Alcohol addiction is often referred to as an illness due to the impact that it causes on both the body and the mind.
Identifying whether a loved one or yourself has an alcohol addiction can be difficult to determine as excessive alcohol drinking has become engrained into UK culture. With its easy accessibility and causal approach amongst the population, casually drinking alcohol can easily become a slippery slope and turn into an addiction that takes over your day-to-to-day life.
We help you understand what alcohol addiction can have on your health and overall wellbeing, and how the best way to overcome an alcohol addiction.
Definition of Alcohol Addiction
To have an ‘alcohol addiction’ is to have an inability to stop or control alcohol consumption. Being addicted to alcohol often entails the inability to function without a drink during day-to-day activities and excessively drinking without the control to stop, despite warnings.
Is alcohol addiction the same as alcohol dependency?
The two terms ‘alcohol addiction’ and ‘alcohol dependency’ are often used similarly, and rightly so as they both refer to an individual’s excessive alcohol consumption.
However, to be ‘dependent’ on alcohol can be used to refer to someone’s reliance on alcohol to help them get them through their day. On the other hand, to be ‘addicted’ to alcohol implies a higher level of desire to drink alcohol and is often seen by professionals as a much more serious condition which requires treatment.
How Can an Alcohol Addiction Begin?
The most worrying part about alcohol addiction is that it can creep up on anyone without warning due to the casual connotations of drinking alcohol, especially in the United Kingdom.
A casual drinking culture in the UK means that teenagers from the age of 16+ are introduced to drinking alcohol at such an early age. This can lead to irresponsible alcohol consumption and begin learned behaviours that can last throughout their lives.
Alcohol is often used as a sedative to take the edge off of things, whether it’s something as minor as a tough day at work, to more serious situations such as a breakdown in relationship or to eradicate crippling anxiety during social interactions. As alcohol helps slow our heart rate to calm us down, as well as help ease our inhibitions, it can be favourable to drink during times of deprevation.
However, this can lead to both casual drinking throughout the week and excessive or ‘binge’ drinking on the weekend. Combined this can have devastating impacts on an individual’s health and wellbeing, affecting their own lives and the people around them.
Is Alcohol Addiction a Problem in the UK?
The National Health Service report that more than 7.5 million people in the UK show signs of alcohol dependence or misuse, showing that there is a serious problem with alcohol use in the UK.
Furthermore, according to Alcohol Change, there are an estimated 602,391 people living in the UK who are dependent on drinking alcohol but just 18% are receiving treatment for their addiction. This suggests that people suffering with an alcohol addiction are not being made aware of their substance issue, or refuse to receive help.
A growing number in alcohol misuse and lack of treatment indicates a serious ongoing issue in the UK with alcohol addiction that needs to be addressed.
Key Signs of Alcohol Addiction
If an individual has an alcohol addiction, then there are usually key signs that you should look out for and intervene, to avoid their condition worsening.
Key signs of alcohol addiction that you should look out for includes:
- Excessively drinking during social activities
- Casually drinking throughout the week
- Arguing with loved ones about their drinking
- Finding any excuse to drink alcohol with meals or watching the television
- Choosing higher alcohol options as opposed to lower alcohol options
Health Impacts of Alcohol Addiction
Excessively drinking alcohol over a long period of time can have a significant health impact that can lead to long term issues. Affecting both the body and the mind, alcohol addiction can inflict devastation to the individual and their families.
Physical impacts of alcohol addiction
Alcohol addiction can cause serious health concerns that affect all major organs, including the brain, liver, heart, and lungs.
Long-term damage can cause high blood pressure in the body, as well as affecting major organs in the body that can lead to life-threatening illnesses. This includes liver diseases, cancer, heart failure or stroke.
Psychological impacts of alcohol addiction
Often consumed to have positive psychological impacts such as enhanced confidence, less stress and good sleep, excessive drinking can cause adverse effects to an individual’s psyche. When someone with an alcohol addiction drinks then their sertraline spikes, however once they aren’t their sertraline plummets and this can have a detrimental impact on someone’s mind.
Alcohol addiction can often cause people to suffer with serious mental health issues including anxiety and depression, insomnia, and unpredictable mood swings. This can seriously impact their overall quality of life, affecting how they view themselves and causing breakdowns of relationships with partners and family members.
How Is Alcohol Addiction Treated?
To overcome an alcohol addiction, an individual must undergo intensive rehabilitation that helps them unlearn their behaviours and understand the causes for their alcohol addiction. Without the knowledge to understand why you act the way you do, and learning techniques to prevent triggers from causing alcohol consumption, it’s difficult to overcome a substance addiction.
Rehabilitation for Alcohol Addiction
Rehabilitation is a proven, effective way to treat alcohol addiction and prevent an individual from relapsing in the future. Designed to take individuals out of their usual environment and let them focus on their recovery, rehabilitation is the most popular way for addicts to get clean and change their lives for the better.
Detoxification
Immediate withdrawal from alcohol, if excessively consumed over a long period, causes serious withdrawal symptoms that can affect an individual both physically and mentally.
As well as causing vomiting and headaches, detoxing can cause an individual to be irritable, experience mood swings and trouble sleeping. This can often be the toughest part of beating an alcohol addiction and causes most individuals to relapse early on in their recovery journey.
When attending inpatient rehabilitation, a medical team will medically supervise a recovering alcohol addict during the detoxification process to observe their symptoms and help ease them. The detox process usually lasts between 9 and 12 days before alcohol withdrawal symptoms cease.
Therapy and Treatments
As part of an intensive rehabilitation programme, individuals take part in therapy and treatments that help them learn more about their addiction and manage their behaviour. Most medical professionals in rehab use CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) which is proven to help treat addiction and prevent future relapse. These therapy sessions can be in different forms, including group and individual sessions.
References
- [1] Alcohol Change - https://alcoholchange.org.uk/alcohol-facts/fact-sheets/alcohol-statistics
Seth is an author, addiction recovery expert and fully accredited member of the national counselling society. He has experience working with a wide range of addictions and mental illnesses using a number of evidence-based therapies and programmes such as the SMART models of addiction recovery.
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