Alcoholism is best described as the continued excessive and uncontrolled consumption of alcohol. Just like many other bad health habits, it has become a major world concern as many developed and developing countries cite it as a number one cause of addiction. It needs to be remembered that there has been a rise in alcohol-related illnesses and deaths and in some cases the use of illegal alcohol has continued to cause blindness and other medical problems (Gifford 56). Alcoholism can be equated to many other dangerous diseases that do not have cures many of which affect people without knowing them. Alcohol consumption starts with tasting, slowly but surely users begin to consume a bottle of beer or liquor at a time and before knowing it they become dependent on it. In this essay, the various effects of alcohol consumption on the individual, family and society will be discussed, and they include physical, psychological or mental and emotional issues.
Heavy drinking of alcohol leads to changes in the physical appearance of a person. Light or heavy alcohol drinkers often experience skin problems due to the widening of their skin vessels (Dasgupta 17). As a result of that, they experience an increased flow of blood to the skin, and that has a way of showing on the face especially because their faces show a flushed skin color. They experience hot flushes, and that is the reason many of them can withstand cold conditions without feeling its effects as the rest of the people who do not consume alcohol. Besides that, heavy reliance on alcohol makes people skip meals and even eat unhealthy foods without giving a care (Gifford 82). That will in turn show through their physical body appearance as many of them loose or add weigh disproportionately. They will also end up overworking their organs such as the liver because it has to continually work to help the body get rid of toxic substances and other harmful chemicals consumed through the form of alcohol (Solomon 67). At the end of the day, their body systems get damaged, and that has a way of showing through physical appearance.
When a person continuously consumes alcohol a permanent transformation of the brain takes place. Anyone who regularly consumes alcohol experiences what is called the reduction of the brain tissue and growth of the ventricles (Dasgupta 14). The body is often denied the elements that rejuvenate it as well as the vitamins that enhance brain development. Due to over reliance on alcohol, many alcohol users do not eat balanced meals, and sometimes they can skip some meals, the body becomes too weak, and the effects of alcohol take over. That may lead to brain retardation, some alcohol users even become completely unable to control their behavior, judgment and their concentration levels decrease (Solomon 71). It is not surprising that alcoholism makes people commit crimes because they often lose their sense of reasoning and self-control. Many are the times when they will experience mood swings as well as emotional outbursts, and thus, a person becomes unable to control the manifestations of alcohol on their bodies because their brains cannot decipher what is right and that which is wrong. The bottom line is that alcohol destroys the central nervous system and in the end alcoholics loses their sense of perceiving pain; they develop impaired motor skills, lose of visual abilities as well as loss of the ability to recognize space and time.
Alcoholism can lead to emotional distress especially when a person is overtaken by events and stops being serious about the most important things in life. For instance, there is a high probability that some alcoholics become violent towards their spouses, children and members of their inner circle of friends and the society at large (Berger 64). The mere sight of such persons sends others scampering for safety. If a father is the alcoholic in such a scenario, his arrival home might send everyone into a panic. Some alcoholics become very jovial, laugh a lot and do not take important matters seriously and that may also cause emotional distress among the people around them. Often there are people who lose a sense of direction; others drink their fortunes and lead their families into debt by spending family resources on alcohol as well as selling family properties to finance their alcoholic escapades. In such situations, it is the people in their lives who stand to lose, who become stressed and that leads to emotional distress.
Alcoholism has a lot of negative effects on not only the drinker, but it does affect the people around them. From the very moment a person begins to consume alcohol, their behavior affects their families and friends. Family relations start to take a negative turn, and the situation worsens when the drinker becomes an addict. Many alcoholics neglect their roles in the family; parents neglect their parental roles while children lose the confidence of their parents and siblings (Kissin & Belgleter 91). Alcoholics tend to develop negative behaviors such as stealing, and that may lead family members to develop a negative attitude towards one of them who is an alcohol consumer. Also, violence may break up due to lack of control of emotions, and that will have a negative effect on family ties. It also needs to be remembered that there is a possibility that alcoholics will lose their jobs, and that will cause families a lot of unnecessary financial burden. Tempers start to flare; quarrels erupt, and verbal and physical abuse becomes part and parcel of the family. The family is the one single unit that is grossly affected by alcoholism and when one’s family ties are strained it becomes hard to recover them.
Alcohol consumption has become part of society’s celebrations of significant events in people’s lives. Today, a birthday party, graduation ceremony or even a wedding will not go down without alcohol. That is so because society has embraced alcohol consumption as part of merry- making. But people forget that alcoholism starts with a simple sip of champagne, and social drinking can lead to this severe problem of alcoholism. Also, even small doses of alcohol can have a very serious problem in the body, a person’s mental capacity and even emotional distress to the people with whom they relate. The bottom line is that alcoholism will always have negative consequences on the individual and society. People are often advised to drink responsibly, but many are the times when their drinking gets out of control. There are no health benefits of alcoholism and society needs to understand that alcohol is never good to the body (Kissin & Belgleter 279). Alcoholism has remained to be a problem not only to families but the wider society as well, but it is very hard to contain it because alcohol processing companies are in business, and all they want is to see their products being sold. They package and advertise their wares in such a way that they lure people to starting drinking lightly but they will always end up being heavy alcohol consumers. But society needs to understand that there is no value added by consuming alcohol and therefore should avoid being heavy dependants of it.
Works Cited
Berger, Gilda. Alcoholism and the Family. Danbury: F. Watts Publishing, 1993. Print
Dasgupta, Amitava. The Science of Drinking: How Alcohol Affects Your Body and Mind. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print
Gifford, Maria L. Alcoholism. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 2010. Print
Kissin, Benjamin & Belgleter, Henri. The Biology of Alcoholism: Volume. 2: Psychology and Behavior. New York: Plenum Press, 1972. Print
Solomon, Joel. Alcoholism and Clinical Psychiatry. New York: Springer, 2012. Print
