While some of you were kneeling over a toilet last weekend, discarding some of your favorite liquor, you may have drunkenly moaned, “Maybe I should stop drinking.” If this wasn’t your first such conversation with the toilet, another thing you may have moaned was “Am I an alcoholic?”

In all seriousness, this is a problem many Americans face, as 17.5 million Americans are addicted to alcohol.

Alcohol addiction is one of many habits college students develop -that is, if they didn’t develop it in high school.

Most students don’t realize they are addicted until they’ve endangered themselves or hurt people they are close to. What’s even worse is some addicts may not even realize they are addicted.

When asked in an on-line chat how people can tell if they’re alcoholics, Dr. Richard Kneip said, “Strictly speaking, there is no widely accepted definition of what constitutes an ‘alcoholic.’ However, when deciding whether alcohol or drug use is problematic for someone, we evaluate whether the drug or alcohol use is creating problems in the major functional areas of the individual’s life, such as school, work, and relationships.”

If you’re continually missing class because of hangovers, lack of energy or any other alcohol-related issue, you may be an alcoholic.

A WebMD.com article states, “Signs of alcohol addiction include feeling compelled to drink, drinking in secret, needing greater amounts of alcohol to have the desired effect, withdrawal symptoms without alcohol and feeling that alcohol is starting to dominate your life.”

The best way to combat alcoholism has usually been 12-step programs and counseling. However, there are new medications that soon may help stop this powerful addiction.

A Sept. 13 MSNBC.com report talked briefly about John Bauhs, a recovering alcoholic who stopped drinking by taking a new pill after struggling with alcoholism for 25 years. The drug he used, Naltrexone, blocks brain chemicals that give alcoholics their buzz.

“After being on the drug only three days, the urge to drink was completely gone,” said the 41-year-old chef. “The conscious thought not to drink doesn’t even affect me anymore.”

That’s incredible.

But is this drug the miracle pill that many alcoholics need?

Dr. Raye Litten, a treatment research leader at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, was quoted in the same article saying these types of medications “can’t solve alcoholism, but they can help some people.” Most doctors believe alcoholism is behavioral and medications such as Naltrexone, Vivitrex and Campral should complement counseling and programs like Alcoholics Anonymous.

It may seem academic that people dealing with alcoholism should seek help, but research gives the opposite impression.

The Associated Press has reported “the number of people treated for addiction to alcohol or drugs dropped off recently. That drop has occurred primarily because [of] a decline in admissions for abuse.”

People with the addiction often defend themselves by either denying that there’s a problem or excusing their actions. This is what hurts loved ones the most.

What loved ones should remember is the only way addicts can help themselves is to identify the problem first. No matter how hard you try to get people to see the truth, the mind has a tendency to let us see only what we want, not what we need.

For those complacent alcoholics, just think of how overjoyed John Bauhs must feel now that he is recovering from his addiction. He may now have one less obstacle in his personal life to face.

Besides, I would imagine being a recovering alcoholic is a lot more comforting than talking to the “porcelain god” at four in the morning.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.