How does alcoholism affect a persons health?

It's been my experience that if you have 100 people, you'll wind up with 100 types of Alcoholism. However, it is essential to understand that drinking alcohol is not synonomous with alcoholism. Only a small fraction of drinkers are alcoholics. When we're talking about behavior under the influence of intoxicants, we have to talk about brain chemistry. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and tends to impair judgment first before anything else. When people drink they generally do things they wouldn't had they not been drinking (loss of control) and you'll see over a period of time that people will exhibit various manifestations of behavior as a result of being affected by the chemicals they use.

When we talk about addiction we have to talk about craving - no craving, no addiction. If you look at someone who has a label of dependence, you'll generally find a change in personality...as alcohol first affects judgment, people generally don't have an idea that their behavior is inappropriate at the time.