Down Side to Alcohol and Drug Use in San Diego County

PART 11
Alcohol and drug use can start off as recreational; relaxing after work, social use at parties and with friends. The problems of excessive use of alcohol and drugs can create problems in our bodies, brains, in our relationships, problems at work and with the legal system. The following statements will help you to understand the progression of alcohol and drug use from recreational to addiction. The sooner one gets help for alcohol abuse and dependence, the fewer problems the individual user and family has to resolve.

4. Often progressive and fatal means that the disease persists over time and that physical, emotional, and social changes are often cumulative and may progress as alcohol or drug use continues. Addiction to alcohol or drugs causes premature death through overdose, organic complications involving the brain, liver, heart and many other organs, and by contributing to suicide, homicide, motor vehicle crashes, and other traumatic events.

5. Impaired control means the inability to limit alcohol or drug use or to consistently limit any drinking or drugging occasion, the duration of the episode, the quantity consumed, and/or the behavioral consequences of using the substances.

6. Preoccupation in association with alcohol or drug use indicates excessive, focused attention given to the drug or alcohol, its effects, and/or its use. The relative value thus assigned to alcohol or drugs by the individual often leads to a diversion of energies away from important life concerns.

7. Adverse consequences are alcohol/drug-related problems or impairments in such areas as: physical health (e.g., alcohol withdrawal syndromes, liver disease, gastritis, anemia, neurological disorders); psychological functioning (e.g., impairments in cognition, changes in mood and behavior); interpersonal functioning (e.g., marital problems and child abuse, impaired social relationships); occupational functioning (e.g., scholastic or job problems); and legal, financial, or spiritual problems.

8. Denial is used here not only in the psychoanalytic sense of a single psychological defense mechanism disavowing the significance of events, but more broadly to include a range of psychological maneuvers designed to reduce awareness of the fact that alcohol or drug use is the cause of an individual's problems rather than a solution to those problems. Denial becomes an integral part of the disease and a major obstacle to recovery.


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This definition was prepared by the Joint Committee to Study the Definition and Criteria for the Diagnosis of Alcoholism of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

If you would like more help for yourself or a family member, give us a call at 858-453-4315.

Judy Saalinger, Ph.D., MFT, CAS