Worried I have I damaged my liver?

Hi,

You might think I'm pathetic for posting this at the age of 24 but to be honest I'd like to speak to similar people to me who might be a bit dependent on alcohol, I accept I probably am.

I suppose I'm not an average person because most people drink in their teens, I personally hated alcohol until I was 19/20ish as various issues in my family as a direct result of alcohol made them into vile people and it just put me off it. My family have no history of liver disease but definitely have a history of alcohol dependency.

Then I met my girlfriend and she showed me you can have fun when you've had a drink so I started to drink most weekends with her and we had a great time, at this point I could keep drinking to like once a week no problem. Once I turned 21 I moved into a stressful job so it became my release to go home every couple of nights and have a nice drink, it would vary from around 2-4 cans of beer (500ml). Around this time I started struggling to sleep and I noticed alcohol helped me sleep so into the later months of being 21 I started drinking every night to sleep well. Also worth noting that my girlfriend now hates that I drink as much as I do.

Since the age of 22 (now 24) I've probably had about 5 sober days. I usually drink like 4 cans of beer now (500ml) which is about 8.8 UK Units a day. On weekends I probably drink more like 6 cans. This pattern has been going on everyday for 2.5 years now.

Am I likely to have done any damage to my liver? I plan on doing "dry January" to prove to myself I can change but I don't know if I've already done permanent damage to myself? I accept this is a problem and I need to change. I associate not drinking at night with not being able to sleep and then I cant function at work.

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