One drink...ten drinks...floor... (Alcoholism in General)

Member Name: Secre

Product:	Alcoholism in General
Date:	28/01/09 (448 review reads)
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Alcoholism is one of those weird disorders, and I don't mean this because it doesn't have recognisable symptoms. It does. I'm saying this because the disorder itself often isn't counted as an illness but as a weakness...and that is the easiest way to look at it - particularly if you have someone in your family who is an alcoholic. It's easier to place the blame on a person, without thinking that it is an illness and does need to be thought of as such. I think the other reason why it is weird is because there is a thin line between enjoying alcohol, being alcohol dependant, and being an alcoholic. And before anyone asks, no I do not have personal experience of being an alcoholic (even if I probably do probably drink too much...but that's called studentism) ...what I do have is the experience of being the daughter of an alcoholic.

===Definition===
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association alcoholism is "a primary, chronic disease characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking." However, as a layman not a medical expert an easier definition would be that alcoholism is the recurrent use of alcohol with no attention paid to the adverse effects, an uncontrollable urge to drink and withdrawal symptoms when you don't drink. Even this, however is a medical definition. Alcoholism is at it's most basic form an addiction to alcohol, whereas alcohol abuse is the destructive use of alcohol.

Although it is tempting to classify alcoholism as a lack of self control, particularly by those who have an alcoholic in the family, alcoholism is a disease and must be treated as such. It just happens to be far more tempting to yell and scream at a drunk alcoholic than you would ever dream of doing to someone with a different chronic disease. This is probably because alcoholism is to a point a choice, someone chooses alcohol in a way that nobody chooses cancer or diabetes.

===Cause===
There has for many years been a massive debate about the root cause of alcoholism, whether it is genetic, based around the way a child has been brought up, or even whether it is a matter of weakness. The latter view has been more or less completely displaced, whereas the genetic strand of thought has gained far more support and evidence to back it up. This is easily shown in considering that children with at least one alcoholic natural parent were three to four times more likely to become alcoholics when adopted into non-alcoholic families than children whose natural parents were non-alcoholics. It has been suggested that some people have more addictive personalities than others, and that these are the people who are more likely to get addicted to alcohol, cigarettes or any other substance, and that this predilection does run in genes.

As I stated earlier though, it is very difficult not to blame the alcoholic, to see them as being the one at fault because it is their drinking that got them into the issue in the first place. It took me a long time to get over my hatred and anger at my mother, and to start seeing alcoholism as a disease. There are however other causes for alcoholism, as nothing can ever be as simple that. There are psychological factors, emotional factors and cultural factors that all tie in together, none of these alone is enough to make an alcoholic become what they end up being, however, when all are mixed together then the results show.

===Effects===
There are two sections to the effects that alcoholism has. One is the obvious physical effects that alcoholism has on the individual suffering from it. The second is the social issue, and that is what effects this disease has on the people around the alcoholic; their family, the society. Both of these issues are equally important, as both have a massive impact on the individuals effected.

The physical effects of alcoholism are well documented, and most people know them fairly well, but it can never hurt to run over them again. The most obvious issue would be liver failure, the inflammation of the liver and cirrhosis, which is irreparable damage to the liver. Other fairly important health risks that go with alcoholism would be high blood pressure, damage to the heart muscles which will increase the dangers of heart attacks and strokes, along with an increased risk of cancer of the oesophagus, larynx, liver and colon. If the alcoholic is pregnant and is still drinking heavily then there is also a risk of foetal alcohol syndrome in the unborn child, which results in birth defects including a small head, heart defects, a shortening of the eyelids and various other abnormalities including developmental disorders when the child grows up. There is also a definite link between alcoholism and depression, which in turn leads to higher suicide rates and other issues that are more related to depression.

Other medical issues include the fact that the alcoholics metabolic rate will be lower, which will in turn lead to weight gain and equally diabetes. There is also a theory that high levels of drinking lead to a higher risk of cancer in later years, although this hasn't been fully proved. What can be proved however, is the fact that the withdrawal effects of alcohol can actually be fatal if the alcoholic has been drinking to a complete excess over a good amount of time. In this it is always better to seek professional help.

The social effects however can be equally, if not more, damaging to both the alcoholic and the society around the alcoholic. I have mentioned above how difficult being a daughter to an alcoholic can be, and this family aspect alone shows perfectly the social difficulties with being an alcoholic. An alcoholic mother can quite quickly and easily lose her entire family, as one by one they just can't cope anymore. Some cope by sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that it will go away if they don't come out of their shells for a while, others throw violent temper tantrums (normally younger children) because they can't understand why mummies acting so weirdly. Others, much like me, have miniature mental break downs and get carted off by social services. But whereas with any other disease the parent would get masses of sympathy, in this case the only thing she gets is anger, disappointment, embarrassment, and eventually sheer apathy...which is so much worse. Alcoholism can break families into small pieces, as everyone tries to cope in the only way that they know how to, but in doing so you often end up splitting the family further because no one truly talks to anyone else. It becomes a family's dirty little secret, which in turn means that you often have children who are not only burdened with the jobs that a parent should do for them, but they also have the added burden of keeping the whole thing secret. No one wants to air their dirty laundry in public now, do they?

But alcoholics come in many shapes and sizes. You have the violent alcoholic, the weepy alcoholic, the passed out alcoholic, and the nagging annoying as hell alcoholic...some people can even stretch beyond the single boundaries and be one or another. But it's difficult to say which is more damaging to the family, I have heard many people say violent is always the worst...but I'm not sure. Violent alcoholics are without a doubt, horrific to live with, but as a child the damage tends to be picked up quickly (if you're lucky), any of the other types of alcoholics are no less damaging to the child, and it takes far longer for any well meaning member of the public to pick up on the fact that something is wrong...

I hated my mother. It wasn't fair, but it's true. I hated her drinking, I hated the fact that she wasn't there to protect me. I hated that I was the one left to be the mother to my younger brother. God knows why I didn't equally take it out on my father (stick head in sand type), but I didn't. By the time I moved into full time foster care, I wouldn't even be in the same room as her because she disgusted me so much. As far as I was concerned at the time, I was fed of the embarrassment, the excuses, the attempts to get her home in one piece, the village gossip and the sympathetic glances sent my way. It's taken me 7 years to even start to get a relationship back with her, and even now as soon as she touches alcohol I'm out of there because I know I won't be able to handle her without snapping. My brother spends his entire time yelling at her, and my father completely ignores her. The house is made up of four people who live together in the house, but have completely separate lives. This may not be solely because of one person's alcoholism, but a fair amount of it is due to that. It is an almost sure fire way to split up a family, because it is very hard to live with an alcoholic and stay sane.

On the professional side to the social effects of alcoholism the loss of any job that the alcoholic happened to have before is highly likely. A work place may put up with drunken behaviour once or twice, but once it becomes regular habit then they cannot afford to keep that worker. The loss of a driving license is the other big issue. Although we have all heard the maxim; 'Don't drink and drive', more times than we have eaten hot dinners, to the alcoholic it means nothing. Before my mother lost her license (and job for that matter), she would quite happily climb into her car - with her children - after a full bottle of rum, because this was her usual amount to drink and as far as she was concerned, she was safe. Trying to drum into an alcoholics head that they are in no fit state to drive is not worth it, they do not listen.

Socially, alcoholism is disastrous for both the alcoholic themselves and for the family that they may have. More often than not, families just cannot stand under the strain of it, it is too much to bear...and if social services manage to get involved then it makes the whole social situation better, as then the parents have the guilt and the blame to throw around on top of everything else. The gossip and rumours that go around the community that you live in do not help with this either...I have to admit I used to have great fun shocking the gossip mongrels in my village, as soon as they asked a leading question I would give a scarily blunt answer which told the truth and nothing but. I just used to love watching the expressions of shock on their faces...and there is no better way to make an elderly parishioner leave you alone!

===Treatments===
It's difficult to find a treatment for alcoholism because people who are alcoholics don't want treatment, often won't stick with treatment, and even if they complete the course of treatment there is nothing to say that they will actually stick by it. In fact, it is highly likely that they will not. Detox is the most obvious option, but what people forget about detox is that you are only in hospital for a week or so and then after that they are left to their own devices. Although drugs are often given to stop the withdrawal effect it is left up till to the alcoholic to actually stick to this, and quitting any addiction is remarkably difficult to do...talking as a long term smoker.

The other main type of treatment is a sort of home to put alcoholics and drug abusers in for between 12 months and 24 months. This is more effective than mere medication and detox, because of the long term stopping of any alcoholic beverage, and once you have been 12 months it is then easier, if not easy, for the alcoholic to stop drinking. One of the main organisations that does this kind of treatment is Betal, which is a Christian organisation which takes in alcoholics and drug abusers to give them a second chance as such. The main issue with this sort of treatment is that however well it may work while the person is actually in the home, as soon as they go home to the same home situations then all changes. They are back in the same house, with the same issues and temptations that they always had, and that is a very, very difficult thing to resist. It's far easier to fall back onto old habits.

===My thoughts===
I know that there is no way in hell that I can persuade any alcoholic not to drink, nor anyone who has started going down that road to stop. I've tried enough times to do that with my own mother...and I've always failed at that no matter how hard I tried. All I can say is that it really does ruin families. It is a brilliant way to drive your children away from you, and it also makes you a brilliant scapegoat for any issues that happen to go wrong. Alcoholism is a disorder that has a massive chance of ruining the life of both the sufferer and the family of the sufferer because of the social effects it has, and because it is often far easier for the family of the alcoholic to lay the blame on the alcoholic.

===Conclusion===
Alcoholism is a serious disorder which requires medical help, not blame thrown around. It is often difficult to understand this, and far too easy to let a family be torn to shreds because of one person's alcohol addiction.

Summary: It ruins families