It’s not as simple as drawing a line in the sand and saying on one side stands the social drinker and on the other the alcoholic. That one additional drink magically transforms you from a normal drinker to a problematic one.
Life isn’t that black and white, and drinking, like everything else in this world, exists in shades of gray. Along a spectrum. That said, there’s no doubt a difference between the two types of drinking but a person doesn’t necessarily switch overnight, they slip slowly, perhaps even imperceptibly, into alcoholism.
While not being a literal line with an actual number of drinks attached to it, there certainly is a threshold people cross in their relationship with alcohol.
So, what changes?