Some of the detrimental outcomes linked to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class certainly startled me. The ruined lives and numerous problems experienced by most alcohol dependent people 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.

Let this sink in for a moment. What fifteen-year-old teenager wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What teenager 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 issues before he or she becomes an adult?

What adolescent wants to experience alcohol withdrawals when he or she tries to quit drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause problems 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 young person want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that centers on excessive drinking?

These issues were so important that I discussed some of them in class during the school year. What was absolutely astounding to me was the number of students who simply didn’t care about the dangerous effects of excessive drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t be troubled with the facts and how these effects can wreck their lives. For the first time in my life I started to appreciate a saying that my grandfather used to emphasize all through my adolesence: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.

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1. Alcohol Addiction, Alcohol Relapse, and Enabling
2. Alcohol Relapse and Alcohol Addiction
3. Irresponsible and Abusive Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems

As an illustration, in 2005, medical exploration and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics showed that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion annually. It can be stressed that this considerable alcohol-related expense was substantially more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is important to accentuate these facts, it is also noteworthy to highlight the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health conditions.

More explicitly, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction are also highly associated with obesity and with cancer.

Certainly, substance abuse research has shown that alcoholism can augment the risk for different forms of cancer, particularly cancer of the voice box (larynx), esophagus, liver, rectum, colon, kidneys, and throat. Excessive and repetitive drinking can also lead to immune system issues and damage to the fetus during pregnancy.

Irresponsible Drinking Deteriorates the Individual’s Systems and Organs

What is more, if alcoholism continues over a period of years, the person’s body organs will likely be affected in a harmful manner. For example, long-term, excessive drinking is especially injurious to the liver since the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been consumed. Excessive amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and obliterates the ability of liver cells to redevelop. This condition leads to a progressive inflammatory injury to the liver that can ultimately lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a precarious and possibly terminal medical problem.Heavy, long-term drinking not only can result in acute liver damage, but it can also result in damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this serious may be irreparable and may, in turn, lead to severe illness or an untimely death.

The Significance of Alcohol Treatment

It is critical, consequently, to know how to identify the various alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol addicted individual can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol rehabilitation he or she requires.

Alcohol Addiction and Technologically Advanced Brain Exploration

Fortuitously, medical research is continuously uncovering original and significant information. Recent alcoholism research offers a good illustration. More accurately, for roughly the last ten years, complex brain-imaging scanning devices have demonstrated that continuous and long-term abusive drinking changes the constitution of the brain to a substantial extent, thusly resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or conceivably as long as the person exists.

More specifically, medical research has shown that individuals who have been drinking abusively for a substantial length of time increase their risk for developing lasting and significant alterations 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.

Excessive Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders

As a final illustration of different medical conditions that are substantially correlated to alcohol dependency, take into consideration the fact that in accordance with medical research, the abusive and repeated abuse of alcohol can lead to erosive gastritis, a health problem that decreases the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.

This form of organ failure is correlated with malnutrition and to a number of serious mental and neurological disorders including sleep disturbances, memory loss, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical problem is an enduring incapacitating condition that is exemplified by recurring memory and learning difficulties.

Summary

It is clear that repetitive, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly associated with a number of dangerous medical conditions that can and do result in dangerous diseases and premature death. Such information needs to be highlighted and presented to everyone in our society so that most people will be able to refrain from irresponsible drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the quality rehabilitation they need.

Related posts:

1. Alcoholism and Drug Addiction in High School
2. Alcohol Addiction, Alcohol Relapse, and Enabling
3. Alcohol Relapse and Alcohol Addiction