Last Updated on April 21, 2016 by Morris Green

In 2011, 52,700 people were arrested in North Carolina for driving under the influence. Our state is facing a flood of of-age and underage drinkers who either have or are on their way to developing an alcohol addiction. Have you ever thought alcohol isn’t or can’t be that bad since it’s legal? If you have, then you are not alone.

Alcohol is labeled as one of the most dangerous addictive substances in the country, and its legal status has helped earn it this title. 67% of adult Americans are currently alcohol drinkers, and according to MedlinePlus, 18 million are reported to have an alcohol use disorder.

What is the single most addictive type of alcohol? The answer may surprise you because…

…It’s Alcohol!

Unlike drugs that are composed different compounds, some synthetic and some natural, alcohol is alcohol. Liquor, beer, and wine are the three most well-known and popular types, but they really aren’t so different. Flavors vary, as does the concentration or proof of alcohol, but alcohol is alcohol and is all equally addictive.

Alcohol dependency occurs when a person believes they need a drink to function. For some, this takes on the form of needing a drink to relax; for others, the need is far more encompassing, and they feel as if they cannot function at all without drinking. It is a habitual (psychological) and chemical (physical) addiction, which makes it extremely dangerous to those unaware of its properties.

Psychological and Physical Dependence

Here’s a little known fact: A person can be habitually dependent without being physically dependent, but it is impossible to be physically dependent without being habitually dependent. Confused? Don’t be. It’s really a very simple concept. Consider:

• As a person drinks alcohol, they build a physical tolerance to it.
• Over time, it takes greater amounts of alcohol for a person to achieve the same level of drunkenness.
• For some, this gradual increase in tolerance is something they can physically stop at any time with no side effects, but their brain says otherwise.
• For others, the more they drink, the more their body depends on the substance to function and physically stopping comes with classic, sometimes violent, withdrawal symptoms.

Chronic alcoholism occurs when a physical and habitual addiction is present. You might think of it as the most severe and hardest type of alcoholism to treat. Physical dependency is easier to treat versus psychological dependency, and treating one or the other is easier than treating chronic alcoholism.

The good news is that alcoholism in all forms is both treatable and controllable. No one who is still breathing is too far gone or too dependent for treatment to be successful.

Despite alcohol being legal across the 50 states of our country, the general public are staggeringly undereducated about its effects. If you or someone you know has more than two or three drinks per night, drinks more than two to three times per week, or sometimes cannot remember the things they did while drinking, alcoholism may be impacting their life. Why not look into an alcohol evaluation to see just what’s going on before an alcohol dependency leads to legal woes like a DWI?