Alcoholics use alcohol to cope with the stresses of every day life. Because they avoid dealing with problems rather than solving them, alcoholics increase the stress in many aspects of their lives. Stress and anxiety may be used as excuses to drink. Many alcoholics isolate themselves from social situations and from close friends in an attempt to hide their overwhelming desire to drink. Spouses of alcoholics often are the first to suffer from the excessive drinking of the alcoholic.
Many marriages end in divorce if the alcoholic continues to drink.
Alcoholism is treatable. Although it cannot be cured, like diabetes, a person can learn to live with it. Abstinence from alcohol is the basis upon which treatment proceeds. Alcohol is moderately addictive to the average person, but highly addictive to the alcoholic. To prevent this, support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, exist to aid the recovering alcoholic.