Solution Oriented Strategies

Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test

To answer either Yes or No to each question, then add up your total score.

1. Do you feel you are a normal drinker?
2. Have you ever awakened in the morning after some drinking the night before and found that you could not remember a part of the evening before?
3. Does you significant other [or do parents] ever worry or complain about your drinking?
4. Can you stop drinking without a struggle after one or two drinks?
5. Do you ever feel bad about your drinking?
6. Do friends or relatives think you are a normal drinker?
7. Do you ever try to limit your drinking to certain times of the day or to certain places?
8. Are you always able to stop drinking when you want to?
9. Have you even attended a meeting of alcoholics anonymous [AA]?
10. Have you got into fights while drinking?
11. Has drinking ever created problems with you or your significant other?
12. Has your significant other ever gone to anyone for help about your drinking?
13. Have you ever lost friends or girl/boyfriends because of drinking?
14. Have you ever got into trouble at work because of drinking?
15. Have you ever lost a job because of drinking?
16. Have you even neglected your obligations, your family, or your work for two or more days in a row because you were drinking?
17. Do you ever drink before noon?
18. Have you ever been told you have liver trouble? Cirrhosis?
19. Have you ever had delirium tremens [DT’s], severe shaking, heard voices, or seen things that weren’t there after heavy drinking?
20. Have you even gone to anyone for help about your drinking?
21. Have you ever been in hospital because of drinking?
22. Have you even been a patient in a psychiatric hospital or on a psychiatric ward of a general hospital where drinking was part of the problem?
23. Have you ever been seen at a psychiatric or mental health clinic, or gone to a doctor, social worker, or clergyman for help with an emotional problem in which drinking played a part?
24. Have you even been arrested, even for a few hours, because of drunken behavior?
25. Have you ever been arrested for drunk driving after drinking?

Add up your total score:

The only test of whether drinking is a problem is if it causes problems in your life or the life of your loved ones. If drinking problems occur, getting help early may help you manage your life style without worsening your health, your employment, your important relationships and your family. The younger you are, the worse your alcoholism may become. Get help early.... Any score of five (yes, just five) or more indicates you have enough problems to benefit from talking to a counselor or your family doctor. This test is not copyrighted material.