Taking a beer or a glass of wine offers a moment of relaxation and rejuvenation, a common way of unwinding at the end of a strenuous day. Drinking, needless to say, is a source of entertainment and refreshment in most social gatherings ranging from parties to concerts. Basically, Alcohol Abuse is what taking alcohol immoderately.
Sheer bliss of life also emanates from drinking. Some findings lend credence to the fact that drinking is medicinal and highly recommendable. Even at homes, many people choose to have a good time by drinking.
Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse
However, alcohol, when misused and abused, leads to sundry tragedies and risks. Basically, alcohol is said to be abused when it is taken immoderately. This case its usage violates the guidelines of its discreet makers. At what point can we consider drinking, ” too much”?
Moderate drinking means having no more than one drink a day if you’re a woman and no more than two if you’re a man. It is noteworthy that one drink is equal to 1.5 ounces of liquor (like whisky, rum, or tequila), 5 ounces of wine and 12 ounces of beer
Another way to look at alcohol abuse is to consider how much you have in a week. For men, heavy or risk drinking entails having more than 14 drinks in a week or over four in a day. For women, alcohol abuse begins at more than seven drinks per week, or more than three in a day.
Alcohol abuse is often attributed to a medical condition called, ” alcohol use disorder”. While Alcoholism is a severe form of Alcohol Abuse. It is a severe disease that affects your brain. Sadly, an estimated 16 million people — adults and adolescents — in the U.S are grappling with it. Genes can pass it down to you from your parents. Your psychological make-up or environment is also instrumental.
There are quite a lot of indicators that someone may have
Alcohol use disorder or Alcohol Abuse. Some of them include:
- An unbridled urge to drink
- Inability to control how much you drink
- Negative thoughts when you’re not drinking alcohol
- Drinking in dicey situations
- Unwillingness to undertake important activities or fulfill your obligations
- Continuing to drink even in the face of problems.
- Stopping or doing less of productive activities because of alcohol
- The uncontrollable urge to drink even after drinking too much
- Staying off from work because of alcohol
There are mild, moderate, and chronic forms of alcohol use disorder. However, you are prone to AUD or Alcoholism if one or more of the following is true:
- The inability to rejuvenate or drift off to asleep without drinking.
- Drinking in the morning before going out or get going.
- You have to drink to be social
- Alcohol serves as a moment of respite from disturbing thoughts and feelings
- You drive after drinking.
- The habit of mixing medications with drinking
- You drink when pregnant or nursing your little ones
- You become so untruthful and unreliable when you take too much drink
- Inability to remember things after drinking
- You have a sour mood ranging from anger to hurt when you drink.
- Your obligations become a burden to you when you drink.
- Your efforts to stop drinking prove abortive
- The inability to stop thinking about drinking.
- You can’t tell the effects of drinking without wanting to drink
- You have things like seizures, shakiness or nausea when you stop drinking for a long time.
Risks and Effects of Alcohol Abuse
Alcohol abuse brings about a severe impact on your physical and mental health. It is even life-threatening. It poses so much threat to your life and the lives of the people around you. Your relationship with people is even at risk. As a result, people tend to avoid you like a plague.
Little children see you as a danger zone. Parents even worsen the situations by drilling it into their children’s head to take to flight when you are in view. With alcohol abuse, you are much likely to be a thorn in people’s flesh, a social nuisance they can’t wait to get rid of.
When you become sane and stable, you are bound to brood over or deeply regret your irrational dramas you put up when drunk. Alcohol abuse robs you of your sanity and stability. You become an entirely different person in the throes of drinking.
Gibberish spurts out of your mind unceaselessly. Nothing makes you so similar to the lunatic on the street like alcohol abuse. Your health faces serious challenges when you habitually abuse alcohol.
In the same vein, alcohol abuse puts in a state of mind with a reckless disregard for society’s laws and guidelines. For example, driving after drinking makes you the devil on the road. Little wonder, those guilty of alcohol abuse spend ample time behind bars having made a hash of laws.
Alcohol abuse and Alcoholism can lead to short-term effects: memory loss, hangovers, and blackouts. Long-term ones include:
- Heart problems
- Stomach problems
- Cancer
- Brain damage
- Permanent memory loss
- Pancreatitis
- High blood pressure
- Cirrhosis, or scarring on your liver
You even stand the risk of getting injured or losing your life when involved in the following situations as a result of Alcoholism and alcohol abuse:
- Car accidents
- Homicide
- suicide
- Drowning
Abusing and misusing alcohol does not only jeopardize your physical and mental wellbeing but also poses a monumental threat to those around you. The tendency of running wild after abusing the opportunity to take beer is very high. You just pick up a fight with people at the slightest provocation.
Your alcohol abuse may destroy your relationships with loved ones given your anger problems, violence, impatience, implusive actions, neglect, and abuse. You start to lose relationship and friendships with people, making you a lone wolf or a social outcast.
Pregnant women run the risk of having a miscarriage. Their babies stand the risk of being affected with SIDS. A father that abuses alcohol is a great threat to his children and wife, pouncing on them dangerously at any slightest provocation.
It suffices to assert that alcohol abuse is the bane of many societies which is responsible for many social vices and ills. The quest for continual peace and sanity must be accompanied by the willingness to drink moderately.
