Excessive Drinking Leads to Health Risks and Possible Alcoholism Signs
Alcohol addiction is a progressive debilitating disease with four main components:
· Tolerance - the need to drink increasingly more amounts of alcohol in order to get a “buzz” or to get “high.”
· Loss of control – the inability to stop drinking once the individual has started drinking.
· Craving - a strong need or compulsion to drink.
· Physical dependence – experiencing withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches, the shakes, excessive sweating, or nausea after abstaining from drinking.
Alcohol is a problem if it causes difficulties in any part of your life. This includes your health, relationships, employment, finances, or your life at home. You probably have a problem with alcohol if you frequently drink more than you plan to, if you keep trying to quit on your own but cannot, or if you think about drinking throughout the day.
Alcohol depresses the central nervous system. In some individuals, the initial reaction may be stimulation, but as people continue to drink, they become sedated. Alcohol lowers an individual’s inhibitions and affects his or her judgment, emotions, and thoughts. If a person continues to drink excessively, it can impair his or her speech and muscle coordination. Moreover, hazardous drinking not only can severely depress the vital centers of a person’s brain, but it can result in a life-threatening coma.
Problems with learning, attention, memory, and problem solving are commonplacewith alcoholism, along with the lack of coordination, impulsiveness, and speech and hearing impairment. Deficits in alcohol-related learning skills can persist even into adolescence and adulthood.
Though many individuals often assume otherwise, alcohol dependency is a treatable disease. Doctor-prescribed medications, education, counseling, training, follow-up treatment and self-help groups are ways in which an alcohol addicted person can recover from alcohol dependency.
For alcoholics, all the willpower and self resolve in the world commonly does not help the individual refrain from drinking. Stated differently, alcoholics are for the most part powerless to stop or control their drinking without professional help.
To a great extent, alcohol dependency is a family disease. Indeed, alcohol dependency tends to run in families and has some genetic factors that can be passed onto children, grandchildren and on down the family line.
Do you need a drink the first thing in the morning? Do you need an increasing amount of alcohol before you start feeling its effects? If you feel that you have a drinking problem and if you feel guilty about your drinking and can’t seem to control how much you drink, make an appointment with your healthcare provider so that he or she can evaluate your drinking situation.
Based on your doctor’s assessment of the gravity of your situation, you may require alcohol counseling. Your alcohol treatment will frequently consist of several stages. If you have become alcohol dependent, treatment may include detoxification, taking doctor-prescribed medications to manage your alcohol withdrawal symptoms, medications to help prevent an alcohol relapse, individual and/or group counseling, support, and outpatient follow-up therapy.
Alcohol addiction treatment is commonly available in rehab hospitals, alcohol rehab centers or clinics, or residential treatment facilities. Some of the more effective alcohol dependency treatment programs also provide outpatient follow-up treatment that can last up to a year or longer.
Alcohol addiction is a disease that can be treated, but there is no current cure. Alcohol addiction is a serious problem that affects millions of American families. If you or someone you love has a drinking problem, get professional assistance now.
Filed under Health, Fitness and Exercise