Any person who has an alcohol addiction will inevitably develop a love-hate relationship with alcohol.

No one grows up thinking "I want to be an alcoholic someday". Some people get snatched up right away by addiction because something in their brain goes off with that first drink or two and constant use in short order becomes the norm, while others it takes years to cross a line somewhere unknown that takes them from normal, social drinking, into the alcoholic zone.

Drinking too soon or too much can affect your mood and your thinking, can hurt others, get you in legal trouble, and damage your relationships, can harm your body now and when you grow up, and can get you hooked.

This can be hard to picture, but once you cross this "line" drinking is no longer a matter of choice. The substance is running you and all of a sudden you are constantly, literally driven to take that next drink.

That makes for a full fledged relationship. Alcohol can be your friend, your refuge when you just can't face the world, it can help you sleep, it can give you courage that you would not otherwise have, it can make you more confident, and at the same time it is a brutal, cruel taskmaster.

Many states have passed Habitual Violator laws, which provide felony penalties for three DUI convictions. These offenders lose many of their civil rights -- like being able to vote or own a weapon -- as well as their driver's license permanently or for many, many years.

Little by little it takes away pieces of your life. Friends start disappearing and not returning your calls, you go downhill financially, your family is in an uproar because of your self-destructive habit, and you lose your self-respect because you have started to compromise standards that used to mean everything to you.

And you are confused - how did things ever get this far out of control? Your intentions were nothing but good, and still, you picked up that drink again.

Research has shown conclusively that familial transmission of alcoholism risk is at least in part genetic and not just the result of family environment. The task of current science is to identify what a person inherits that increases vulnerability to alcoholism and how inherited factors interact with the environment to cause disease.

As this relationship continues it gets harder and harder to quit, because all the while the habit itself is forming a well worn groove in behavior. So the addiction is constantly gaining strength. It is the easiest and most natural thing in the world to slip backwards again and have yet another drink.

The devastation caused by this process is the very reason why anyone with a drinking problem who is attempting to get well deserves credit for having the courage to make the effort to escape from the powerful, all encompassing grasp of alcohol.

According to a report published by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, the entertainment industry has glamorized alcohol and rarely shows its ill effects.

Do you suspect you have a problem with alcohol? Here is a recovery method that can help right away.

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Why is underage drinking problematic?  Research studies show that whatever it is that leads teens to start drinking, once they begin they face a variety of possible and likely health risks. Even though most of the serious health hazards and difficulties related to abusive and excessive drinking do not happen as frequently to teenagers as they do to adults, research demonstrates that adolescents who drink irresponsibly and excessively increase the likelihood of facing a number of potential medical problems and health issues such as long-term memory and thinking deterioration and liver damage.

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