by Deborah Coshun

Created on: May 29, 2009

Alcoholism is a way of life that varies from one person to another and is still a disease not fully understood by the world of medicine. I have researched alcoholism for better understanding only to find that no one really seems to be able to understand or even relate to the problem of alcoholism. My answer of yes is being written based on my relationships with various people that have all been classified as alcoholics . Some alcoholics can take a drink socially and handle it but there are those that can't so to say yes or no to the debate is classifying all alcoholics as the same which I honestly don't believe is true. There is just too much unknown about alcoholism and each alcoholic is different in his affliction to the need for alcohol.

I define an alcoholic as that person that has to have that drink everyday in order to function. An alcoholic doesn't have to get drunk but simply must have that drink to get through the day.. Alcoholism is in my ffamily history and through the years I have watched how each one behaved and reacted differently to the disease.

Some of the alcoholics I have known never drink to a point of being drunk but a drink in order to relax or function without ever showing any of the typical signs of drinking. Other alcoholics I've known take that one drink and can't stop until they pass out. I have seen family members that drink so much that you start to see their bodies deteriorate and health decline as they slowly kill themselves but don't have the ability to stop drinking. A dear friend of mine that is an alcoholic was told that if he didn't quit drinking that it would kill him and he quit cold turkey with no help and hasn't had another drink to this day. My father was an alcoholic of the type that when he took even one drink that he would go on a drinking binge for months at a time and only getting him into a rehab facility could make him stop.There are those alcoholics that simply have a change in personality that is so different from their normal behavior that goes from being an angry mean person to the opposite of a more loving person; you only see this side of the person when they drink. Over the years watching and living with these people I have seen how varying the disease of alcoholism can be.

My biggest fear of alcohol has always been that due to the family history that I would become an alcoholic so I am always very conscious of when and how much I drink. It's a good thing that in my partying

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