People who drink too much had to go through various stages to get to where they are. No one who is having a battle with alcoholism wanted to become addicted to the substance. Not only are there different stages of the disease, but we see varying descriptions of people who drink too much as well.
No matter if you know a social alcoholic, a functioning alcoholic or a skid row low-bottom drunk, they all passed through a certain process to get to where they are now.
So, when did it all start anyway?
Many people in AA meetings testify that the day they started chasing after a drink was when they experienced how alcohol helped them interact socially with others. They share about how in one moment they were uncomfortable around the people they were with and a couple of drinks later they were the life of the party.
This seems to be stage one for most people. Alcohol has a way of taking an introvert and converting them into an extrovert within a couple of hours. Having a drink seems to take the “edge” off of uncomfortable situations in life, so to speak.
These types of experiences usually happen at an early age. During the youthful years when we are trying to discover who we are and how we can better fit in with those around us is where the addiction generally begins.
Most people who participate in support group meetings, in the AA program, confess that they were different from the other kids. While many of their friends were fine with not drinking anything else, they were the ones who always wanted to drink all that was left and then get more. Then, through a series of stages they finally hit rock bottom years later and asked for help.
You may be wondering why some people become alcoholics and others do not. I believe that the answer to that question is found in the ongoing debate about alcoholism being a disease.
Without getting too far-off topic, medical research has proven that alcoholism is a disease in relation to the way certain people’s brains operate. One brain gets a taste of the substance and “can” live without it, but another brain tastes it and “cannot” quit thinking about how awesome that drink was. It is a thinking disorder that an addict has no control over once the brain is stimulated, therefore, it’s considered a disease in the medical field.
So, this is why the AA program is so powerful. People learn how to recognize the triggers in their minds that cause them to crave alcohol and then avoid them. They also learn how to stay away from people, places and things that would stimulate their thinking patterns to turn toward craving a drink of alcohol.
Once an alcoholic gets sober and changes his or here way of thinking, they must never revert to having a drink ever again. It’s just too dangerous to flirt with.
Those who do, learn quickly that they, in-fact, have the disease called alcoholism.
In any case, during the various stages of someone becoming addicted to alcohol, the first one usually occurs when a person experiences the inhibitions leaving them after having a drink of alcohol. There is the lightheaded feeling that compels then to “think” they can accomplish anything if they just have a few drinks to “cut the edge off a little.”
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