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What is alcoholism?
The American Medical Association (AMA) defines alcoholism as an illness or disease. Cancer Web's medical dictionary defines alcoholism as a disorder characterized by a pathological pattern of alcohol use that causes a serious impairment in social or occupational functioning. A disease is medically defined as an alteration of the state of the body or some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing the performance of vital functions, and causing or threatening pain or weakness.
The important thing to note is that alcoholism is not a lifestyle choice. It is a disease, an actual impairment of the body's health that prevents the person from functioning normally and causes not only pain to the alcoholic but also to family and friends.
A few things must be understood to fight and beat the disease:
- Alcoholism is chronic. It can last a lifetime without help and treatment.
- Alcoholism is progressive. It will not get better with time and it will not go away. It gets progressively worse and an alcoholic can relapse with only a single drink even after an extended period of sobriety.
- Alcoholism is incurable. A patient recovered from alcoholism can never go back to "normal" drinking. A "normal" life may resume but only with the permanent and complete abstinence from alcoholic consumption.
- Alcoholism results in loss of control. Once a drink is taken after sobriety, the alcoholic cannot control nor predict whether the drinking will be "normal" or "abnormal." The alcohol controls the alcoholic -- not vice versa.
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