When drinking becomes something else.
Alcohol use disorder is the most socially embedded addiction there is, which is part of what makes it so hard to recognize. The line between drinking too much and drinking addictively blurs slowly, over months or years, until the person on the other side of it can barely remember when it changed. Functioning alcoholism is real — and functioning doesn't mean fine.
What makes alcohol use disorder particularly dangerous is withdrawal. Stopping heavy, long-term drinking without medical supervision can cause seizures, cardiac complications, and in serious cases, death. If someone has been drinking heavily every day for an extended period, cold-turkey stopping is not safe. Medical detox exists specifically for this, and it's the right first step before treatment at Ebb Tide.
