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Negative impacts of drinking alcohol
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Alcohol
Ethanol more commonly referred to as alcohol, is produced by a process called fermentation or distillation. This class of substance known as alcohol is comprised of hundred of organic compounds. Alcohol is classified into two categories: Undistilled/Fermented or Distilled. Examples of Undistilled alcohol includes: beer and wine. Some examples of Distilled alcohol include: vodka, rum, gin and whiskey. Just as there are different types of alcoholic beverages, there are different types of consumers of alcohol. Alcohol users are classified based on their consumption of alcohol as current users, binge drinkers and heavy users. Alcohol is one of the most commonly used drugs, it is considered a psychoactive drug and is only second to caffeine in consumption. (Pociluyko 2003) Alcohol falls under the category of a depressant.
Chemistry of alcohol
Alcohols are characterized by a hydroxyl group (OH) bounded to a carbon atom. (Lexicon Universal Encyclopaedia). O is for one part oxygen and H is for one part hydrogen atom. There are many types of alcohol, but one common factor that binds them is the fact that they all have the same psychoactive agents in them. Alcohol may be classified as either primary, secondary or tertiary based on which carbon of the alkyl group is bonded to the hydroxyl group. Most alcohols are colourless liquids or solids at room temperature.
Root of administration
The most common method by which alcohol is consumed into the body is by oral ingestion as a liquid. However, there are other ways in which a person can ingest alcohol, they can ingest alcohol intravenously, or inhaled as a vapour.
Stages of substance abuse
It is important to understand that there is no set time frame for how long it takes to go throu...
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...Walkup, Bilder, Crystal, 2009; Agabio, Marras, Gessa, & Carpiniello, 2007)
The use of alcohol does not only impact the user, but also the community. In some parts of the world heavy use of alcohol has played in major role in increased incidents of violence and crime. “Family units are often affected if one member of the family is a heavy alcohol user (Butcher, Mineka & Hooley, 2005). Family issues such as marital breakup, domestic violence and spouse abuse are strongly tied to high use of alcohol.” (Skrtic, Karlovic, Kruljac, 2008; Ogborne, 2000). Similarly, risky practices such as drunk driving and unacceptable sexual encounters are kinked with the use of alcohol. “Alcohol is also considered to be a causal factor in most motor vehicle accidents. Financial problems and job loss are also associated with high risk alcohol use.” (Shand, Gates, Fawcett & Mattick, 2003)
Frey and Schonbeck explain that it is estimated that over 76 million people worldwide are affected by alcohol abuse or dependence. The chance of having an alcoholic in one’s life is very high. Children that grow up in an environment with an alcoholic may increase that child’s chance of becoming an alcoholic themselves. In the United States, the most commonly abused drug among youth is alcohol. Even though the legal drinking age is 21, nearly 20% of all alcohol consumed in the United States is by people under the legal age (83). In fact, when youth start drinking at social events in their teenage years, they are greatly increasing their risk of developing alcohol problems (85). Alcoholism can affect people of all ages. Furthermore, some experts try to differentiate between alcoholics and social drinkers. Typically, they base this off of five categories. Social drinkers do not drink alone. They consume minimal amounts of alcohol during social functions. Situational drinkers may not ever drink unless they are stressed out. These drinkers are more likely to drink by themselves. Problem drinkers can be described as a drinker that alcohol has caused problems in their life. However, they usually respond to advice given by others. Binge drinkers are out of control in their alcohol consumption. They may drink until they pass out or worse. Alcoholic drinkers have found that their lives have become unmanageable and that they are completely powerless over alcohol (84). Alcoholics should be cautious of their surroundings to prevent
Often the issue of addiction causes many negative impacts to a person’s life. This affects the addict’s mind and physiology which may result in negatively impacting their interpersonal relationships with others and work environment. While addiction can range from the use of prescription drugs to illegal narcotics, the addiction that will be focused on is addiction to alcohol. Since the days of “speakeasy’s” and the prohibition era, alcohol has been the topic of conversation among the variety of cultures and socioeconomic status. Alcohol continues to contribute to the lives across generations as evidenced by music. Regardless of the musical genre, artists share their interpretation and experience of alcohol in the lyrics of their
After the drink is consumed, the alcohol enters the blood stream. After it enters the blood stream it dissolves in the water in the blood and gets carried throughout the body. The alcohol then enters the tissues and dissolves in the water in the tissue; it does this for every tissue but fat tissue. Alcohol is not able to dissolve in fat so it is incapable of dissolving in fat tissue. This explains why women feel the effect, and get drunk quicker than men do. Women tend to have more fat, whereas men tend to have more muscle. Because muscle has more water, the alcohol becomes more diluted in a male.
There are many different types of drugs, anti-depressants, depressants, hallucinogenic… Alcohol can be used to help people make decisions. "Alcohol is a depressant"(Exploring Psychology). "Small amounts of alcohol will enliven a drinker, by slowing brain activity that controls judgment and inhibitions"(Exploring Psychology). "Here is a harmful tendency that alcohol increases, sexually coercive college men try to disinhibit their dates by getting them to drink. Also it is proven that people who go to a resuraunt for and extended period of time have the tendency to tip better when buzzed"(Exploring Psychology).
Roger E. Meyer writes this article to explain the effects of alcohol and how it affects the body. Once alcohol is taken into the body it is absorbed from the stomach and the small intestine and into the bloodstream. If too much alcohol is taken in the stomach may secrete a mucous that will slow absorption. One tenth of the alcohol exits form the body as sweat or urine, as the rest is slowly broken down by the body. This article and information can be helpful to me because it will give me a background and information on alcohol and what happens when one consumes it.
Alcohol is a depressant derived from the fermentation of natural sugars in fruits, vegetables and grains. These are brewed and distilled into a wide range of beverages with various alcohol contents ( www.abovetheinfluence.com ) Alcohol is considered the most common and widely used drug in in the world today. For many Americans alchol is a fairly common part of their regular lives and/or routines. A large scale survey of adults taken in the US has shown that 9% of the people surveyed admitted to alchol dependence or abuse in the past 12 months and more that 30% reported to so...
Alcoholism is defined as a destructive addiction to alcohol while alcohol abuse is defined as a destructive abuse of alcohol. Alcoholism is the most severe form of alcohol abuse but there are many different factors that contribute to a person becoming an alcoholic. Alcoholism is genetic but usually influenced by someone’s environment growing up and their present environment. Having a abusive childhood or a hard life in general can trigger feelings that turn into a need to drink. An alcoholic can not control his/her intake of alcohol because he/she does not have control over it. There are many signs and symptoms to determine if someone is in fact an al...
“When I was 13, my dad started drinking more and more. Every day he would come home from work and have beer, lots of it. I didn’t think much of it at first, but then he started getting more angry and violent. He would shout at my mom and me. It was like my father had gone and been replaced with another guy” says an anonymous kid who lives with an alcoholic parent in “How my dad’s drinking problem almost destroyed my family”. The kid depicts that he is so confused, angry and upset especially when his father got fired for going to work drunk. This is one of many children’s voices who suffers having an alcoholic in their family. Most of them are depressed because alcohol has destroyed their family. This is an addiction that does
Alcohol is something that people use to help with multiply different things and some studies have shown that alcohol may help protect our bodies from cardiovascular disease. Alcohol does have side effects to our health the surroundings around us and can cause violence, vehicle crashes and even suicide. Alcohol does have an effect on people that many social drinkers may not realize. Many people usually have tried alcohol around 13 years of age and high school students consume more wine coolers that are sold in the U.S. and they drink more than 1 billion beers a year. To understand the effects of alcohol, it begins with the brain. It is a curiosity as to why people feel the need to drink and drive. The way the brain works while influenced with alcohol has always fascinated me. Drinking and driving is one of the biggest decisions that alcohol leads to. The National Public Services Research Institute (NHTSA) did a study on 600 people who admitted driving while under the influence of alcohol. They described in detail the decisions they made leading up to the occurrence of driving while impaired like whether to take part in a drinking event, how to get to the event, how much to drink, and how to get home. The people being interviewed revealed more than 2,000 individual decisions that led to alcohol impaired driving. The decisions were then broken down into several categories as shown on the graph attached. Little is known as to what leads people to continue to drinking and driving. But as research shows, people do think, prior to drinking, how they will get home. It’s after they have already had been drinking that they decide to get behind the wheel.
Alcohol is a major factor commonly involved in many types of incidents which negatively affects the community. “In New York State, for example, the New York State Council on Alcoholism estimates that alcoholism accounts for 35 percent of all hospitalizations; 50 percent of all rapes; homicides; and fatal car crashes; 85 percent of deaths by fire; 68 percent of deaths by drowning; 25 percent of suicides; and 40 percent of family court actions (Diamond 58). If the problem of alcoholism is resolved, then the occurrence of these types of incidents will be greatly reduced which will be very beneficial to the
Alcohol can be an addictive substance if abused on a daily basis or consumed in large quantities. Alcohol is technically defined as, “a colorless flammable liquid that has the active principle of intoxicating drinks” (HarperCollins Publishers 2009). One of the leading causes of death in the United States is deaths induced by alcohol. There are many types of alcohol that are produced and distributed throughout the country. Common alcoholic beverages that are sold regularly are vodka, beer, rum, wine, whiskey, and much more. Each type does as much damage to the body as the other one, though they differ in amounts, or percentage, of alcohol. It depends on a person’s body type how alcohol will affect them personally. Weight, height, family background, and gender are common factors associated with a person’s blood alcohol content (HealthCheck Systems 2012).
Ethyl alcohol or ethanol, or most often known as simply alcohol can come in the form of beer, wine, or liquor. A depressant affects the central nervous system although many would believe it to be a stimulant. Many people get more energetic and stimulated but this is only because alcohol affects parts of the brain that control judgment. The stimulate...
Alcohol abuse is the most common problem, nowadays. In fact, majority of people drink alcohol repeatedly to the point where they have difficulty to stop. Statistics show that, as much as, “40% of college students report drinking five or more drinks in one episode” (Walters & Baer, 2006). Alcohol has become more popular over the years as advertisements, simultaneously with commercials of it, filled the media. It also is easily accessible and cheap in comparison to other psychoactive substances. On the other hand, alcohol safety awareness programs are barely noticeable. My research will present how alcohol and its abuse gets into people’s lives and how it influences their physical and mental health, as well as, social existence.
People started drinking alcohol socially for fun years ago, but after experiencing the effects of alcohol and with the amounts of stress people are facing nowadays; drinking alcohol became an addiction that in some cases is out of control. Alcohol is also considered a drug and it is addictive, and it has many bad effects. The main effect of drinking alcohol is causing disease; it has a lot of bad effects on an alcoholic’s human body organs and may cause death in some cases. There are other health related effects of alcohol that include: immediate effects and long term effects. As I mentioned addiction is one of the bad effects of alcohol, and it may cause people to lose family members, jobs and money if not treated. Drinking alcohol is also very dangerous for pregnant women, and has a lot of bad effects on women and their babies; some of these effects may be fatal. Withdrawal problems after quitting drinking alcohol are also bad and include symptoms like nausea, anxiety, and many more that will be discussed in the following paragraphs. The last effect of drinking alcohol that will be discussed in this essay is treatment; costs and effectiveness. Drinking alcohol affects the human body, mind and life in a very bad way, and just like drugs; alcoholics have to deal with the negative effects of drinking alcohol.
Alcoholism is defined as a pattern of drinking in which harmful consequences result for the drinker, yet, they continue to drink. There are two types of drinkers. The first type, the casual or social drinker, drinks because they want to. They drink with a friend or with a group for pleasure and only on occasion. The other type, the compulsive drinker, drinks because they have to, despite the adverse effects that drinking has on their lives.