There are a number of different ways to pick up on the signs and symptoms of alcoholism or drug addiction. Usually your instincts will tell you something is wrong, but we have a tendency to second-guess ourselves so some ‘hard facts’ are usually required.

Your opinion can also be affected depending on what perspective you’re looking at the problem from. Is it you that you’re worried about and so want to be able to recognize the signs of addiction for your own understanding?

Or are you concerned about a spouse, child, lover, or friend? There aren’t necessarily any infallible guidelines, but hopefully I can provide you with a few things to look out for and should you then want more information, just visit the links provided to my website.

A couple of the main physical signs of alcoholism or drug addiction are liver problems and high blood pressure, which can cause severe tiredness or even result in things like strokes and heart attacks. But unless you see a Doctor in time, you often won’t pick on them until it’s too late.

Signs of alcoholism and drug addiction that you are possibly likely to pick up on sooner – are for example making promises (even if it’s just to yourself) that you’re going to cut down or stop, which are obviously not kept; needing more and more to get the feeling you want; and withdrawals that become worse and worse.

For me the key indicator of a real problem is when your using or drinking starts to impact your sense of self, and when day to day things that have been fine before become effected – like work, school, relationships etc.

Another good way to test for addiction is to use psychometric type addiction and alcoholism tests – which are mostly very accurate in identifying a genuine addiction problem. I don’t unfortunately have enough space to put them here – but feel free to visit my website to try one.

So, being able to identify an addiction in yourself or someone you care about, can be done in a few different ways. Read up on the various symptoms and signs, try a psychometric type test, and you should then have a reasonably good idea if indeed there is a genuine problem.

Look – the first thing that you need to understand, is that recovery from drug addiction and alcoholism, is something totally separate from treating these addictions.

The treatment of addiction is in most cases about the period of roughly a month – where you’ll be at rehab or addiction treatment facility detoxing and receiving various form of treatment – to help you deal with the various factors that have resulted in you going down the road of addiction.

Recovery then – is what follows going to rehab and receiving treatment. It’s pretty much then about what you do for the rest of your life to maintain your sobriety by staying off the drugs or alcohol. I think many that go into treatment don’t get this at first and that’s why relapse rates can be high – because they see treatment as the end of the road for them, when in fact it’s really only the beginning.

Recovery from alcoholism and addiction then, is in essence, about the consistent habits and new way of life you create for yourself – so that you stay on the road of recovery road and don’t end up relapsing.

It’s the 12-Step or other spiritual program you follow, the new (non-addict) friends you now spend your time with, it’s the continuous taking ownership of your emotions and feelings so you don’t get into a state where you want to have that drink or pick up that drug, phoning that friend for support when you’re feeling low and more vulnerable

So in other words – recovery is all about taking continuous action and forming new life affirming habits that will leave the destructive addict part of you a thing of history – and bring to the fore your warrior, spirited self that will flourish despite what life may throw at you.

So the treatment of any addiction should be seen as the stepping stone and preparation for a life of recovery. It’s the beginning – rather than the end of the road. Now I know there are people that leave a life of addiction behind them without going the treatment/rehab route – but they’ve also done it by making significant changes in most areas of their lives and working at it consistently.

So when trying to understand alcohol addiction recovery and drug addiction recovery – remember its something you do and work at for the rest of your life. It can be hard at the beginning, but with time does become much easier – and soon your life will be unrecognisable from the nightmare it was.

There are a lot of people out there that really want to understand alcoholism and drug addiction. So the questions – ‘what is alcoholism or what is drug addiction?’ are very common.

So if you are one of those people, hopefully I can help. Now you need to understand that alcoholism and drug addiction can be quite complex to get a handle on.

The kind of things you would need to know to understand them in depth, would include things like whether drug addiction and alcoholism is a disease, the causes of alcoholism and addiction, and the genetic/hereditary impact on addiction and alcoholism.

But lets take it a step further back first and go deeper than that – so that we really get to the heart of the problem.

Whether you have a genetic predisposition towards alcoholism or drug addiction making you more susceptible – or whether life has just given you a few bad breaks so you use drugs or alcohol to help you cope, which has led you to addiction – there is an underlying reason that explains it all.

And I think it’s ultimately an emptiness and lack of wholeness that you feel, which you cover up or try to hide/suppress by using drugs and alcohol. I know – I’ve been there. You feel disconnected to life and question your purpose, which is something I used to do all the time. Still do actually, but it’s not nearly as bad.

According to Dr. Andrew Weil, who has a brilliant explanation for it in his book, Natural Health, Natural Medicine; addiction is not psychological or pharmacological problem and can’t be solved using these methods. He says it is at root, a Spiritual Concern, due to the fact that it represents a misdirected attempt at experiencing wholeness, satisfaction and inner completeness.

So in trying to understand, what is drug addiction and what is alcoholism actually? Remember that they are in essence a Spiritual ‘problem.’ And by doing that, you will be far more effective in treating and recovering from them successfully.