Jim, a 24-year-old University of Memphis law student, begandrinking while he was still in elementary school and had been torehab twice by the age of 16.
"I began to drink when I was 12 to be rebellious and to havefriends, but mainly out of curiosity," said Jim, who also usedother drugs, including acid, cocaine and marijuana. "I really likedhow it made me feel. It made me feel like Superman."
Doug Matthews, associate professor of psychology at The U of M,said there are several reasons alcohol is thought to beaddictive.
"Initially, people begin drinking for the pleasurable feelings,"said Matthews, who is also the director of the Tennessee Center forAddiction Research, a group that conducts research to understand anarray of addictions to promote good health.
"However, as alcohol use increases, changes occur in the brainthat produces a withdrawal state when use is stopped. People thencontinue drinking not for the pleasurable feelings, but instead toavoid the withdrawal state," Matthews said.
Jim said the overwhelming need to feel good drove him and hisfriends to take extreme measures to obtain alcohol.
"I liked to be high and drunk, and anything that could make mefeel good, I did," he said. "A neighbor had a refrigerator in hisgarage with beer and we would just go in there at night and drink.Then sometimes we would go to the gas station, find a homeless manand pay him to buy us some beer."
Almost half of all Americans ages 12 and older, or about 120million people, are currently drinkers of alcohol, with anestimated 10 to 15 million dependent on alcohol, according to theAmerican Council for Drug Education. They report that alcohol isthe leading cause of death for Americans 15 to 24 years of age.
Research indicates that 40 percent of children who begin usingalcohol before the age of 13 become alcoholics.
Satish Kedia, assistant professor of anthropology at The U of M,said alcohol addiction "relates to a person's uncontrollable needfor alcohol."
"This knowledge helps us to understand the intense struggle thatalcohol-dependent individuals experience," said Kedia, who is alsothe director of Tennessee Outcomes for Alcohol and Drug Services, agroup that examines the effectiveness of publicly funded alcoholand drug treatment programs in Tennessee.
"It is also the reason why most alcoholics cannot just use alittle willpower to stop drinking, and why for most alcoholics thecraving for alcohol is as powerful as that for food and water,"Kedia said.
A study prepared by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse andAlcoholism Task Force on College Drinking revealed that 31 percentof college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuseand 6 percent for alcohol dependence, resulting in the deaths of1,400 college students between the ages of 18 and 24. The taskforce reported that more than 150,000 students developalcohol-related health problems each year.
Matthews said alcohol addiction among college students isespecially dangerous due to the frequency of binge drinking, whichis defined as someone having five or more drinks over a shortperiod.
"College students tend to drink alcohol in a binge fashion, withapproximately 48 percent self-reporting binge drinking by age 20,"said Matthews. "This type of drinking is very dangerous, as itleads to long-lasting brain changes in our rat models, evenfollowing long alcohol-free periods."
Although treatment for alcohol addiction is reliant upon theindividual, it may include detoxification, taking prescribedmedications, counseling and support groups such as AlcoholicsAnonymous.
Jim said support groups work and they helped him out a lot, butit is up to the individual to make a change.
"I think they can work if the person truly wants to change,"said Jim, who sought treatment for his addiction on two separateoccasions when he was 16.
Matthews said the best thing a person can do to stop drinking isto change his or her environment.
"The best thing a person can do is completely change theircontext, and remove cues -- friends, bars and parties -- that aperson associates with drinking," he said.
Jim said his family and friends ultimately helped him realize heneeded to deal with his problem of alcohol and other drugs.
"I remember when I was a kid, my parents would always tell methey loved me to death," he said. "I became this person they didnot like at all, and I wanted to be that guy they liked again. I amthe luckiest person, period -- if it was not for my parents, churchfamily and family, I would not have come back.
