Reasons For Alcoholism

I feel sorry for you, nt, I myself drink quite a bit and the only reason I could really give you is because without drink life seems very boring. My gf left me because of it and I don`t blame her one bit. I`m betting your ex will come back but only because she wants something from you, probably money. Take my advice and move on unless she wants to geniuinely get help. It`s tough to watch someone destroy themselves I know, but It`s really all up to her. Good Luck, [email protected]

It might be a physical thing, I think alcoholics process the booze differently than non-alcoholics. Also, it tends to run in families (they've done studies on twins separated at birth to see if it was genetic or learned. There's a definite genetic correlation.) Also, I think there's a higher correlation of alcoholism and diabetes, the body processes alc like sugar. So if a person is a true alcy, they cannot control their drinking, only stop.

I am a recovering alcoholic...11 years sober. It's hard to define alcoholism, because it differs for everyone. I can tell you this, it eventually will come to a point in drinking where you do not drink to get a buzz, because you usually don't. The longer a person drinks and builds up a tolorance to alcohol, the shorter the time of the buzz. Then the alcoholic will drink, not to get drunk, but to not feel sober. It's a miserable existance. To the gentleman with the girlfriend problem...you have a couple of choices. You can either walk away or you can try to help her get sober. It will be hard if you choose the latter, but it will be better for her health and may prolong, if not save her life. Contact AA...they can help you a lot. They certaiinly helped me. God Bless and good luck!

I'm going to be politically incorrect and claim that a part of the reason is that the information on alcoholism is misguiding.

In schools and elsewhere people get the wrong concept of alcoholism. They can for instance be told that a person is an alcoholic, if he is caught drunk driving once (i.e. one has to be an alcoholic to be drunk driving), that a three-day weekend is the equivalent of a bender, and so on. In other words, society tries to claim that alcoholism sets in on a much earlier stage than the medicinal sciences acclaim.

This leads to that quite normal social drinkers, who drink perhaps once or twice a week, and overdo it maybe every 2 months by drinking three days in a row, get the idea that they are alcoholics. And hence they think, "hey, it's not that bad", and then they think that they can drink more (they have already become alcoholics, remember?), and eventually get caught in real alcoholism.

By reducing a serious condition as alcoholism to something that one "obtains" after a 3-day drinking event, one diminishes the seriousness of the condition.

If society tells totally normal people that they are alcoholics, they actively contribute to the reason for them to become just that.

As for drunk driving, it's of course extremely wrong, but that's no excuse for society to label drunk drivers "alcoholics". It is VERY possible to drive hammered drunk without being an alcoholic. I'm not defending it, I'm just saying it's wrong to generalize all drunk drivers as alcoholics. It is completely ridiculous to sentence a drunk driver to a rehab for alcoholics, and such sentences are based on a lack of knowledge of what alcoholism really is.

If society hadn't had this urge to pin the label "alcoholic" on everyone who drinks a bit too much, we'd have a lot fewer real alcoholics.

Read, "Drinking, A Love Story". A great book, the author is dead now though.

dude, go to Al-Anon right away.

when you say, 'i'm trying to make sense out of the addiction', man, you can't do that. there is no sense to be made. it's like trying to make sense out of a forest fire. run to safety or perish!

man, you've seen her start off normal, then after some drinks, she becomes a different person entirely, haven't you? there is no sense to be made of that except to accept that she is an alchoholic, and when she drinks, she is a danger to herself and to anyone who cares for her.

al-anon helps people accept the facts.

good luck, man. 42

[deleted]

"So why make a life outta booze? What's the hook?"

You know what... If you can't understand it, likely no one will be able to give you a satisfactory answer. Alcoholism is like sex. Everyone can explain it to you, and you can think you understand, but you don't really understand it unless you've been there.
Al-anon is just a bunch of people whining about how rough life is to know someone who is going through it. Boo-hoo
I'd steer clear of that pity party.

And to the guy who said that "normal people" who drink once or twice a week and occasionally go on three-day drinking sprees, etc.
I have news for you: AA and all the sheep there will quickly let you know that you just described an alcoholic.
I have been told in AA that ANY regular drinking is Alcoholism.

But the person that said that there is usually an underlying and coupled disease like Bi-Polarism for example, is absolutely right.

Alcohol is escapism, period. Normal people do it to escape the hum-drum of daily life and jobs, etc. Alcoholics do it to escape what otherwise feels like an intolerable existence.

And some do it to silence the voices - but that is another thread.

Bottom line, don't try and understand her, you won't. If you love her, support her and try to work through it with her, if not, move on because alcoholics leave a hell of a path of destruction in their wake.

I would never want to belong to a club that would have someone
like me as a member
~G.Marx