{Page 49 & Others}
In the onset of alcoholism, adaptation is central. Alcoholics initially experience physical stress whenever they drink. Their enzymes, hormones, and numerous chemical processes are thrown out of balance by alcohol, and the normal ebb and flow of materials into and out of the cells is upset.
To counteract this confusion, the cells make certain changes in their structures. These adaptations gradually allow the cells to work smoothly and efficiently even when alcohol is present in the body in large quantities. In fact, the alcoholic's cells become so competent at using alcohol for energy that they choose alcohol over other energy, or food, sources.
... Gradually alcohol attacks the cells, destroying their delicate chemical balances, eating away at the membranes, and deforming the cell innards ...
The critical point, however, is this: the preliminary adaptation begins before the alcoholic starts drinking heavily and, in fact, causes the heavier drinking. Adaptation does not occur because a person drinks too much. On the contrary, when a person starts drinking more, and more often, and the pattern persists, he is displaying one of the first symptoms of alcoholism.
... A viscious cycle begins when the alcoholic must drink more to maintain a level of alcohol sufficient to override and block the devastating effects of the rising level of acetaldehyde. This is the basis of the alcoholic's "physiological imperative" to keep drinking once he starts that is regularly mistaken for a psychological compulsion to drink ...