The description of alcoholism varies depending on the person talking. To an average person on the street, the term is similar with drinking of alcohol. Then we may ask, does it mean everyone drinking alcohol is an alcohol addict?

Without much ado, let's take our definition from Wikipedia. It says: alcoholism typically constitutes any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, despite negative personal and social consequences. This description has a lot to say to us all. From this description, it can be inferred that it is not everyone drinking alcohol that is perfectly an addict. What constitutes 'too much' is not often objective.

But we can resolve that someone is an addict if he or she continues drinking alcohol beverages in spite of negative personal and social consequences.

What many of us think about alcohol addict is not authentic in most cases. We tend to address the aftermath of the difficulty. We don't address the cause of the predicament. We blame the addict for going into it. We urge him or her to enter an alcohol treatment centre and get alimony. We even go the extra length of avoiding him or her.

All I am saying is that our method to aiding the addict only compounds the trouble instead of ameliorating it. The greatest method to aiding an addict is to look at the cause of the trouble. In other words, we should look at what led him or her into alcoholism in the first place.

Many justifications can be adduced. These include loss of job, loss of a loved one, marriage collapse, etc. In essence, we should first take a look at any of these causes, and then proffer answer. Parenthetically, if it's a loss of a job, we should make him or her (the addict) realize that it is not the end of the world. We should tell him of hundreds of people out there that have really made it in life after losing their jobs. Tell him or her about Abraham Lincoln, the man that failed so many times and yet still became the president of the United States of America.

Do you see that it will be wrong depriving such an addict of your love just because he has become an alcohol addict? What he or she needs is not the alcohol treatment centre yet, it is love and understanding that he or she needs.