The Alcohol Related Problems and Alcohol Related Deaths That Are Associated With Hazardous and Abusive Drinking

How many individuals lose their lives every year because of drinking problems? How many people lose their lives each year from a condition that is 100% preventable, such as alcohol poisoning? How many people are the victims of alcohol related crime or violence each and every year? How many individuals get injured or lose their lives in alcohol related traffic accidents every year? How many people’s lives are cut short due to abusive and unhealthy drinking? How many children are born each year with fetal alcohol syndrome? On an annual basis, how many alcoholics fail to get the professional alcohol treatment they require? How many individuals face severe consequences in their lives because they received a “drunk driving” conviction? How many junior high, high school, and college students lose their lives every year due to an alcohol overdose?

Why Would Anyone Want to Drink in an Abusive and Hazardous Manner?

So what’s the point in asking these questions? Basically to highlight the destructive and devastating nature of careless drinking. Indeed, and based on the above questions, I wonder why anyone would choose to drink in an irresponsible and hazardous manner.

Stated more forcefully, with the host of health issues, employment difficulties, legal proceedings, financial problems, and relationship dilemmas that are interrelated with alcohol addiction and chronic alcohol abuse, why would any individual with any sense at all want to drink in an abusive and excessive manner? In fact when some of the above topics are looked at more closely, abusive and careless drinking makes even less sense and becomes more illogical.

Wouldn’t you think that chronic alcohol abusers would be able to see some of the alcohol symptoms that they exhibit? In a similar way doesn’t it seem feasible to think that more families would involve themselves in an alcohol intervention for the individual in the household who is an alcoholic or an alcohol abuser? What is more, wouldn’t you think that people who drink heavily would try to learn more about their drinking behavior by researching various alcohol related statistics?

After reviewing the medical research findings, the point is so important that it needs to be said again: With all of the dangerous and debilitating consequences that are directly or indirectly interlinked with continuous and repetitive alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction, why would any person want to engage in abusive and careless drinking?

What Can be Done About the Widespread Nature of Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction in the United States?

So what can be done about the extensive nature of alcoholism and alcohol abuse in the United States?

1. Our students need more meaningful and more relevant preventative and educational approaches and methods so that more students at all grade levels, including those at college, are “reached.
2. In a similar way, our students need to learn how to become problem solvers in life rather than getting easily drawn to the “instant gratification” and the “quick fix” of an alcohol or drug abuse “buzz” or “high”.
3. Individuals who are alcohol dependent or alcohol abusers need to look look at themselves frankly and ask why they are not getting the professional alcohol treatment they need.
4. Society needs to get the message to more people about the debilitating and destructive consequences of careless and abusive drinking.

There’s Room For Optimism if Those Who Engage in Hazardous and Careless Drinking Can Become Motivated to Get the Alcohol Rehabilitation They Need

There’s lots of room for hope and optimism if individuals can start drinking in moderation and those who engage in hazardous and careless drinkingcan become motivated to get the alcohol treatment they need. Indeed, why put your loved ones through pain, turmoil, and suffering because of your excessive drinking when you have the power to control your life by drinking in moderation or even abstaining from drinking if you can’t control your drinking behavior?

When Drinking Causes Problems With Your Health and With Your Life

How do you recognize that you have a problem with your drinking? When is it evident that you are engaging in alcohol abuse?

If you have hopelessly attempted to quit 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 odds are especially good that you have drinking problems. The point to highlight is that if you have made an effort to stop drinking and cannot get this done, then your drinking is controlling you, rather than the other way around.

Likewise, 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 drinking problem.

You may be telling yourself that the reasoning for your drinking is so that you can decrease your apprehension or get rid of the distress that you feel. In a similar manner, you may be trying to avoid a hurtful circumstance and may be looking for something more useful, more helpful, or less regretful.

As you continue your drinking, however, you will realize that drinking does not elicit the same high and you will also understand that drinking doesn’t help remove whatever produced your distress in the first place.

Along the way, unfortunately, you may become alcohol dependent and, as a result, you may add another fundamental issue to cope with rather than finding out about more productive and healthy ways of managing your alcohol induced difficulties.

An Alcohol Evaluation is Probably Required

If you have figured out that you have a drinking problem, maybe the most positive thing you can do for yourself is to call your physician or healthcare professional and schedule an appointment for a thorough physical and for an assessment of your drinking situation.

If you truly feel that you have a serious drinking problem, it may be a good idea to get prepared to find out that you need to get alcohol rehab.

At this point in your life, what are your alternatives? You can definitely decide against seeing your physician and carry on with your pattern of hazardous drinking.

It really doesn’t take a wiz kid, nevertheless, to realize that long-term, out-of-control drinking, if left untreated, will worsen over time and in all probability bring about an early death. For that reason, your healthiest alternative is to face your drinking circumstance and obtain the alcohol rehab you need.

The Charade of the Functioning Alcohol Addicted Individual

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

Many of these “functional” alcohol addicted people may have never been apprehended for a DWI and may have been lucky enough to avoid all alcohol generated legal problems. Despite this good fortune, then again, these alcohol dependent individuals need to drink in order to deal with life on a daily basis while preserving their facade as they associate with people outside their family.

Ask anyone who has seen them when they are out on a drunken binge or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcoholism, conversely, and they will be quick to state the legitimacy of the drinker’s situation and the facts about the alcohol addicted individual’s drinking condition and about his or her alcohol produced predicaments.

Why Do Alcohol Addicted People Fail to Recognize Their Drinking Difficulties?

As alcoholism research and statistics on alcohol abuse have underscored, no matter how observable the alcohol generated difficulties seem to those who interact with the alcohol addicted person, alcohol dependent people commonly deny that drinking is the root of their alcohol produced issues. Not only this, but alcohol addicted people characteristically blame their alcohol-related problems on other people or upon other situations around them rather than seeing their part in the difficulty.

The origin of the problem is that alcohol dependency is a disease of the brain. Once the drinker has become dependent on alcohol, he or she regularly resorts to denial, manipulation, and deceit as a way of coping with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make matters more difficult, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms commonly circumvents the alcoholic’s rare attempts to suddenly quit drinking. As bleak as the alcoholic’s way of life is, conversely, the good news is that competent assistance is typically available – if the alcohol dependent individual reaches out and gets alcoholism therapy.

Summary

Conceding the fact that drinking is eliciting issues in your day to day functioning is perhaps the simplest way to find out if you have a problem with your drinking. More to the point, if your drinking is bringing about difficulties 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 drinking problem, furthermore, this means that you are involving yourself in alcohol abuse.

While some individuals may be able to identify their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their difficulties, and significantly reduce the quantity and frequency of their drinking, other drinkers, then again, need to address their drinking problems by getting quality alcohol counseling. Furthermore, due to their tendency to deny the facts and distort the truth, alcohol dependent individuals undeniably require professional alcoholism treatment for their hazardous drinking.

A Woman Displays Signs of Alcohol Addiction and Depression and Makes an Appointment to See Her Doctor About Her Hazardous Drinking

Teresa was a thirty-seven-year-old receptionist who knew that she had a problem with her drinking. For example, within the past month she has experienced the need to have a drink or two before going to work, seven weeks ago she tested positive for a urine alcohol test at work, four months ago she got stopped by the state highway patrol for a DUI, and finally, for around seven months she has started to fail to remember what she says and does when she goes out drinking.

Not unlike huge numbers of other people, Teresa’s experiences with alcohol began at a “snail’s pace” and remained at this pace for quite a long period of time because from time to time she engaged in sporadic social drinking. In fact, for nearly eight months, every time she went out to drink, she made sure to drink in a responsible manner. Something about her pattern of drinking, nonetheless, seemed to thoroughly change when her husband divorced her.

In Order To Rise Above the Loss of Her Husband With Less Distress, Teresa Came to a Decision That She Will Start Hanging Around More Regularly With Some of Her Pals Who Love to Drink

Teresa got awfully “down” about the breakup with her husband, and as a way to abstain from her preoccupation with her disheartening feelings she decided to start palling around more repeatedly with some of her pals who love to drink and have fun.

Quite frankly, Teresa reasoned that having fun just about every day by partying and drinking with her buddies would help her get over the breakup of her husband in a more trouble-free manner.

Teresa’s Drinking Increases Greatly the More Habitually She Goes to Family Get-Togethers, Private Parties, Dinner Dates, Happy Hours, and Sporting Events With Her Pals

It didn’t take too long, however, before her drinking increased to a significant extent the more often she went to and drank at private parties, dinner dates, happy hours, sporting events, and family get-togethers with her buddies. In addition, the fact that her drinking friends were all considerably younger than she was and therefore able to drink more carelessly was one of the reasons why she didn’t focus more on her increased drinking. Simply put, she was having a blast drinking just like everyone else in her group of buddies without paying much attention to the results of her excessive and abusive drinking.

Yet someplace in her mind she knew that she most likely needed alcohol rehab but stayed away from the thought as much as she could.

Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Admits Her Abusive and Hazardous Drinking to Her Healthcare Practitioner, and Admits Her Constant Negativity

One day during her six-month physical exam, her doctor asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to lie to her healthcare practitioner, Teresa ”came clean” and said that she frequently drinks more than she should. In actual fact, she articulated that she routinely drinks in an abusive and excessive manner. Then Teresa told her physician about her general state of despair. More precisely, she stated that broken relationships commonly sparked a depressing sequence of events typified by increased drinking which further resulted in more disheartening feelings that, in turn, led to even more drinking. And this is exactly what happened when her husband and she got divorced four years ago.

When her healthcare professional heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was examining, alcoholism and depression commonly come about in the same person. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been reading about also emphasize the fact that individuals who drink in a hazardous manner and who also experience depression need to obtain treatment for both medical conditions.

Teresa’s Healthcare Practitioner Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction Assessment

Teresa’s doctor then stated the following: “I am not trying to make an overly quick analysis, but with your medical circumstances we may be working with two separate problems. As a result, I think we probably need to make an appointment for you to get an alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse appraisal from my partner, Dr. Johnson, who is a substance abuse and chemical dependency specialist. Whether your drinking situation is more associated with alcohol abuse or alcoholism is unknown, but I think that further assessment is warranted. Then I think we probably should make an appointment for you to get a psychological evaluation from another one of my partners, Dr. Dubas, who is a clinical psychologist. I want to get some additional information about your dejection and see how much your drinking and depression are related.” Teresa showed her agreement with her doctor’s treatment approach and thanked him for his assistance and concern. Now all she had to do was to try to cut back on her drinking and get ready for her appointments.

When Irresponsible and Excessive Drinking Leads to Serious Health Problems

For more than a few years alcohol dependency exploration has revealed the fact that there is strong linkage between alcohol addiction and dangerous health conditions.

For example, in 2005, medical exploration and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics showed that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion on an annual basis. Interestingly, this very large alcohol-related cost was significantly more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is pertinent to stress these facts, it is also important to point out that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.

To be more precise, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction are also highly associated with obesity and with cancer.

To be sure, substance abuse examination has demonstrated the fact that alcohol addiction can increase the risk for various forms of cancer, especially cancer of the voice box (larynx), esophagus, liver, rectum, colon, kidneys, and throat. Abusive and recurring drinking can also result in immune system difficulties and injury to the fetus during pregnancy.

Hazardous and Excessive Drinking Destabilizes the Problem Drinker’s Organs and Systems

Furthermore, if alcoholism continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will more likely than not be affected in an unsafe manner. As an illustration, long-term, abusive 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 ingested. Excessive amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and eradicates the ability of liver cells to regenerate. This condition results in a progressive inflammatory disease of the liver that can in the end lead to cirrhosis of the liver, an acute and possibly deadly medical problem.Excessive, long-term drinking not only can result in acute liver damage, but it can also lead to damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this dangerous may be unalterable and may, in turn, result in serious disease or an early death.

The Importance of Alcohol Treatment

It is essential, therefore, to know how to identify the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcoholic can be given the opportunity to seek the quality alcohol counseling he or she requires.

Alcohol Dependency and Technologically Advanced Brain Research

Fortunately, medical research is persistently generating original and important information. Recent alcoholism research provides a high-quality illustration. Stated another way, for roughly the past ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning instruments have shown that repetitive and long-term irresponsible drinking transforms the structure of the brain to a substantial extent, thereby resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or perchance as long as the person lives.

More specifically, medical examination has shown that individuals who have been drinking in an excessive manner for a substantial length of time increase their risk for developing long-term and substantial alterations in the brain.

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

Excessive Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders

As a final illustration of assorted medical problems that are largely related to alcohol addiction, consider that according to scientific exploration, the hazardous and repeated abuse of alcohol can lead to erosive gastritis, a health problem that reduces the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

This kind of organ breakdown is related to malnutrition and to a variety of critical neurological and mental maladies including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is an enduring incapacitating medical condition that is exemplified by incessant memory and learning complications.

Summary

It is obvious that continued, abusive drinking is directly or indirectly linked to many dangerous medical problems that can and do result in serious diseases and premature death. Such information needs to be emphasized and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of individuals will be able to refrain from abusive drinking while other people who have a drinking problem will get the quality rehabilitation they need.