Alcoholism / Alcohol Use Disorder

When your pattern of drinking begins to affect your daily life functioning, you might be suffering from a condition of Alcoholism.

Alcoholism, or an addiction to alcohol, is often seen as a stereotyped, non medical condition, in our country. What we do not know is that an addiction to this poison often goes out of control for a person who has a dependence on alcohol. Alcoholism, or alcohol use disorder, is in fact a medical condition that needs treatment. Drinking alcohol within a moderate quantity is absolutely fine. In fact, wine and beer have a lot of positive impacts on one’s health. But, when drinking alcohol begins to impact one’s life in a negative way, it might be a symptom of alcoholism.

Alcoholism is defined as an illness in which the sufferer experiences a strong need for alcohol, a loss of control during limiting alcohol intake, is developing a tolerance and needs more alcohol to get the same effect and if he tries to withdraw from drinking, he sees withdrawal symptoms.

According to National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1 in every 13 people in the United Kingdom is an alcoholic. In the USA, 15 per cent have been proven to be problem drinkers, 5 per cent to 10 per cent male drinkers and 3 per cent to 5 per cent female drinkers are alcohol dependent.

Alcohol abuse will begin to start impacting one’s life at work, home, social life and even his personal relationships. Besides this, there are many other diseases that follow as by-products of an indulgent drinking disorder, such as cancer, damage to the liver, brain and other organs.

The ideal way to combat alcoholism or to help anyone dealing with alcoholism is to de-stigmatize the condition and seek medical help. The mindset towards alcohol abuse as one that can be wilfully controlled is not true. It is as much a medical disorder as any other disease and needs to be treated likewise.

Source: timesofindia