If you drink alcohol so that it interferes directly or indirectly with achieving your goals, you have a problem with it. You can make drinking a problem when you give it excessive power to enable you to cope better, to feel good, or to help you reduce emotional distress. It’s a problem when you believe you need it for those or other purposes. Problem behavior is defined by how much it hinders you in reaching your goals. Because different people have different goals, your problem in one situation may not be a problem for other people in a different setting. If, for instance, you go out every night with your crowd and drink, and then fail a big test, your drinking is a problem if you believe it is more important in the long run to pass the test.