Free Term Paper on Alcoholism

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Alcoholism One out of thirteen adults are considered to be an alcoholic or suffer from a drinking problem. Today, fourteen million Americans suffer from a disease that is caused by a combination of physiological, psychological, social, and genetic factors. Alcoholism is a developmental disease that progresses slowly over a number of years and is based on both the physical and emotional dependency on alcohol. In many cases it leads to brain damage and/or early death. Early symptoms include putting excessive importance on the availability of alcohol, which influences a person’s choice pastimes and friends. Alcoholics use alcohol more as a personality changing drug rather than a beverage served with food or as a social custom. An alcoholic usually has a high tolerance to alcohol, which means being able to drink more and show fewer side effects than others. The person begins to drink even though it may not be in her/his best interest. Alcohol comes to be more important than personal relationships, family, work, or even health. People are unable to predict how much an alcoholic will drink at a certain occasion or if the alcoholic is practicing abstaining from alcohol, when the drinking will resume again. Physical addiction will lead to drinking around the clock to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Ethyl alcohol, the alcohol used in alcoholic beverages, consists of C2H5OH. It is a clear liquid with a burning taste and a pleasant smell. It has toxic and sedative effects on the body. Alcohol can have major effects on major organ systems. For example, it can cause ulcers, inflammation or the pancreas, and cirrohosis of the liver. It can permanently damage the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. Withdrawal from alcohol, in severe cases, can cause shaking limbs, hallucinations, and blackouts: which can be fatal if not properly treated. Even withdrawal from hard drugs such as heroin rarely results in death. The liver is the largest internal organ in the body. In a healthy adult, it weighs about 3 pounds and holds about thirteen percent of the body’s blood supply. Blood flowing from the stomach and intestines goes into the liver where it extracts nutrients and toxins. The blood is then pumped back to the heart. The liver performs over 500 vital functions. It processes all of the nutrients that the body requires, including proteins, glucose, vitamins, cholesterol, and fats. It also makes potentially toxic substances, including alcohol, ammonia, nicotine, drugs, and harmful by-products of digestion non-toxic. The liver is particularly harmed by alcohol. In the body, alcohol breaks down into various chemicals which are very toxic in the liver. Alcoholic cirrhosis is the most common cause of cirrhosis in the U.S. and is estimated to be responsible for 44% of deaths from cirrhosis in North America. However, one Canadian study found alcohol to be the major contributor to 80% of all cirrhosis deaths. About 10% to 35% of heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis. After years of drinking, liver damage can be very severe, leading to cirrhosis in about 10% to 20% of cases. Not eating when drinking and consuming a variety of alcoholic beverages are also factors that increase the risk for liver damage. People with alcoholism are also at higher risk for hepatitis B and C. People with alcoholism should be immunized against hepatitis Band they may need a larger dose of the vaccine for it to be effective. Recent evidence shows that even moderate drinking in women during pregnancy can result in serious damage to the child. For example, it may cause physical or mental retardation, and in some cases, fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal alcohol syndrome is caused by alcohol consumption of pregnant women. The consumption of alcohol greatly increases the risk of abnormalities for the unborn child. Some of these abnormalities include: growth deficiencies (head, weight, length etc.), facial abnormalities (small head, small jaw, small, narrow unusual-looking eyes), heart disease, and limb abnormalities. Recognizing that one has a problem is the first step in treatment. For most alcoholics, the next step is detoxification, which is the medical management of severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Patients undergoing detox (detoxification), which usually requires less than a week, usually stay in a specialized residential treatment facility or a special unit of a hospital. Alcoholics also have the option of involving themselves in a treatment group, which may consist of individual counseling and group therapy. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is one of these support groups. “AA is a worldwide fellowhip of man and women who meet together to attain and maintain sobriety (AA webpage).” There are no requirements for joining AA, only the need to stop drinking. AA was started in 1935 when two men, Bill W. and Dr. Bob S. met in Akron, Ohio to help each other stay sober. Today, AA has grown to over 87,000 groups in more than 130 countries, with more than two million members. Their motto is to stay away from “one drink at a time, one day at a time.” A board of trustees, seven whom are not alcoholics and fourteen who AA members organize activities in the US and Canada and an international conference is held every five years. AA uses the twelve step method in approaching sobriety: Step 1 We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had became unmanageable. Step 2 Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity Step 3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Gad as we understood him. Step 4 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves Step 5 Admitted to God, to ourselves and to other human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Step 6 Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Step 7 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. Step 8 Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all. Step 9 Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so we would injure them or others. Step 10 Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Step 11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge or His will for us and the power to carry that out. Step 12 Having had a spiritual awakenings as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principals in all our affairs. New comers are not forced to follow all of these steps in they are unwilling or unable to do so because of religious or personal beliefs. They will however be asked to keep an open mind, to attend meetings, and to read AA literature describing the AA program. Other treatments involve doctor prescribed medication that may help some alcoholics lessen their craving for alcohol. These medications, when taken with alcoholic beverages, cause vomiting, nausea, and severe headaches. Through classical conditioning the alcoholics begin to subconsciously relate the side effects to the alcohol therefore, making their drinking seem extremely unpleasant. Such drugs are antabase, naltrexone, and acamprosate. Although there have been many advances in the treatment of alcoholism, there are still many deaths, more than 100,000 in the US, resulting from the excess abuse of alcohol. Levels of Drinking Moderate drinking: equal to or less than two drinks a day for men and equal to or less than one drink a day for women. At-risk drinking: more than 14 drinks per week or 4 drinks at one sitting for men and more than seven drinks a week or three drinks at one sitting for women. Alcohol abuse: one or more of the following alcohol-related problems over a period of one year: failure to fulfill work or personal obligations; recurrent use in potentially dangerous situations; problems with the law; and continued use in spite of harm being done to social or personal relationships. Alcohol dependence: The individual experiences three or more of the following alcohol-related problems over a period of one year: increased amounts of alcohol needed to produce an effect; withdrawal symptoms; drinking more over a given period than intended; unsuccessful attempts to quit or cut down; giving up significant leisure or work activities; continuing drinking in spite of the knowledge of its physical or psychological harm to oneself or others.

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How Alcoholism Controls Your Life? By Angie Lewis It happens without warning. It creeps into your life and all of a sudden, you’re hooked. At first you’re the life of the party, and later you’re the drunk of the party. When you’re young, twenties and thirties, your body can handle all the booze, no problem. But mentally it impairs the way you view and feel the world around you. Most of the time, alcoholics don’t know that alcohol has taken hold of their life. This is called the denial stage. Alcoholics feel that if they can get up and go to work everyday, even though secretly they have an excruciating headache, they don’t have a problem. But what keeps the alcoholic going throughout the workday is in knowing that after work, they’ll have those highballs or beers, which will in fact, make them feel like their old self again. The problem is, that’s not our old self, but our new old self on alcohol. You see, alcohol changes the person we are inside, not only does alcohol, with time, rot our insides, but it rots what comes from within us. What we do, how we treat others, and our spirituality. The potential to be a whole person has been put on hold because of alcohol. The booze stunts the mental capacities and impairs the ability to see the world clearly enough to get passed the weakness and mistakes we make in life. Alcohol is not only physically addicting, but mentally addicting as well. An alcoholic might believe they feel and look better while drinking; or they might THINK they can still drive a car; they don’t realize their reflexes have slowed down; or they think they are better communicators after several martinis. But nothing is further from the truth. Alcoholics don’t know God. Ah yes, they say those things that your ears want to hear, and they even go to church every Saturday and Sunday, but what are their actions telling you. What fruits do you see shine bright in the alcoholic? Spiritually speaking the alcoholic has allowed other sources to be His God, namely, Mr. Jim Beam. Until Mr. Beam gets out of the picture, he will literally master the alcoholic and his mind. This is how alcohol takes control of the alcoholic’s life! Their thinking is literally impaired! The alcoholics don’t really have a mind of their own. Alcohol speaks for them. Many decisions an alcoholic makes are based on or around drinking. Most alcoholics think they are independent minded, but they are far from being independent thinkers. Unbeknownst to the alcoholic who is in denial is how dependent minded they really are. Always concerned about when and where they are going to get their next drink. Alcoholics will make up acceptable reasons WHY they can drink. It’s a fact of their life that seventy five percent of their waking minds are spent on thinking about drinking or drinking alcohol. Alcoholics have a hard time growing up, even when they are adults. Their reasoning is not sound, but foolishness to the ears. Because they are locked in their own little world of alcohol, they never mature into the potential of who they can become because they are being drowned with alcoholic lies everyday. What can the alcoholic do? What can the enabler do? It would be stupid for me to sit here and tell you to quit drinking; easier said than done right? Yep, if you’re an alcoholic, I know what you’re going through. What I can do though, is tell you what I did. If what I did sounds acceptable to you than give it a try. First of all the enabler needs to get help by going to Alanon. Your getting help for your self will be helping the alcoholic in more ways than you’ll ever know, believe me. In Alanon you will learn to not let the escapades of the alcoholic bother you. You will also learn to NOT rescue the alcoholic anymore! This aspect is so very important. For the alcoholic, you need to read the New Testament everyday, even if you think it is boring and you don’t want to read it, read it anyway. This is what I did. I got myself a pen and marked verses that sounded good even though I didn’t actually understand it much. I dog-eared pages and my bible looked like something you would find on skid row. Thankfully this is not where I got my bible. I really wanted to know more about God, and I would ask myself daily, “Who is God? What can God do for me?” I prayed a lot, I cried a lot, and I drink a lot. I desperately wanted God to help me, but I didn’t believe it. I was in denial that God could really help me. Many things go through your head when you are trying to discover truth and spirituality in your life when you are still drinking. But one day several months later, still reading the bible and doing my own bible study and research, I decided how totally and completely disgusted I was with my self and my drinking, and I incessantly prayed for help from God. “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Jesus Christ.” Romans 10:17 I asked God to take away the burden of Alcoholism from me and to take away the craving for alcohol as well. I told God that I finally trusted and believed in His power in my life, and to help me! That was thirteen years ago, and I never had another drink, with the exception of a sip of punch at a wedding that was spiked and I didn’t know it. I tasted it, and still, didn’t want it or like it, I threw it out! God will do what you ask of Him if you trust and believe in Him. He will take the heavy-laden burdens from your heart and mind; all you got to do is BELIEVE! I didn’t really know that much about “who God was” when I prayed for help on that day, thirteen years ago, but I didn’t need to know the schematics of how God worked. I needed to believe that God could and would take away my addiction for good. I needed to have faith enough to accept that for my life! What God needed from me, was the knowing in my heart that I DID trust and believe in Him! Through my prayer, God read my heart and saved me. In essence, it was my faith in God that saved me, nothing else. How do you gain faith? You gain faith by reading about the things God has done in the lives of others. By understanding how much God loves you and knowing He wants you to be all that He set out for you to be. Basically, you just need to study the Bible daily, and you should never stop praying for what God wants for you in your life. Prayers aren't always going to get answered the way we would like, but let God take care of that part for you. Don't stop praying silenting or reading the bible, God hears your pleas, and listens to your heart. Some of you probably wonder what all this faith stuff is about since your prayers do not get met. But God does not work like this. His plan for us is not our plan for us. And so understand, it is only when we already have faith in Him is when we stop praying selfishly, and ask God what He wants. Two words can best describe faith, sure and certain. Having faith has two parts. The first part believes in God's character. God is who He says He is! The second part believes in His promise for us. He WILL do what He says! When we believe that God will fulfill His promise for us without even seeing those promises materialize yet, we surely have true faith. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Hebrews 11:1-3 ~~~ Angie Lewis offers spiritual enlightenment tips for couples in marriage, and is the author of new release book JOURNEY ON THE ROADS LESS TRAVELED. This unique book is about love, life, marriage, addiction, temptation, and understanding the power of spiritual awareness for your marriage. In her book, Angie reveals her own journey of overcoming addiction and how her negative emotions took over her life. To find out more about this new book click here, http://www.spiritual.journeybooks.4t.com/ ISBN 1413788904 Avaliable Amazon online! Angie Lewis counsels couples and writes a monthly newsletter where she reveals her secrets on how YOU can stay happily married for life! Subscribe to get your FREE monthly newsletter so you can stay happily and forever married! http://www.heavenministries.com/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Angie_Lewis