Alcohol Abuse And Alcoholism

Quitting the habit of drinking alcohol is an excellent way to improve your overall excellence of life and health.  The cessation of alcohol consumption makes the risk to your health much less and also diminishes the chances of doing harm to yourself or possibly to others in an accident caused by alcohol.

Quitting the abuse of alcohol can also be the one thing that heals relationships with your family and close friends that drinking excessively has damaged.  When children or the younger child see that you have stopped drinking it is a great teacher of how to act responsibly.

When alcohol abuse begins to turn into chronic alcohol abuse there is a lot of loss involved.  The early symptoms are a loss of memory, loss of testosterone and a loss of muscle tone just for starters.  Death begins to happen in the form of death of cells.  Chronic alcohol abuse begins to kill off cells of the body and these cannot be revived.

The real problem with consuming too much alcohol is that it is a toxin that will end up in the bloodstream and be carried to every cell and organ of your body.  To combat this, the abuser of alcohol really needs to consume very high quality liquid minerals and vitamins to combat the ill effects of the alcohol that gets into the system.

There are literally millions of individuals who do suffer from alcohol abuse and its unfortunate side effects.  Alcohol abuse leads slowly into a dependence on alcohol as it slowly and systematically destroys the person’s health.

Millions of Americans suffer from the chronic disease of alcohol addiction and are reliant on alcohol both mentally and physically.  For the majority of individuals affected by alcohol abuse their dependency on their drug of choice is not evident until they have lost jobs, friends and family which is what is referred to as ‘rock bottom’.

Just because a person advances in years, it does not mean that they have been able to avoid the snare of alcohol abuse they probably have had all their life.  With millions of people today who have an abuse problem, staggering amounts are still struggling with the addiction as they advance to the senior years.  One of the reasons may be that over the years the effects of alcohol abuse has not been something they really felt.  But now that they are older the body is suffering from the extended overuse of alcohol and they are most definitely feeling its adverse affects.

Every person who is struggling to handle the problem of alcohol abuse needs to take advantage of the support systems that are readily available today.  There is of course a ton of good information that can be used for education purposes and there are usually some very qualified support groups available waiting to help.

Some of the groups that are there for helping you or someone you care about to handle the alcohol abuse problem are as follows.  There is the group that helps those who are close to alcoholics called Al-Anon.  These groups meet world-wide and are important for those who are friends or relatives of the person who is involved in alcohol abuse.

Several treatment options are available for helping those who do have an alcohol abuse problem.  The following are a few suggestions that may be of assistance to both the person who has a problem with alcohol the person who is trying to help.

The first thing that is necessary to be of assistance is to get accurate information so you will both be well educated.  You both need to know the effects that alcohol abuse has on the person and their loved ones. Also, the possible problems connected to health that abusing alcohol may cause.  There are alcohol and drug centers for treatment in your area that have professionals trained to answer any questions.

The consumption of alcohol is still the most frequently used drug in today’s society.  Some studies have shown it is the absolute first choice.  This may be because so many people still think in order to have a good time it is necessary to have a few drinks.  The one thing that so many people do not realize or even understand is how alcohol abuse hurts others and not just themselves.

Alcohol is the result of fermentation which makes it seems rather harmless but the truth is that it has more than just short term affects on the body.  This will change according to the amount of alcohol that you drink.

Social drinking is a very accepted and common occurrence in today’s society.  Because it is such a widely accepted behavior to drink in social situations, it becomes difficult to tell when this drinking has developed into a very unacceptable behavior.

In a social situation offering alcohol, especially at the end of the day, is the same as offering a cup of coffee.  The consumption of alcohol is commonly accepted and actually a way for friends, social contacts and even co-workers to interact and make a connection.  It does become difficult to tell when this type of social connection has crossed over into an alcohol abuse.  One way to tell is if the social drinking results in hangovers, any kind of uncomfortable behaviors or even blackouts.

According to statistics there are over fourteen million people in the United States alone that are addicted to alcohol in some form whether it is alcohol abuse or severe addiction.  Alcohol abuse that develops into alcoholism will destroy marriages and work relationships.  Relationships that suffer because of excessive drinking are unfortunately a very common situation these days.  This will often lead to actual physical or emotional abuse as a result.

Beside the seriousness of destroying relationships, alcohol abuse or alcohol addiction will eventually lead to some very serious health problems like brain damage, liver damage and in pregnancy damage to the newborn.  The worse part of dependence on alcohol is that it will change the character of the person turning them into unthinking, uncaring or even having violent tendencies towards those they love.  The addiction to alcohol is just something that has to be corrected.

Often those persons, who will categorize themselves as a ‘social drinker’, really do have a problem with alcohol abuse. This is the person who really does not drink daily or might not even drink large quantities at a time. This could also be a person who is able to go for days or even weeks before drinking. This is the person who does not realize that they do have any kind of alcohol abuse problems.

Abusing alcohol can happen even when you are not drinking on a regular basis. You are in danger of becoming addicted even when you are not drinking often. The warning signs for alcohol abuse are a little different when it is in a younger person than in an adult.

A problem with alcohol abuse easily leads to alcoholism. Alcohol abuse is when alcohol is misused. This begins with heavy drinking and quickly turns into full-blown alcoholism. The difference between drinking too heavily and alcoholism is not a matter of how much you are drinking but how much the drinking you are doing is affecting your lifestyle.
The key signals of heavy drinking or alcohol abuse that leads to alcohol dependence are as follows. When it takes more and more consumption of alcohol to reach the level that is considered drunk. When there has been alcohol consumption the person feels sick to their stomach, has anxiety and is shaky. The person will drink a lot more than they thought they were going to drink. When the person tries to stop consuming alcohol but ends up drinking even more instead.
These are a couple of the more severe signals. When the person thinks about alcohol most of the time and passes up chances for recreational or social activities in order to drink. Even when this person knows there are physical problems because of their drinking, and they still continue to indulge.

Alcohol abuse is drinking heavy amounts of alcohol over an extended amount of time. This will lead to the liver being damaged which is called liver cirrhosis. Too much alcohol over a period of time starts to overwork the liver and the strain ends up as liver disease. There are four different stages that happens which will end in liver cirrhosis beginning with fatty liver then hepatitis from alcohol toxins and into a fibrosis of the liver. Not everyone who suffers from liver disease is an alcohol drinker but those who do drink heavily are at a very high risk.
The unfortunate thing about spotting liver disease is it usually cannot be recognized until damage exists. Extended periods of heavy drinking makes the condition worse until the damage it has caused to the liver cannot be undone. Liver disease caused by alcohol can take years to happen, but when it does develop it seems to happen overnight. Women seem to be more at risk of this developing than do men.
The first recognizable stage of liver disease is fatty liver. Carbon dioxide and water along with fat are all the results of the process of metabolism. Fatty degeneration happens when fat in the liver has been stored. This is not a serious condition and it is treatable but if the drinking continues, the damage to the liver will begin to worsen.
If the drinking continues and the fatty liver is not treated, this then leads to the second stage which is alcoholic hepatitis. This is when the liver becomes inflamed and even though the effects of this are actually mild, it may develop into something that is very serious. This development happens quickly and it is possible there will be liver failure. Alcoholic hepatitis can be treated if the drinking stops but if the drinking continues there is a very high risk of liver cirrhosis.
When drinking is not stopped, the third stage of alcoholic liver disease will take over which is liver fibrosis. The liver will be trying to heal itself and in so doing will form scar tissue which is fibrous and intended to protect the cells of the liver from damage. Excessive amounts of scar tissue forms when the drinking is heavy. This condition can be stopped but only if the drinking is stopped altogether. If drinking continues this will get worse and end up in cirrhosis of the liver.
This is the final stage of alcoholic liver disease which is full-blown liver cirrhosis and is the direct result of alcohol abuse that continues for a long period of time. The liver forms nodules besides the scar tissue that exist instead of healthy cells in the liver. Now the liver cannot work normally and will eventually stop from functioning altogether. This is a serious, irreversible condition of the liver. There is only one way to prevent or arrest the development of this and that is to stop all consumption of alcohol.

If you are concerned that what you are drinking may be too much, then this article is for you. There are ways to tell if the drinking that you are doing has become an out of control habit or alcohol abuse.

How to Change Your Drinking: a Harm Reduction Guide to Alcohol (2nd edition)

Harm reduction is the single most effective approach to drug and alcohol problems because harm reduction uses pragmatic, evidence-based strategies that work. This book is the first comprehensive compilation of harm reduction strategies aimed specifically at people who drink alcohol. Whether your goal is safer drinking, reduced drinking, or quitting alcohol altogether, this is the book for you. It contains a large and detailed selection of harm reduction tools and strategies which you can choose

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