What is an Alcoholic exactly? Someone who is addicted to the drug alcohol perhaps? One dictionary definition says that an alcoholic is a person who drinks alcohol to excess habitually. Although this may well be true with some alcoholics, there are also alcoholic binge drinkers who can go days, weeks or even months without drinking anything at all. However, when these binge drinkers do go on a bender, their life spirals out of control for the duration of the spree.

There are also the so called ‘heavy drinkers’ who too consume alcohol to excess habitually, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they are alcoholic. There’s also a myth that those who are alcoholic can only recover through the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. The fact is that not all alcoholics have found it necessary to go to AA in order to get well.

Getting back to the opening question, ‘What is an Alcoholic?’ here are some of the common characteristics of a serious alchie. Unlike heavy drinkers, who can often be well balanced people who just happen to drink too much, the alcoholic is indeed a different animal. Most active alcoholics are often riddled with self. That’s someone who’s a selfish, self seeking, self loathing egomaniac with an inferiority complex. If that description sounds pretty mixed up, that’s because it is! The alcoholic is someone who often feels victimized and at odds with the world. They are usually far removed from balanced thoughts and logic found in more well-adjusted folks.

Alcoholics also suffer enormously from resentments and tend to blame their woes onto other people. To sum up the above, a typical alcoholic is an unstable individual. Even so, they can and do recover from their malady if they own up to their problem and manage to put a plug in the jug. Contrary to popular beliefs, many recovering alcoholics do not have to go to AA in order to get well. There are indeed many other popular successful alternatives available in the twenty-first century for drunks seeking a solution to their problem with drink.

Alternatives to AA for Recovering Alcoholics

It’s somewhat of a erroneous belief to suggest that Alcoholics Anonymous is the one and only way for alcoholics or heavy drinkers to get over their addiction to booze. Although AA has unquestionably helped millions of drunks to sober up over the years, it has failed many, many more. AA can be a pretty poor fit for some folks which are why alternatives to AA have since been set up, each with their own success stories. Here are a few of the better known options:

Women for Sobriety Moderation Management Rational Recovery SMART Recovery Quitting without AA (Book)

There are also many other great books and publications, some old, some new, which an increasing number alcoholics, or borderline alcoholics, are finding a great help in achieving sobriety.

Why some Alcoholics can’t Relate to AA

One of the main reasons AA doesn’t work for many trying to recover from their addiction with alcohol is down to AA’s religious underpinning. It’s a program which tells the drunks they are totally useless, worthless individuals who stand little to no chance of recovery unless they hand their will and their life over to the care of God. It’s almost impossible to read a paragraph of AA approved literature which doesn’t have a mention of God in there somewhere. This holy rhetoric is a major turnoff for many trying to get a sober grip on their life. It certainly goes against the grain of atheists or agnostics.

Many in AA assume that those who don’t stick around their fellowship and practice their 12 step program of recovery are doomed to a life misery and premature death if they can’t accept the AA way of living. Although this will be true in some cases, the reality is that many actually go on to recover in other programs or on their own, especially those in middle age or older. The thought that it’s either AA or nothing is both na?ve and outdated. 1930′s AA has to be modified if their program is to have any appeal with the next generation of drunks.