We are all familiar with people who use alcohol. Most of us use alcohol ourselves. Alcohol is considered a part of human social interaction since Adam, probably, fermented apples to make cider? However, some people take too much alcoholic drinks and earn the label of alcoholic. An alcoholic is a person who takes too much alcoholic drinks and has a consequent behavioral change. That behavioral change can be a lack of physical coordination, lack of cognitive intellectual functioning, or serious health problems that could culminate in a stupor. When a person takes too much of anything, it is labeled abuse. Alcohol abuse is like any other type of abuse. And, like any other type of abuse, it can become alcohol addiction.
The Select Group of Alcohol Abuse
Some people perceive addicts as being a select group that will never include them. An alcohol addict is in a select group, however. Unlike drug addicts or even food and sex addicts, alcohol addicts are socially accepted as being gregarious, lovable, comical, and even endearing. Of course, the alcohol taken out of the public limelight is violent, paranoid, accusatory, and worse. That is what makes alcohol abuse one of the most paradoxical types of addictive disorder.
Treatment for Alcohol Abuse
The traditional treatment for alcohol abuse is to let the alcoholic drink himself to death or to a cure. Getting an alcoholic into treatment is seen as futile, as almost all dried-out alcoholics go back to drinking whenever faced with the same environmental or personality problems that they discovered could be solved by becoming drunk and oblivious to their environment or to themselves. Wanting to stop using alcohol as a cure has to be a personal decision if the alcoholic is to stop drinking. That is the usual thinking with regards to alcoholic treatment.
Alcohol Abuse is Serious
There are some people who do not see alcohol abuse, or alcohol addiction, as serious as drug abuse. The usual perception is that an alcoholic can be put into a tank and left to dry himself sober. If the alcoholic has delusional behavior while drying out, that is considered unsocial and the alcoholic starts to lose his social drinker status and starts to be known as the town or jail drunk. Some drunks are sent to clinics to get therapy to quit drinking. Most of these clinics are seen as a way back to the first alcoholic drink again.
Physically and Mentally Destructive
The problem that is alcohol abuse is physically and mentally destructive. The family of alcoholics are often physically and mentally abused. The people with whom the alcoholic interacts are often changed themselves just by trying to help the alcoholic. That could be because most people drink alcoholic drinks and it makes them feel more pleasant by relaxing their nervous system and making them relaxed. Knowing that alcoholic drinks can turn a person into a seriously upsetting life situation tense and violent even when not drunk can help most people to think before they drink, even socially.
