What is alcohol addiction?
The first step to understanding alcohol addiction is defining safe and risky levels of consumption.
Safe drinking
It is always safest to limit your alcohol intake and drink less, instead of more. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines drinking in moderation, which is generally considered to be safe, as an average of:
- one drink per day for women
- two drinks per day for men
The NIAAA recommends that you should not exceed the following limits:
- three drinks in a day or 7 drinks in a week for women
- four drinks in a day or 14 drinks in a week for men
Anyone over age 65 should limit their alcohol intake to an average of one drink per day and not exceed three drinks in a day or seven in a week. And you should not drink if you are under age 21, pregnant, plan to drive, or are taking medications that interact negatively with alcohol.
Unsafe drinking
Unsafe alcohol use behaviors include binge drinking and heavy alcohol use.
Binge drinking is consuming five or more alcoholic drinks for men and four or more drinks for women on a single occasion, typically in a two-hour period.
Heavy alcohol use involves binge drinking on five or more days in one month, or exceeding the daily and weekly limits listed above.
Binge drinking and heavy alcohol use may indicate an alcohol use disorder (AUD), a chronic, relapsing brain disease. AUD symptoms include compulsive alcohol use, a loss of control over how much you drink, and a negative emotional state when you are not drinking. An AUD can range from mild to moderate to severe.
AUD symptoms are often categorized into three categories, sometimes known as the Three C's:
- CRAVINGS to drink
- Loss of CONTROL over drinking
- Negative CONSEQUENCES as a result of drinking
People with an AUD often feel a negative emotional state when they are not drinking or experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
