When looking at different types of drinkers, we find three main categories: Moderate drinkers, hard drinkers, and those who drink alcoholically. These categories can be difficult to determine, as most people who suffer from the disease of alcoholism prefer to deceive themselves into believing that they are simple “hard drinkers.” If we are to determine which category we fall into, or if we do indeed suffer from alcoholism, we have to understand what it is that creates a distinction between the three categories. To make the determination of whether or not we drink alcoholically, we have to examine our ability, or lack thereof, to assert power of alcohol. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous explains the three categories as moderate, hard, and alcoholic. Moderate drinkers can “take it or leave it,” they have little or not trouble giving up alcohol entirely if they have a good reason to do so. Most “normal” people fall into this category, and do not understand why others are unable to give up alcohol with the same ease in which they can. The next category is that of hard drinkers. According to the Big Book, “He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult or troublesome and may even need medical attention.” This class of drinker may develop physical dependence and require detox, but afterwards is able to go through life without facing the unmanageability and chaos that plague one suffering from alcoholism. Alcoholism can begin as moderate drinking, but as it is a progressive disease, eventually it surpasses both moderate and hard drinking into alcoholism. For one suffering from alcoholism, the power of choice is gone. No matter how hard one suffering from alcoholism tries to moderate his or her drinking, it will be impossible. Alcoholism is progressive, and though we may have been moderate drinkers at one point in time, we no longer have the ability to return to controlled drinking and instead must embrace complete abstinence if we are to recover.
Recovery can be the next great chapter in the story of your life. Alcoholism is a progressive and fatal disease that can only be overcome through sobriety. Oceanfront Recovery, a treatment center in Orange County, California, is dedicated to providing you all the tools necessary to achieve and maintain permanent sobriety so you can build a brighter future. For more information about treatment option, please call today: (877) 279-1777
