Alcoholism : A Four Stage Disease
Alcoholism is one of the most common progressive degenerative diseases that affect a major portion of the population of the United States. Alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost American taxpayers about $220 billion dollars in the year 2005. However, not all alcoholism is the same. There are four different of alcoholism stages and if a person can understand these alcoholism stages, then they can learn how to recognize the signs of alcohol abuse in themselves or in their love ones and get help.
The First Stage of alcoholism stages is the stage were drinking alcohol is no longer a common social interaction and becomes a way for the person to psychological escape from their problems, inhibitions, and stress. This means that a person starts to develop a dependence on alcohol in order to affect their moods. Here is a list of classic stage one alcoholism signs: gross drinking behavior, increasing tolerance to alcoholic beverages, can drink a large amount of alcohol without any impairment, will seek out more opportunities to engage in drinking, and their drinking is not a social action but more of a psychological escape from stress and problems.
The Second Stage of alcoholism stages is more intense than the first, since the person who is drinking starts to drink earlier in the day and their tolerance for alcohol increases. At this stage, the alcoholic drinks not because of a physiological dependence but now she or he has become more physically depended on the alcoholic drink. There is a sense of control loss, which will be increasing observed by other individuals who are close to the second state alcoholic. The person who is drinking may start to feel a sense of shame and worry about their drinking. During this stage, drinkers start to deny their problems. The list of behaviors of a stage two alcoholic is: increasing blackouts, denial, higher level of tolerance, has sporadic feelings of loss of control, chronic hangovers, and has an unsuccessful attempt trying to stop drinking.
The Third Stage of Alcoholism stages is that the feeling of control loss is more and more overwhelming. The person who is drinking cannot act on any of her or his intentions and can no longer stop themselves from drinking. At this stage, they will start to experience broken relationships, financial problems, and bad work-related stresses. Also, the person starts to lose focus on things that are truly important to them and things that relate to their physical survival (like food and shelter) will become less important. The signs of third stage of alcoholism are increasing tremors, loss of interests, physical deterioration, violent or destructive behaviors develop or increase in frequency, and they start to create an alibi system by make excuses for their drinking.
The Fourth and Final Stage of Alcoholism stages is a complete loss of control. This is the deadliest of the stages because the person could end up killing themselves or harming others if nothing is done to intervene. The signs in this critical stage are: persistent remorse, moral deterioration, indefinable fears, alcoholic psychosis, obsessed with drinking, and complete loss of control.
Therefore, people who drink or are drinking need to be aware of the warning signs of each Alcoholism stages so that they can receive help because if they don’t then they may be putting the lives of themselves and others at high risk.