Alcoholism is a disease or a condition in which you can get progressively worse and the alcoholism stages can help you see where you are. You started off drinking with it under control, but as time and many bottles have gone down you may be finding yourself in a deeper hole. As long as you are breathing you still have a chance. It will help you know how far you have to go if you look at where you are. As you recover from alcoholism, it will also help you to look back and see just how far you've come.
One of the first stages is where drinking moves beyond the social reasons to your trying to escape and to help your mood. This is where you drink so that you can handle life. It won't be too long before the drinking is handling and controlling you. Escaping life is not controlling it. The problems will still be there later.
The next is the stage where you have to drink more and more for the same effect. Your tolerance has grown and it takes a lot more for you to get the same feeling you used to. This can become dangerous as you can begin experiencing more of the harmful effects of drinking too much.
You may have reached a point where you know you might have a problem starting. As you try to control it you go into a situation thinking that you are going to hold back on the drinking. You think you will only have a few drinks, but a few turns into a lot. This is where you start to lose control.
A stage that may follow here is one in which you start becoming more interested in getting your next drink than those things that used to be much more important. It could be your work, your friends, or your family. This is the beginning of the obsession and a point in which it becomes harder to turn around. Your job may be in jeopardy, but you are getting to a point where you just don't care. Those closest to you will probably try to help you, but their influence on you will be less powerful than the influence that alcohol has. You may choose your drink more over those you love. This is where you start losing the most.
You will get to a point that you start neglecting yourself. You have gone past caring for those around you and now come the point that you just don't care anymore. You start neglecting your hygiene, your health, your future, and your life. Nothing else matters, but the drink.
The final stage is where you have lost total control. You have turned your love for drinking into a full-blown obsession. All you can think about is getting the next bottle. You could very well find yourself deathly ill or homeless at this point because of your insatiable desire for alcohol.
While it can get worse, it doesn't have to. You can stop the course of your life if you will allow yourself a chance to get the help you need. Get help while you still can.
