There are thousands, maybe even millions of stories about alcohol addiction and how it has negatively affected people’s lives, both in the short term and in the long term. The truth is, life’s too short for alcohol addicts in general, although many of them don’t realize the harm they’re doing to their bodies while they’re using. In fact, in many cases, what started out as occasional alcohol use quickly transitioned into alcohol abuse and became an addiction. Once that addiction took hold, they felt powerless against it. Perhaps you can relate because that’s exactly how you’re feeling.
Fortunately, alcohol addiction treatment can help you break the cycle of addiction and work toward recovery. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of alcohol addiction help, and then we’ll talk about some the consequences of alcohol addiction as a way to demonstrate a need for treatment.
Alcohol Addiction Treatment
When you first started drinking, whether you were thirteen or fifty-three, it seemed relatively harmless. Most people start drinking for similar reasons. For young people, they drink to be thought of as “cool.” As you get older, you drink as a way to relax or wind down after a long day, or you drink to be sociable with your friends. Eventually, your drinking started to become more regular. You started looking forward to the weekends because it meant you were able to drink freely. You might have quickly started adding in a beer or a glass of wine after work to help you transition from the office to home.
Over time, this behavior became alcohol abuse, and it wasn’t long before it became an addiction.
Alcohol addiction treatment works by first requiring abstinence. You must be willing to make a change in your life. This is the most important step. Once you’ve committed to making changes, you can begin working on ways to handle the withdrawal you might feel from not drinking. Eventually, you’ll begin to dig deeper into the reasons behind your alcohol addiction.
As you can imagine, this is usually a hard process. You might have spent years retreating from your feelings and using alcohol to help you cope. Without alcohol, you need to develop coping mechanisms to use in its place. Alcohol addiction help with provide those for you.
Negative Effects of Alcohol Addiction
Life can be very short for alcohol addicts for a number of reasons. Every year, alcoholism is responsible for:
- Suicides
- Deaths resulting from motor vehicle crashes
- Deaths due to increasing numbers of people with liver disease
- Heart attacks
- Breast cancer in women
In addition, alcohol causes a significant number of injuries every year, either due to drunk driving or due to domestic violence or sexual abuse.
It’s clear that alcohol addiction is a very serious problem, but many people are on the fence about getting the help that they so desperately need. For most of them, if not all of them, denial is a factor. They don’t feel that they really have a problem. They think that alcohol isn’t illegal, so their addiction can’t really be all that wrong can it?
It’s incredible how the addictive mind thinks. However, perhaps you’re reading this and you can relate because you’ve had some of the same thoughts. Experts have indicated that alcoholics can expect to live up to thirty years less than those who are not addicted to alcohol. You might be fortunate enough to beat the odds, but you might also be one of the people who die much earlier.
If you would like to talk to me about alcohol addiction treatment, please contact me.
