What is Alcoholism?

Alcoholism is the addiction to alcohol. It is a disease. Just as someone can have an illness like asthma or heart disease, a person can develop alcoholism. The disease of alcoholism hurts people’s bodies and minds. It causes many other health problems, and it can kill.

Q: Who can become an alcoholic?
A: Anyone who drinks alcohol has some risk for becoming an alcoholic. It does not matter what sex, race, or age a person is. The addiction to alcohol can strike.

Q: How many drinkers become alcoholics?
A: About 1 out of every 7 drinkers becomes an alcoholic.

Q: Teens who drink do have a much greater risk for alcoholism than older people do. How much greater?
A: Someone who starts drinking before age 15 has a FOUR TIMES GREATER risk of becoming an alcoholic than a person who does not drink until after age 21 has.

Q: So, what is it like to be an alcoholic?
A: It’s like turning your entire life over to alcohol.

Here are some the symptoms

• Craving
  Alcoholics can’t stop thinking about alcohol. They feel like they need it to get through life.
  
  
• Impaired Control
  Alcoholics may try to limit the amount they will drink at one time, but they fail. They end up drinking just as much, if not more, as ever.
  
  
• Physical Dependence
  Alcoholics have terrible physical feelings when they are not drinking, like the shakes, heavy sweating, even seeing or hearing things that don’t exist. This is called withdrawal. Before long, alcoholics need to be drunk in order to feel OK.
  
  
• Tolerance
  The amount of alcohol that alcoholics used to drink doesn’t give them the same feelings it used to give them. To feel normal, alcoholics need to drink more and more alcohol as time goes by.
  
  
• Progression
  Alcoholism gets worse as time passes. Cravings are stronger, and withdrawal is harder.

Conclusion
Alcoholics can quit drinking with help, but it is hard to do. Even though drinkers can quit, alcoholism has no cure. That means that even after alcoholics have quit drinking, they still have the disease. If they ever drink alcohol, it will likely start ruining their lives again.