What You Need To Know About Alcoholism

 In this article we shall talk about all the major facets of alcoholism and we shall see how we can work to deal with the issue. Let us start with the basic question:

How can one define alcoholism?

Alcoholism can be defined as a chronic brain disease where one is driven by the desire to consume alcohol almost constantly, and there is apparently a loss of control on the consumption of alcohol. Basically, there is no control on the urges or the habit of consumption. This condition is interchangeably called Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). There is another important aspect or symptom of this complication: the individual who has AUD experiences a chronic sense of negativity when he/she is not using alcohol. This is a major aspect of this issue.

A thing to note that the terms AUD and Alcoholism are often used interchangeably. Here is a list of signs and symptoms which are often used for identification of AUD in an individual:

1. A consistently strong urge or compulsion to drink

2. There is a desire to stop the drinking but the person is not able to do so. 

3. The person drinks in dangerous and self-jeopardizing situations such as while driving and that too repeatedly.

4. Choosing alcohol over social, occupational and recreational activities which were once very important to the individual. 

5. A rapid rise or increase in the tolerance level of the person and hence more ingestion of alcohol to attain higher level of intoxication. 

6. Displaying withdrawal symptoms which are physical such as nausea, seizures, shaking, etc, once the individual has stopped drinking. 

How to deal with this complication?

there is often this misconception that alcoholism or AUD (to be specific) can be easily dealt with or tackled by ‘the power of will’. Well, there is no graver misconception than this. AUD cannot be fixed by the power of will alone because of it is a complication of the brain and it has little to do with one’s choices. It is your brain which makes it hard to drink.

Trying to say it is a choice of the will is like asking someone with appendicitis to cure the issue with the power of will and cheerful thoughts. 

This is why it is so important that we understand the nature of this complication. The next step is to learn about the treatment options at one’s disposal. And the only issue with AUD or alcoholism is the alcohol itself. There is also the issue of severity of alcoholism. In milder cases, even if one is abusing it, there is little dependence. In complicated cases, the dependence is pretty high and professional intervention of a doctor is very much required. 

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