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What is Alcoholism?

The palpitating limbs and desiccated mouth; the cacophony and anguish thundering around in the mind; the sweats and the aches and that decaying, gastric carousel splashing about inside and threatening to erupt violently at the slightest provocation. The unsavoury traits of an alcohol hangover are a familiar and necessary evil to the denizens of drinking culture. To the majority, it is an infrequent suffering, usually in the aftermath of a birthday or Christmas party and moderation is their customary approach. Others endure this rotten ritual every weekend morning, cursing the excess of the previous night whilst the first waves of anticipation build towards the coming evening. And there are others who wake up to this scene every day and then germinate the process all over again by reaching for a beer to ease the toxic withdrawal pains of the hangover.

Of the three examples, the alcoholic may exist in the second and almost certainly in the third. Categorising individuals as ‘alcoholic’ is not always straightforward and can be complicated further by the collective usage of different terms. Binge drinker, problem drinker, alcohol dependant, alcoholic, dipsomaniac; pinning a definition to an illness with so many labels can sometimes be as difficult as pinpointing the individual in the first place. One well known alcoholism charity admits on its website that it has no formal definition for the term but makes reference to the obsessive-compulsive nature and the unrelenting craving of the sufferer.

A common method of explaining alcoholism whilst assisting individuals in evaluating their own relationship to drink is the simplistic technique of the self-assessment questionnaire. BBC Health favours this approach and offers ten questions relating to the quantity, frequency and consequences of consumption. Medical definitions of alcoholism outline the obsessive urge and enervated self-control of the problem drinker in relation to the irrationality of the act when considering the damaging consequences that stem from heavy drinking.

Recent social concern about binge drinking has highlighted another problematic area. Inconsistencies in the definition of the term are evident: traditionally binge drinking was seen as sustained consumption over a period of one or two days but health authorities and the media now commonly refer to a five drink threshold. There also appears to be a thick mist hovering over the defining ground between the binger and the alcoholic.

The detrimental emanation of alcoholism is evidently a clarion amidst the nebula of its definition.