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Quitting alcohol like any other addictive drug is so easy yet so hard. Easy because quitting is a decision which can be taken and carried out in an instant but hard as the need to make this decision is enveloped in a thick fog of myth, misinformation and stigma.

Alcoholism is indeed a disease and this flies in the face of one of the biggest and hardest to overcome myths and that is that alcoholism is not a disease but as the Supreme Court of the United States of America has termed it "willful misconduct". Many Kenyans too believe that alcoholics are simply irresponsible people, totally devoid of willpower.

That if only they would drink responsibly they would not become alcoholic. The fact of the matter is that alcoholics even if they start out drinking responsibly will start drinking irresponsibly when they become alcoholic not because they are irresponsible but because it is the nature of the disease.

The fact that you or I would be unable to stop our hearts beating for evcen five seconds even if offered a desperately needed million dollars has nothing to do with the lack of willpower but of physiology.

Easy then. All you have to do is not drink a lot and you will never become alcoholic. Wrong. Alcohol is a selictively addictive drug posing a threat to only about 10 percent of the population who are predisposed to alcoholism. So, contrary to popular belief, if you drink long enough and hard enough you may not become an alcoholic.

In fact for this minority 10 percent, it is not the length of time or amount of alcohol consumed, but the fact of continued drinking which will lead them to progress into alcoholism.

People do not become alcoholics because they are trying to assuage psychological problems. Alcoholics have the same emotional problems as everyone else. These problems might be aggravated by excessive drinking as this further erodes the alcoholics ability to cope emotionally.

When they are 'high' their emotions are easily inflamed and they are prone to overreaction while as they 'crash' or become sober or are not drinking again, their emotions again are raw and wildly flactuating and exaggerated.

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