Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking? Have
people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking? Have you ever felt bad or guilty about drinking? Do you have a
drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have a drinking problem. In the
United States, 23 million people have a substance abuse problem and more than half of all adults have a family
history of alcoholism or problem drinking according to the
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.
Alcoholism is a disease involving the strong need to drink,
the inability to limit drinking, withdrawal symptoms (nausea, sweating,
shakiness), and the need to drink a greater amount of alcohol as time passes.
Research has found that willpower alone cannot beat
alcoholism since the need for alcohol is so strong that the ability to not drink
is overridden. Many scientists think alcoholism is genetic and certain
environmental factors—such as living arrangements, family, friends, and
culture—influence whether a person develops alcoholism.
Alcohol affects the brain and body, and abusing alcohol can lead to death. In the short
term, drinking causes a loss a coordination, slowed reflexes, distorted vision, and blackouts. But over time,
drinking can lead to liver and heart disease, cancer, and inflammation of the pancreas.
According to the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), more than 2 million Americans suffer from alcohol-related liver
disease, which can take the form of alcoholic hepatitis (fever, jaundice, and abdominal pain) or alcoholic
cirrhosis (scarring of the liver). Both of these diseases can lead to death, while alcoholic hepatitis may be
reversible if the drinking stops. For more information, click
here.
Treatment
There is no known cure for alcoholism. For successful recovery,
cutting down on alcohol is not enough. Alcoholics who remain sober for years always remain susceptible to relapse
and must avoid all alcoholic beverages. Still, relapses are common and do not mean alcoholics cannot recover. The
support of family, friends, and treatment professionals is especially important at this time to get alcoholics
back on track so they can stop drinking.
The road to recovery is long for alcoholics and must be taken 1 day
at a time. Some organizations available to help alcoholics seeking treatment and families of alcoholics are listed
below:
- Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters
1600 Corporate Landing
Parkway
Virginia Beach, VA 23454-5617
(888)425-2666
http://www.al-anon.alateen.org
- Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) World Services
475 Riverside Drive, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10115
(212) 870-3400
http://www.aa.org
- National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)
20
Exchange Place, Suite 2902
New York, NY 10004
(800) 622-2255
http://www.ncadd.org
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
6000 Executive Boulevard, Suite 409
Bethesda, MD 20892-7003
(301) 443-3860
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov
- National Clearinghouse for Drug and Alcohol Information (NCADI)
11426-28 Rockville Pike, Suite 200
Rockville, MD 20852
(800) 729-6686
http://ncadi.samhsa.gov
- National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA)
11426 Rockville Pike, Suite 100
Rockville, MD 20852
(888) 554-2627
http://www.nacoa.org
Youth and Alcohol
About 80 percent of adults receiving alcohol treatment reported
they first became intoxicated before they were 18 years old, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) Treatment Episode Data
Set (TEDS). In fact, people who begin drinking before they are 15 years old are 10 times more likely to become
alcoholics than those who begin drinking at age 21.
Signs of alcohol abuse in youths include the following:
- Getting drunk on a regular basis
- Lying about how much alcohol is consumed
- Believing alcohol is necessary to have fun
- Having frequent hangovers
- Feeling depressed or suicidal
- Having trouble at school or with the law.
Although research shows that 70 percent of Americans between 12 and
20 years old don't drink regularly, SAMHSA reported the following statistics in their
2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse:
- The highest prevalence of binge (having five or more drinks on the same occasion) and heavy (having five or more drinks on one occasion at least five times per month) drinkers is for Americans between 18 and 25 years old.
- Males between 12 and 20 years old are more likely to binge drink than females.
- Alcohol use increases with age in 12- to 21-year-olds, from 2.6 percent at age 12 to 67.5 percent at age 21.
- High levels of alcohol use among youth are associated with illicit drug use.
In youth, problem drinking often occurs with other behavioral
problems such as impulsiveness, anger, high levels of assertiveness, and time and stress management issues.
Because of these coexisting problems, different approaches must be taken in treatment. A focus must be placed
on developmental issues, differences in values and belief systems, peer influences, and educational requirements.
Other issues are age, gender, ethnicity, family structure, cognitive and social development, and cultural background.
National Alcohol Screening Day
National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD) will be held April 10 during
Alcohol Awareness Month. The program addresses a range of topics from risky drinking to alcohol dependence and is
designed to raise public awareness of the consequences of at-risk drinking and alcohol's effect on general health.
For more information on NASD, visit Screening for Mental Health, Inc., at
http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org.
For more information about
alcohol abuse or to find
help to quit, contact SAMHSA’s National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug
Information (NCADI) at 1-800-729-6686 or via e-mail at info@health.org.
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