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Alcoholism a Complex Disorder
Introduction
Alcoholism is often referred to as a complex disorder due to the fact that it is related to other causes. People who have an alcoholism disorder, have interpersonal and complex issues which include biological elements. Such elements include withdrawal and tolerance, thinking issues such as craving, and behavioral abnormalities that include the inability to quit drinking (Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley, 2015). Withdrawal in this context refers to the symptoms that happen when one stops taking alcohol. When alcoholics withdrawal from alcohol, they suffer from symptoms such as irritability, nausea, and shaking. On the other hand, tolerance refers to the inability to respond to alcohol. In a most cases, when one drinks alcohol, he/she is unable to achieve the desired effect until they increase the amount of consumption (Comer, 2014).
A number of factors come into play when one becomes an alcoholic such as biological or genetic, psychological, behavioral, sociocultural, and temperament disorders (Oltmanns, Neale, & Davison, 2015). According to the studies done, children or siblings related to an alcoholic were found to be alcoholics. This is a pedigree study which proved that first degree relatives were found to possess a disadvantage when it comes to becoming alcoholics.
Social pressure and environmental factors come into play when influencing one to become an alcoholic. In most studies carried out, most alcoholics confessed to have adopted the behavior of their peers. It is common to have three close friends who are complete alcoholics. The fact that the social environment plays a huge role, is because the social environment determines the psychological and personality factors which bring out a person’s ability to develop alcohol abuse problems.
Psychological factors also contribute to alcoholism. In most cases, people become alcoholics as they try to escape from certain feelings or reality. It is common to have people drink themselves out due to anxiety, rage, fear, or even poverty.
Moderate Drinking Versus Abstinence
Moderate drinking refers to the process through which someone drinks alcohol in small amounts so as to avoid the effects of alcoholism or to avoid dependence on alcoholism. Moderate drinking is mostly applied to an alcoholic who is willing to quit drinking, but ends up suffering from withdrawal symptoms. According to most scholars, moderate drinking is the most effective means of reducing alcoholism. Their argument supports that, most alcoholics are able to slowly withdraw from alcohol while slowly, allowing their bodies and psychological states to adopt slowly to the reduced alcohol consumption (Oltmanns, Neale, & Davison, 2015). By this, most people are able to quit drinking. The disadvantage with this treatment is that, it must be done under controlled conditions such as a rehabilitation center. However, if not closely monitored, the recovering patient is likely to fall back into the same alcoholism problem.
Other scholars are against the idea of moderate drinking and instead are in support of abstinence. In this case, abstinence demands the patient to quit alcohol completely as a means of treating alcoholism. The patient then suddenly suffers from the withdrawal symptoms which in this case, the medic focuses on treating. When the method is successfully completed, then the patient is able to fully recover from alcoholism when compared to the moderate drinking method. It is very effective. The main disadvantage to this method is that, the patient suffers from the withdrawal symptoms which can adversely affect the patient leading to other psychological problems. Consequently, the medics must pay close attention to the patient and in certain cases, use substitute drugs that can be used to treat the symptoms.
References
Butcher, J., Mineka, S., & Hooley, J. (2015). Abnormal psychology. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Comer, R. (2014). Fundamentals of abnormal psychology + case studies in abnormal psychology. [S.l.]: Worth Pub.
Oltmanns, T., Neale, J., & Davison, G. (2015). Case studies in abnormal psychology. New York: Wiley.
