What is alcohol abuse?
Social drinking is common and popular is many cultures all over the world. In several cultures, for example, a glass of wine or beer with a meal is common practice. Celebrations are often punctuated with a glass of champagne or other celebratory cocktail. And in many jobs, going out for drinks after work or entertaining clients with alcohol is the norm.
The difference between social drinking and alcohol abuse is when alcohol becomes your focus. You might only want to attend social events that involve alcohol, or you can’t enjoy yourself. Getting to the bar, or making a drink after coming home from work becomes more important than connecting with friends or family. Alcohol might be your way to avoid painful feelings or troubled relationships. And you might resort to dangerous behavior, like driving while drunk or even increased violent behavior. Increased dependence on alcohol leads to alcoholism, where you are physically dependant on alcohol and have lost control of the amount you drink.
Why can one person drink responsibly, while another drinks to the point of losing their health, their family and their job? There is no one simple reason. Alcohol abuse and addiction is due to many factors. What’s more, since drinking is so common in our society, problem drinking can be hard to identify. Do you drink to share enjoyment or share a connection with others? If drinking is the only way you feel comfortable connecting to others, or you drink to mask depression, grief, anxiety or loneliness, you are at risk for alcohol abuse.
Some other risk factors include:
a) Family history of alcoholism. While the interplay between genetics and environment is not entirely clear, if you have a family history of addiction, you are at higher risk for abusing alcohol.
b) Peer pressure. If people around you drink heavily, it’s hard to resist. If you are a teenager, you might feel you won’t be accepted. If drinking is common practice for work celebrations or entertaining clients, you might feel pressure to conform.
c) Stressful situations or a big life change. If you have a major change or a stressful situation in your life, without other coping skills, you might turn to alcohol to help you get through.
Although different people may use alcohol at different levels, the basic pattern is the same. Drinking becomes more and more important than anything else, including job, friends and family. Alcohol starts to increasingly affect you physically and emotionally, often impairing judgment to a dangerous level.
How serious is the drinking problem?
Alcohol abusers, or problem drinkers, are people who drink too much on a regular basis. The alcohol use is self-destructive or can present a danger to others, but they still demonstrate some ability to set limits and establish some measure of control over their drinking. While some people are able to maintain this pattern for a long amount of time, alcohol abusers are at risk for progressing to alcoholism. This might happen in response to a large stressful event, such as retirement or losing a job. Or it might gradually progress as tolerance to alcohol increases.
When alcohol abuse progresses to alcoholism, also called alcohol addiction or alcohol dependence, alcohol becomes essential to function. Alcoholic symptoms include a physical dependence on alcohol, and inability to stop despite severe physical and psychological consequences. Some alcoholics can hold down a job or appear to be functioning on the surface, but the drinking inevitably leads to impaired job performance and troubled relationships.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism provides a screening questionnaire for assessing the differences between alcohol abuse and alcoholic dependence. Remember, though, the bottom line is how alcohol affects you. If it is affecting your relationships, job, or health, yet you can’t seem to stop yourself, than the problem is serious.
Physical signs of alcohol abuse and alcoholism
a)Blackouts, when you drink so much you pass out
b)Weight loss
c)Unexplained sore or upset stomach
d)Redness in the face or cheeks
e)Numbness or tingling in hands and feet
Tolerance and withdrawal symptoms
The more alcohol you drink, the more your body depends on it. You need more and more alcohol to have the same effect, called tolerance. If you drink heavily, you will have withdrawal symptoms if you stop drinking. Do you need a drink to steady the shakes in the morning? You’ve built up a tolerance for alcohol. Other withdrawal symptoms include sweating, shaking, nausea and vomiting, confusion, and in severe cases seizures and hallucinations. These symptoms can be medically dangerous. Talk to a medical professional if you are a heavy drinker and want to quit.
Mental signs of alcohol abuse and alcoholism
a)Unable to control drinking: “just one drink” rapidly leads to more
b)Drinking leads to dangerous situations like driving drunk, walking in an unsafe area
c)Increased irritability, agitation and anger, lowered threshold for violence
d)Avoiding activities that do not involve the opportunity to drink
e)Excessive weeping and emotional displays
f)Unexplained absences and sick days from work, or difficulty making commitments
g)Oversleeping or difficulty sleeping.
Alcohol abuse in special population
a)Teenagers. Teenagers notoriously like their privacy, are often irritable and cranky, and like to sleep in. How can you tell if your teen has an alcohol problem? Look for marked changes in behavior, appearance and health. Is your teen suddenly having trouble in school? Does he or she seem more and more isolated, or have a new group of friends? Your teen might have an unusually hard time getting up or appear sick regularly in the morning. If you have alcohol in the home, do the levels decrease faster than they should? Is the alcohol watered down?
b)Older adults. Alcohol abuse is challenging to detect in older adults. Increased alcohol use might happen as an older adult retires, loses a loved one, or has to move. Older adults are more sensitive to the effects of alcohol as their metabolism changes. Since older adults often do much of their drinking at home, problems functioning often go undetected. Clumsiness, unsteadiness or confusion might be attributed to the natural aging process.
What makes alcohol problems so challenging to face? Similar to drug abuse, alcohol abuse doesn’t only affect the health, finances and stability of the person drinking. It reaches family, friends, colleagues-- and even the community. What’s more, the strong denial and rationalization of the person using alcohol makes it extremely difficult to get help, and can make concerned family members feel like they are the problem.
Health effects of alcohol abuse
Long-term alcohol use can cause serious health complications, affecting virtually every organ in your body. These effects include:
a)Liver inflammation, which can lead to cirrhosis, a serious, irreversible liver condition
b) Increased risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer
c) Stomach problems and nutritional deficiencies
d) Neurological problems such as confusion, numbness and trouble with memory
e) Birth defects
f) Erectile dysfunction
Staying addicted: Denial and rationalization
One of the most powerful effects of alcohol abuse and addiction is denial. The urge to drink is so strong that the mind finds many ways to rationalize more drinking. Someone abusing alcohol may drastically underestimate how much they are drinking, how much it is costing them, and how much time it takes away from their family and work. Denial is so powerful that an alcoholic often sincerely believes that there is no problem. They may lash out at concerned family members, so convincingly that family members might feel like they are exaggerating and overstating the problem.
This denial and rationalization can lead to increased problems with work, finances and relationships. The person abusing alcohol may blame an “unfair boss’ for losing her job, or a ‘nagging wife’ for why he is increasingly going out with friends to the bar. While work and relationship stresses happen to everyone, an overall pattern of deterioration and blaming others may be a sign of trouble.
Effects of alcohol abuse on the family
Sadly, alcohol abuse and addiction doesn’t only affect the person abusing alcohol. It affects friends, family and the entire society. Child abuse and neglect is much more common when there is alcohol abuse in the family. The abuser may neglect a child’s basic needs due to drinking. Lack of impulse control can lead to increased physical and emotional abuse. Alcohol abuse by a pregnant woman affects the developing baby’s health. Domestic violence also happens more frequently. Abusing alcohol leads to higher risk of injuries and death to self and others in car accidents.
Family stress
If you have someone you love who drinks too much, it is an enormous emotional strain. You might feel obligated to cover for the alcoholic, cutting back from work to deal with the problems that come up from the drinking— or working more to make financial ends meet. You might not be able to see friends and engage in hobbies, as coping with the abuse takes more and more time. The shame of alcoholism in the family stops many family members from asking for help, instead pretending nothing is wrong. The emotional toll can be overwhelming. Children are especially sensitive.
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