The alcoholic definition refers to a man or a woman who meets two or more of the above criteria. When you are an alcoholic, you have a desire to consume alcohol that is beyond your control. In fact, your alcohol consumption may go against all rules of common sense.

An alcoholic has a physical compulsion to drink, along with a mental obsession with alcohol. Alcoholics will often give in to their cravings at the worst possible times. Typically, alcoholics don't know when to stop drinking, or how to accomplish alcohol cessation.

Alcoholic beverages or alcoholic drinks are defined as any drink that contains alcohol. There are different types of alcoholic drinks. Quite often, alcoholics end up consuming much more alcohol than they think they do. This is because they're not really sure what alcoholic beverages really are, or what constitutes a drink.

The following are all examples of alcoholic beverages:

• 12 ounces of regular beer
• 8 or 9 ounces of malt liquor
• 5 ounces of wine
• 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits

These are also referred to as standard drinks. There is no one drink that is "better" than another alcoholic drink. What this means is that drinking one 12 ounce beer is the same as drinking 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. You may think you're doing better because you only drink beer. As you can see, this is not at all accurate.

It's possible that you are abusing alcohol if you meet any of the following signs of alcohol abuse:

• You may exhibit erratic or even violent behavior when drinking
• When you are drinking, you consume too much
• You could experience nausea and vomiting as a result
• You may have headaches
• You may exhibit impaired judgment

Again, alcohol abuse means that you don't feel compelled to drink regularly. Even so, abusing alcohol is never a good idea.

Alcohol abuse can eventually lead to an alcohol addiction if the abuse continues. People often think that they can continue to drink as much as they want to, without consequence. This simply is not true at all.

As you drink alcohol, your brain is going through some pretty significant changes. Over time, it grows dependent upon the alcohol you're consuming.

The human brain normally creates dopamine and serotonin, among other chemicals. These are responsible for helping you feel happy, safe and secure. Alcohol increases the levels of these chemicals in the brain as well. As time goes on, and you continue to drink, your brain stops making them.

This is the point when alcoholism or alcohol addiction occurs. The more you abuse alcohol, the more at risk you are of becoming addicted. It can happen at any time, without warning.

Early stage alcoholics may only have one or two symptoms of alcoholism. During this stage, there is a lot of experimenting with alcohol that takes place. Most of the time, people in this stage are young people. They may be teenagers, college students or young adults.

Of course, early stage alcoholism can happen to someone who is older as well. This stage is highly characterized by binge drinking and heavy drinking behaviors. It can be possible for some people in the early stage of alcoholism to stop drinking without consequence. However, usually some form of treatment is necessary.

Someone who is in the chronic stage of alcoholism probably drinks alcohol every single day. Also, that person has likely done so for years.

It is during this stage that people begin to experience consequences for their drinking behaviors. They may have problems at work, or even lose their jobs. They also might have conflicts within their families because of their alcohol use.

The end stage of alcoholism is defined as having lost the ability to stop oneself from drinking. Someone in this stage is drinking to live, rather than living to drink.

At the end stage, heavy, chronic alcohol use has been in place for several years. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms are ever-present, every time alcohol cessation is attempted. Alcohol withdrawal may become incredibly painful and scary during this stage. In fact, people usually keep drinking just to prevent withdrawal symptoms from occurring.

Depression is a mental health condition that is marked by long periods of persistent sadness. It is a very common mood disorder that affects millions of people all over the United States.

Quite often, people will use alcohol as a way to self-medicate their depression symptoms. Alcohol may help people with depression feel better, at first. However, because alcohol is a depressant drug, their symptoms tend to come back.

With continued alcohol use, depression symptoms are only likely to get worse, instead of better. Alcohol is never useful in the treatment of depression.

There are many different anxiety disorders that people may suffer from. These conditions cause racing thoughts that only get worse as time goes on. Anxiety is a condition that must be treated for it to get better.

Like with depression, people with anxiety will self-medicate with alcohol. The effects of alcohol often counteract the symptoms of anxiety. This can make people believe that they feel better after they drink. Of course, because they feel better, alcohol seems like a viable treatment, even for long-term use.

The problems with drinking to help with anxiety are plentiful. Chronic alcohol use leads to alcohol addiction and all that goes along with it. Also, people are likely to experience the worsening of their anxiety symptoms as time goes on.

People who suffer from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) are very likely to be alcoholics. In fact, women are much more likely than men to become alcoholics if they suffer from PTSD. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, three out of four people who have suffered trauma have drinking problems.

Alcohol has been known to make the symptoms of PTSD much worse. People with PTSD often turn to alcohol as a way to distract themselves from their problems. The stress and trauma they suffer from still remain, but are harder to cope with. Getting drunk can make the symptoms of PTSD much worse.

In one study, it was found that 40% of adults who'd been diagnosed with ADHD as children had used alcohol. This was compared with 22% of adults who were not diagnosed with ADHD as children. Because of this, there was deemed to be a correlation between ADHD and early onset alcohol abuse.

ADHD is a condition that makes it very hard to pay attention and focus. The very definition of this condition makes alcohol seem like a welcome substance. Alcohol tends to slow the mind and body down. This means that ADHD sufferers may find alcohol to be helpful to them. The truth is that alcohol only worsens ADHD symptoms over time.

Alcoholics Anonymous is a support group that is run on an outpatient basis. If you are fairly new to alcoholism, this might be a good option for you. Alcoholic Anonymous is often recommended as a complimentary treatment to outpatient alcohol counseling.

Alcoholic Anonymous, or AA, has meetings on a weekly basis in various locations around the world. There are even online meetings you can participate with, if you choose to. Some people will go to meetings in multiple locations to get in as many as they can during the week.

During AA meetings, participants get the opportunity to share, if they want to. They can also listen to others share their stories. It is a very supportive organization that has helped so many people refrain from alcohol use over the years.

An alcoholic should never stop drinking alcohol cold turkey. However, people often do try to stop drinking abruptly, without professional support. Doing so can be very dangerous.

Because of the fact that alcohol is so easily accessible, people tend to think of it as being safe. They assume that there is no reason to worry about stopping it. What they don't realize is that alcohol is actually one of the more dangerous drugs.

Stopping your alcohol use could result in a dangerous medical emergency. This is because of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms that you are likely to experience.

The alcoholism conversation might be the most difficult talk you have with your family member. However, it's important to bring things out into the open. Doing so is going to lift a heavy burden from your shoulders. It could also result in an agreement to go to treatment.

When you bring up the subject of alcohol, make sure your family member has not been using. You may want to have your discussion first thing in the morning.

Present the facts to your alcoholic family member. Make sure he or she knows about the dangers of continuing to use alcohol regularly. It's possible that your loved one doesn't even really see it as a problem yet.

Finally, talk from your heart, but be firm. Ask your loved one to get help for their alcoholism. You should be prepared for any answer they give you at this point. If they agree, help them set up a free phone assessment to get the process started. If they become angry with you, it might be time to consider the next step.

Intervention services are available to families with loved ones who refuse to go to treatment. This is a service you may want to consider if you have a family member in this situation.

When you schedule the intervention, you'll be working closely with an interventionist. He or she will lead and guide you through the entire process. You'll even meet before the actual intervention to learn what to say during the meeting. This can help take some pressure off you.

The intervention itself is a secret meeting that will take place in a neutral location. Your loved one won't know it's about to happen until they arrive on that day. You'll invite other family members and friends to join you. During the intervention, you'll each have a turn to speak to your alcoholic family member. At the end, he or she will be given the chance to get help.

We've already learned that alcoholism is a relapsing disease. This means that people who stop drinking are likely to relapse, which means they go back to drinking. Actually, the longer you abstain from drinking, the longer you are likely to avoid relapsing.

A study on addiction relapse was cited in Psychology Today. They state that about one out of three people who are abstinent less than a year will remain abstinent. Less than half of those who achieve one year of sobriety will relapse. For those who achieve five years sober, their chances of relapsing are less than 15%.

Of course, there are ways to avoid an alcohol relapse.

The best ways to avoid relapsing back into active alcoholism include:

• Continuing to go to alcohol treatment, as recommended
• Find a sponsor and check in with him or her regularly
• Choose to spend time with people who don't drink alcohol
• Immerse yourself in activities and hobbies that you enjoy
• Journal about your recovery journey as much as you can

It is so important to continually reward yourself for remaining sober. Sobriety is difficult to achieve, and it should be rewarded often. This might mean going out to a nice dinner with friends, or even planning a vacation to celebrate a milestone.

Also, please remember that slip-ups are quite normal. If you slip up and have a drink, that doesn't necessarily mean you have relapsed. So many people have one drink and think that they have undone all of their hard work. This simply isn't true.

If you slip up, get right back to your sobriety. This is a journey that you are on, and one drink does not mean you have to have more.