Not only does alcohol abuse have serious consequences for physical and psychic health, it is also destructive of personal and social relationships. But putting an end to this form of drug abuse is particularly complex, because alcohol creates a dependence that is both physical and psychological, and because it is, in many cultures, closely linked to sociability. In trying to help alcohol abusers who wish to stop drinking, one is often confronted with resistance and denial. The authors, specialists in cognitive and behavioural therapies, describe methods that have been successfully used for many years in the treatment of alcohol abuse in a hospital setting. The following questions and issues are dealt with here:
- What sort of drinker are you? What is your degree of alcohol dependence?
- Understanding how your addictive behaviour functions.
- How to improve your motivation.
- How to fight against psychological and physical dependence.
- How to stay on the wagon.
- Advice and useful addresses.
- This book will also help alcohol abusers’ families and friends, who are often instrumental in the decision to stop drinking.
- How to help a partner, family member or friend give up drinking.
- How to prevent alcohol abuse among children and teenagers.

Pierluigi Graziani is a psychologist and lecturer on clinical psychology and psychopathologies at the University of Aix-Marseille-Ain, in Aix-en-Provence.

Daniela Eraldi-Gackière is a psychologist. She works in a clinical alcohol-abuse unit in the hospital centre at St. Amand-les-eaux, near Lille.