Alcohol Addiction
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Alcohol
addiction is a serious problem in society today. However,
alcohol addiction is not new. Higher primates such as chimpanzees
will eat rotting fruit that has fermented in order to achieve
a "high". Historians believe the first alcohol that
was purposefully brewed was date palm wine originating in
Mesopotamia. The texts created by the ancient Egyptians refer
to social problems caused by public drunkenness. In the 1830's
alcohol addiction in Great Britain was rampant, partly due
to the rapid industrialization of that nation.
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And thus, alcohol addiction has been a part of humanity
since the first alcoholic beverage was brewed and continues to be
a problem today.
Alcohol addiction has two main components: cravings (physical and
psychological) and taking action to stop the cravings. When Alcoholics
Anonymous states in the first of the 12-steps, "We admitted
we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable,"
this can be interpreted as "We are powerless over the cravings
for alcohol …" It is the powerful physical and psychological
cravings that those with an alcohol addiction problem seek to stop
through drinking. In addition, when a alcohol dependent person stops
drinking and starts going through the painful withdrawal symptoms,
this also encourages the person to drink in order to stop the pain
of the withdrawal.
Where the alcoholic is not powerless, though, is over the action
part of the equation. Even though the cravings are powerful and
the withdrawal symptoms are painful, it is within the alcoholic's
power to take no action to stop the cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
In other words, it is within the alcohol dependent person's power
to not take a drink. Many alcoholics do not believe that they have
this power, though. They feel that they are powerless to refrain
from taking action (drinking) since the cravings and withdrawal
symptoms are simply too powerful.
In order for the addicted individual to abstain from drinking,
they will need to make a conscious decision to tolerate the
pain and discomfort for a period of time during detoxification
and on a lesser scale thereafter. Detoxification can be helped
by the administration of certain medicines from a licensed
professional so that the detox does not turn out to be overwhelming
and life threatening.
With the addition of therapy and support from others, the
alcohol dependent person starts to realize that they do have
some power and control over their alcohol addiction. They
start to realize the difference between the cravings and withdrawal
symptoms which they have no control over and the act of drinking
to stop the symptoms which they do have control over. Being
able to tolerate the cravings and withdrawal symptoms will
give the alcoholic a new sense of power and self control that
he or she may not have experienced in years.
Tolerance of symptoms is the most important task that those
with an alcohol addiction problem will learn to face and manage.
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