Surprisingly, many people wonder what an alcoholic is and what is alcoholism. There is much information to be covered on the subject of alcoholism. The coverage here of this disease will be but a glimpse of the condition.

The term alcoholism is given to a disease which creates a strong craving for alcohol. The person that has this condition is considered to be an alcoholic. These people seem to have varying degrees of need in their drinking desires. While some seem to need the alcoholic beverage constantly others only seem to crave a drink when something goes wrong for them or causes them a degree of stress which is more than they feel they can handle on their own. Still, others are what are known as a social drinker.

Alcoholism is a disease. The alcoholic craves an alcoholic beverage as strongly as a person who is hungry craves food, or a person who is thirsty craves a glass of water.

There is a genetic connection discovered by scientists who have studied the disease. In other words, alcoholism can run in families; much the same way as other diseases can. There are other factors that are present just as even though Diabetes may run in your family, not all siblings contract the disease. So, it is with Alcoholism. Not all family members will become alcoholics. The other factors may be the presence of peer pressure, availability of alcohol, etc.

Alcoholism is a disease that requires a treatment program. That program should include both individual counseling and group support. These two are important ingredients to the recovery and ongoing management of the disease. The individual help is a given and most will agree with it’s importance. The group support system is a powerful aid to staying sober and tool to meeting your maintenance goals.

Group Support Provides:

Support groups are a safety net that exposes those who need help with caring professional who have a compassion for those suffering from this disease

Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), founded in 1935, is a 12-step program that is designed to help the alcoholic recover. A.A. is based on personal experience as a means for people to help each other to stop drinking. Over the years, A.A. has helped hundreds of thousands of alcoholics to recover and become sober.

Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says: “The capacity of the alcohols for impairment of functions and the initiation and promotion of organic lesions in vital parts, is unsurpassed by any record in the whole range of medicine. The facts as to this are so indisputable, and so far granted by the profession, as to be no longer debatable. Changes in stomach and liver, in kidneys and lungs, in the blood-vessels to the minutest capillary, and in the blood to the smallest red and white blood disc disturbances of secretion, fibroid and fatty degenerations in almost every organ, impairment of muscular power, impressions so profound on both nervous systems as to be often toxic these, and such as these, are the oft manifested results. And these are not confined to those called intemperate.”

The survey appeared in Volume 160, of the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, pages 739-746. The article states “of those 43,000 participants in a survey of U.S. adults who had developed the disease, Alcoholism; 47% of them had met the criteria for alcoholism by age 21.” That is almost half of those involved in the survey. This is important information that will support the theory that alcohol use by our youth is a risk factor for developing alcoholism and for developing it at a quicker rate and at a younger age, usually within 10 years of when they started drinking. The survey took into account other risk factors for alcohol dependence to further validate the evidence.

Not everyone gains weight when he or she begins an alcohol recovery program but there are many people who do gain weight. The average gain is about ten pounds but there are many people who gain a significant amount of weight. This weight gain is discouraging because with alcohol, it is generally easier to stay thin. The weight gain also discourages other alcoholics from recovery because they know there is the possibility of a significant amount of weight gain. The important thing to realize is that a person would have to gain 150 pounds for the weight gain to be unhealthier than the excessive drinking.

And here, in order to give those who are not familiar with, the process of digestion, a clear idea of that important operation, and the effect produced when alcohol is taken with food, we quote from the lecture of an English physician, Dr. Henry Monroe, on “The Physiological Action of Alcohol.” He says:

“Every kind of substance employed by man as food consists of sugar, starch, oil and glutinous matters, mingled together in various proportions; these are designed for the support of the animal frame. The glutinous principles of food fibrine, albumen and casein are employed to build up the structure; while the oil, starch and sugar are chiefly used to generate heat in the body.

The transforming power or alcohol is marvelous, and often appalling. It seems to open a way of entrance into the soul for all classes of foolish, insane or malignant spirits, who, so long as it remains in contact with the brain, are able to hold possession. Men of the kindest nature when sober, act often like fiends when drunk. Crimes and outrages are committed, which shock and shame the perpetrators when the excitement of inebriation has passed away. Referring to this subject, Dr. Henry Munroe says:

Dr. Richardson, speaking of the action of alcohol on the mind, gives the following sad picture of its ravages:

“An analysis of the condition of the mind induced and maintained by the free daily use of alcohol as a drink, reveals a singular order of facts. The manifestation fails altogether to reveal the exaltation of any reasoning power in a useful or satisfactory direction. I have never met with an instance in which such a claim for alcohol has been made. On the contrary, confirmed alcoholics constantly say that for this or that work, requiring thought and attention, it is necessary to forego some of the usual potations in order to have a cool head for hard work.

Not finding that alcohol possesses any direct alimentary value, the medical advocates of its use have been driven to the assumption that it is a kind of secondary food, in that it has the power to delay the metamorphosis of tissue. “By the metamorphosis of tissue is meant,” says Dr. Hunt, “that change which is constantly going on in the system which involves a constant disintegration of material; a breaking up and avoiding of that which is no longer aliment, making room for that new supply which is to sustain life.” Another medical writer, in referring to this metamorphosis, says: “The importance of this process to the maintenance of life is readily shown by the injurious effects which follow upon its disturbance. If the discharge of the excrementitious substances be in any way impeded or suspended, these substances accumulate either in the blood or tissues, or both. In consequence of this retention and accumulation they become poisonous, and rapidly produce a derangement of the vital functions. Their influence is principally exerted upon the nervous system, through which they produce most frequent irritability, disturbance of the special senses, delirium, insensibility, coma, and finally, death.”

Alcoholism is a terrible disease that can affect an individual’s life to a great degree, as well as the lives of the individual’s close family and friends. In this article, we’ll work towards an understanding of the illness by examining some of the more commonly asked questions that people have about it.

Question: Is alcoholism really a disease?

Children of alcoholics are at risk from two different fronts. The first results from being raised around alcohol and by an alcoholic while the second risk comes from the genetic aspects of what causes someone to become an alcoholic. Regardless of whether children of alcoholics are raised by alcoholics, they are at risk for alcoholism or alcoholism-related problems. Children of alcoholics may exhibit some of the following characteristics:

* Higher risk for alcohol and other drug problems

* Pervasive tension and stress

* Higher levels of anxiety and depression

* Poor performance in school

Alcohol misuse in the work environment is becoming an increasingly growing problem. It is important to realize that alcoholism does not discriminate and affects people of all social and economic situations. It is commonly thought that alcoholics are unemployable however, it has been estimated that 75% of alcoholics are employed full-time. Some studies suggest that alcohol may be the cause of 25% of accidents in the workplace. Additionally, the cost from loss of productivity and absenteeism has been estimated in the billions of dollars range.

Holidays happen most every month, if not national ones, than personal ones like birthdays, job-related celebrations, anniversaries, and birthdays. These are all events where alcohol may be a part of the scene and a temptation to the person trying to manage the disease, alcoholism. This is an especially trying time of year for someone struggling with alcohol dependency, because alcohol is a traditionally expected part of some celebrations. Where that fact may have been a happy one while partaking of alcoholic drinks; as someone who cannot partake, it can be a nightmare.

Alcohol is a drug that elicits a pleasure response in the human brain, which in return causes addiction to that substance. Alcoholism is an extremely difficult addiction to recover from. One question that many people ask is “why do people begin drinking to begin with”? There are many things that are pleasurable but people do not become addicted to them. Alcohol has an attraction that, for many people, cannot be easily overcome. There are many reasons given as to why people begin drinking.