Behavioral Addiction
This is when a drinker's use of alcohol becomes a habit, and a way of life. At this stage it is reversible because if the drinker reforms, or cuts back they are still able to take alcohol, but in moderate quantities and still be in control of it.
For example, one may go to the pub every evening to enjoy the social atmosphere with other drinkers, or may enjoy a drink with company in one's own home. Alcoholism warning signs are when it becomes a habit initially, says to have a drink at lunchtime, another when coming home from work, then one or two in the evening. It becomes part of your life, part of your routine, and you find that it becomes a way of life. At this point you may even kid yourself you need a drink in the morning to help with facing up to the day ahead, and so on. You'll find that you are making the day revolve around drinking opportunities; opportunities there are, but by this time you are beginning to get devious. As this becomes full-blown, the change comes. You won't know exactly when it happens, but you find out the results later. The behavior dependency facts can be corroborated by any honest alcoholic.
Chemical Addiction
You have now become dependent on alcohol. You are unable to stop at one drink, and your drinking spirals out of control. You have one, then another, then another. Weekends and bank holidays stretch out endlessly, punctuated with drinking/sleeping/drinking. Weekdays are not so bad because you can crash out into bed, until the next morning when you've got the physical effects alcoholism brings: you feel nauseous, your head pounds, you shiver and sweat... You realize how bad the drink is making you feel, the terrible effects of alcohol, so you make a promise not to touch it for a day or a week. As soon as that time is up, you’re straight back on it.
Kindly, well meaning friends and family may try to help by offering to control your drinking by keeping the bottles out of sight and pouring you a drink at an agreed time. It never works, it can't do. The drinker goes underground with his own supply of liquor and drinks surreptitiously, deceitfully. Hiding places are found which only someone with experience of alcoholism could relate to. Toilet cisterns, inside the vertical vacuum cleaner, mixed with lemonade and left on a shelf in the garage, or concealed in cans of cola to name a few.
What Do Behavioral Addiction and Chemical Addiction Have In Common?
Both are slowly killing you. You'll know about it from pain around your liver and kidney areas. You start vomiting and feeling nauseous even without the drink. You get shaky hands, your body shrieks at you to stop. You can't think clearly or concentrate, and you are wracked with guilt as you realize you made a fool of yourself again in front of your friends. But very importantly, both behavioral addiction and chemical addiction bring out the base human traits of deception, deceit, lying, cunning, and so on. You become a very difficult person to live with.