ognizes that if he were to drink in public as much as he wants when he wants to, it would be a violation of social norms and expectations. The sneaking and/or drinking alone behavior is the result of this recognition.
Frequent intoxication is another sign of an alcoholic. However, there are some situations in which systematic drunkenness is not necessarily a sign of alcoholism. In other for this sort of drunkenness to qualify as a symptom of alcoholism, it must be accompanied by interference with life adjustments and or interpersonal relationships.
Other behaviors denoting the possibility that one is an alcoholic include losing time from work due to drinking; worry about one's drinking from other family members; drinking as a means of coping with social anxieties; feelings of guilt associated with drinking; financial difficulties related to drinking; associating with lower-class people while drinking; desire to drink upon first awakening in the morning; drinking to handle sleep disturbances; loss of memory as a result of drinking; and hospitalization as a result of drinking.
One of the earliest theses regarding the etiology of alcoholism was that it was caused by the alcohol; in other words, if a person drank "enough," sooner or later he or she would become an alcoholic. However, empirical research over the years has indicated that the etiological factors are within the person and not within the bottle.
The contemporary view is the alcoholism is multiply determined which is to say that the disease arises from a complex interaction of physiological, psychological, cultural, philosophical and even religious factors producing: (1) a vulnerability to alcoholism; (2) the selection of alcohol as the manifestation of psychopathological symptoms; and (3) compulsive drinking once a certain point has been reached in the alcoholic's drinking career.
Regarding the vulnerability to alcoholism, this consists of all those factors th...