This means that during an average lifetime, as many as a million people will die prematurely, including thousands of people under the age of 18. The grief and distress to family and friends is immeasurable. Simple withdrawal symptoms include preoccupation with alcohol, shakiness, sweating and fear. More serious symptoms include hallucinations, epileptic-type fits, memory problems and lowered consciousness. They can be very distressing indeed and the stress they put on a weak heart can even be fatal.
Medical attention is needed to help a person experiencing withdrawal symptoms.
A major problem with the word 'alcoholic' is that for many people it conjures up a mental image of an old man drinking alcohol out of a bottle on a park bench. In fact only five out of every hundred alcoholics fit into this category, and this form of negative stereotyping can be very unhelpful because it prevents people who do not identify themselves with this image from recognising that they have a serious drinking problem. For the same reason it prevents spouses, family members, friends and employers from recognising the extent of the alcoholic's drinking problem. This means that everyone tends to minimise the extent of the drinking problem until it is no longer possible to cover it up, whereas if they had confronted the problem earlier and sought help, the harm caused by alcoholism could have been much reduced. Because of these difficulties and the desire to help people recognise that they, or someone they know, has a drinking problem, terms such as 'problem drinker' and 'dependent drinker' have been introduced.