We were not born with this affliction, however we very well may have been predestined to acquire it. That is to say that if our parents were alcoholics or addicts we have a greater chance of becoming one ourself.
THE DISEASE CONCEPT OF ALCOHOLISM: The American Medical Association defines alcoholism as an illness or disease. Dr. David Ohlm, an expert in the field of alcoholism, has defined alcoholism as follows: Alcoholism is a chronic. Progressive, incurable disease characterized by loss of control over alcohol and other drugs.
CHRONIC: Last for a lifetime.
PROGRESSIVE: Alcoholism goes through a series of increasing symptoms and it does not go away. It gets worse even after long periods of sobriety, and can be reactivated by a single drink.
INCURABLE: One cannot return to normal drinking. One can return to a normal life, but only by stopping drinking.
DISEASE: A condition in which bodily health is impaired and interferes with the ability of the person to function normally.
LOSS OF CONTROL: Once the alcoholic takes that first drink after a period of being sober or abstinent, he cannot predict with any reliability whether he is going to have a normal or abnormal drinking episode. Therefore, we do not control the alcohol, it controls us.
This is the major factor in defining alcoholism--can we predict our behavior every time we drink?
The behavioral characteristics of the alcoholic are progressive as is the person's tolerance to alcohol and as is the course of the disease itself. Some of the symptoms of this disease follow, they are not in any order and we may not experience all of them, but most are, and are mileposts along the way.
GROSS DRINKING BEHAVIOR: We begin to drink more heavily and more often than our friends. "Getting wasted" becomes a habit.
BLACKOUTS: Blackouts or temporary loss of memory are not passing out. We cannot remember things we have said, done, or places we have been the night before.
GULPING AND SNEAKING DRINKS: Eager to maintain a euphoric level, we begin to pass off drinks at parties and instead gulp down extra drinks when we think that nobody is looking, we drink before going to a party to insure the euphoria. We feel guilty about this and avoid talking about drinks or drinking.
CHRONIC HANGOVERS: As we grow more and more reliant on alcohol, drinking daily, "morning after" hangovers become more frequent and increasingly painful.
Until now, we problem drinkers have been drinking heavily but not always conspicuously. More important we have been able to stop drinking when we choose to. Beyond this point, we develop the symptoms of addiction more quickley.
LOSS OF CONTROL: This is the most common symptom. We may still refuse a drink but once we take a drink we cannot stop. A single drink is likely start a chain reaction that will continue into complete intoxication.
EYE-OPENERS: We need to drink in the morning to start the day. Our mornings may start at any hour of the day or night. An eye-opener is a drink to ease the jangled nerves, hangover, or feelings of remorse after any period of going without a drink. We cannot face the upcoming hours without alcohol.
THE ALIBI SYSTEM: Our loss of control induces feelings of guilt and shame. So we make up an elaborate system of reasons or excuses for our drinking - My job is too stressful, If you were married to my wife you would drink too. My nerves. We hope these excuses will justify our behavior in the eyes of our family or associates. The truth is our alibis are mostly made to reassure us into thinking that our behavior is acceptable
CHANGING THE PATTERN: By now we are under pressure from our family, friends, and employer. We try to break the hold that alcohol has on us. First, we may try changing the kind of drink; from beer to wine from whiskey to beer. This does no good. We then may set our own rules as to when and how much we will drink, only on weekends, holidays, or special occasions. We may even go on the wagon for a while, but one drink and we start the whole cycle over again.
ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: We prefer drinking alone or only with other alcoholics, regardless of the other person's social level. We believe that only these people can understand us. We brood about imagined wrongs inflicted by others, and think that people are staring at us or talking about us. We are highly critical of others and become violent and destructive.
LOSS OF FRIENDS, FAMILY AND JOB: Our continuing antisocial behavior causes our friends to avoid us. The aversion is now mutual. The members of our family may become so helplessly implicated that our spouse leaves us. The same situation develops between our employer and fellow workers. We may very well lose our jobs.
SEEKING MEDICAL TREATMENT: Physical, and mental erosion caused by our uncontrolled drinking leads us to make the rounds of hospitals, doctors, and psychiatrists. But because we will not admit the extent of our drinking, we seldom receive any lasting benefit. Even when we do halfway level with the doctors, we fail to cooperate in following our doctor's instructions and the result is the same.
Until we have reached this point, we have had a choice to drink or not to drink--the first drink. Once we took the first drink, we lost all control. But in the last stages of alcoholism, we have no choice: We must drink!
BENDERS: We get blindly and helplessly drunk for days at a time, searching for that feeling of alcoholic euphoria that once we appreciated. We utterly disregard everything-family., job, food, even shelter. These trips might be called "drinking to escape the problems caused by drinking."
TREMORS: In the past, our hands may have trembled a bit on the mornings after, but now we get the shakes when we are forced to abstain, a serious nervous condition which racks our whole body. When combined with hallucinations, known as the D.T.'s are often fatal if medical help is not close at hand. During and immediately after the attack, we will swear off alcohol forever. We nevertheless come back for more of the same.
PROTECTING THE SUPPLY: Having an immediate supply of alcohol becomes the most important thing in our life - to avoid the shakes, if nothing else. We will spend our last cent and if necessary, will sell the coat off our back to get it. Then we hide our bottles so there will always be a drink close at hand when we need it, which could be any hour of the day or night.
UNREASONABLE RESENTMENTS: We show hostility towards others. This can be a conscious effort to protect our precious supply of alcohol, be it a half-pint on the hip or a dozen bottles hidden about the house. It can also be the outward evidence of an unconscious desire for self punishment.
NAMELESS FEARS AND ANXIETIES: We become constantly fearful of things we cannot pin down or describe in words It is a feeling of impending doom or destruction. This adds to our nervousness and further underscores the compulsion to drink. These fears frequently crop up in the form of hallucinations, both auditory and visual.
COLLAPSE OF THE ALIBI SYSTEM: We finally realize that we can no longer make excuses nor put the blame on others. We have to admit that the fanciful reasons we have been fabricating to justify our drinking are preposterous to others and are now ridiculous even to us. This may have occurred to us several times during the course of our alcoholic career, but this time it is final. We have to admit that we are licked; that our drinking is totally out of control and is beyond our ability to control it.
SURRENDER PROCESS: Now if ever we must give up the idea of ever drinking again and be willing to seek and accept help. If at this point we are unable to surrender, all the sign posts point to custodial care or death. If we have not already suffered extensive and irreversible brain damage, there is a strong likelihood that that some form of alcoholic psychosis will develop. Death may come in advanced cases of cirrhosis of the liver, pancreaitis, or hemorrhaging varicose of the esophagus. Or we may arrange our own suicide. After all the suicide rate among alcoholics is three times the normal rate of self-extermination.
We alcoholics are fortunate that the disease of alcoholism is treatable; it can be arrested and it has a good response rate to treatment. But treatment is of no avail unless we subscribe to total abstinence form drinking alcohol in any form. As pointed out above. once we have lost control over alcohol, we will never regain it.
The sooner the progress of of the disease is recognized and arrested the easier the return to a comfortable and continuing sobriety and the less physical and mental deterioration their will be.
