Alcoholism And Drug Abuse And Alcoholism

Financial and emotional stress, conflicts in the workplace or in the family, and personality traits are all risk factors that could potentially lead an individual to become an alcoholic. Financial stress, specifically unemployment, can cause negative emotions and potentially negative behavior such as alcohol abuse. In an article by Ioana Popovici and Michael French it states, “From a psychological perspective, the financial challenges associated with unemployment could increase tension, anxiety, and family discord, thus leading to increased alcohol use”(2013). Stress within the family, such as divorce, is also a main factor in the development of alcoholism. According to Begoña José and Hans Van Oers in their article titled “Stressors and Alcohol Consumption”, both getting and being divorced is linked to heavy drinking(2000). If alcoholic behavior occurs in a family it is common for the relationships to be weakened and more stress to be created, which can further push the alcoholic into isolation and worsen their drinking behavior. Not only can outside factors have an influence on the occurrence of alcoholism, but certain personality traits can contribute to an individual’s likelihood of becoming an alcoholic. Personality characteristics can determine how a person will react to stressors. One person may abstain from alcohol while another will resort to heavy drinking while

Many people have been misguided about whether or not alcoholism is “disease” that attacks a person’s good health. A key suggestion of those that believe alcoholism is a disease is that a disease is uncontrolled. This is not so. When people develop an addiction to alcohol they tend to push everything of importance out of their lives: family, friends, and sometimes even jobs. People with addiction to alcohol throw

I was very one sided as I walked into a AA meeting. I thought that the meeting where boring and little bit too much for people who wont to stop drinking. I couldn’t understand why people look forward to these meeting when they can simply talk to someone at home. Nevertheless, I was wrong. Hearing these people story who suffer from alcohol addiction was very heart breaking. I remember one story about this man losing his son to car accident. The only way he dealt with the pain of losing his son was to drink. He stated ever night he drunk him self-asleep. He was so adamant about telling his story because if it wasn’t for the hospital staff he would have lost his life. Alcoholism is an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. alcohol is the main common substance abuse in the united states. The reported show over 16.3 million adults over 18 years older had a least try alcohol in the life time. 71 percent reported that they drank in the past year. 4.7 percent of people ages 18 or older reported that they engaged in binge drinking in the past month. 6.7 percent reported that they engaged in heavy drinking in the past month. 50 percent of marriage fell due to the spouse drinking uncontrollably (Burke, 2015)

Substance abuse is a very widely known public epidemic in today's society. Many people are unfortunately plagued by this issue. According to Emedicinehealth.com (2012), “People abuse substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs for varied and complicated reasons, but it is clear that our society pays a significant cost,” (para. 1). People that are affected by substance abuse includes a very different range of people. Many that abuse the substances end up having health-related problems which in turn increases the need for health care. Other people that are affected by substance abuse are the family members and friends of the abusers because they have to deal with the person abusing the substances. Things that can be abused are

One of the earliest adoption studies was conducted by Goodwin et al., (1973). Results of the study showed that men whose parents were alcoholics had an increased likelihood of alcoholism, even when adopted and raised by non-alcoholic parents from birth. The results provided strong support for a genetic component to alcohol dependence, as treatment for alcohol problems (9% versus 1%) and meeting criteria for alcoholism (18% versus 5%) were all significantly higher in the adopted-away children of parents with alcohol problems/ dependence (Goodwin et al., 1973).

In order to successfully decrease the cases of drug addiction, society needs to remember that we cannot change the physiological effects of drugs, but we can prevent individuals from turning into them. In other words, the primary focus should be on the individual and not the drug.

There is a debate in the American government system on how to handle the use of drug and alcohol. In the 1960s drugs were uprising along with youth rebellion and in 1971 Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” (Citation a brief). This name is not to be confused with the band War on Drugs, but the term is still popularly used to describe the policies that Government officials are making regarding drugs and alcohol. This debate got reheated when Colorado legalized weed for medical and recreational use, followed by several other states. There has slowly been a shift in mindset from, “alcoholics are drug addicts are all criminals and we (the law) should throw them in jail” to “addiction is a disease.” Even the way that addicts/alcoholics are treated has changed to treatment centers with specialist versus throwing them in the hospital to detox and hoping for a change. Policies that are shifting the penalty from incarceration to treatment reflect these changes and help the individual suffering from the disease to get back on their feet. The war on drugs rings on, but changes are being made.

Alcoholism is a major social issue around the world today. The ProQuest Staff of SIRS Researcher defines alcoholism as excessive use of alcohol that eventually results in dependence, or addiction where the body craves a drug. There are roughly 140 million alcoholics currently in the world, which results in higher rates of crime, abuse, illness, car crashes, and lower productivity in work (ProQuest Staff). According to Dr. Mark Willenbring, most

Biology and genetics influence substance abuse and addiction. According to Prescott, Madden, and Stallings, (2006), a number of obstacles confront researchers considering genetic influences on substance-related behavior. Preliminary there is a significant discrepancy across civilizations and archival periods in the prevalence and classifications of substance use (i.e., cocaine, alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, or heroin). A person’s biology is a determination in the addiction of risk. For example, Prescott, Madden, and Stallings (2006) assert many studies indicate increased rates of alcoholism among adopted males; although he is not influenced by his own biological parents (p. 475; see Cadoret et al. 1985; see Cloninger et al. 1981). It has been suggested that twins (e.g., adults) are most likely to inherit smoking dependence. Various studies throughout countries study variables (e.g., age and gender) according to Prescott, Madden, and Stallings (2006).

Most alcoholics won’t admit to having a dependence on alcohol. Due to their reluctance to acknowledge they may have a problem, it could be tricky to diagnose and treat them. So it’s usually up to the people around them to be able to see the signs of alcoholism. Even the most heavily addicted drinker is unlikely to show every sign and symptom, and not every alcoholic will display the same ones.

Alcohol has the most affect on the family. Many alcoholics do not believe this because they think what they do has no affect on their family and friends. But often times the

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.

Before one can begin the process of remaining abstinent from alcohol, the individual must first accept that there is a problem stemming from drinking alcohol. Admitting that there is something wrong about consuming too much alcohol, enables the individual to take action. Although the alcohol abusers peers may highlight the problem to the user as well, he or she is more likely to commit to quitting if the problem is acknowledged by the individual. First, the alcohol users assess his or her situation regarding alcohol abuse. Next, the individual will need to take steps to ensure his or her peers are aware and supportive of the situation. If the users, peers all abuse alcohol it may be difficult or embarrassing to acknowledge your plan to change. Now that the alcohol user has acknowledged the substance abuse problem, it’s

People drink in many ways, for many different reasons. We drink socially, to gain acceptance into a group. We drink alone to ease stress, to cope with our problems, or we “drink because we like the taste or how it makes us feel”#. Often drinking is a learned behavior, starting out as a social drinker; you quickly become psychologically and physically dependent. When someone reaches this stage they are often classified as an alcoholic. To an alcoholic, drinking becomes a compulsion; they cannot stop themselves from having another drink, like a social drinker can. In many cases alcoholics don’t even have to drink continuously in order to be an alcoholic. One the problems of alcohol addiction is that it’s something that doesn’t just effect the individual but it effects, friends and family as well. Spouse abuse, child abuse and dysfunctional family relationships can all be influenced by alcohol abuse.

When someone says, “You get that laugh or that smile from your father or your mother.” You don’t always believe them, but in some studies today it is said that if your parents or anyone in your family has a history of a drug addiction those traits in their genes have a decent chance of being passed down to the children causing problems for them later in life. According to the Drugs and Addiction article in the 2009 Addiction Journal, “Family, twin and adoption studies suggest that the heritability of substance use disorders is moderate to