Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol Abuse

Courtney Hayden
Health

The abuse of alcohol is often taken lightly. Many people use alcohol to reduce or to cover the pain they are feeling. They are self medicating. Alcohol is one thing that should not be messed around with. It is very dangerous if abused. That is the major problem; people don’t realize the danger of things before they do them. Too much of anything is bad for you, but alcohol especially. Alcohol abuse can lead to serious health problems, injuries and even death.

The term alcoholic is often thrown around. The term literally means someone is addicted to alcohol. They are often addicted because they like the feeling of being under the influence. People often use it to over up pain that they are feeling. For example I know someone who is a close family friend and he is an alcoholic. Some reasons are because she had a rough past, her parents got divorced when she was young and her mother was also and alcoholic. In fact the addiction can fun in the family another reason why she may be an alcoholic. Alcohol is very dangerous because it can wear down the senses and affects the brain, eyesight and feeling.

Alcohol is a depressant that decreases the responses of the central nervous system. Alcohol is abused for reasons such as for relaxation, sociability and to just get high, but the effects are much worse than people think. Possible effects of alcohol are, intoxication, anxiety reduction and sensory alteration. These effects may sound harmless but are actually extremely harmful especially when you overdose on alcohol. Some symptoms of an overdose are, alcohol odor on breath, staggering while walking, slurred speech, loss of coordination, dilated pupils, birth defects, nerve and liver damage. These are just symptoms, the withdrawal is even worse. The withdrawal consists first of sweating and uncontrollable shaking, and then altered sight soon leading to hallucinations. While you are under the influence of alcohol things such as confusion,...