Becoming an alcoholic

[MargeB]

Thankfully I seem to be preserved from this fate (I like a drink, but don't drink to excess), but LOTS of my close friends have parents who have gone of the rails with very serious alcohol problems, almost all seemingly as an answer to a major life trauma. How does this work? Is it always an escape?

[shaneystar]

Andy is right.I have a friend who is an alcholic.She went down this rocky road and is still on it after a failed love affair twenty years ago.No matter how you try to help her she doesn't want to know.The sad fact is the answer to the problem is not in the bottom of a glass.

[Clanad]

As andy states, alcohol is a mind altering drug, but most people don't understand that it is a depressant, and a pretty severe one at that... One or two 1 ounce drinks (of anything alcoholic) begin to relax a person, resulting in relaxation and the beginning of loss of inhibitions.  Most people tend to stop at that point, but for many reasons, others want to deepen or prolong the escapism of the relaxation.  They feel they are better able to put aside their problems, and it becomes a viscious circle.

There does appear to be some clinical evidence of genetic predisopsition to alcholoism.  Here in the American west, Native Americans have many of the same reactions to even minor amounts of alcohol as do those of Asian descent.  (To whom they're related, genetically) Many Asian men display what is termed Asian Flush due to an enzyme deficiency that is genetically caused. It's been my experience, at least with Native Americans, that a blaming their condition on life's problems is usually only an enabling mechanism.

Finally, almost all alcoholics live with or have relationships with enablers.  In many cases, for one reason or another, these well meaning people have a complex psychological reason to actually prefer (they wouldn't admit it) that thier mate or relation stay an alcoholic.  Very complex issue.  All recovering alcoholics will tell you they are now, and always will be alcoholics... it's just that they choose to remain sober....

[cat woman]

Alcohol is a great remover!  It takes away your job, home, family & friends and most importantly in some tragic cases lives.  Alcohol is a mind altering drug/substance, there is some 200 chemicals in alcohol and in some people they react differently to the effects of these chemicals.  You get people who are tee-total who never bother with alcohol or just maybe have a drink on special occasions, there are the one's who go out to socialise and know when to stop or even go one over the 8 on odd occasions and the one's who just drink to excess who know they are heading for trouble and put the brakes on so to speak. Sadly there is the odd few who dont and carry on thinking that what they are doing is quite normal not realising that they have crossed that boarder line from being a social drinker to a practicing alcoholic.  Alcohol is cunning, baffling & powerful, these poor souls are living in a twilight world thinking alcohol is the answer to all their problems, hopes and dreams and that is what the chemicals do to the alcohlic.  Yes alcohol is the route to escapism from any worries which may come our way whether its trivial or life threatning, alcoholics drink to remember and to forget, I hope I have explained this answer o.k. for you and I fully agree to andy's reply.     :-)

[jno]

as I understand it, alcoholism is an illness; some people have it, some don't. It's not the same as alcohol abuse, which doesn't involve compulsion or dependence. This seems a useful distinction, but it means that not every drunk is an alcoholic, as the question might suggest. Some discussion of it here. 

(Sorry MargeB, I know you hate people stifling discussion by posting website links.)

[mystress]

Dear MargeB,

I have always thought that alcohol is the worst of all possible drugs.

Why?

Well, it the most easily obtainable,and the most socially acceptable.Even if it is obvious someone is in an extremely drunk state people still keep giving them drinks! I appreciate that you CAN get Heroin,Crack,Pot etc easily(if you know where) in most towns,but you still cannot get it in Sainsburys or Tescos,but you can alcohol.(No questions asked)

It must also be very difficult for persons wanting to get off of the drink when they are surrounded by drink shops,drink places,and drink people!

Any addiction is probably an escape,whther it be Alcohol,Gambling,Hard Drugs etc. In the end the addiction becomes the problem, and the original cause gets lost;until the alcoholic gets to the root of the problem the addiction will not end.I have a friend who lost her (alcoholic) boyfriend some 20 years ago (he was drunk,and got knocked down by a car) She will not admit she is alcoholic,and as I live 50 miles away(now) I find it frustrating that I cannot help her more.Also,when an alcoholic sobers up(judging by my friend) they don't get the major withdrawal symptoms that people on hard drugs do,but of course it is damaging her body,she just doesn't see it.(She NEVER has a hangover,but then I think she is never completely sober)

I suppose I am lucky,I haven't had a drop of alcohol in 6 years,as the medication I am on (for depression) would be wiped out by it.

Sorry if I have rambled!

[jake-the-peg]

The Enzyme deficiency Clannad refers to is interesting, I've heard it suggested that it's related to Europeans spending the last few thousand years commonly drinking alcohol because the water was unsafe and not learning to boil it first. - I don't know how you could prove or disprove it though.

There was also some interesting work done showng a genetic disposition for alcohol dependance with ratsink. A wide group of rats were given water bottles replaced with an ethanol mix after a while a water bottle was added, most rats to the water and stayed using that but some stayed with the ethanol. Most interestingly the offspring of those that stayed with the ethanol showed the same tendancies in the main.

As with most of these things it's not cast in stone but if you come from a family with alcohol issues the dice are weighted against you.

PS you don't think there's a causal link in that a lot of people you know become alcoholic do you? :c)

[MargeB]

Great info peeps :-)

Jake, I have often wondered that, maybe its true! Location is important too: West Coast of Scotland has more than its fair share...although the 'alcoholism' may be a response to other common psycho-social problems.

[MargeB]

I think the slight alcoholism immunity applies to Jewish people also?

[Romeo]

In some people, latent alcoholism (greater than normal potential to become addicted) is already there, just waiting to happen. Sometimes it can take years before the alcoholism does come out but, once it does, the drinker drinks just to feel normal. At this stage, the drinker has crossed the line and become an alcoholic.

[cat woman]

In some cases, its not what or how much you drink its what it does to you.  Alcoholics are people who have illness, that illness is the need of alcohol, as the illness progresses the alcoholic in some cases needs more and more to function in their twilight lives.   :-)

[MargeB]

I read somewhere that perhaps alcoholics are those who initially need more alchohol to get drunk, so become more prone to dependency since they imbibe more than the baseline.