What is the Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Dependence?

With that being said, most people who abuse alcohol do not suffer from alcoholism. “Alcohol abuse” is a much more general term, and thereby casts a much wider net than “alcoholism.” Your average alcohol abuser has not yet developed a physical or psychological need to drink. They are, however, much more likely to develop such a dependence because of their unhealthy habits. Some individuals are especially predisposed to fall into dependence by an addictive tendency hardwired into their genetic code.

• API is a private, physician-owned behavioral health system offering inpatient and outpatient psychiatric and substance use disorder services.
• If someone has been binge drinking and is an unconscious or semiconscious state, their breathing is slow, their skin clammy, and there’s a powerful odor of alcohol, they may have alcohol poisoning.
• Alcoholism and drug addiction have similar symptoms and can be treated using the same techniques.
• Evidence from genetic studies, particularly those in twins, has clearly demonstrated a genetic component to the risk of alcohol dependence.
• Harmful and dependent drinkers are much more likely to be frequent accident and emergency department attenders, attending on average five times per annum.

It's common for people with a mental health disorder such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder to have problems with alcohol or other substances. Alcohol intoxication results as the amount of alcohol in your bloodstream increases. The higher the blood alcohol concentration is, the more likely you are to have bad effects.

What Is Alcohol Abuse?

When people use this term, they are referring to an alcohol use disorder, which is the diagnostic term for alcohol addiction. Alcoholism generally refers to a disease in which a person is unable to stop drinking. Genetic, psychological, social and environmental factors can impact how drinking alcohol affects your body and behavior. Theories suggest that for certain people drinking has a different and stronger impact that can lead to alcohol use disorder. Many people with alcohol use disorder hesitate to get treatment because they don't recognize that they have a problem.

Referring to this condition as alcohol use disorder is more accurate and less stigmatizing. It also emphasizes that the condition is a diagnosable, chronic, and relapsing brain disease, not a moral or personal failure. Harnessing science, love and the wisdom of lived experience, we are a force of healing and hope ​​​​​​​for individuals, families and communities affected by substance use and mental health conditions. In the later stages, a person continues drinking despite social, financial, professional, and legal consequences. Sometimes there is dangerous behavior like mixing alcohol with medications or driving when inebriated. Oftentimes, the user continues drinking even after losing their job or causing damage to relationships.

What is Alcohol Dependence?

The term was introduced in ICD–10 and replaced ‘non-dependent use’ as a diagnostic term. Behavioral treatments, also known as alcohol counseling or “talk therapy,” provided by licensed therapists are aimed at changing drinking behavior. Examples of behavioral treatments are brief interventions and reinforcement approaches, treatments that build motivation and teach skills What is the Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for coping and preventing relapse, and mindfulness-based therapies. For women, drinking more than one drink a day is considered alcohol misuse. Depending on how their drinking affects their lives, these women may or may not be in need of treatment. If a man consumes an average of 4 or more drinks a day, he is engaging in alcohol abuse and needs immediate treatment.

Alcohol misuse can also lead to job loss and over 38,000 people of working age in England were claiming Incapacity Benefit with a diagnosis of ‘alcoholism’ – nearly 2% of all claimants (Deacon et al., 2007). In more common language and in earlier disease-classification systems this has been referred to as ‘alcoholism’. However, the term ‘alcohol dependence’ is preferred because it is more precise, and more reliably defined and measured using the criteria of ICD–10 . A recent national survey found that among people ages 26 and older, those who began drinking before age 15 were more than 5 times as likely to report having AUD in the past year as those who waited until age 21 or later to begin drinking. In most people’s minds, problematic drinking is the same as alcoholism. We want to do our best to dispel this notion and distinguish the two for the sake of healthier recovery and clarity in terminology.