For more than a few years alcohol dependency exploration has revealed the fact that there is strong correlation between alcoholism and dangerous health conditions and mental health issues such as depression.
For example, in 2005, medical investigation and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics demonstrated the fact that that alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction cost the United States an estimated $220 billion annually. Interestingly, this enormous alcohol-related expenditure 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 noteworthy to point out that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health issues.
Stated another way, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction are also highly associated with obesity and with cancer.
To be sure, substance abuse investigation has shown that alcohol addiction can boost the risk for different types of cancer, particularly cancer of the voice box (larynx), esophagus, liver, rectum, colon, kidneys, and throat. Hazardous and repetitive drinking can also result in immune system difficulties and impairment to the fetus during pregnancy.
Heavy and Irresponsible Drinking Enfeebles the Problem Drinker’s Systems and Organs
What is more, if alcohol dependency continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will more likely than not be affected in a harmful manner. For instance, chronic, hazardous drinking is particularly dangerous to the liver due to the fact that the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been consumed. Unwarranted amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and destroys the ability of liver cells to reproduce. This medical circumstance results in a progressive inflammatory malfunction of the liver that can in the long run lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a critical and potentially terminal disease. Abusive, 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 serious may be irreversible and may, in turn, lead to serious illness or an early death.
The Significance of Alcohol Therapy
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 rehabilitation he or she needs.
Alcoholism and Sophisticated Brain Research
Fortuitously, scientific research is continuously unearthing novel and significant information. Recent alcoholism research provides a high-quality example. Stated differently, for roughly the past ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning devices have demonstrated that continuous and chronic hazardous drinking modifies the configuration of the brain to a substantial extent, thereby resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or conceivably as long as the person exists.
Stated another way, medical research has revealed that people who have been drinking in a hazardous manner for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing permanent and significant adaptations 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.
Hazardous Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders
As a final illustration of diverse medical conditions that are to a great extent related to alcohol addiction, take into account the fact that according to medical research, the abusive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a medical problem that reduces the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.
This form of organ malfunctioning is associated with malnutrition and to a variety of serious mental and neurological maladies including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical condition is a long-term incapacitating medical condition that is typified by repetitive memory and learning problems.
Hazardous Drinking Also Leads to Relationship and Friendship Conflicts and Difficulties and Grief and Loss Difficulties
In addition to serious medical conditions, excessive drinking also leads to friendship and relationship difficulties. For instance, people who involve themselves in hazardous drinking routinely suffer from affairs, marital problems, divorce, and sexuality problems, and they many times go through grief and loss difficulties.
Summary: The Importance of Education
It is plain to see that continued, excessive drinking is directly or indirectly linked to a variety of severe medical conditions that can and do lead to dangerous illness and premature death. Such information needs to be highlighted and presented to everyone in our society, especially to all students, so that a massive amount of people will be able to refrain from hazardous drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the quality rehab they require.
Let us look at this with a common sense perspective. Yes, alcohol rehabilitation is important, but alcohol rehab is something that is routinely done AFTER the fact. Education, to the contrary, is something that is done BEFORE the problem manifests itself. Stated another way, whereas alcohol therapy is “reactive,” education is “proactive.” It is stated that both approaches are necessary when discussing alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse.
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Teresa was a forty-five-year-old court reporter who knew that she had some drinking issues. For example, within the past month she has experienced the need to have two or three drinks before going to work, a week ago she failed to pass a random breathalyzer test where she is employed, two months ago she got stopped by the state highway patrol for a DWI, and finally, for around six months she has begun to forget what she says and does when she drinks with her friends.
Similar to many other individuals, Teresa’s experiences with alcohol started out at a “snail’s pace” and stayed at this level for quite a long time because sometimes she engaged in sporadic social drinking. If truth be told, for almost seven months, every time she went out with her buddies to drink, she made sure to drink moderately. Something about her drinking activities, however, seemed to totally change when her husband divorced her.
In Order To Come to Terms With the Divorce of Her Husband With Less Grief, Teresa Came to the Conclusion That She Will Begin Palling Around More Repeatedly With Some of Her Buddies Who Love to Have Fun Drinking
Teresa got especially gloomy about the loss of her husband, and as a way to stop her preoccupation with her depressing feelings she made up her mind to start associating more routinely with some of her buddies who love to party.
Quite frankly, Teresa thought that having fun nearly every day by drinking with her buddies would help her come to terms with the breakup of her husband more quickly.
Time, Stress, and Anger Management Problems
Teresa also reasoned that getting an alcohol “buzz” with her pals would help her stay away from her anger, time, and stress management difficulties.
Teresa’s Drinking Increases Substantially the More Routinely She Goes to Happy Hours, Family Get-Togethers, Dinner Dates, Sporting Events, and Private Parties With Her Friends
It didn’t take too long, nevertheless, before her drinking increased to a significant degree the more often she went to and drank at private parties, dinner dates, family get-togethers, sporting events, and happy hours with her buddies. Not only this, but the fact that her drinking friends were all considerably younger than she was and therefore able to party more thoughtlessly was one of the reasons that she didn’t direct more of her attention to her increased drinking. Simply put, she was drinking and having a great time just like everybody else in her group of buddies without spending a lot of time thinking about the negative consequences of her excessive and abusive drinking.
Yet somewhere in the recesses of her brain she realized that she probably needed alcohol rehabilitation but stayed away from the thought as much as possible.
Teresa Gets a Physical, Acknowledges Her Drinking to Her Healthcare Professional, and Owns up to the Facts About Her Melancholy
One late afternoon during her annual physical exam, her physician asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her physician, Teresa ”came clean” and said that she routinely drinks more than she should. In actual fact, she stated that she regularly drinks in an excessive and irresponsible manner. Then Teresa informed her doctor about her general state of gloom. More precisely, she mentioned that broken relationships usually triggered a discouraging sequence of events characterized by increased drinking which further resulted in more disheartening feelings that, in turn, resulted in even more drinking. And this is explicitly what happened when she and her husband got divorced four months ago.
When her healthcare professional heard this, he informed Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was researching, alcoholism and depression commonly arise in the same person. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, facts, and research investigations he has been looking into also highlight the fact that individuals who drink in an excessive and abusive manner and who also suffer from depression need to obtain treatment for both medical situations.
Teresa’s Doctor Makes an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Assessment
Teresa’s doctor then articulated the following: “I am not trying to make an overly quick judgment, but with your medical situation we may be facing two separate issues. As a consequence, I think we need to schedule an appointment for you to get an alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction appraisal from my partner, Dr. Cerny, who is an alcoholism and alcohol abuse specialist. Whether your drinking situation is more linked to alcoholism or alcohol abuse is not clear at this time, but I believe that further exploration is required. Then I believe we probably should schedule an appointment for you to get a psychological exam from another one of my partners, Dr. Brosky, who is a psychologist. I want to get some additional information about your depression and see how much your drinking and depression are correlated.” Teresa showed her endorsement of her healthcare professional’s line of attack and thanked him for his time and assistance.
Teresa Faces the Sexuality Problems and the Conflict When She Was Married
In reality, Teresa now experienced a sense of personal happiness and self esteem because she finally got inspired to do something positive about her excessive drinking and her depression. What is more, Teresa also knew that after alcohol rehabilitation she would be better able to manage the conflict and the sexuality issues when she was married and the grief and loss of her divorce. Now all she had to do was to try to trim down on her drinking and wait for her appointments.
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