By: Michael Russell
Alcohol is one of those addictions that unfortunately starts off very early in a person's life. Most people who become addicted to alcohol have addictive personalities to begin with but usually it takes more than that to send them over the edge to a full blown drinking problem. We're going to examine some of the factors involved in turning someone into an alcoholic.
Most people who start drinking begin to do so when they are very young, even under legal drinking age. This happens when older friends sneak alcoholic beverages into parties. At first the youth will just have a couple of drinks. After the party is over this person may not drink again for months until the next party. Then, after a while, they begin to realize that when they are drinking they feel pretty good. They usually haven't begun heavy drinking yet, but when legal age hits they may hit a bar on the weekends as a regular routine. Still, they aren't even close to becoming an alcoholic.
Unfortunately, the real problems don't begin until things either go wrong or the person is put into a situation where they are around alcohol a lot. Let's examine the latter first.
A common problem as a youth is that many young people love the idea of playing in a band. We've all had fantasies of being in a big rock band. Many of these kids actually pursue this dream. Unfortunately, most bands start off playing at bars. That is pretty much the norm. Most bands will play as much as three times a week. This places them in the presence of alcohol on a regular basis. If you're playing in a band then you know that you play multiple sets in a night and the only thing to do in between sets is to sit around and drink, especially if you're trying to impress the groupies. After doing this routine for a while it is very easy to get into the habit of drinking constantly. It doesn't happen overnight but in many cases it does happen. The only difference between early on and later drinking is that the music has stopped, unless you're the Rolling Stones, but the drinking hasn't.
The even more tragic onset of alcoholic behavior is when a person's life takes a drastic turn for the worse. Usually this kid who has already started drinking socially will have something terrible happen like the loss of a parent. Maybe the kid had a bad romantic breakup. The number of terrible things that we are subjected to in life are too numerous to get into and it only takes one event to put a social drinker with an addictive personality over the edge into full blown alcoholism. For these people, drinking is an escape. They drink because they feel bad and want to feel good again.
As the late John Spencer, a recovering alcoholic at the time said on a great episode of West Wing, "I don't understand people who take only one drink. I don't understand people who can leave a half a glass of scotch. How can you only take one drink? How can you not want to feel like this longer?"
Of course there are those people who are alcoholics because their mother or father was an alcoholic. Yes, alcoholism is inherited.
This is one of the worst addictions there is and can only be treated with professional help such as AA. There is hope for an alcoholic.
