Alcoholism is on the rise in China but is rarely recognized as a disease. And those who realize they have a problem are often reluctant to seek help because of the stigma. China Daily reports.

Lu Lu had her first drink around the same time she said her first word. Family members at her home in a northeastern Chinese province often gave her sips of alcohol for the amusement of her reaction.

They were proud she liked the taste. "They loved a baby girl drinking. A drinking girl was a hero," says Lu, who asks not to use her real name.

Drinking culture in China predates its recorded history, artifacts show. And it has become more widespread since the 1980s, following the reform and opening-up, reports say.

A nationwide Wiley-Blackwell study that surveyed 50,000 people found 56 percent of men and 15 percent of women were drinkers. Nearly 60 percent of male drinkers and 30 percent of female drinkers were classified as binge drinkers, consuming alcohol five to seven days of the week.

"What makes China unique among other heavy drinking countries is that drinking frequency, quantity and binge drinking increase with age. The heaviest Chinese drinkers are middle-aged or beyond, while drinking levels in other countries tend to peak in people's late teens and early twenties," the study says.

Despite frequent exposure, Lu can count on one hand how many times she got drunk in her younger years. And despite her proud family, she says, the social stigma attached to women who drink kept her away from the bottle.

"The gender difference in China is big," Lu says.

"A publicly drunken woman looks lousy."

But when she left home to study in France, her alcoholic tendencies began to surface.

"It was just so convenient to get alcohol, and everyone was drinking," she says.

"France has a horrible drinking culture."

A study conducted by France's Observatory on Drugs and Addiction found "repeated drunkenness" among young French has risen 10 percent since 2000. The study found "repeated drunkenness" among young women has doubled during the same period.

Lu admits it was never about the culture or country. She drank because she liked her drunken self more than her sober self - a shy person, afraid of other people and life's responsibilities.

"I was so smart when I was drunk," she says.

"I could talk with anyone, and my speech was excellent. I loved the feeling of freedom and knowing I didn't need to control myself anymore."

Beijing United Family Hospital clinical psychologist George Hu says there are plenty of advantages to using alcohol, such as its tendency to be a social lubricant.

"We want alcohol to be useful," he says. "We want it to be something that serves a person, rather than them being enslaved by it."

When Lu lived in New York City, she drank so she could fall asleep. She had a toothache but had neither health insurance nor the $800 it would have cost to fix. So she self-medicated.

"I drank one bottle of vodka every day. And after a week the pain was gone," she says.

"I thought it was a great thing, surviving the pain without a doctor."

By the time she moved back to China, she was dependent on alcohol and couldn't maintain a job. She began hiding from others, isolating herself to drink alone. She looked for solutions outside of the bottle but always went back to alcohol.

The country's booming economy and growing middle class has been producing more drinkers. Between 1978 and 2000, alcohol consumption rose 320 percent in China, according to a World Health Organization report. There are an estimated 40 million people with alcohol-abuse problems, which amounts to nearly 4 percent of the population.

The stigma of being not only an alcoholic, but also a female alcoholic, prevented Lu from seeking help.

"Alcoholism is not a defined disease in China," she says.

"When you search for help, you get so many answers, a lot of which are wrong."

Hu says two schools of thought exist regarding alcoholism treatment - abstinence and harm reduction.

The abstinence solution, endorsed by Alcoholics Anonymous, holds that alcoholics must give up all drinking forever in order to properly recover. Harm reduction, on the other hand, aims to shift alcohol into a pleasure rather than a crutch. Advocates of this method argue that alcohol abusers can learn to consume "normally".

Hu says both methods share the theme of accountability.

"In AA, accountability comes in the form of a sponsor - someone to talk to in times of weakness so they don't fall down a slippery slope," Hu says.

"In harm reduction, people must also identify someone to keep them accountable and remind them about their commitment."

Hu stresses that there's no universal solution for everyone.

After attending AA meetings in Beijing, Lu knew the only solution was to stop drinking for the rest of her life. She has been sober for three and a half years.

Lu says she wants to spread awareness of AA and chip away at the stigma of alcoholism as well as the misconceptions of how to deal with it. She wants to invite those who need help into a community that saved her life.

"A big part of AA is carrying the message. We have a lot of work to do to spread the message further," she says.

"I don't think enough Chinese people use AA."

Kurt Nagl contributed to this story.