Health Pages

Drinking Diary

Drinking Diary

A drinking diary is fast and easy record to keep. It will help you discover the amounts of alcohol you drink each day of the week and over the weekend. Enter the amounts and information on a daily basis and keep it over a period of several weeks. This will help you make important and interesting discoveries concerning your alcohol use and see more clearly where and when you drink. Additionally, you may become aware of circumstances and events preceding drinking. Records will help you learn about situations in which you risk drinking too much, who you were with and what were you doing. At the same time, it will help you learn how to avoid risky situations and plan ahead to avoid them or cope with them in other ways.

Keep in mind that abstaining is the safest course for most patients with alcohol use disorders.

People with the most serious form of alcohol addiction usually need intensive treatment followed by lifelong management of the disease. Some people who are not alcohol dependent, but who have experienced alcohol-related problems, may be able to limit the amount they drink. If they can't stay within those limits, they need to stop drinking altogether.

Did You Know?
All persons who indulge much in any form of alcoholic drink are troubled with indigestion. When they wake in the morning they find their mouth dry, their tongue coated, and their appetite bad. In course of time they become confirmed ‘dyspeptics,’ and as many of them find a temporary relief from the distress at the stomach, and the deficient appetite from which they suffer by taking more liquor, they increase the quantity taken, and so make matters much worse.

People who have milder forms of alcohol abuse or dependence and are unwilling to abstain may be successful at cutting down alcohol use and some of them may recover with little or no treatment.

A drink is:

  • a 12-ounce bottle of beer;
  • a 5-ounce glass of wine; or
  • a 1½-ounce shot of liquor.

These limits may be too high for some people who have certain medical problems, use medications, or who are older. Talk with your doctor about the limit that is right for you. Check drink equivalents below.


Learn more:

RomWell Health Pages - Disclaimer

Our pages are created to provide medically accurate information that is intended to complement, not replace or substitute in any way the services of your physician. Any application of the recommendations set forth in the following pages is at the reader's discretion and sole risk. Before undergoing medical treatment, you should consult with your doctor, who can best assess your individual needs, symptoms and treatment.



Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic
substances that can eventually lead to a dangerous
inflammation of pancreas and severe pancreatitis.
Drinking a lot on a single occasion slows
body’s ability to ward off infections
even up to 24 hours after getting drunk.

Interactions Between Alcohol and Medications

Alcohol can interact negatively with medications either by interfering with the metabolism of the medication (generally in the liver) or by enhancing the effects of the medication (particularly in the central nervous system). Many classes of prescription medicines can interact with alcohol, including antibiotics, antidepressants, antihistamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, histamine H2 receptor agonists, muscle relaxants, nonopioid pain medications and anti-inflammatory agents, opioids, and warfarin. In addition, many over-the-counter medications and herbal preparations can cause negative side effects when taken with alcohol.