Alcoholism, also known as alcohol addiction or alcohol dependence, is a disease that includes the following four major symptoms:
Loss of control–Not being able to stop drinking, or stick to limits, once drinking has begun.
Craving–A compelling strong desire, or urge, to drink.
Physical dependence–Withdrawal symptoms, such as sickness, sweats, tremors or shakiness, and anxiety after stopping drinking.
Tolerance–The need to drink greater amounts of alcohol to get “high.” Or, in drinking the same amount of alcohol over time, less effect is noted.
Formal diagnostic criteria for alcoholism also have been developed. Such criteria are included in the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, (DSM-IV) published by the American Psychiatric Association, as well as in the International Classification Diseases, published by the World Health Organization.
For more information on alcoholism visit our alcoholism FAQ page.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I have often seen the claim that the World Health Organization has declared alcoholism to be a disease, but I have yet to find any substantiation. Can you cite a reference or link?
Here’s what I found on WHO’s website:
alcoholism, disease concept of, The belief that alcoholism is a condition of primary biological causation and predictable natural history, conforming to accepted definitions of a disease. They lay perspective of Alcoholics Anonymous (1939)-that alcoholism, characterized by the individual’s loss of control over drinking and thus over his or her life, was a “sickness”-was carried into the scholarly literature in the 1950s in the form of the disease concept of alcoholism. The concept was rooted in 19th-century medical and lay conceptions of inebriety as a disease. In 1977, a WHO Group of Investigators* responding to the loose and varying usage of alcoholism, proposed substituting the term alcohol dependence syndrome in psychiatric nosology. By analogy
*Edwards G et al. Alcohol-related disabilities. Geneva. World Health Organization, 1977 (WHO Offset Publication. No.32).1 with drug dependence, alcohol dependence has found general acceptance in current nosologies.
I personally do not believe that alcoholism should be labeled as a disease. In my mind that gives people an easy way out. i.e. Once a “disease” is given a name then the person can actually blame the problem and not themselves. ( I have a cold) AND that is where the problem is.
The abuser has to take their own responsibility, see the damage that is being caused by their actions and their actions alone.
I did not catch a a virus!! I decided one day to start drinking in the early afternoon… Then in the morning… and somehow I justified this by being in an abusive marriage!
It was only when I decided that I can accomplish anything that I set out to do, AND do a good job at it did I discover that I can also STOP and put down the bottle. Going to the 12 step programs did not help me….
“Hello… My name is Lori and I am an alcoholic” … The only thing this did was to reaffirm the fact that I could blame someone/something else and not myself.
In essence – I picked up the bottle… and then…
I put down the bottle. AND the only thing that matters is that … believe me… If I can do that …
SO CAN YOU!!!
And for an extra added bonus…
Ready??
YOU will feel better… 24/7…
Oh yes you will… Trust me! —
Lori…