Man’s need for intoxication is as old as mankind itself and alcohol has had a significant impact on human society, an impact that no-one could have initially predicted. What started out as a drink that was often prevalent only at the best parties and at religious events, soon took on a life of its own. As people consumed alcohol, they realised that alcoholic drinks that could transport them far away from their daily troubles.
When civilisation first became civilised enough to begin to keep a record of events they recorded what was estimated to be around 10% of the population responding differently to crushed grapes (alcohol abuse). This 10% abused alcohol despite the negative consequences associated with excessive drinking. It’s interesting to note that the WHO (World Health Organisation estimates that the same 10% percentage of people abuse alcohol today.
While many people can certainly handle the intoxicating effects from drinking alcohol in a responsible manner, the continued consumption of alcohol proved to be highly addictive for some people. A change happened in these individuals, changing their intentions from wanting to drink alcohol to feeling they needed to. This abuse of alcohol not only leads to health complications but has the potential to become a full fledged alcohol dependency or addiction. This will hurt and perhaps destroy not only the life of the alcoholic but also of those close to him or her. Once a person’s alcohol abuse has reached this stage effective alcohol abuse treatment is needed.
For many years alcohol abuse treatment was not understood by the general public. People seemed to think it was simply the bad elements of society that were too weak to take control of their own lives and control their alcohol intake. People that abused alcohol were for many years not given the support they required for alcohol recovery but were rather shunned by society. Some were even locked up in mental institutes sharing room with patients suffering from schizophrenia, simply because this disease was not understood.
Luckily the way we understand alcohol problems has changed significantly and today successful alcohol abuse treatment is more of a reality than ever before. Today we understand the fact that when addiction kicks in, certain changes occur in the brain. At first people might have used alcohol to enjoy themselves socially to medicate illness and to feel more relaxed but once addicted people drink because they have a brain disease and to ward off alcohol withdrawal.
Willpower alone is often not enough to overcome this addiction – a support structure is fundamental for effective alcohol abuse treatment.
At We do Recover we can provide you with free information on a select group of private treatment centres in the UK, South Africa and Thailand.
Contact us for more information on effective treatment for the individual.