subject: Help For Alcoholism [print this page] Alcohol addiction means having harmful or dangerous drinking practices, such as drinking each day or drinking too much at a time. Addiction to alcohol can harm your relationships, lead you to miss work, and result in legal issues like driving while drunk (intoxicated). If you are addicted to alcohol, you continue to consume alcohol while you know your drinking causes difficulties.
If you keep on being addicted to alcoholic drinks, it can lead to alcohol dependence. Alcohol dependence is usually called alcoholism. You may be physically or psychologically addicted to alcoholic drinks. You have a strong desire, or craving, to drink. You feel like you must drink in order to survive.
Alcohol abuse is a long-term (chronic) disease. It is not a weakness or a lack of willpower. Just like some other diseases, it's got a course that can be predicted, has well-known symptoms, and is affected by your genetics as well as your life condition. Alcohol addiction is mostly a major problem and one that should be addressed. Ideally a drinking problem should be dealt with as soon as possible, the sooner you address the easier it will be to treat. However most people don't realize that they have a disorder until it has become serious. Knowing the warning signs of an alcohol problem can enable you to recognize the symptoms and ideally find assistance early enough so that you can defeat your addiction to alcohol without too much difficult.
The symptoms of alcohol addiction are sometimes not easily identified, specially in ourselves. The symptoms that you should look out for include things like strong urges to drink alcohol or an inability to limit the amount that you just take. An increased tolerance to alcohol is yet another major warning sign, if you have to drink more than you used to to get drunk you may have a drinking problem. If you're experiencing various withdrawal symptoms like shakes or vomiting you probably have a problem with alcohol addiction.
Anybody looking for help for addiction to alcohol need to know that there is a distinction between alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse, even though they are often related. An addiction is a compulsive need to drink alcohol whereas abuse occurs when drinking creates problems into your life. The abuse may be caused by an addiction but it isn't the same thing, you might abuse alcohol without being addicted.
