Can an Alcoholic Go Back to Normal Drinking?
Posted: Friday, August 01, 2008
by Eric King
Can a person who has developed an addiction to alcohol turn back the clock and resume normal or controlled drinking?
Here is the difference between a social drinker and a drinker who is actually addicted to alcohol:
Social Drinker
A social drinker drinks alcohol on occasion, but drinking does not continually occupy their thoughts. He or she can enjoy a drink or two - drinking or not drinking is never an issue. Leaving a half finished drink does not bother them even remotely. There are no negative consequences or problems caused as a result of their drinking. There is no loss of control in their actions while they are drinking. Neither family nor friends have any reason to express concern about the drinking patterns of a social drinker.
Usage has progressed to the point where some negative consequences occur. A prime example is getting a DUI or getting involved in other legal problems, possibly an assault charge. There is no question that alcohol was abused and a serious consequence occurred that was actually a personal and devastating compromise of the standards of the drinker. A night in jail for someone who, if it wasn't for alcohol, would never have seen the inside of a jail cell.
Drinking starts to occupy your thoughts more frequently now, looking forward to and constantly planning the next drink. Drinking is starting to interfere with family obligations, social obligations, and work.
The problem drinker no longer has the ability to set limits on his or her drinking and stick to them. This differs significantly from the social user who requires no limits at all. When the alcoholic picks up a drink, he or she can't guarantee anything. All bets are off.
Alcoholism and Alcohol Addiction
The primary characteristic of alcoholism is the loss of control over drinking. By definition, an alcoholic cannot return to controlled drinking.
One of the dreams of an alcoholic is to be able to go back to social drinking. You'd have to be an alcoholic to have that kind of dream. Social drinkers don't think in those terms.
In addition to loss of control, there is a development of tolerance, withdrawal, and drinking more over longer periods than we had intended. A prime characteristic is that an alcoholic cannot quit despite the most sincere efforts to do so, and they continue to drink and continue to experience these negative consequences.
Can an alcoholic regain control over his or her drinking? The answer is and will always be no. In fact, most alcoholics may abstain for some time and when they go back to drinking will either make up for lost time by drinking with a vengeance, or start out drinking less for a very short period, but will be right back to the volume and frequency of drinking they were engaging in prior to their success in stopping for that short time.
One reason may be in no small part due to changes in the brain. There are significant differences between the brain scan of a normal person and a brain scan of an alcoholic.
In the end, once a person has become addicted to alcohol, the chances of them being able to return to normal drinking is probably nil. Most alcoholics will put this to the test many times and the results will be that short-term you can drink like a normal person, but it is really just a matter of time before you find yourself returning to your old drinking pattern.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Being an self admitted alcoholic the answer is that you can never safely pick up a drink again.. I really wanted to know what do "normal =" people think in terms of drinking so i could compare that to my own thoughts on the subject
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