by Stacey Smith

Created on: February 03, 2009

For anyone who isn't an alcoholic, it's probably difficult to understand the difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Many of the behaviors are the same. In both instances, individuals consume large quantities of alcohol for a multitude of different reasons; to have fun, to celebrate, to escape. But, the amount of alcohol you consume, and how often you consume it are not accurate indicators of whether or not you're an alcoholic. Sometimes, the reasons why you consume alcohol can shed some light, but not always. Alcohol abuse is an acquired bad habit, while alcoholism is a disease. Not a disease in the traditional sense of the word, but a disease nonetheless. It is a disease of the mind.

I am an alcoholic and I have spent a huge chunk of my life drinking and partying. Right before I got sober, I started drinking alone because it seemed easier and eliminated the drama I always seemed to create when I drank socially. But, if I'm completely honest, how I behaved in public didn't even really matter to me anymore. The truth is, in the end, alcohol was my one and only true love, the only thing I could count on to ease my pain and there was nothing that was more important to me than drinking. As an alcoholic, there is never enough alcohol and once I take that first drink, I can't stop. And, that is the true difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Alcoholics can't stop drinking; no matter how much we want to, no matter how many promises we make to stop, no matter how much pain and suffering we cause. We are powerless over alcohol. And, that is because we have a disease that centers in the mind.

Before I started drinking alone, I spent many crazy nights drinking with different groups of people. All of these people drank like me. We consumed horrifying amounts of alcohol on a weekly basis. We used to laugh and cringe when we estimated the amount of money we spent on booze. It was obscene. I am sober now and all of these people still drink. During the course of my fifteen year drinking career, I can probably say I drank with maybe twenty other people who were alcoholics or had some of the warning signs of alcoholism. That's twenty people out of hundreds and hundreds of people I drank with. And, the rest? They were engaging in alcohol abuse, but when the time came to stop, they were able to stop.

I went to dinner with some girl friends from high school recently. All of them had a couple of cocktails with dinner. These are the same women I used to do beer

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