If you or someone you know has a drinking problem then you must first diagnose the scope of the problem before you can take action to correct it. This means deciding whether the drinking is alcohol abuse or if it is a deeper problem such as alcohol addiction or alcoholism. Depending on how serious the problem will change how you go about treating it.

The first experiment you should do is to simply stop drinking for 30 days. If you can pull this off without any problems whatsoever then chances are good that you were only abusing alcohol and you were not really addicted to it. Another experiment that you might do after this one is to limit yourself to one drink per day if you are a female or two drinks per day if you are a male and hold to that limit for at least 30 days continuous. If you can do this experiment as well then you are probably not addicted to alcohol. If there are any doubts about the outcomes of these two experiments then you should probably scratch the whole thing and start over again fresh with renewed enthusiasm. If you keep having problems with these challenges and really cannot make it through them successfully without any slip ups, then it is probably the case that your drinking problem is leaning towards alcohol addiction or alcoholism.

If that is the case then you are likely a true alcoholic. This means you are addicted to alcohol and, even if you do not drink every day, you still always return to alcohol eventually and it sometimes gets you into big trouble. There are alcoholics out there who are binge drinkers and do not drink every day, but once they start drinking they cannot stop. It might seem like these people are only abusing alcohol but in fact they are real alcoholics and therefore need a different kind of help.

So if you are not addicted to alcohol and are merely abusing the stuff, what should you do? The answer is that you need to stop or limit your drinking. You need to pattern your everyday life after one of the two experiments that we've discussed and do them for the rest of your life. Either abstain from alcohol or limit yourself accordingly. Either solution will work just fine if you are not really an alcoholic. Either solution will work for you and be no problem to follow if you are not alcoholic.

On the other hand, if you find it impossible to live that way, and cannot successfully limit yourself like this, then you are a true alcoholic and you need help of a different nature. Basically, you need to abstain completely and figure out a different way to live your life. This is no small order and you have to be prepared to invest a lot of time and effort into any solution that is going to help you in this case.

A lot of struggling alcoholics will go to a treatment center or a drug rehab in order to try to quit drinking. Alcoholics who manage to find long term sobriety and success after treatment are those who follow up with a ton of action and after care plans. This generally means that they go to lots of meetings and network with others in recovery as a new way of life. Anything less than this tends to produce relapse.