Welcome

Thank you for visiting Alcohol Abuse 411. Like dialing 411 on your telephone to reach “Information,” clicking on this site has connected you to information on alcohol abuse and all its related issues: its symptoms and causes, who is at risk and how people can overcome their desire to continue abusing alcohol. You’ll also find information about withdrawal—what really happens during this painful and potentially dangerous process? You’ll learn about detoxification, which can make withdrawal safer, and its symptoms much easier to bear.

By definition, the majority of people who abuse alcohol suffer from the condition of alcoholism, and we refer to them as alcoholics. We should make it clear that not everyone who drinks (even heavily or frequently) is an alcoholic, but certainly every alcoholic abuses (or has abused) alcohol.

Alcoholics come from all walks of life and all levels of society. Those who have recovered from alcoholism can also be found at every socio-economic level. Those who believe alcoholism can’t affect them or the people they love may find themselves literally “dead wrong.”

Some people, mired in rigid puritanical ways of thinking, continue to believe that alcoholism is a sign of weakness or moral failing. These attitudes are outdated, and have been disproved by modern medical science. Alcoholics aren’t “weak willed” or lacking in moral character (although their actions under the influence of alcohol may be morally questionable). Alcoholics are people with a disease—a chronic, progressive and ultimately fatal condition.

What is alcohol abuse?

Unlike many other substances that society has deemed dangerous enough to be banned or strictly regulated by authorities, alcohol is widely available. People who would consider it unacceptable to use marijuana, cocaine or heroin have no such apprehensions about alcohol. We celebrate it in song; it’s linked with holidays and special occasions. We serve it at parties, at weddings, with meals and even in church. And for most people, it’s a harmless “social lubricant.” But when alcohol and an alcoholic meet—wherever that happens to be—the potential for disaster is always right around the corner.

Let’s be clear with our distinctions, though. Simply drinking alcohol isn’t alcohol abuse. And there isn’t a specific amount of alcohol consumption that constitutes abuse. There isn’t even a frequency to someone’s drinking that experts could agree would be abusive.

We all know people who can drink large amounts of alcohol without negative effects; or who drink frequently, yet still manage their lives effectively. What constitutes abuse is less about what someone drinks, or when they drink; it’s almost exclusively about who is doing the drinking, and how they react to alcohol.