If you are familiar with any of these, it would certainly help if you consulted a professional about your problem. A simple rule of thumb is that the sooner we discover that we are engaging in risky substance use behaviours, the easier and quicker it is to get treatment and get back to safer use.

Those who start secondary prevention early and do not let their problem grow will also avoid all the rather drastic measures that accompany the treatment of severe addiction.

The typology cannot be understood in a strict sense; of course, different types of alcohol pathology may overlap or the addict may move from one type to another.

Successful addiction treatment must lead the addict to realize which external, but especially internal triggers are the most risky for him or her. In practice, this means a deeper understanding of the function of alcohol in his psychological life.

If this is a function of reward, psychotherapy needs to be targeted at the question of why I have a heightened need to reward myself in this way and which of my basic psychological needs are not being met. If alcohol has the function of a kind of "medicine" that I use to drown out unpleasant psychological states, the cause of these states needs to be addressed psychotherapeutically.