Alcohol Addiction

This article is part of a series that is supposed to give you a better understanding of this topic.

We've all seen them before. There is always that one guy who can't look you in the eye, walk a straight line or speak without slurring his words. Someone's getting too drunk and crying or picking a fight with a complete stranger at the bar. Voices are getting louder and one night of drinking spills over into the week. Someone's calling into work "not feeling well" and someone else is cheating on their spouse. The effects of alcohol often exceed our wildest expectations and a fun night of having a beer with a friend can go horribly wrong in no time at all. While it may seem commonplace, it's important to understand the signs and symptoms of alcohol addiction so we will be capable of stopping the destructive pattern of behavior before addiction treatment is required.

Prior to an addiction to alcohol, there is generally a prolonged time period when the social drinker finds that he or she is drinking more frequently, experiencing more adverse effects and is slightly losing control. Alcohol abusers start showing signs like drinking and driving, participating in dangerous activities while under the influence, continuing to drink even when problems with friends or family happen as a result of alcohol consumption and getting into physical fights. Drinking alcohol begins to interfere with not only social relations, but also obligations at work and school, and in some cases, drinking may even land an individual in legal trouble. These are early warning signs that alcohol use is crossing over into alcohol abuse.

The next stage is alcohol addiction, or as it is sometimes called, alcoholism or alcohol dependency. Now the drinker loses all control and the physiological/psychological effects of alcohol surface. Drinkers find that they're consuming more than they originally intended to, find that they can't stop or cut back drinking, and find that they need to drink more to get drunk. They may have trouble sleeping, have shaky hands, sweating, nauseousness, nervousness or the feeling of bugs crawling all over them. They likely drink or take medication to avoid hangovers and continue drinking alcohol to cover up sadness, anger or anxiety. The binge drinking bouts become progressively longer and the individual often loses interest in all other hobbies in favor of drinking.

Ethanol (alcohol) triggers the depressant neurotransmitter in the brain (GABA) and slows the action of the excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain (glutamate). The brain constantly tries to counterbalance the effects of alcohol. In the case of alcohol addiction, the brain desperately tries to compensate for the increased ethanol levels, leading to what is called "neuroadaptation" (tolerance) and will pave the way for dangerous withdrawal symptoms like delirium tremens. In 35% of untreated cases, the sufferer of chronic alcoholism can actually die, so the sooner help is sought, the better!

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