Relevant Questions often asked about Alcohol and Alcoholism

Introduction

We offer some guidelines to the above queries, with questions to help assess a person's drinking behaviour, and its consequences for their health and personal balance.

This does not try to replace the professional work of a qualified person.

If any further information is needed, or personal consultation with us, this can be given without commitment.Make your consultation!


When can a person be considered an "alcoholic"?
We say a person has "problems with alcohol" when they continue drinking although the alcohol consumpton is interfering in a negative way with their personal, health, psychological balance, work, family or social life.

Is Alcoholism a disease?

The dependency on alcohol is, of course, a serious problem that affects the health of the person who suffers it in the fullest sense of the word.

Furthermore, it is a problem that affects one of the essential elements of the human being - freedom.

The person who develops a dependency on alcohol is losing their capacity to decide whether they will drink or not in certain situations, and is little by little losing the automatic control of her own conduct. They are losing their freedom.

We can therefore consider it a disease, because it affects the personal balance of those who suffer from it and those who surround them, and because a suitable treatment process is necessary to recover from this.

However it is not a disease that can currently "be cured" by taking certain medicines, by having a surgical operation or some by other medical procedure.


Are people born with a predisposition towards alcoholism?

There is data to indicate that all people do not react towards alcohol consumption in the same way. Nevertheless , this does not mean that dependency on alcohol is determined by genetics.

Like when several people take the sun their skin reacts in different ways, giving to some a pleasant golden colour, whilst burning others. At the same time individual differences exist  which to some people more sensitive to alcohol, makes it more likely that they will develop a dependency.

Anyway, any person who drinks in excess can become an addicted more or less to alcohol in time.


What is it to drink "moderately"?

Let us consider a "unit" of consumption of alcohol as being the amount contained in a wineglass, a beer, a sherry (approximately twelve grams of pure alcohol).

Glasses of Liquor: anise, whiskey, cognac, gin, etc. or the combined ones of these drinks are the equivalent to two "units".

Several scientific studies establish as maximum limits of alcohol consumpton the following ones:

Sex
Daily Limit
Weekly Limit
Male
4
20
Female
3
15

This data always talks about healthy people who have not had problems with alcohol previously. And they do not represent an absolute certainty that they are not going to have problems with their health or in developing alcohol dependency.

Whenever a person passes these limits they are damaging their body that alters its functioning, and can lead them to develop dependency on alcohol, or other health related problems from the toxic effect of alcohol on the human body.


Can a person "cure" their dependency on alcohol?¿Se puede curar la dependencia del alcohol?

Yes and No.

If we understand "cure" as the return to the pre-alcoholic stage for a person, the answer is no. Once one has abused alcohol the dependency that has been developed will always be physiological and behavioural alterations will always remain more or less latent in the individual.

Nevertheless with a suitable therapy, people can learn to live without alcohol for a totally healthy and balanced life. That is to say it is possible to overcome the dependency and for the person to recover their freedom.

When the habit of drinking has become a dependency, it is necessary a psychological treatment that reinstitutes the person's ability of self control when facing with situations of social, emotional or other pressures, which formerly activated their drinking behavior.

The Victoria Program since 1984 has developed a programme of Learning to Live Without Alcohol that offers excellent therapeutic results.


Are all treatments of equal value?

No.

Throughout the last years different ways have been developed to approach the problem whose characteristics differ very much from each other.

It is one thing to enter a Psaychiatric Hospital and another to go to one of the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Nor is it the same to take "Antabuse" or sedatives, or naltrexone . It is not the same as to undergo psychoanalysis or to have acupuncture treatment.

All these processes are very different from The Victoria Program The Victoria Program of Learning to Live Without Alcohol.

Before putting oneself in any particular treatment process, or recommending any specific treatment, a person should inform themselves as fully as possible of the characteristics of the method of treatment that each organisation follows.


Is it necessary to drink every day to be an alcoholic?

No.

Many people develop a dependency form that manifests itself in intermittent form.

Sometimes the subject is able to go without drinking anything. Perhaps for days or weeks. Or even drinking moderately. But this cannot avoid the fact that sometimes they drink in an  uncontrolled form and that it brings negative consequences to all they hold dear.


What symptoms can indicate that a person abuses alcohol?

These are the main symptoms displayed by people with alcohol problem.

The presence of any one of these symptoms indicate that consultation be recommended with a specialized professional.

Physical symptoms
  • Drinking great amounts without getting drunk
  • Nausea and vomiting when waking
  • Loss of appetite
  • Memory loss (to forget details of what has been said or done)
  • Slight tremor in the hands that ceases when drinking alcohol (withdrawals)
  • Evaluation of elevated enzyme Gamma GT or the Mean Corpuscular Volume in a blood analysis.
Psychological symptoms
  • Feelings of guilt, mainly the following morning.
  • Justifications of the type of "I know when to stop", "Everybody drinks", "I can contol myself", etc.
  • To feel annoyed if anyone suggest to drink less
  • Attempts and promises of not drinking, or drinking less.