Alcohol and Drug addiction, also called substance use disorder, is a disease that affects a person’s brain and behavior and leads to an inability to control the use of alcohol, a legal or illegal drug or medicine. Substances such as marijuana and nicotine also are considered drugs. When you’re addicted, you may continue using the drug despite the harm it causes.

qAlcohol dependence is different from alcohol abuse. Abuse of alcohol is a pattern of drinking that leads to difficult situations, like struggling to do tasks at work, school or home, getting into trouble caused by your alcohol abuse, such as drink driving.

If you are alcohol dependent, you may have strong urges to drink alcohol, struggle to stop drinking alcohol or control how much you drink, need to drink greater amounts to feel the effects of alcohol and be physically dependent on alcohol.

qOther signs that you might be drinking too much are drinking alone, hiding alcohol from members of your household, relationship problems due to drinking, lying about how much you drink and drinking early in the day.

In order to quit drinking alcohol, many people seek the advise and experience of a professional alcohol and drug counselor. Enrolling in an in-patient rehab can be very expensive and requires you to stop your life while you live onsite during the program for a month or more. This can be very disruptive to your work and family commitments. Entering a day program is a very good option for many people because they don’t have to put their life on hold and leave their family. They can continue to work and participate in their family life without interruption, and you can work your life commitments around the day program just a few hours a day. This program only requires you to spend 6 hours a week for 4 weeks, and you will receive the same or better information than what you would receive at an in-patient month long rehab center.