At first thought to be a moral issue, Alcoholism’s cause or causes have been theorized in many different ways over the years. The most recent definition from the combined efforts of the National Council of Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and The American Society of Addiction Medicine states the following: “…a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations the disease is often progressive and fatal.” The definition continues to characterize abuse as, “…continuous or periodic impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial.”
Scary as this reads it is still not one hundred percent clear why some people abuse alcohol or become addicted while others do not. A person with alcoholism in his or her family does not necessarily mean the progressive disease will pass on to the child. Adversely, a child with no family history of alcoholism can become dependent.
However, whatever the cause or causes getting the proper help through a detox and rehab treatment center for alcoholism or drug addiction is a wise decision.
The most common theory quickly losing ground as of late is that alcoholism is caused by moral weakness. In essence if the alcoholic could just use some will power he or she could stop using easily. Because of the variances in use and abuse of alcohol like: variety of patterns; episodic, binging, and daily drinking; available choices, hard liquor, beer, and wine; and quantities consumed, small sips, few glasses of wine with meals, or a fifth, it is sometimes easier to focus on the differences instead of on what matters. The focus should primarily be on the consequences of the uncontrolled drinking. In most cases though, once the consequences become too much for the addict to cope with they will find some form of formal alcohol detox treatment.