Addiction has been defined as a pathological relationship with a mood-altering experience resulting in life-damaging consequences. Alcoholism (or alcohol addiction), exemplifies this definition.

Alcohol treatment is the first step to getting and staying sober for alcohol abusers and alcoholics. Treatment is critical to recovering from alcoholism, as very few alcoholics find recovery from their addiction without outside assistance. To get and stay sober, alcoholics need to learn new life skills and gain strength to fight their disease.

Alcohol rehabilitation is a process designed to help alcoholics achieve sobriety and learn to live their lives free from the negative consequences inherent to alcohol abuse.  For most alcoholics it begins with a detoxification program to safely withdraw the alcohol from the user's system.  This process can be very dangerous, is almost always extremely uncomfortable, and depending on the severity of the alcoholism, often requires detox medications and medical monitoring to be done safely.  After detox, most alcohol rehabilitation programs consist of behavioral counseling and therapy, education, and relapse prevention.  While philosophies and methods of providing these essential components vary between rehab programs (see methodologies), the ultimate goal of most alcohol rehabilitation programs (the exception being harm-reduction model programs) is to help alcoholics recover from the unmanageability of active addiction, and teach them the tools needed to live in mainstream society without allowing stresses and pressures to prompt a relapse.