Alcohol Use Disorder: What It Is, Risks & Treatment

This is because they only feel the negative effects of alcohol when they stop drinking. In early-stage alcoholism, the person maintains and may increase their alcohol use. The nuances of treatment evolve, 5 Tips to Consider When Choosing a Sober Living House and any program should be catered to an individual’s unique needs. Understanding what the stages of alcohol addiction look like can help you or a loved one decide whether rehab treatment is necessary.

In the last stage of alcoholism, the body will experience irreversible physical damage if alcohol use is not discontinued. Cirrhosis of the liver, which is scarring, will occur and if it progresses too far, can only be solved with a liver transplant that can’t be guaranteed available. If alcohol is discontinued, treatment with medications, nutrition therapy, and blood-work monitoring can help stabilize the condition. Alcoholism in its end stages can cause serious, even life-threatening health problems. Several medical problems can be caused by heavy and long-term alcohol consumption, including damage to the heart, liver, kidneys, and brain. Some people — known as functioning alcoholics — can still maintain their life during this phase, but this is rare and likely to lead to liver damage or other alcohol-related illnesses.

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Research has shown that long-term alcohol misuse can have a lasting impact on the brain, although some areas may recover with abstinence. The most serious effect is Korsakoff’s syndrome, characterized in part by an inability to remember recent events or to learn new information. The more symptoms a person experiences, the further their alcoholism has progressed. Connect with a licensed therapist for porn addiction and mental health counseling.

• Alcohol abusers often fail to realize the dangers of their drinking habits until they’ve moved into the middle stage of alcoholism.
• Eventually, the presence of alcohol becomes the norm for the body, and the long-term damage continues.
• At this crisis point, everyone is aware of the effects of alcoholism—including the alcoholic.
• Many of the effects of drinking every day can be reversed through early intervention.

We recommend checking into an alcohol detox program where you receive services like medical detox. At Atlanta Detox Center, we offer a medical detox center and addiction treatment therapies as well as on-staff twenty-four hours a day to ensure your health and well-being. As a person progresses in the disease of alcoholism, they may experience increasingly dire consequences and side effects of their drinking. Generally, there are four stages of alcoholism each characterized by their own set of problematic alcohol abuse patterns.

Tolerance and Cell Resistance to Alcohol

Stage one of alcoholism includes gradually relying more on alcohol to cope with life’s stressors, which is also one of the most common warning signs of alcoholism. People who eventually develop this condition may have first started drinking to cope with things like financial issues, relationship problems, stress, mental illness, or other stressors. As a person with a high tolerance continues to drink heavily, their body adapts to the presence of alcohol.

• The first stage of alcoholism is a general experimentation with alcohol.
• Generally, there are four stages of alcoholism each characterized by their own set of problematic alcohol abuse patterns.

Drinking large amounts of alcohol at one time is dangerous, and can even lead to coma or death. Furthermore, you may become dependent on the feeling you get from drinking and find that these episodes increase in frequency. This is especially true for teens who attend parties where drinking is the primary activity.

Stage 2: Early AUD

This stage is the most critical of the development of AUD as it is characterized by frequent and consistent alcohol use. An individual will likely begin to experience interpersonal conflict within their relationships as a result of their drinking habits. They feel the need to use larger quantities of alcohol more frequently to achieve the desired effects, which is the result of increased tolerance. When a person has become an alcoholic, they begin to exhibit a variety of behaviors that have a negative impact on their health and personal and professional lives. For example, alcoholics will continue to drink despite it causing them negative consequences.

Recovery begins with getting the alcohol out of the patient’s system. Addicts suffering from built-up chemical dependency experience dangerous withdrawal symptoms. To avoid potentially fatal complications, medically supervised alcohol detox is essential. This dependence also means that they have grown a tolerance to drinking meaning they have to consume more to achieve the same effects. Consequently, the individual will experience more damaging effects on their mind and body.

Drunkenness is an umbrella term encompassing physical and psychological symptoms attributed to alcohol consumption within a period. When the speed at which alcohol is metabolized is faster than what the human body can consume, an individual develops drunkenness. During the middle phase of the Jellinek Curve, a person’s struggle with alcohol will have become evident to friends and family.

• Late-stage, or end-stage alcoholism, is a full-blown addiction to alcohol, almost always requiring alcohol detox to start recovery.
• Alcohol use disorder treatment does not just keep a person from using alcohol, ring a bell, and declare the person cured.
• Attending a substance abuse treatment program can give you the tools you need to stay sober and resist cravings once you return home.
• The chart also shows how alcohol addiction becomes a vicious cycle that continually repeats unless the person attempts to break the cycle by seeking help.

If you notice they continue drinking heavily and blacking out, you have a right to be concerned. Keep an eye on their drinking behaviors to see whether they progress further. Even if they never progress past this stage, regular binge drinking is not a healthy way to consume alcohol.