What is alcoholism?
Alcoholism is a disease that includes a craving to drink alcohol coupled with a mental obsession to persist in drinking alcohol despite the negative consequences it creates or makes worse.
These alcohol related problems may include poor health, loss of job, relationship problems and financial difficulty. Alcoholism is known clinically as “alcohol dependence”.
With alcoholism, the craving to drink is so strong that the person cannot stop themselves drinking. All alcohol addictions is characterised by 2 features, a mental obsession and a physical compulsion.
The craving to keep drinking alcohol is as strong as a starving persons need for food. Alcoholism has many physical withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, shakiness, sweating, and anxiety.
Alcoholism is a harmful disease, but it can be dangerous to stop drinking without medical supervision.