Detrimental Effects That are Related to Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse

Some of the negative effects linked to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class without a doubt frightened me. The ruined lives and countless difficulties experienced by most alcohol dependent individuals made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. Stated briefly, I did not want to face the disaster and destruction that alcohol dependent people almost always experience.

Think about this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old individual wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What young person wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that drinking alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What teenager wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related difficulties before he or she becomes twenty-one?

What adolescent wants to experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to quit drinking? Why would an individual engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause serious issues in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would a teenager want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that focuses on hazardous drinking?

These issues were so significant that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was downright incredible to me was the number of students who simply didn’t care about the harmful effects of excessive drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t be bothered with the facts and how these results can wreck their lives. For the first time in my life I started to figure out something that my grandfather used to articulate all through my younger years: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

It’s Beneficial, Liberating, and Important to Keep Away From the Unhealthy and Destructive End Results of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

And even at my young age, I also began to comprehend how liberating, beneficial, and important it is in life to stay away from the damaging and unhealthy effects of alcohol and drug abuse.

If you have hopelessly tried to discontinue your drinking or if you have given your word to yourself that your drinking days are gone and then you realized that you were drinking in a hazardous manner just a few days later, the probability is especially good that you have drinking problems. The key point is that if you have tried to stop drinking and cannot do this, then your drinking is controlling you, rather than the other way around.

Similarly, if it takes increasingly more amounts of alcohol to get the same “high,” more likely than not you need to realize that you have a problem with your drinking.

You may be telling yourself that the justification for your drinking is so that you can lessen your stress or get rid of the hurt that you feel. Similarly, you may be trying to steer clear of an unsafe circumstance and may be looking for something better, more constructive, or less regretful.

As you keep on drinking, nevertheless, you will realize that drinking does not result in the same high and you will also realize that drinking doesn’t help remove whatever was causing your sorrow in the first place.

As you continue to drink, regrettably, you may become alcohol dependent and, as a consequence, you may add another key predicament to deal with rather than discovering more efficient and beneficial ways of coping with your alcohol generated problems.

When an Alcohol Appraisal is Required

If you have figured out that you have a drinking problem, maybe the healthiest thing you can do for yourself is to call your physician or healthcare provider and schedule an appointment for a complete physical and for an evaluation of your drinking behavior.

If you honestly believe that you have a crucial problem with your drinking, it might be a good idea to get prepared to find out that you need to get alcohol treatment.

At this point in time, what are your options? You can certainly refuse to see your general practitioner and continue your pattern of out-of-control drinking.

It certainly doesn’t take a rocket scientist, to the contrary, to comprehend that repeated, abusive drinking, if left untreated, will deteriorate over time and doubtless set in motion an early death. As a result, your healthiest alternative is to confront your drinking problem and obtain the alcohol rehab you require.

The Facade of the Functioning Alcohol Dependent Person

It is almost counter intuitive to note the fact that many alcohol addicted individuals lead busy and active lives and have vehicles, jobs, pets, houses, families, and any number of material possessions just like people who are not addicted to alcohol.

Many of these “functional” alcohol addicted people may have never been apprehended for drunk driving and may have been lucky enough to avoid all alcohol generated legal difficulties. Despite this good fortune, to the contrary, these alcohol addicted individuals need to drink in order to deal with life on a day by day basis while preserving their facade as they associate with people outside their family.

Ask anyone who has seen them when they are engaging in one of their drinking binges or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcoholism, nonetheless, and they will be quick to maintain the validity of the drinker’s situation and the particulars about the alcoholic’s drinking circumstances and about his or her alcohol generated predicaments.

Why Do Alcoholics Fail to See Their Drinking Problems?

As alcohol addiction research and statistics on alcohol abuse have accentualted, no matter how evident the alcohol-related problems seem to those who interact with the alcohol dependent person, alcohol dependent individuals characteristically deny that drinking is the cause of their alcohol-related difficulties. Not only this, but alcohol dependent people regularly blame their alcohol-related difficulties on other people or upon other circumstances that surround them instead of seeing their part in the issue.

The source of the difficulty is that alcohol dependency is a disease of the brain. Once the drinker has become alcohol dependent, he or she typically resorts to denial, manipulation, and lying as a way of dealing with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make the situation more problematic, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms characteristically counteracts the alcoholic’s rare attempts to suddenly stop drinking. As depressing as the alcohol dependent individual’s way of life is, nonetheless, the encouraging news is that competent help is widely obtainable – if the alcohol dependent individual reaches out and tries to get alcoholism rehab.

Summary

Coming to grips with the fact that drinking is bringing about problems in your daily functioning is probably the most trouble-free way to determine if you have a drinking problem. Stated more precisely, if your drinking is triggering issues with your health, at work, in your relationships, with your finances, at school, or with the legal system, then you have a drinking problem that needs to be resolved.

If you have a problem with your drinking, what is more, this means that you are engaging in alcohol abuse.

While some problem drinkers may be able to pinpoint their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their difficulties, and substantially diminish the amount and rate of their drinking, other drinkers, to the contrary, need to address their drinking problems by getting professional alcoholism rehab. What is more, due to their tendency to deny the facts and alter the truth, alcoholics definitely require professional alcohol therapy for their excessive drinking.

Injurious Outcomes That are Linked to Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse

Some of the detrimental outcomes linked to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class without a doubt frightened me. The ruined lives and frequent serious issues experienced by most alcohol addicted individuals made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. Stated briefly, I did not want to face the disaster and destruction that alcohol addicted individuals almost always go through.

Ponder upon this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old teenager wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What young person wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that ingesting alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What teen wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related difficulties before he or she becomes twenty-one?

What adolescent wants to encounter alcohol withdrawals when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause difficulties in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after an individual has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would an adolescent want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that centers on irresponsible drinking?

These issues were so meaningful that I discussed some of them in class throughout the school year. What was downright astonishing to me was the number of students who openly didn’t care about the dangerous outcomes of hazardous drinking that I discussed. It was almost as if they couldn’t be bothered with reality and how these consequences can ruin their lives. For the first time in my life I started to comprehend something that my grandfather used to say to me all through my adolesence: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

It’s Beneficial, Liberating, and Important to Stay Away From the Damaging and Unhealthy Consequences of Alcohol and Drug Abuse

And even at my young age, I also started to understand how invigorating, important, and beneficial it is in life to keep away from the damaging and unhealthy consequences of alcohol and drug abuse.

As an illustration, in 2005, medical investigation and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics demonstrated the fact that that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion per year. It can be emphasized that this gigantic alcohol-related expenditure was significantly more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is appropriate to stress these facts, it is also important to emphasize the point that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.

More precisely, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction are also highly correlated with obesity and with cancer.

Definitely, substance abuse research has revealed that alcohol addiction can boost the risk for various types of cancer, particularly cancer of the esophagus, kidneys, throat, rectum, liver, voice box (larynx), and the colon. Heavy and repetitive drinking can also result in immune system difficulties and abnormality to the fetus during pregnancy.

Irresponsible and Abusive Drinking Weakens the Problem Drinker’s Systems and Organs

Furthermore, if alcoholism continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will likely be affected in a harmful manner. For instance, long-term, excessive drinking is especially harmful to the liver due to the fact that the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been consumed. Excessive amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and eradicates the ability of liver cells to redevelop. This medical circumstance leads to a progressive inflammatory disease of the liver that can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver, an acute and potentially terminal medical problem.Excessive, long-term drinking not only can result in serious liver damage, but it can also result in damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this serious may be irreversible and may, in turn, result in serious illness or an early death.

The Relevance of Alcohol Counseling

It is vital, then, to know how to identify the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol dependent person can be given the opportunity to get the quality alcohol therapy he or she needs.

Alcohol Addiction and Sophisticated Brain Research

Fortuitously, scientific exploration is constantly generating new and significant information. Recent alcoholism exploration offers a good example. Stated another way, for roughly the last ten years, sophisticated brain-imaging scanning instruments have demonstrated that repetitive and long-term irresponsible drinking alters the configuration of the brain to a great extent, therefore resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or conceivably as long as the individual lives.

More correctly, medical research has shown that individuals who have been drinking in an irresponsible manner for a sizeable length of time increase their risk for developing lasting and severe transformations in the brain.

This type of damage may be indirectly associated with the drinker’s poor overall health or directly related to severe liver disease or to the alcohol’s effects on the brain.

Malnutrition, Excessive Drinking, and Mental Disorders

As a final example of assorted medical problems that are substantially correlated to alcohol addiction, consider that according to scientific research, the excessive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a health problem that reduces the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

This form of organ breakdown is associated with malnutrition and to a variety of severe mental and neurological problems including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical problem is a lasting debilitating condition that is epitomized by persistent memory and learning problems.

Summary

It is plain to see that repetitive, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly related to a number of critical medical conditions that can and do lead to dangerous ailments and premature death. Such information needs to be emphasized and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of people will be able to refrain from excessive drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the professional therapy they require.