How Do I Know If I Actually Have a Drinking Problem?

How Do I Know If I Actually Have a Drinking Problem?

How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober? For many, it actually starts long before sobriety, with a nagging question: "Do I really have a drinking problem, or am I just overthinking it?" This is the messy grey area Angela Pugh digs into with her trademark no‑nonsense style. Speaking as a recovering alcoholic and coach, Angela refuses to hand out quizzes or labels.

She jokes, "Check seven boxes and congratulations, here’s your label" – and then explains why that approach misses the point. Instead of body-counting units or nights out, she asks you to look at your relationship with alcohol: how much space it takes in your head, how often you’re planning, negotiating, regretting, or recovering from it.

Angela calls out the mental gymnastics many people do: taking breaks to prove control, comparing themselves to heavier drinkers, Googling ‘Am I an alcoholic?’ yet rejecting any answer that feels uncomfortable.

As she puts it, if the idea truly didn’t fit, you wouldn’t need such a strong defence: "When something clearly doesn’t apply to us, we don’t usually have to convince ourselves that it doesn’t apply." She also tackles the myth that recovery is an extra burden on an already overloaded life. Angela reminds you you’re *already* paying in time, energy, money, anxiety, and lost mornings – you’re just spending it on drinking instead of change.

For anyone who’s high-functioning on the outside but quietly worried inside, this episode offers blunt clarity and a bit of dark humour. You’ll hear about control after the first drink, the cost of alcohol that never shows up on a bank statement, and why you might not need another quiz – just the honesty to act on what you already know.

If you’ve been circling the same question for months or years, is it time to stop collecting evidence and start making a move?