Alcoholism is an illness marked by drinking alcoholic beverages at a level that interferes with physical health, mental health, and social, family, or occupational responsibilities. Alcoholism is divided into 2 categories: dependence and abuse. People with alcohol dependence, the most severe alcohol disorder, usually experience tolerance and withdrawal. Tolerance is a need for markedly increased amounts of alcohol to achieve intoxication or the desired effect. Withdrawal occurs when alcohol is discontinued or intake is decreased. Alcohol dependents spend a great deal of time drinking alcohol, and obtaining it. People who are dependent on or abuse alcohol continue to drink it despite evidence of physical or psychological problems. Those with dependence have more severe problems and a greater compulsion to drink.

The cumulative effects of excessive alcohol consumption, especially when associated with a poor diet, affect every part of the body. The two main sites of damage are the liver and the nervous system: the liver may become progressively damaged through a condition known as cirrhosis, which may lead to liver failure, liver cancer and death. The nervous system may be damaged at many levels. The intellect can be damaged with anxiety and depression, confusion and dementia. The rest of the nervous system can suffer from loss of balance, impotence, numbness of the feet and hands, tremor and blindness. Apart from these two major sites of damage, alcoholism is also implicated in diabetes, inflammation of the pancreas, internal bleeding, weakening of the heart, high blood pressure and stroke, and is harmful to developing pregnancies.

The success of the M.A.D.D. and S.A.D.D. prevention programs has had a decreasing effect on drinking and driving. At the same time, however the car accident alcohol-related death rate of middle age people is still on a rise. Despite significant reductions in the amount of the alcohol-crash problem, drinking and driving continues to present a major threat to the safety of all road users. About one third of deaths among people between the ages of 15 to 24 are the results of motor vehicle-related crashes. Studies have been done in high schools nationwide on the patterns of alcohol use. These studies have reported that 17 percent of students have participated in drinking and driving one or more times. The odds of drinking and driving have increased 2.5-fold to 14-fold while incidents of drinking rose from 3 to 5 times per month to more than 2.

Alcohol addiction causes so much suffering in marriage. Besides being physically and emotionally harmful to alcoholics themselves, addiction is also harmful to those whose lives touch them. Addiction makes people insensitive to the feelings of those who care most for them, and they will stop at nothing to feed their addiction. Alcoholics commonly engage in their most painful habits while under the influence. Acts of infidelity are common. The fact that he or she is drunk at the time is no consolation to a grief-stricken spouse. It can require a lot of strength for children to resist peer pressure and media influences. When it comes to alcohol and drugs, the most useful weapon that your children can have is facts and knowledge, instead of scare tactics and threats from their parents. Children's trust in parents can go way up on the scale when they actually researched the topic of drugs with their parents. Many successful parents decide that one of the best ways to avoid their children being drawn into drugs, is to educate them, and learn together, rather than simply condemning the topic out of hand. If you do not want to create that taboo effect in your household, while you do not wish to condone alcohol and drugs, you should make sure that your kids know that they can talk to you about these issues at anytime they wish. Although many parents may disagree, but other say that if their kids are going to try alcohol then they might as well try it in safety at home. One advantage of this liberal approach is that in childrens minds, if it does not seem like things are "off limits" then they will not be attracted to doing it just because they are not supposed to.

If you think your drinking is a problem, try following these steps: STEP ONE: Decide what your aim is. Do you want to give up alcohol altogether? Or do you want to cut down to within daily benchmarks? Or maybe you want to avoid binge-drinking and all the problems that go with it. The decision is yours but be clear about what you want to achieve. STEP TWO: Pick a day in the next week to start cutting down. Go for a day when you are likely to be relaxed and not under pressure. Plan ahead for a day when it is easier to avoid alcohol. STEP THREE: Work out how you can avoid situations when you know you end up drinking more. If you often drink at home, stock up on alternatives to alcohol, like alcohol-free beers, or lagers or wine or soft drinks. You might like to tell other people that you are cutting back, this should avoid them putting pressure on you to drink and they might even join in. STEP FOUR: Do not give up! Changing habits like drinking takes time and hard work and sometimes it is difficult to drink less. Keep focusing on the positive things you have achieved. If you do relapse, set a new date to start reducing again. STEP FIVE: If you continue to find it difficult to cut down you could see a trained alcohol counselor to help you develop strategies or contact Drinkline for advice. Try phrases such as: No thanks ,I have had enough or I have got a lot on tomorrow. Reward yourself. Chart your progress. Cutting down requires willpower and self-control so you should be pleased with yourself for succeeding. Buy yourself something special with the money you save from not drinking. Be honest with yourself. Make sure you only reward yourself when you meet the targets you set yourself.

For those alcoholics who continue drinking, only about 1 to 4 percent of adults are able to establish a pattern of moderate drinking. In other words, people who are alcoholic almost always need to give up drinking entirely if they hope to be free of the problem. On the positive side, people who do decide to give up alcohol are able to live without it with increasing ease over time. The most difficult time, by far, is the very early stage of abstinence or "recovery." Many people succeed in achieving a complete recovery at some time in the course of their lives.

If you have decided, for whatever reason, that you want to stop drinking, there is a world of help and support available. To get a better picture of where you are now, so that you can make an informed decision about how to proceed, perhaps the first person to talk with should be your family doctor. Sometimes admitting to yourself and others that you need help can be one of the most difficult steps to take on your road to recovery. As the The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) says in it's information: Acknowledging that help is needed for an alcohol problem may not be easy. But keep in mind that the sooner a person gets help, the better are his or her chances for a successful recovery. Any reluctance you may feel about discussing your drinking with your health care professional may stem from common misconceptions about alcoholism and alcoholic people.