different symptoms. For example, a boy who is abusing steroids may develop “roid rage” or unexplained fits of anger. A girl who is addicted to painkillers may appear to be in a stupor all day long. In general, these are among the most common warning signs of adolescent and teen drug abuse:

• Moodiness
• Personality changes
• Dropping old friends for new drug using friends
• Drug paraphernalia in the teen’s room
• Becoming secretive and uncommunicative 
• Hanging up on cell phone conversations or closing the computer when a parent enters the room
• Stealing
• Clothes and posters with drug associations
• Loss of weight or sudden weight gain
• Staying behind locked doors for hours on end
• Sleeping all day long and staying up or out all night long
• Skin lesions as a symptom of intravenous drug use
• Pinpoint pupils
• Acting drunk, such as slurred speech, silliness, unsteady walk, etc.
• Lethargy
• Poor academic performance
• Quitting after-school activities
• Withdrawing from family activities