How to Reduce Your Risk of Alcohol Use Disorder

Alcohol use disorder doesn't develop overnight. It creeps in gradually—what started as a glass of wine with dinner becomes a bottle, what was a weekend social habit becomes a nightly necessity. By the time most people recognize the pattern, they're deep in it.

Prevention starts with understanding your personal risk factors and making intentional decisions about your relationship with alcohol.

Understanding the Spectrum

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) isn't binary—it exists on a spectrum from mild to severe. The DSM-5 identifies 11 diagnostic criteria, including drinking more than intended, unsuccessful attempts to cut back, cravings, tolerance, and withdrawal. Meeting just 2-3 criteria qualifies as mild AUD, and many people who would never call themselves "alcoholics" meet that threshold.

Risk Factors You Can't Change

• Family history — A parent or sibling with AUD increases your risk 3-4x
• Mental health conditions — Anxiety, depression, ADHD, and PTSD all elevate risk through self-medication patterns
• Early exposure — First drinking before age 15 substantially increases lifetime AUD risk
• Trauma history — Childhood trauma creates particular vulnerability

You can't change these factors, but awareness lets you approach alcohol with appropriate caution.

Risk Factors You Can Influence

• Drinking patterns — Binge drinking accelerates AUD development more than the same amount spread across the week
• Using alcohol to cope — Stress drinking, emotional drinking, and "needing" a drink are warning signs
• Social environment — Regular exposure to heavy-drinking social circles normalizes excess
• Untreated mental health conditions — Getting proper treatment for anxiety, depression, or ADHD removes the drive to self-medicate

Practical Prevention Strategies

• Set clear personal limits before you start drinking—and stick to them
• Take regular breaks from alcohol (even one week per month)
• Never use alcohol as your primary coping mechanism for stress or emotions
• Seek treatment for underlying mental health conditions
• Pay attention to escalation: needing more, drinking more often, or drinking alone more frequently
• Build a social life that doesn't revolve around alcohol

The Mental Health Connection

At Next Step Psychiatry, we frequently see patients whose drinking escalated because an underlying condition went untreated. The person with undiagnosed ADHD who discovered that alcohol quieted their racing thoughts. The patient with social anxiety who couldn't face gatherings without a drink. The individual with treatment-resistant depression who self-medicated nightly.

Treating the root mental health condition is one of the most effective ways to reduce AUD risk—and it's what we specialize in.