The abuse of alcohol is a medical disease. It is called a primary disease because it becomes the medical condition that affects the rest of the body. The crippling affects of the disease include a gradual inability to function normally in every area of a person's life. With adults, job performance and family relationships are affected. With adolescents, alcohol abuse is often coupled with other emotional problems, and may include rebellious behavior, poor school performance, lying and secretiveness. It takes a toll on social and emotional development in teen-agers and destroys relationships and families in adults. Alcoholism affects people, families, communities, and nations and destroys millions of lives every year. It is a progressive disease and gets worse over time. It never gets better on its own.

The tendency to abuse alcohol is higher in families where there are one or more alcohol abusers in the immediate family. A person can learn to abuse alcohol by exposure or through a genetic component that is inherited.

Alcoholism can progress from mild to severe. Alcohol recovery requires a complete life-style change and may include an alteration in friends, jobs and living experiences. Everything that interferes with his sobriety, including family members in some cases, must be changed before recovery can be successful.

There are over 60 million adult alcoholics in the United States today. Many of them are elders. Alcoholism is considered a national epidemic and is the second leading cause of adult deaths in the country, led only by tobacco related diseases. Unfortunately, alcoholics not only destroy their own lives, but the lives of innocent people, as well.

Symptoms are:

• Preoccupied with thoughts of drinking
  
• Used to relax at the end of the day; used to have fun
  
• Think of alcohol when should be focusing on something else
  
• Gulping drinks
  
• Drinks more than others and not show it
  
• Uses alcohol as medicine; used to calm or reduce tension
  
• Used as a nightcap or to sleep; used to relieve physical discomfort
  
• Drinks alone
  
• Money is used for alcohol rather than bills
  
• Hides alcohol or fact of drinking
  
• Blackouts are profound and experienced often
  
• Drinks more than planned
  
• Morning tremors, unsteady and unbalanced
  
• Drinks in the morning
  
• Dramatic change in personal appearance
  
• Legal difficulties - DWI/DUI
  

Suggestions to Help Support Alcohol Recovery:

• Stop Drinking!
  
• Make an appointment with a Counselor for an assessment. Many alcoholics have other illnesses that need attention before sobriety can be established.
  
• Find an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting.
  
• Listen closely to other alcoholics. Remember you only have to maintain sobriety "one day at a time".
  
• If possible, find a Detox Program.
  
• Manage the fear and the shame. Talk, talk, talk, and talk about it some more. When there is no one available to listen, write about it. Fear and shame prevent sobriety.
  
• Get a sponsor. Someone that has at least 3 consecutive years of sobriety.
  
• Work the 12-steps of AA. Millions of people have achieved sobriety through the 12- steps.
  
• Assess your family relationships. Ask for support from the ones you can trust and leave the others alone for now.
  
• Be honest about your drinking, and ask for help. Alcoholism is a disease that people die from, but it can be treated.
  
  
  

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