Stepaway News Blog

Making the conscious decision to stop drinking is not easy, because the desire to cut alcohol out of your life may be far less attractive than going with the flow.

For most people social drinking is a norm and many use it to "take the edge off" at the end of the working day.

However when does the social drinking become drinking excessively and to what extent does the edge become too risky to take?

For more than 10% of the world population, alcohol usage becomes a substance dependency, a powerful addiction called alcoholism.

Millions of people all over the world suffer from this disease, along with millions more who regularly participate in risky drinking patterns that could potentially lead to alcohol problems in the future. 

In households today more than half of all adults have a family history of alcoholism or ‘problem’ drinking, and the effects of alcohol abuse are perpetuated from generation to generation.

Trying to define moderate 'social' drinking can be difficult and knowing when your good time pastime is suddenly not so much a pastime or a good time but a problem time can be tricky.

Many will argue that their drinking isn’t a problem but the truth is if you are consuming alcohol in order to cope with difficulties in your life or to help avoid feelings of insecurity, anxiety, depression or just plain bad, then you’re in a potentially treacherous situation.

If you can see that your alcohol consumption is causing problems in your home or work life, or your life seems out of control, then now might be time to seek help on how to better manage your life.

A terrible myth about alcoholism is that alcoholics are thought to be non-functioning losers, poor down and outs, and generally destitute.

However millions of alcoholics are termed functional because they appear to hold down responsible jobs, or cope well with life while drinking excessively.

This myth is only another justification mechanism aimed at trying to deny some very hard questions.

It’s important to know that alcoholism is not defined by whether you drink daily or only on the weekends, take only shots of tequila or stick to only wine, drink three bottles of cider/beer a day or drink three bottles of vodka a day, but by the effects your drinking has on your everyday life, your family and the people around you.

More than at any other time of the year, problem drinkers may be thinking to book themselves into a treatment centre after the festive season as delaying the truth is so much part of the disease.

At Step Away Treatment Centre we don't hate social drinking, we only hate what it does to you.