Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by continuous or periodic: impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial (NCADD)." It`s effects on an individual are an indescribable, harsh, reality of what one drug can do to an individual. Some people wonder when drinking becomes a problem. For most adults, moderate alcohol use, no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women is relatively harmless. A "drink" consists of 1.5 ounces of spirits, 5 ounces of wine or 12 ounces of beer (Etiology). Moderate use, however, lies at one end of a continuum that moves through alcohol abuse to alcohol dependence. Alcohol abuse is a drinking pa...