Is Alcohol a Drug? Yes, it is!
Many people have misconceptions and may even wonder: “Is alcohol a drug?” They might treat alcohol differently than how they treat other drugs, or think about alcohol differently in their mind.
This is a huge mistake. The fact is, alcohol is a drug.
Many people believe that alcohol and other drugs are somehow separate, or that they fall into different categories. I have seen this occur over and over again in recovery. Here are the two most popular misconceptions that get people into trouble when it comes to defining alcohol:
1) “Alcohol is not my problem. I’m a addicted to drug X, and alcohol doesn’t do anything for me. I can take it or leave it.”
This is a major misconception that has caused so many people to relapse eventually. I have known at least 3 different people in recovery now who were addicted to a street drug, and they all claimed that alcohol was a non-issue for them. They all 3 said that they did not really drank, and when they had drank in the past, it did nothing for them, and that they were basically immune to the threat of alcoholism. Their problem was always some other drug other than alcohol.
All 3 of these people relapsed eventually, starting with alcohol, and returning to their drug of choice. Alcohol is a drug and it will eventually lead you back to other drugs.
People who think that alcohol is somehow not a drug are very, very misinformed about how alcohol works on the body. If you keep dumping alcohol into your body it will eventually put you into a coma and kill you. In terms of erasing emotional pain, alcohol works every time. Just keep adding more until your pain is gone. To say that you are immune to this or that it is not a drug is really naive. Alcohol is a very crude buzz but it is still a drug.
2) “My problem is alcohol, not drug X or drug Y. If I can just stop drinking, I will be OK.”
Another very common example is the alcoholic who is taking addictive anxiety medications that were prescribed by their doctor. They do not see these as being a problem for their recovery because “alcohol is their problem” and if they can just stop drinking then they will be fine. In my experience, people who are taking addictive prescription drugs (such as Xanax or Ativan or Valium, etc.) always end up going back to the bottle, until they can come to terms with the fact that alcohol and these other drugs are both addictive substances.
Yes, people, alcohol is a drug!
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