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Alcoholism
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Add to FavoritesWhen I originally wrote for this article I really and truly believed that an alcoholic could drink socially, but then I realized that no a person with a drinking problem can't drink socially. For all intense purposes a person who has a problem with alcohol cant drink socially because they want to do what everyone else is doing; they want to drink that beer or that mixed drink that smells really good and that tastes really good. And if they take as much as just a sip of that alcohol laden drink they could end up drinking to excess and end up killing someone by getting into a vehicle and driving under the influence of alcohol.
When I orginally wrote this article, I truly believed that everyone has the potential to do whatever they want. That even an alcoholic could go to a bar or a club and drink and have the potential to limit their drinking. But, when you think about it, an alcoholic is always an alcoholic. They will never ever change that, because an alcoholic will always have that genetic disposition or that learned behavior that will always influence their drinking abilities.
He can't get away from the problem, it will always be there. An alcoholic can go out to clubs and bars and drink water, soda, or those drinks that smell and taste just like alcohol drinks, but he can't even take a sip of beer, or a mixed drink because his brain will suddenly fire up and crave more of the alcohol.
Alcoholics Anounymous tells people that once they find out that they are alcoholic they will also be alcoholics. It is a lifelong disease. An alcoholic can't just wake up one morning and say "I'm cured, I no longer am an alcoholic." It is a disease that they will have to live with all of their lives. The best thing an alcoholic can do is change his or her patterns and stop hanging out at the places he used to drink. That way tempatation is kept at bay.
An alcoholic actually has to learn how to live without drinking so that he can live a normal life, free of the bad stuff. An alcholic actually has to go through couseling and may have to have another reformed person follow him for awhile to make certain the he doesn't hit the proverbial bottle again. He has to go through intense therapy to learn how to change his life and the patterns of his daily existence to do things differenly. You may have a pwerson that every day after work for years was going to a local bar and getting drunk. Through therapy he learned to go home and eat a healthy dinner, talk to his family, and go for a walk with his wife and play with the kids.
The alcoholic might just have too much stress in his life and he has to learn how to deal with that stress rather than tipping back a few. Therapy can help an alcoholic deal with those problems and he can learn how to thrive in ordinary society.
So, no an alcoholic can't drink alcohol in a social setting becasue he will be too tempted to keep up with everyone else and get drunk. He will get that one taste of alcohol and want more because his brain is wired to be an alcoholic. An alcoholic is always an alcoholic, and with therapy he can learn to not drink and to deal with stress and life in other ways than drinking.
Learn more about this author, Kate Johns.
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No
Can an alcoholic ever drink again socially? If the person is a real alcoholic, and not just a heavy drinker, then absolutely not-unless the person wants to go back into addiction.
To explain why this is the case, it's important to understand a bit more about the nature of alcoholism, which is a perplexing disease that affects millions of people worldwide.
First, alcoholism afflicts people from all races, socioeconomic backgrounds, religions and nationalities. It has its grip on people in their early teens as well as on great-grandfathers who are in their 80s.
Some alcoholics have a long history of drinking before they cross the line into full-blown addiction; others are affected early in life, even upon taking their first drink.
No matter what the circumstances, the one thing that all alcoholics share in common is that they can no longer safely drink alcohol again under any circumstances. They should not have even a sip of a drink, far less several of them.
Even one drink can cause an alcoholic to start drinking uncontrollably, and often for long periods of time. An alcoholic is completely powerless when it comes to alcohol, and must commit to getting through each day without touching alcohol, no matter what the day may bring.
To explain why this is the case, it is necessary to better define the nature of this terrible disease. First and foremost, know that addiction is very hard to grasp from a rational level.
After all, if you know that a behavior will harm you, why not stop engaging in this behavior? Why not use some self-control?
We have to apply discipline in many areas of our lives, so why not in this area? It seems pretty logical and simple for those who are not addicts.
The thing about alcoholism, though, is that it defies common sense and logic. It manifests itself in people in two ways. First, there is a physical component.
When someone has crossed the line into full-blown alcoholism, he will experience a strong physical allergy if he intakes alcohol. This allergy is an abnormal reaction to the liquor or beer.
It's similar in many ways to other allergies. If you are allergic to peanuts, for example, and accidentally take a bite of a Chinese dish that contains them, then you soon may break out into hives.
Someone without this allergy will just enjoy a good take-out dinner. You, on the other hand, will be in for a very uncomfortable experience. As a result, you avoid peanuts whenever possible.
An alcoholic who takes a drink also has an adverse reaction. His brain reacts to the alcohol in a way that makes it instantly impossible for him to stop drinking until he is good and drunk. His allergy then causes him to want more alcohol the next day and so on.
Have you ever suspected someone you know has a drinking problem? If so, you may notice that this tortured soul may drink much more rapidly than others, gets buzzed faster than anyone else, or perhaps drinks in excess but never seems drunk.
All of these things can be signs of alcoholism. Don't confuse this, though, with a heavy binge drinker. While both may have abuse around alcohol, an alcoholic literally cannot stop drinking once he gets going.
In addition to the physical allergy, the second component of this disease is a mental one. An alcoholic has a mental obsession around drinking. No matter how rational he may seem in other ways, his mind is constantly thinking about drinking, and it often tells lies to him.
One lie could be that it's okay to have just one drink. Another could be that he does not really have a drinking problem. He is just going through hard times. Who wouldn't drink under such circumstances?
Being that the alcoholic's mind is telling him it is okay to drink and that his body absolutely cannot handle it, you can perhaps better understand the vicious cycle that addicts often engage in: on the wagon one day, off the wagon the next month. This can happen over and over again.
Hopefully, this gives you a high-level understanding of the very complex disease of alcoholism. While it is a very tough disorder to battle, there are many successful programs of recovery, with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) being one of the better known.
AA offers a plan of recovery based on dealing with both the physical and mental components of alcoholism. And, this program clearly reinforces that it is never okay for an alcoholic who wants to get well to ever drink again.
Learn more about this author, Ann E. Smith.
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