For the Love of the Bottle: Alcoholism and Its Effects

The term alcoholism is used to describe a person’s drinking problem as far as alcoholic drinks go. Normally, alcoholics tend to lack that sense of self-control when taking alcoholic beverages.  While the appropriate use of such drinks helps one get a relaxing and stress free feeling, abuse of it can lead to serious social problems. For one thing, excessive consumption of alcohol is known to ruin one's health and for another, alcohol abuse is always used as a platform for breaking homes and families. Economically, alcoholism can weaken one’s financial muscle to the point of getting poor. It is hard for a heavy drinker to balance his or her financial stability. Either, the victim will realize when it’s too late the need to learn how to quit drinking alcohol or when their money is all drained to a point they cannot get any to buy more alcohol.  The effects that come with alcoholism are nothing to smile about. A good number of them revolve around the victim while others are linked directly to the victim’s close friends and family. Some of the effects that befall the victims include; Health wise, alcoholism brings with it a countless number of health issues on the victim. Chronic abuse of alcohol can result to cardiovascular diseases, chronic pancreatitis, cancer, alcohol liver disorders and damage of certain organ systems.  Health practitioners recommend very little amounts of alcohol for the benefit of one’s health status, unfortunately, some people abuse to the extent of turning it into a health hazard. Many cases of alcohol-related deaths have been reported in the US, UK and Russia. The mortality rates in the mentioned places have been raised significantly due to alcohol abuse. Psychologically, if a heavy drinker persists in takes excessive amounts of alcohol chances are that he or she will develop problems such as experiencing black outs and having shaking hands. The victim becomes clumsy and is unable to handle things properly.  This is because the ethanol content in his or her body disrupts the normal functioning of the central nervous system. Thus, nerve coordination becomes a big problem to such people.  This symptom manifest itself greatly when the person takes measures on how to quit drinking alcohol; gradually, with each progress made the hands become to shake more openly but ceases with time. Alcoholism can disrupt one’s lifestyle in that the person is not able to lead a successful social and work life. With this, come negative social effects that may trigger high-stress levels or fatal endings.  More than 50% of families are broken due to alcoholism; another similar percentage of divorce cases is caused by alcohol abuse on the part of either partner. Some alcoholics become physically abusive leading to a failure in their marriage. It is only after the separation that some realize the damage and loss they’ve caused in their lives. While others will find ways of breaking the yolk and leading a normal life once again, some will shut themselves in their own world. Most of them fear facing life after the damage, rejection from the society. The result is that such people will end up suffering psychologically or worse even mentally.