Alcohol Abuse Essentials
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Alcohol
Drinking Problems. Millions of people throughout the world engage in irresponsible and excessive
drinking and exhibit alcohol drinking problems. Such drinking behavior is known as alcohol abuse.
A lot of people apparently do not realize that binge drinking, which is a special form of alcohol abuse, can
cause the person's body to shut down and stop functioning. This is known as an alcohol overdose or
alcohol poisoning.
In short, binge drinking, in some instances, can result is the loss of an individual's life.
What Is Alcohol Abuse?
Though most people in the industrialized countries has heard about alcohol abuse, more than a few individuals
have asked the following question: exactly what is alcohol abuse?
Alcohol abuse is a drinking pattern that frequently results in one or more of the following
during a twelve-month time frame:
- The experience of recurring alcohol-related legal difficulties (such as multiple DUIs)
- Ongoing alcohol-related relationship issues
- The failure to attend to important responsibilities at school, work, or home
- Alcohol-related physical injury
If you abuse alcohol you are a "problem drinker" and you may be gambling with your life. How is this possible,
you ask?
Not unlike what happens when people abuse other drugs, many individuals who engage in binge drinking, who drink
irresponsibly, or who on a regular basis abuse alcohol sooner or later may become alcohol dependent.
To be more specific, the more a person continues to binge drink and abuse alcohol the more likely he or she will
eventually become an alcoholic.
In short, when a problem drinker starts to crave alcohol, builds up a tolerance for alcohol, loses total control
regarding drinking, and experiences alcohol withdrawal symptoms, he or she has made the regrettable transition from
alcohol abuse to alcohol dependency.
What Is Binge Drinking?
The term "binge drinking" has become so commonly used that is worth asking the following question: what is binge
drinking? Binge drinking is defined as having four or more drinks at one sitting for women or five or more drinks
at one sitting for men.
Why is binge
drinking dangerous and extremely unhealthy and why does it lead to severe drinking problems?
Not only does binge drinking significantly increase the risk of serious injury or possibility of contracting
sexually transmitted diseases, but it can also result in alcohol poisoning (also known as alcohol overdose), an
outcome that can be deadly.
Unfortunately, once alcohol abuse starts, the behavior, in many instances, continues and can lead to the
chronic, long-term negative consequences that are characteristic of excessive drinking.
Also unfortunate are the number of documented cases of alcohol abuse among pre-teens and teenagers and the
alcohol abuse that takes place on college campuses.
The bottom line is this: binge drinking IS a form of alcohol abuse that can result in alcohol poisoning which in
extreme cases can be fatal, even if the bingeing takes place "only" a few times per year.
So, the next time someone asks you "what is binge drinking," you can say that binge drinking is a form of
alcohol abuse that is characterised by a male having five or more drinks at one occasion or four drinks at one
sitting for women---and point out that binge drinking can result in alcohol poisoning which can result in the loss
of one's life.
| Alcohol Drinking Problems. Approximately 9.7 million current drinkers in the United
States are between the ages of 12-20. Of these young drinkers, 18.7% are binge drinking and 6% are
heavy drinkers. This means that nearly 25% of our young drinkers have serious alcohol drinking
problems. |
Alcoholism Videos
We have included
some alcoholism videos so that you can see and hear directly from various
people about their struggles with this disease.
If you, a family member, or one of your friends has a "drinking problem," seeing what others have gone through
and how they attained successful recovery is much more "real" than any information you can read about.
Furthermore, watching these videos may help you understand what others with alcohol drinking problems are
experiencing. So make sure you look at these excellent videos!
| Alcohol Drinking Problems. Young people ages 18 to 25 have the highest prevalence of
binge drinking (38.7 percent) and heavy drinking (13.6 percent), with a peak rate (48.2 percent for
binge and 17.8 percent or heavy drinking) occurring at age 21, according to the 2001 National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse. |
Alcohol Abuse Essentials: Conclusion
What is alcohol abuse? Alcohol abuse can be defined as a pattern of drinking that commonly results in one or
more of the following during a twelve-month time period: the failure to attend to important responsibilities at
home, work, or school; ongoing alcohol-related difficulties; alcohol-related physical injury; and the experience of
recurring alcohol-related legal problems (such as multiple DWIs).
Due
to the fact that abusive and excessive drinking can eventually turn into alcohol dependency, it is important
for all "problem drinkers" to get immediate professional medical treatment.
Some individuals have heard about "binge drinking" without knowing exactly what it is. These are the people who
openly ask the question: "what is binge drinking"?
Binge drinking is a form of alcohol abuse that is characterized by the following: a male having five or more
drinks at one sitting or a female drinking four or more alcoholic beverages at one drinking occasion.
Some people seemingly do not realize that drinking excessively even a few times per year is dangerous and is in
fact, a form of alcohol abuse.
The danger in getting drunk "only once or twice" per year is this: even though the excessive and abusive
drinking may be infrequent, this type of drinking (known as binge drinking) can result in a fatal alcohol
overdose.
| If the problem drinker's problems have progressed so that he has become a danger to
himself or others, or if his alcoholism has reached the point that he is no longer capable of
looking out for himself, intervention can be a life-saving choice. But it is not a permanent cure.
Only the alcoholic himself can turn a 28-day treatment program into a life-long program of
recovery. |
| Every year in the United States, more than 40,000 babies are born with some degree
of alcohol-related impairment. Although many, if not most, women understand that excessive drinking
during pregnancy can lead to birth defects, many woman, apparently, are unaware or do not
comprehend that moderate or even light drinking can seriously impair or harm the unborn fetus. |
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