What Makes Alcohol Addictive?
The 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported more than 28 million people in the U.S. aged 12 and older struggled with an alcohol use disorder in the surveyed year. The survey also found a significant increase in alcohol and drug use since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Misuse of alcohol destroys relationships, careers, and health, causes legal and financial problems, and leads to risky behavior that can be lethal. If you struggle with alcohol use, have tried but been unable to quit drinking, or have a loved one with an alcohol problem, you have probably asked, “Why is it so difficult to stop such a destructive behavior?”
The more you understand how alcohol affects the brain and body, the better understanding you will have as to why the cycle of alcohol dependence and addiction is so difficult to break without professional help.
What is Alcohol Use Disorder?
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic but treatable medical condition. As with other chronic conditions, like diabetes or coronary artery disease, you can learn to manage AUD and live a happy, healthy, and sober life.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines alcohol use disorder as “a medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences.” AUD is the clinical name for alcohol abuse, dependence, or addiction.
Certain patterns of drinking may indicate you have an alcohol problem. Do you:
- Continue to drink despite adverse outcomes?
- Have trouble controlling how much you drink?
- Need to increase the amount you drink to achieve the desired effect?
- Sometimes get into risky situations while drinking, like driving, swimming, or having unsafe sex?
- Have withdrawal symptoms if you stop drinking?
See the NIAAA website for a more extensive list of the criteria used by physicians to diagnose AUD. If you have two or more symptoms, it would be wise to undergo an assessment by your medical provider or an addiction specialist.
Risk Factors for Alcohol Addiction
Certain factors make it more likely you will develop an alcohol addiction, including:
- How much and how often you drink – chronic drinking alters your brain so that it demands alcohol to trigger pleasure.
- Whether you binge drink – binge drinking is defined as a man drinking five or more drinks and a woman four or more drinks in a short time. The CDC warns, “Binge drinking is the most common, costly, and deadly pattern of excessive alcohol use in the United States” and is associated with an increased risk of alcohol use disorder.
- The age you started drinking – the NIAAA warns if you started drinking alcohol before the age of 15, you are five times more likely to develop an AUD than if you began drinking when you were 21 or older.
- Genetics and family history – certain inherited genes account for about half the risk of developing an AUD. Parental drinking patterns and other environmental factors also affect the chances of having an alcohol use problem.
- Past trauma-childhood or adult trauma increases the risk for addiction to alcohol, drugs, or both.
- A mental health disorder – anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder increases the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder and vice versa. Having both an AUD and mental health disorder is common and is called a dual diagnosis or co-occurring disorder.
How Alcohol Affects the Brain and Body
Whenever you experience something pleasurable, your brain’s reward center responds by increasing levels of “feel good” hormones like serotonin and dopamine. The natural release of these chemical messengers prompts you to associate the experience with positive feelings.
Alcohol and other addictive substances also interact with the brain’s reward center but trigger an unnaturally high level of serotonin and dopamine to flood the system. The surge of hormones causes an intense sense of well-being and strongly reinforces your motivation to repeat the experience.
As you continue to use alcohol regularly, your brain adapts to its presence and begins to demand increasingly more significant amounts of alcohol to deliver the desired response. Having to drink more alcohol to get the effect you want signals your body has developed a tolerance to the lower dose. Tolerance means your body has become physically dependent on alcohol to feel good and is often the first step to addiction. If you stop drinking once tolerance and dependence have taken hold, you will experience withdrawal symptoms.
Fear of Withdrawal Reinforces Alcohol Addiction
Have you tried to stop using alcohol but lost your resolve once you began to experience uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms and intense cravings? Even if you have never experienced withdrawal before, the fear of the process may prevent you from seeking the help you need to overcome alcohol dependence or addiction.
Emotional cravings can be as challenging to overcome as physical withdrawal symptoms. If you have been using alcohol to soothe feelings of anxiety, stress, or depression or boost your self-confidence, you may find it very difficult to face how you might feel without alcohol.
Because it is a depressant, alcohol slows down functions of the central nervous system, including the brain and the spinal cord. In response, your body produces high levels of stimulating chemicals to accommodate the influx of alcohol.
If you stop using alcohol once your body develops a tolerance, dependence, or alcohol addiction, you will experience withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal effects occur because your body is still in a heightened state of chemical production, and the abrupt cessation of alcohol throws your body out of balance. Side effects occur as your body battles to regain a normal equilibrium and function.
Detoxification (detox) can be uncomfortable and even dangerous in some instances. Most experts agree that a medically supervised detox program keeps you safe and much more comfortable than trying to quit drinking independently.
Detox Comfortably Under Medical Supervision
Alcohol detox is the first step toward long-term sobriety. At Midwest Recovery Centers, we have seen firsthand how critical a safe, supervised detox process is to successful recovery. By ensuring you are comfortable and fully supported physically and emotionally, we know your chances for long-term recovery are excellent.
Licensed healthcare professionals who are experts in addiction recovery oversee every facet of our residential detox program. Once you complete detox, you may continue your recovery by enrolling in our multi-phase treatment program, or we will help you find a program that best fits your needs.
Contact us for more information.
Reviewed and Assessed by
Taylor Brown, B.A.Com., MAADC II
Tim Coleman, M. of Ed.
Start Your Recovery Now!
Have A Midwest Recovery Centers' Team Member Call You Today.
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Staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Medical
Midwest Recovery Centers believes strongly in a client-centered approach. Substance Use Disorder is not what it was 5 or even 2 years ago. The substances on the street are constantly changing and so are the number of contraindications and fatal threats that substance use imposes on the person suffering. Our Medical team continues to stay up to speed with new advances of evidence-based approaches in treating those with both substance use disorder as well as their co-occurring mental health diagnosis. There are many varying pieces to each client’s situation when it comes to tackling the puzzle of a medical detox, and each step in the treatment planning is carefully selected, reviewed, and communicated for the best possible outcome of each client. We understand that consideration of the medical history, family history, past trauma, past and current substance use are all key indicators to most effectively give each client the best chance at developing a recovery process. Each client may present with a different scope of medical needs whether it’s their blood work or the most effective medications for them. Midwest Recovery Centers is proud to have the finest medical team to meet these individual and specific needs of each client that walks through our doors.
Clinical
When it comes to the therapeutic treatment of patients with substance use disorder, Midwest Recovery Centers believes in a client-centered approach guided by evidence-based practices. Substance use disorder has been identified by the American Medical Association as a disease, but because addiction is a disease that impacts behavior, treatment of this disease is often heavily focused on modifying behaviors and thoughts as well as establishing a new way of life. We place a strong emphasis on educating patients about this chronic illness and empowering them to practice treating it as such. Our clinical team is composed of leading experts in the field. We believe in having a staff as diverse as the clients we serve; from Licensed Professional Counselors to Licensed Clinical Social Workers, our staff is highly trained and educated in not only addiction but the mental health issues and life circumstances that often accompany it. Many of our clinicians have their own personal experience in long term recovery which lends them to an even better understanding of what our patients are experiencing. Our staff is highly skilled in choosing the most effective therapeutic modality for each client’s needs, to give them the best chance of securing the recovery process that will change their lives. Our clinical team understands that this is a family disease. This is why clinicians will offer weekly updates to families as well as concrete tools for families to utilize as they journey through this illness with their loved one. Those tools will be offered by the patient’s individual clinician as well as at our free Family Night on the first Wednesday of each month, offered to anyone in the community.
Our Origin Story
I began Midwest Recovery in honor of my mother, Betty Lou Wallace, who taught me responsibility in life and sobriety.
Mom was born, raised, and lived most of her life in Missouri, a state I'm still proud to call home. She had five children. The youngest were my older brother Don and me.
We knew that the disease of addiction ran in the family, but it wasn't until Don and I grew older that we realized we were falling into addictive patterns. Through it all, Mom was supportive of her children but firm about one principle: whether the disease was inherited or developed through your environment, you were responsible for your recovery from addiction.
"I will be supportive of your recovery but I will not enable your addiction," she was fond of saying.
Ultimately, I stayed sober from 1990 to 1997, when I relapsed. With Mom's support, I was able to get sober again in 2002. Tragically, Don was not so lucky. He passed away in 2005 from complications of an injury and continued addiction.
Mom wanted no parent to suffer from the sorrow and anguish of losing a child, so in 2002, she helped me establish my first treatment center business.
As Mom grew older, she shared with me some lessons she had learned through her affiliation with Al-Anon, a support group for family members of loved ones struggling with addiction. She asked me to stay clean and sober one day at a time and to use the lessons I learned in my own recovery to help others who were suffering.
In 2008, Mom passed away from throat cancer, one day after my six year sober anniversary. I still remember that one of the last times we spoke, she told me she was proud of my recovery.
Mom would be so happy to know that myself, our partners, and our team are carrying on her legacy in her home state. I don't know if my own recovery process would be intact without her and the lessons she shared. So much of what we share with our clients at Midwest began with Betty Lou.
Above all, Mom imparted several teachings that I carry with me every day: that people are inherently good, and if they fall into addiction, this makes them sick, not bad. She taught me to be patient, tolerant, loving, and kind to myself and to others.
Most of all, she taught me that recovery works if we are able to be honest with ourselves about our own behavior. That’s what she helped me accomplish and that’s what we strive to accomplish with every Midwest client.
On behalf of Betty Lou, I thank you for your interest in Midwest Recovery.
Jeff Howard
Start Your Recovery Now!
Have A Midwest Recovery Centers' Team Member Call You Today.
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