Just to help others understand alcoholism a little more… As an analogy, let's say someone wants a new car so badly they can taste it, but it's out of their price range. Most people can summon the willpower to not buy a car that will bankrupt them. It's not the same for an alcoholic. While willpower is extremely important in overcoming alcoholism, the disease is so pervasive in all aspects of one's life that it's impossible to overcome without help.

To illustrate with a car analogy (and if drinks were cars), then an alcoholic would buy a car, then another and another. Eventually the alcoholic would lose his house because he couldn't make house payments. And the alcoholic might choose to become homeless so he would have more money to buy yet another car. If you tell the person, the car buyer, that they had a problem, that person would say, “I don't have a problem because I wanted to buy three cars in the last month but kept myself from doing so and I only bought one today. Therefore I don't have a problem.” If you think that's bad, with drinking the effects are even worse and go further because the alcohol destroys the body, mind and spirit on a physical level. (See the chart Dean's post links to.)

The worst part of the disease, I suppose, is that it is progressive and it takes years before alcoholics finally admit they need help. The recovery is lifelong, particularly in a society where virtually every occasion, office parties, marriages, 4th of July events, etc. serve alcohol. The alcoholic has to be ever vigilant against temptation because it only takes one drink to completely fall off the wagon.