What is Alcoholism?

Alcoholism can be defined as, “A disease that includes the craving for alcohol and continued drinking despite repeated alcohol-related problems, such as losing a job, or getting into trouble with the law.”

Alcoholism is often referred to as “alcohol dependence syndrome” and the four main characteristics of it are craving, loss of control, physical dependence and tolerance.

A craving for alcohol is a compulsion or a very strong need to consume alcohol while loss of control refers to the repetitive inability to cease drinking once it has started. A person has become physically dependent on alcohol when they experience withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, nausea, shakiness and sweating after a long bout of drinking, which is often called a binge.

Often the symptoms that accompany physical dependency can be relieved by consuming another form of a sedating drug or else by consuming more alcohol. Finally, the more an individual drinks, the greater their tolerance becomes to alcohol. To put it another way, a person needs to drink increasingly larger quantities of alcohol in order to experience the same “high” feeling.

Alcoholism is not about the kind of alcoholic beverages a person enjoys drinking, nor is it about how long a period of time a person has been drinking or how much alcohol is consumed in any one timeframe. Alcoholism is about an individual’s uncontrollable need to consume alcohol.

Alcoholism is considered a chronic and progressive disease that has symptoms that can bring about negative consequences in a person’s life such as health concerns, relationship problems and/or work related problems. Alcoholism, like so many other types of chronic diseases, has a relatively predictable course that it follows and it has a variety of symptoms that are easy to pick out if a person looks closely enough.

Alcoholism is believed to be affected by both genetic as well as environmental factors and men are more likely to abuse alcohol than are women.

There are an estimated 14 million individual presently residing in the United States who either abuse alcohol on a regular basis or are deemed alcoholics. This works out to be every one in three adults. The highest rates of alcohol dependency appear to be in young adults ranging from the age of 18 to 29 years of age while the lowest rates are for those adults who are 65 years of age and older.

In regards to the many ethnic groups residing in the United States, the rates vary although no current research points to alcoholism being any higher in one group in relation to others. There are several million other adults in the United States who may not be alcoholics per se but they still engage in risky types of drinking patterns on a more or less regular basis that could put them in the high-risk category for alcohol dependency.

An estimated 53 percent of both males and females have admitted to having one or more family members or friends who have a problem with alcohol.

The number one organization that helps those who are alcoholics is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) who describes themselves best in these words, “We are a worldwide fellowship of men and women who help each other to stay sober.”

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