Author: Charles Frank

The Cycle of Alcohol Addiction National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA

With continued alcohol use, your brain starts firing neurotransmitters even when you anticipate drinking alcohol. You begin to receive pleasure signals just by thinking about drinking or being in a situation or around people that remind you of drinking. This is a key reason why it’s so hard to resist alcohol once you have a problem. The quick answer is that with continued alcohol abuse, your brain thinks you need alcohol to survive.

As tolerance builds, an individual may need more alcohol to achieve the same effects, increasing their risk of becoming physically dependent on alcohol. Following alcohol addiction treatment, you’ll want to have resources in place that support long-term recovery. Your treatment staff will help create an aftercare plan that will do just that. Hiding or lying about your drinking habits is a sign of addiction. You may lie to family and friends and even your doctor about your alcohol consumption.

Stages of the Addiction Cycle

To help clinicians prevent alcohol-related harm in adolescents, NIAAA developed a clinician’s guide that provides a quick and effective screening tool (see Resources below). Because denial is common, you may feel like you don’t have a problem with drinking. You might not recognize how much you drink or how many problems in your life are related to alcohol use. Listen to relatives, friends or co-workers when they ask you to examine your drinking habits or to seek help.

A key sign of alcohol abuse and addiction is developing a tolerance to its effects. Like with other substances, alcohol is addictive and you may be chasing that original drunk. For example, people with anxiety may like the way the sedating effects of alcohol temporarily ease their symptoms. The problem is, in the long run, heavy alcohol use actually exacerbates anxiety. Having a genetic predisposition to alcohol addiction doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll become an alcoholic, but it can make you more susceptible to environmental triggers to abuse substances.

The changes can endure long after a person stops consuming alcohol, and can contribute to relapse in drinking. You can promote healthy changes in the brains and behaviors of patients with AUD by encouraging them to take a long-term, science-based approach to getting better. For practical, evidence-based tips on supporting your patients with AUD, see the Core articles on treatment, referral, and recovery. During acute and protracted withdrawal, a profound negative emotional state evolves, termed hyperkatifeia (hyper-kuh-TEE-fee-uh). These brain changes related to excessive alcohol use underlie many AUD symptoms. Whether you start with a residential program or outpatient program, you should never try to stop heavy drinking without medical help.

When this happens, you may find yourself needing to continue using alcohol to avoid withdrawal symptoms, a phenomenon known as dependence. Over time, you may develop tolerance, requiring more of the substance to achieve the same effect. In this type of treatment, you live at an addiction treatment center, attend programming during the day, and participate in recovery activities in the evenings. This provides 24/7 recovery support and distance from triggers to drink.

How Do You Treat Alcohol Addiction?

You may need inpatient medical (hospital), residential rehabilitation (rehab), outpatient intensive therapy or outpatient maintenance. At Crest View Recovery Center, we will help you reach the height of sobriety. We combine our education and expertise with our empathy to provide the highest quality addiction treatment in this region. Crest View Recovery Center is here to help you start your journey toward a healthier, sober life. With a dedicated team of professionals and a comprehensive approach to recovery, we provide the tools and support needed for successful long-term sobriety.

1. With all alcoholic beverages, drinking while driving, operating an aircraft or heavy machinery increases the risk of an accident; many countries have penalties for drunk driving.
2. You may lie to family and friends and even your doctor about your alcohol consumption.
3. Alcohol and drug addiction can also cause or intensify mental health symptoms.
4. This indicates that they are developing a tolerance to alcohol, one of the warning signs of an issue.
5. Alcohol is a psychoactive substance often found in beverages such as beer, wine, and spirits.

This final stage is when loved ones usually know for certain that there is a problem. At this stage, the person themselves most likely realize it too. During this final stage of alcoholism, it is imperative the person seek help and stop drinking. However, what’s important to understand and educate more people about are the early stages of alcohol use disorder.

Impact on your health

There are several types of alcohol, each with its unique characteristics. Beers are typically light in alcohol content, while wines offer a moderate amount. Spirits like vodka, whiskey, and rum contain the highest alcohol concentration. Footprints’ treatment teams are highly experienced addiction professionals who are passionate about their work and your recovery. The WHO calls alcoholism “a term of long-standing use and variable meaning”, and use of the term was disfavored by a 1979 WHO expert committee. The sooner you recognize there may be a problem and talk to your healthcare provider, the better your recovery chances.

It’s a disease of brain function and requires medical and psychological treatments to control it. Too much alcohol affects your speech, muscle coordination and vital centers of your brain. A heavy drinking binge may even cause a life-threatening coma or death. This is of particular concern when you’re taking certain medications that also depress the brain’s function. Don’t wait to get the alcohol addiction treatment you need to take back your life.

Although someone may have the intention to stop, alcohol can compromise impulse control and decision making, which makes relapse more likely. What starts as alcohol abuse can quickly and easily change to alcohol dependence. Alcohol use disorder (sometimes called alcoholism) is a medical condition.

Casual drinking habits can quickly turn into alcoholism under certain circumstances. The social acceptance of alcohol can mask an alcohol problem for a while. In the early stages of alcohol abuse, you may be able to hide excessive drinking from loved ones, friends, and coworkers, but it becomes harder and harder to hide the problem.

Long-term alcohol addiction can lead to various serious physical and psychological effects. Physically, chronic alcohol use can damage nearly every organ in the body, with particularly detrimental effects on the liver, heart, and brain. Prolonged and heavy drinking often results in conditions such as liver disease, cardiovascular issues, and neurological damage. Drinking alcohol causes your brain to release dopamine and more endorphins.