Online Alcoholism & Addiction Counselling

Sometimes the terminology used when talking about alcohol problems can be quite unhelpful.

In fact, when using the terms ‘alcoholism’ or ‘alcoholic’ (which everyone does, including this site), the emphasis can be that the problem is with the alcohol itself.

But the problem actually stems from the state of mind that the alcohol gives you, not from the chemical as such. The importance that this state of mind takes on for you, the preferability of it despite the huge costs to other parts of your life, that is actually where the problem lies.

Similarly, people often refer to alcoholism as a disease. But what actually is a disease? Well, it is

“an abnormal condition that causes discomfort, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, which is associated with specific symptoms and signs”.

The symptoms of the condition ‘alcoholism’ are generally agreed on as:

• tolerance - the need to consume more in order to achieve the same effect,
• withdrawal - the experience of unpleasant physical effects upon stopping drinking,
• craving - a preoccupation or prolonged urge to have a drink,
• loss of control - the inability to stop drinking at a sensible level once you have started.

You may have periods when you experience all four of these symptoms, and therefore you could be classified as an alcoholic. There may be other times when you’re not experiencing all of them, so you merely have ‘problems with alcohol’. But do you have a disease?

A disease is something over which you would have very little choice - “I don’t want this disease any more, I’m going to make some changes” would seem slightly ridiculous. So the way you view your alcohol problems, what terminology you use - will determine what you feel you can do about them.

If you view it as a set of problems, you will be motivated to solve those problems, but if you say to yourself “I’m an alcoholic, its a disease, it can’t be cured” then what are you likely to do about it? Not that much, I would suggest. Some people seem to have more control over their alcohol problems than others, so perhaps it is not a black or white condition, but one with varying shades of grey in between.

There are many different factors involved in an alcohol dependency, from genetic predispositions, or inherited behaviour from parents, perhaps learnt behaviour from society, to our beliefs about ourselves, our coping strategies, our self worth, our levels of anxiety and the stability or instability of our moods.

Different people will have different causes for their alcohol problems. The way to solve them is therefore to make yourself more aware of what factors are involved in your personal problem. Then you can go about making some changes to those underlying issues.