Alcohol Essay 6

In today's modern society alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse has become one of the most complex, life-threatening issues. Most depressed individuals usually indulge themselves in bars or pubs with their alcohols to escape from their stressful life. It has become increasingly alarming how alcohol does not only attract the adults, but also teenagers these days. "Research has shown that approximately 14 million Americans (7.4%) of the population meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse or alcoholism" ("Facts about Alcohol"). Alcohol addicts may encounter social impact such as loss of respect from others who may see the problem as self- inflictive and easily avoided. Repeated use of alcohol over a period of time can result in alcohol abuse. Millions of people enjoy drinking on occasion. When drinking becomes a routine, people become dependent on alcohol. Alcohol addiction has enormous and somewhat fatal consequences on humans. It has, directly or otherwise, an impact on the individual, family, friends and the society. Anyone could become a permanent drinker if he lacks self-control. Haring states that "If people drink to relax or have fun, escape from responsibilities and pressures, loosen up to feel more sociable and accepted, or drink just to ease the discomfort of low self-esteem, they are at higher risk of abusing alcohol than people who drink infrequently" (21). Once an individual has become an alcohol addict, it has become an uphill task for him to terminate this particular habit and it is in his best interest that he does not procrastinate any further. Addiction to alcohol could lead to behavior changes in oneself, physically or mentally as evidential in how one could hurt others or use abusive language on others unconsciously under the sedative effects of alcohols. Though the feeling of getting ‘high" is without a doubt exhilarating, what these addicts are ignorant about are the harmful long-term effects that alcohols may cause such as anemia, increase in blood pressure, long-term cellular damage such as stomach and intestinal ulcers, the increased activity in the liver which causes cell death and hardening of the tissue and reducing the total brain mass and even death. ("Long-term effects of alcohol") Change of behavior caused by alcohols has negative impacts on one's surrounding and will, eventually, creates a rift among loved ones. Alcoholic can do anything without thinking for the future as long as they get the money to buy alcohol, ones may use the rental money for the house to buy alcohol and the worst case could happen is he loses his jobs. With this, drinker cannot be dependent on and divorce is inevitable as he could no longer support his family. Not few child abuse cases caused by alcoholic parents. Studies have shown that "2/3 of child abuse case involves alcohol" ("Facts about alcohol"). Family members also began to avoid friends, hide problems and cover up for the drinker as they are ashamed of their family member who is alcoholic. "More than one-half of American adults have a close family member who has or has had alcoholism" ("Dawson and Grant") Moreover, there is higher chances for their teenager child to be alcoholic too as they are used to seeing their parents drunk. As we all know that the media has a very large impact on the society, thus advertisement on alcohol beverages increase the number of alcohol drinkers. Although the media did not intend to target the youth, in reality, the main victim of those advertisements are teenage group of people. According to a study, "In most U.S. states, you must be 21 years old and older to buy alcoholic beverages, and there are penalties for serving or selling alcoholic beverages to minors" ("Ethyl Alcohol"). Despite of banning the use of alcohol in teenagers, they use fake identification cards or ask someone older to buy the alcohol for them. They might think that drinking alcohol is a popular thing and it is a necessary thing for party. Those who are not alcoholic sometimes cannot refuse alcohol in the presence of others for fear of being neglected, then this person considered socially dependent on the substance. Take an example, when a new non-alcoholic student attending university, he can start drinking in order to associate with others. Alcohol is an addictive substance, once one is hooked to it; it is difficult for him to escape. If one is not financially capable, these addicts could contribute to the increasing crime rate as he could steal or rob money from others just to fulfill his needs for alcohol. If the crime rate of the country is very high, it will cause these particular countries to have a bad reputation. Thus, it will have less tourists coming in to the country and business is driven away causing the economy of the country to go down. It is an interrelated effect. As it is usual for alcoholics to get insensible when they are drunk, they are not thinking of the safety of others and themselves. Quite a number of car accidents are caused by drunken drivers and innocent lives are involved. To prevent those road accident from happening, many country impose rule such as "no alcohol after 10" ("Prevention Works") and cars are stopped by the traffic police to check the driver's breath to detect those who are drunk and they will get fine if they are. However, study shown that there are "over 2 million drove a car in 2001 while under the influence of alcohol" in America ("The Alcohol Addiction Dilemma"). This large digit will contribute to the risk of having automobile accident. Excessive consumption of alcohol may result in consequences of one's health and, to a certain extend, the people around them as it is said "better safe than sorry", it is adamant that we avoid excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages which may cause addiction. Large amount of alcohol are both costly and deadly.