Take the Test

Paul Campbell is the author of the number one best-seller “I’ll Stop Tomorrow"

Once one of Dublin's most dynamic and successful businessmen. He had a loving family and lived in a beautiful home. Yet in only three months he lost it all. He found himself living alone in a bedsit. He had lost his family, his business, his home and had nothing to look forward to in life. Why? Because he was an alcoholic and alcohol had taken control of his life.

Today, Paul Campbell is many years sober and works as an Addiction Counsellor in Kildare. He shares his knowledge and experience with The Irish Book Review in his weekly column.

Some recent calls from readers have asked me if there is a specific questionnaire to determine if someone is an alcoholic. The short answer is no, but there is a test that determines strong probability! It’s called The Michigan Screening Test. It was first published by The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Here it is. If you are worried about your drinking or that of someone close to you, have a go and be as honest as you can. Give simple yes or no answers and count up points to evaluate the score.

• Do you feel you are a normal drinker? If no = 2 points
• Ever woken up and not be able to remember part of evening? If yes = 2 points
• Does your spouse worry / complain about your drinking: If yes = 2 points
• Can you easily stop after 2 drinks? No = 1 point
• Do you secretly feel bad about your drinking? Yes = 2 pts
• Do you ever try to limit drinking to certain days / times? If yes = 1 point
• Do family / relatives annoy you when they complain about your drinking? If yes = 2 points
• Are you able to stop when you want to? If no = 2 points
• Ever got into a fight when drinking? If yes = 1 point
• Has your family / spouse gone for help about your drinking? If yes = 2 points
• Ever lost friends over your drinking? If yes = 2 points
• Ever got into trouble at work over your drinking? e.g. hangover, being late, ringing in sick If yes = 2 points
• Ever drunk before noon? If yes = 1 point
• Ever had deliriums, tremors, severe shakes, heard voices, seen things that weren’t there? If yes = 5 points
• Ever gone for help about your drinking? If yes = 5 points
• Ever been arrested drunk / drink driving? If yes = 2 points
 

How to score: 3 points or less considered non-alcoholic. 4 points or more suggests a problem. 5 points or more suggests probably alcoholic.
As there are three levels of alcoholism – mild, moderate and chronic you can get a fair estimate as to where you stand depending on how high you went over five. The important and frightening point is that alcoholism is a “progressive” illness so if you enter the illness as ‘mild’ but continue to drink you will definitely keep progressing until you become a ‘chronic’ alcoholic.
 

I’m publishing this test because it’s important that the alcoholic understands the nature of their illness from an intellectual point of view. Alcoholics need to not just say “I feel bad about my drinking”. That’s not enough. Unlike most forms of therapy, the alcoholic needs to apply thinking first then feelings / emotions. It’s a mental, physical and spiritual illness, therefore it’s crucial that every part of the individual is treated simultaneously or relapse will usually follow. The saddest words I hear from some clients are (usually after a few brief sessions) “I’m grand now, I can handle it by myself”.
 

They just might (rarely) stay off drink without help but unless they work on their life issues that created the drinking behaviour they will never recover. I’m sure many of you know people who have stopped drinking but ended up cranky, angry, resentful and miserable.
 

Successful treatment helps the recovering alcoholic to learn to enjoy life without the need for alcohol as a crutch.
 

I for one did not go through the pain of recovery only to be sober and miserable. I wanted to have a happy, peaceful and fulfilling life. Using the AA 12 Step Programme – one day at a time, I got the life I so longed for.

If you would like to send a question to Paul, which he will deal with through his column, you can contact him here:

paul.campbell@theirishbookreview.com