What starts as an occasional drink with friends can soon turn into an addiction, casting the alcohol addict in serious trouble. At this stage, the addict's day could often begin and end with alcohol and soon he could turn moody or violent, overreacting to issues and situations.

In the initial stage of alcoholism, alcohol is often a stimulant to get over depression over job status, plummeting self esteem, or a perceived sliding relationship with a significant other. Weeks turn into months, and the urge to drink increases. One effect is breaking out in sweat accompanied by shaking or nausea if there is no alcohol available. If one tries drugs to anchor oneself to some reality, the problem can compound. It can seem to the addict that nothing helps.

The breaking point sometimes comes when one is diagnosed with symptoms of liver cirrhosis. Cirrhosis of the liver is caused by continual alcohol consumption and when combined with chronic hepatitis C infection, is lethal and responsible for liver cancer. This is a major worry in the U.S. and other developed countries.

It should be seen as a blaring warning sign to cut down on alcohol and to go in for a rehabilitation program. Younger sufferers have a better chance of recovery than older ones, but the damage is serious no matter how old one is. Increasing alcohol abuse is often the basis of attention deficit disorder, depression, and other mental ailments.

The other short term effects of alcohol abuse are: loss of inhibitions and physical co-ordination, blurred vision, loss of balance and slurred speech, fatal road accidents, domestic violence, even assaults. Large amounts of alcohol in a single go can result in coma and vomiting. Sometimes vomiting when unconscious causes death by asphyxiation or suffocation.

The miseries of alcohol abuse far outnumber the pleasures and lead to serious health problems such as cancer, pancreatitis, high blood pressure, miscarriage, heart failure or stroke, alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver and even suicidal instincts. One must take responsibility for one's own drinking, rather than justify the behavior. Alcoholics often blame their alcohol-caused problems on exterior realities such as other alcoholics, the dating scene, sexual preferences, education, employment, financial matters or partying.