Many people don’t realize that there is a difference between being an alcoholic and having an alcohol abuse problem. 

Those who are what some call “functioning alcoholics” are actually people with alcohol abuse problems.  They clearly drink way too much on a regular basis and have some of the same symptoms of alcoholism such as health related issues.  Alcohol abusers usually have some semblance of normalcy, or control in their actions.  They set limits or only allow themselves to drink at specific times, but still consume way more than the average social drinker.

Alcoholics are unable to control their drinking at any point.  They are physically, emotionally, and mentally addicted to alcohol.  The consequences of alcoholism can be severe in regards to both mental and physical health, and how they function in the everyday world.  Alcoholics, also known as those with alcoholism or an alcohol addiction, are unable to control their drinking at any time.

This distinction is very important in deciding the type of help one needs to become alcohol free.  Alcohol abuses will need more emotional and psychological assistance while an alcoholic will also need more of the physical help in overcoming the continual consumption of alcohol.

There are many studies from universities throughout the country trying to understand the correlation between alcoholism an domestic violence.  Some researchers believe that the high number of domestic violence cases involving alcohol may be misleading.  Is it a fact that so many domestic violence cases relating to alcohol abuse are caused by the addiction of alcohol, or could it be that the existence of the alcohol abuse is caused by the domestic violence?        

Either or neither way, alcoholism has some connection the violence that so many families deal with everyday.  Families feel the fear of a child towards an intoxicated parent, the fear caused by a drunken spouse, and in some reported cases, the fear of the parents caused by an alcoholic child.  Understanding that an alcoholism problem exists either within yourself or in a family member is the first step in preventing or stopping a violent situation from escalating.  Alcohol does not allow for acceptable emotional control and does allow for a normal argument to quickly become violent.

If you have begun to notice significant changes in a person’s emotional and physical behavior during stressful times, alcohol abuse may be a factor and should be taken seriously.  There are many organizations, progams, and articles that can be found to help understand the toll both physical and alcohol abuse can have on a family. 

First I’d just like to say thankyou for taking the time out and secondly thankyou for reading this. I’ve never done wrote anything like this before in my life so anything can happen. You’re probably thinking who am I and what am I writing about?

I know there are people out there like me, and people who are in a similar situation, there is help and I can strongly recommend stopdrinkingadvice.org there’s no harm in trying anything you just need to find the right one that works for you, and it worked for me so it should work for you.

Alcoholics Anonymous is probably one of the oldest forms of dealing with an alcohol addiction, and anyone who has an alcohol addiction has likely to have heard of Alcoholics Anonymous also simply known as AA.

I have been to a few of there meetings and spoke to a number of people who have also attended there classes and most people seem to be giving me maixed feelings "It’s a bunch of unserious people that have no effective means of dealing there problems (Alcohol)". People have even told me that there techniques there use are not to modern day life, and they still live back in the old times.

So should you seek help from Alcoholics Anonymous? Here are a few questions which I can answer for you which might help you make the right decision.

What is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)?

Alcoholics Anonymous is a long-standing organization of people which are out to help alcoholics recovery from there alcohol addiction. Remaining sober is the goal for all those attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. But does this happen? More times than not most people do slip back into their old habits and hit the bottle again. The program they offer you is known as the twelve-step-program, which is aimed at helping alcoholics over come there drinking problem.

Just what does Alcoholics Anonymous do?

Alcoholics Anonymous offers hope and help to people who can’t afford to attend a private health clinic. In fact you’ll never be asked to put your hand in your pocket for money because it’s free. Basically you can attend as many times as you like or as few meeting as you like.  

You’ll find Alcoholics Anonymous hold meetings in nearly every major metropolitan city, and the meetings can be daily or just once a week, it all depends just how busy that alcohol rehab centre is.

If you have an alcohol addiction its worth attending a meeting, you don’t have to participate, you can just sit there and listen to the group leader as he addresses other peoples problems.

Just how does Alcoholics Anonymous help people?

Alcoholics Anonymous helps people by running an alcohol rehab program which is tailored with there twelve-step-program designed to stop you from drinking alcohol. But what is very interesting is that most people who run these programs are ex-alcoholics or had problems with drinking alcohol sometime in there life.

Now before you go off rushing to pick the phone up and find out where your nearest Alcoholics Anonymous rehab centre is, I advise you to do your research first, there are plenty of reputable website on the Internet which can help you, and some even offer 100% money back guarantee’s if they can’t help you over come your alcohol addiction. Remember you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Here are some common and interesting facts about alcohol.

Did you know that alcohol is the cause of around 100,000 deaths in the United States alone? In Canada it’s around 50,000 deaths per year. Alcohol is also one of the biggest reasons why families split up and this figure is well into the millions.

Alcohol is also one of the leading causes of deaths on the road with teenagers. You will find that people who drink alcohol have very poor grades, can’t perform 100% at there job, smoke (which is a leading killer it’s self), experiment with other types of illegal drugs.

If you find yourself drinking everyday and your becoming dependent on alcohol to get you through the day then you have a serious alcohol problem which needs to be sorted out now before it’s too late.

What do I mean by it’s too late?

After studying and doing research into alcoholics for the last 5 years I have found out that long term heavy drinking is the major cause of the following chronic diseases:

High blood pressure, damages your liver, effects your nervous system, your heart (heart attacks) slows your brain down (lack of memory), stomach problems, cancer, sexual problems, I think you get my drift; alcohol just about affects every part of your body. You’ll also find the miss-use of alcohol leads to other things such as violence, accidents, and personality change.  So why do we drink so much alcohol?

You’ll find most people do it because they think it looks cool and to impress there friends, and little do they know that they are knocking years off there lives and slowly destroying there health. What you need to remember is your only here once, so get the most out of your life while you can.

Once you become alcohol dependent it becomes very difficult to stop drinking without someone’s help. If you’re looking for a way-out or you might know anyone that is looking to quit alcohol for good, help is always available. Recognizing you have a problem is the first step to finding a solution.

If your are alcoholic dependent and looking for FREE resource or an alcohol treatment, then a can honestly say with my hand on my heart the best website I have come across is stopdrinkingadvice.org. I know Ed personally and he has helped to cure more than 2000 people with serious drinking problems.

The best thing about Ed’s site is his information and resource is FREE and it shows you the critical steps to beating your nemesis.

Just ask yourself one simple question are you drinking to much Alochol? If you are how can you stop it and improve your lifestyle and your health. Here are a few questions which might help you decide:

Week:1
Day of Week            #of drinks                type of drinks          place consumed

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Everyone comes to a decision to quit drinking alcohol in there life. You’ll also find that people have tried before to quit drinking alcohol but have had very limited success. The first few days or week is very easy for anyone to stop, but you’ll find after that they begin to drink again.
 
 So just how do you quit drinking alcohol?
 
 The first thing is to:
 
 Ask yourself why is it you want to quit drinking alcohol? You need to weigh the plus points and the negative ones, but make sure you write them down. If you don’t this, it will be your first step to failure.
 
 Are there any plus points you have wrote down about drinking alcohol? If there are, you need to find other ways of achieving them. You need to start to get into good habits and get rid of your old ones today.
 
 What are the bad things you have when you drink alcohol? This could be your health, depression, your family, friends, make sure you spend sometime doing this one, because you’ll find most of these are the very important ones.
 
 You also need to ask yourself and write down your answers, of the good things you expect to get out of life once you quit drinking, and how will your life be better? I have seen so many people do this and you nearly always find that people who write things down achieve there goals in life, but you still need to take action and that’s quitting alcohol for good is one you need to start today.
 
 Now we know that you’re ready to quit drinking we need to work out a plan for you on how to stop drinking alcohol.
 
 Developing a plan is much easier than your think. First you need to have will-power, but it won’t stop you alone from drinking but it’s a major step forward.
 
 Then you need to find out what triggers you to drinking, this could be anything, but make sure you write them down.
 
 Then you need to alter your bad habits, and start making new ones, the sooner you start doing this the sooner your going to quit drinking, I know you think this is all pie in the sky stuff, but trust me I know this works, and I have helped over two thousand people overcome there drinking problems, that’s why I know it works.
 
 It’s quite obvious this won’t happen over night or change in a few days. So start with small achievable goals to begin with, and then move forward to your bigger goals you have written down.
 
 What I do find is that most people who drink alcohol , drink because of there feelings and I would say this goes for 90% of alcoholics. If you can control them you can stop drinking alcohol for good. So how do we do this? Well you need to find something else to do instead of drinking, I would suggest going for a walk, it keeps you healthy and keeps your mind at rest plus it’s very good for you. But you’ll need to find this one out for yourself, but don’t give up.
 
 You also should regularly review your progress, and find out what is working for you and what is not. Sometimes you will need some help from a friend or a family member, and remember everyone in life needs help sometime or other so you’re no alone in this.
 
 If your looking for free information on how to quit drinking alcohol then head over to StopDrinkingAdvice.org and grab there free report "Discover How To Permanently Stop Drinking Alcohol Within 21 Days Or Less. Guaranteed". I have found that this is one of the most respected habit busting (Alcohol) websites on the Internet.

It’s party time, and as we know everyone’s loves a good party at Christmas and New Year. 

Celebrating Christmas and the New Year for most people it’s a time to really enjoy themselves, yes it can be very tempting to have far to many and lose control, which in most cases this is what happens over this very festive period. 

How many times have you seen or heard someone spoiling Christmas or the New Year because they can’t control there drink? It happens year after year.  

What people tend to forget is that they are in control of there drinking habits and not alcohol in control of there’s!  Once someone has a drink of alcohol they need to understand that there mind changes, people become unhappy, depression set’s in, people get very angry, yourself esteem hits rock bottom, you start to fall out with people, and all other kinds of things happen. 

I have even heard of someone getting upset with his girlfriend because she wouldn’t answer him via text message, and low and be-hold he ended up jumping in his car very drunk and having an argument with her, which then led to a very upsetting story in the papers the next day saying he’d strangled her to death, all because he couldn’t control his drink. Of course these are very rare cases, but they do happen.  

When your out on your Christmas or New Years party ask yourself one question do you want to be that stupid idiot which everyone talks about, because they can’t handle there drink? Of course not. 

What you can do, is try a bit of planning, I like to ask myself the following, what do I want from this party? Of course the number one answer’s are enjoyment, fun and be happy. Did you know anyone can achieve these without touching a drop of alcohol, if you don’t think you can’t give it a try.  

Instead of saying to yourself I’ll stop tomorrow, try stopping today, when I was on the bottle which was just over 5 years ago, I promised my daughter I’d stop on Christmas eve, I told myself If I can conquer this day which is the second heaviest day for drinking through out the year then I can conquer anyone of them, which I did and my daughter was so proud of me, this made my Christmas and my daughters. 

Sometimes people just need to take a step back and look at what’s around them, seeing things that really count like family and friends, because drinking isn’t one of them. It’s a killer and it’s the root to all evil. Make a promise to someone like I did and do what ever it takes to stick to it, yes it very hard, but I can promise you one thing, it’s the most rewarding thing you’ll ever come across in your life. 

Enjoy your festive season whatever you decide to do, have a great and safe Christmas and New Year! 

Ed Philips

Okay the most common question asked is can I stop drinking alcohol?
And the simple answer is yes anyone can, but you have to have made your mind up and be fully committed to doing it.

Anyone going into this half hearted will not succeed so you might as well stop reading this article now.

Cutting down on alcohol will improve your health and your life, and remember your only here once this is not a practise or a rehearsal. Think of your reasons for curbing your alcohol addiction and make sure you write them down.

Are you looking to improve your lifestyle and health?
Do you want to improve your relationship with your family and friends?
What makes you want to drink less?

If you have answered yes to the above then this is a step in the right direction.

First you have to think of some realistic goals, without goals you’ll not succeed. Maybe you have chosen to not drink at all, or maybe you have chosen to cut down your drinking by half, or cut down your drinking day by day or week by week, which ever way you choose you have to stick by it, trust me it worth it.

Remember you should always keep a day by day journal of your alcohol consumption, with out this you really have know idea of what your drinking. Here are a few questions you should be asking yourself after a few weeks.

Do you drink more when your alone?
Do you drink more when your sad?
Do you drink more when your lonely?
Do you drink more when your angry?
Do you drink more when your around certain people?
Do you forget what you have done when you’ve been drinking?

If you find that these apply to you then try changing your habits, lets say you drink when your sad, then watch something on TV or listen to so thing on the radio which makes you happy, you have to start getting in a routine and once you conquer your nearly there.

What most people do is set there sights to high so they fail at the first step, set realistic goals and you’ll soon find that your reaching these. Drinking does not control me - I control my drinking!

Nearly everyone who has a drinking problem has a health problem and the simple reason for this is alcohol damages your organs and without your organs your body doesn’t work, look after your organs and they will look after you.

Most people who take action and go and seek help for there alcohol addiction do either quit drinking altogether or drink in very rare occasions. If your looking for free information on how to stop drinking alcohol then head over to Stop Drinking Advice and grab there free report "Discover How To Permanently Stop Drinking Alcohol Within 21 Days Or Less. Guaranteed" they have help more than 2000 Alcoholics beat there nemesis.