Alcoholics Anonymous describes alcoholism as a "two fold illness" of body and mind.

The first part of the illness is a craving for more liquor after one drink, a physical craving that the body has no ability to control. It is similar to a person breaking out in hives or swelling up after eating a peanut if they have a peanut allergy. Physically we simply do not have the body it would take to only have one drink and then move on as if it weren't that big of a deal.

The second part is a mental obsession, where even if we force ourselves to have one drink, faking like we don't want another, mentally we are wanting that drink so bad we are going to get it, if we have to hide it, or drinking it shamefully after proclaiming we can just have one, which we can't.

The literature in alcoholics anonymous says if you have lost the power to have control over the amount when drinking, you're probably alcoholic. After identifying that, the literature and the fellowship then help the alcoholic to understand the thinking that proceeds the mental state before choosing to drink again, and helps us to never take that first drink, simply because if we do, we break out in "needing more."

I don’t know if you are alcoholic or not - only you can determine that.

But if people have been joking with you for years about it, you may want to take notice.

Many alcoholics drank happy or sad.

Normal drinkers have 1-2 and get sleepy and decide to stop and go home

Alcoholics have one and immediately want another and end up drinking too much, doing stupid things, regretting it, and then doing it all over again the next day.

The brain is different when alcohol is involved. The alcoholic has a desire for the ease and comfort of a drink. Thing is the level of booze needed of the same feeling is increased by the increase in tolerance. So what one drink did, then takes two, then three, then four. At my last drinking weekend I drank a 12 pack and a bottle.

I finally had enough. I was tired of constantly being that guy that was in trouble. I decided to get help. See I tried quitting a million times a million times I went straight back in the bottle. One Sunday I went to a meeting of others who had alcoholism. I found a hope that if they could live happy w/o booze maybe I could too. That was over 5 years ago.

The alcoholic has a fierce independence and that is one reason we become so reliant upon booze. It works in making the world ok. Problem is we are just sticking our head in the sand. There is hope for a life free of the bottle. Go get it

1is2many

You wouldn't have liked what I wrote and then erased so let me leave you with this and you can judge for yourself:

https://www.ncadd.org/get-help/take-the-test/am-i-alcoholic-self-test

God Bless

Quite often those around us know we’re alcoholic before we accept we are ourselves......
acceptance let it be your first step x