Physical Signs and Other Symptoms of Alcoholism & Alcohol Abuse

Following many years of sun exposure, sun-damaged skin can become thinner and blood vessel walls weaker, leading to more frequent and darker bruising, Dr. Johnston says. Our curiosity about alcohol often begins long before our first drink. According to social learning theory, we learn through observing and imitating others around us. Our first impressions about alcohol are often based on what we see of our parents, family, friends, or people on TV.

Liver disease

When someone develops an alcohol use disorder, they will show signs or symptoms that are characteristic of this condition. When people use the term “alcoholism,” what they are really referring to is an alcohol use disorder, which is the clinical term for an addiction to alcohol. Alcoholism is a colloquial term, and it really isn’t a politically correct way to refer to an alcohol addiction. Drugs.com provides accurate and independent information on more than 24,000 prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines and natural products. This material is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Data sources include Micromedex (updated 4 Jun 2024), Cerner Multum™ (updated 3 Jun 2024), ASHP (updated 10 Apr 2024) and others.

• As alcohol dries the skin, our natural defence against pathogens, this can also lead to repeated skin infections.
• Depending upon the outcome of your initial assessment, your doctor might recommend blood tests to investigate further.
• A person with this condition has little or no von Willebrand protein, which is important for blood clotting.
• AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers people to choose how they live as they age.

Signs Your Body Is Telling You You’re Drinking Too Much

If you’re worried that you might have alcohol use disorder, don’t try to quit cold turkey on your own. Either way, fluctuations in a person’s appetite, as a result of alcohol consumption, can lead to changes in their weight. Easy bruising may also run in families, so individuals whose relatives bruise easily may notice that they do too. And when the blood vessels underneath your skin break, it causes blood to leak out. Mindful drinking offers that middle ground where you’ll proactively improve your drinking habits without any pressure to quit. It centers on being more conscious and thoughtful of how much, how often, and why you drink.

• You should bring a list of the medications you are taking to the appointment, as some drugs can increase your risk of bruising.
• Contact your GP for advice if you have a history of regular alcohol misuse.
• More and more people are sober curious, toying with the notion of drinking less.
• This happens because the liver produces proteins that the blood needs to clot, so when the liver is not functioning well, you are easily prone to bleeding.
• Unexplained bruises and scrapes may be observed more frequently and alcoholics can have reduced platelet counts and other clotting factors, making them more likely to bruise.

Loss of appetite and weight loss

The fly slides deeper and deeper, eventually finding itself trapped in a place where escape seems impossible. This is especially important as many adults are drinking in high amounts. According to the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, administered by the U.S. federal government, about 20% of adults 60 to 64 and about 10% of those 65 and older do alcoholics bruise more easily say they binge drink. Binge drinking is typically defined as consuming four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. The total amount of water in one’s body also decreases with age. This means that when alcohol is consumed, more of it ends up in the bloodstream, which amplifies its effects on the body.

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They may also develop large bruises after minor injuries or have bruises that take many weeks to heal. Research studies on the association between weight gain and alcohol consumption have ended in conflicting results. In other words, weight gain isn’t inevitable, but you could still tip the scale up from drinking too much alcohol. In this guide, we’ll explore 15 short and long-term signs that you’re drinking too much, including symptoms that don’t necessarily involve a hangover. Withdrawal side effects can be incredibly uncomfortable, which can lead a person to resume drinking to alleviate these side effects. Because of this fact, a person with an alcohol use disorder may have several failed attempts to stop drinking.

When to contact a doctor

It causes dark purple bruise-like lesions on the skin and is most likely to develop on the arms and hands. Bruises that take a long time to heal or getting bruised for no apparent cause could be signs of a bleeding disorder. Sunnyside is the leading alcohol health platform focused on moderation and mindfulness, not sobriety.

Cancer-related bruises tend to appear in odd places, like the torso or hands. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks.

Alcohol’s effects on skin can be quite visible not long after drinking. There are many facial signs of alcoholism, but one of the more common signs is redness in your face. Hemophilia involves low levels of blood clotting factor VIII (hemophilia A) or factor IX (hemophilia B). Synthetic versions of these clotting factors can help treat hemophilia and reduce the risk of serious bleeding and bruising. Erin is a Nurse Practitioner with 8 years of experience in midwifery and women’s health.

• You might not recognize how much you drink or how many problems in your life are related to alcohol use.
• Since the skin isn’t cut or broken, you won’t see external bleeding.
• At the very least, he says it’s important to work to not re-injure the area again, which will only delay the healing process and might make the bruising worse.

Can medications and supplements contribute to easy bruising?

Cirrhosis can cause a host of other health problems, including high blood pressure, which can lead to the development of enlarged veins in the esophagus called esophageal varices. These are similar to the varicose veins that some people develop in their legs. But esophageal varices are prone to rupture, and when they do, the alcoholic can bleed to death.