Alcoholism is a chronic disease that can seriously affect your day-to-day activities in total. Unlike popular belief about the habit of drinking, alcoholism is a disease and not to be considered as a symbol of bad behavior or character. Dependence on alcohol has increased rapidly due to the current lifestyle and statistics say that about 14 million people are affected by alcoholism in the USA alone.
The person affected with alcoholism will be preoccupied with alcohol and know very well that it would create serious health problems if he/she continues to use it. They literally become dependent on the quantity of alcohol consumed for getting the desired effect. Binge drinking is described as drinking as high as 5 or 6 drinks in one row can cause alcoholism. This disease is increasingly becoming common in teenagers when they resort to binge drinking due to compulsion of peer pressure.
Excessive drinking of alcohol in spite of the fact that it creates physical as well as mental problem leads to alcoholism. It is impossible to stop/quit drinking without the help of treatment when a person develops alcoholism. Alcohol abuse is not to be considered as bad character but as a progressive disease. Alcohol consumption (in excess) can affect each person differently. Alcoholism has affected more than 25% of men and 10% of women in the America and often it begins during adolescence. More than half of death of teenagers is due to alcohol abuse in America. Most of the people with alcoholism can be treated and cured by comprehensive programs of medications, counseling and from support of family and friends.
Alcoholism Symptoms
Some of the common symptoms of alcoholism are given below:-
- The person cannot control the quantity of alcohol consumption even after repeated attempts.
- Presence of strong urge to drink alcohol.
- Gradually the person will develop tolerance which compels him to take more alcohol for getting the desired effects.
- Presence of physical withdrawal signs like sweating, shaking of body and nausea when the person does not drink.
- Inability to remember conversations leading to “black out”.
- Gets irritated easily when the time of drinking gets closer.
- Drinking more quantity than usual or involving in gulp drinking to get the “good” feeling.
- There will not be any pleasure or interest in other activities as before.
Alcoholism Causes
There is no clear reason what factor induces a person to develop alcoholism. Drinking alcohol can be the result of too many factors like social status, environmental factors, genetic factors and psychological factor. For some people they start drinking for fun and soon get addicted to alcohol without their knowledge.