We all know how the grips of alcoholism can trap us all with so much ease, and it is equally difficult for anyone caught in the trap to get out of it. We all have seen, heard, and read about the lives that got destroyed by this vicious nature of alcoholism. Alcoholism is a common disorder, both physical and mental, in today’s world. No matter how much you try, it is impossible to get rid of this habit. Wherever we see, our eyes will catch at least one unfortunate soul dealing with the menace of alcoholism.
Once you’re unfortunate enough to fall into the traps of alcoholism, everyone will tell you how bad it is and how there’s nothing positive left of your life. However, all you need to hear at this time are the words of encouragement and strength needs to be instilled in you. Only if you wish the people around were more empathetic and less of the selfish, free drama-loaders that they just want to tell you negative words and watch you trickle down the downward spiral. But worry not, if you’re here in the article, there are ways how you can avoid falling victim to this dangerous black hole.
Here we will mention some ways you can use your common sense to not fall in this vicious cycle:
● First and foremost, you need to stop stocking alcohol
Let us deal with it if you really want to avoid falling into the trap of alcoholism, you need to stop stocking up the bottles of liquor in your homes and other personal places. You keep on stocking, and you fall into the urge to drink more and more. Our feeble human mind is always looking for maximum rewards with minimum labour and you should keep the alcohol out of your reach to not be an alcoholic.
● You don’t have to drink for every emotional turmoil that you deal with
Most people tend to find comfort in intoxicating effects of alcohol at every low that have to face in their life. Life is made up of ups and downs and most of the moments are an instant emotional test. But it is not necessary that you have to resort to alcohol to help you get through it. Evry emotional lows will make you take the help of alcohol and you don’t want to be a part of this cycle. That will only make things worse. So, don’t spoil your life with some silly decisions.
● Stop binge drinking at parties
This is one of the most common reasons why some people fall into the habit of alcoholism. We don’t know how we impulsively start binge drinking when we are having parties or a get-together or anything. We keep on repeating drinks and we don’t realize amongst the fun and enthusiasm how we fell for habitual alcoholism.
● The obvious, stop hanging out in the bars
Sometime when you’re meeting a friend after a long time or a bunch of friends decides to meet up and have fun, bars are one of the common places to go. Well, if you think if you have a weak will to stop yourself from heavy binge drinking until the point of waking up with a terrible hangover, it is advisable that you don’t meet up with your friends at the bar. Choose other spots like cafes, restaurants, movies instead. Say No to Bars.
● Keep a watch for your beer belly
Rampant alcoholism can cause widespread harm to your body, and your body going out of shape is one of them. The most common phenomenon of beer-belly is one of the physical effects of alcoholism. Alcohol causes a massive weight gain and if you don’t want your body going through it, you have to keep a watch and stop drinking.
● The last but not the least, stop hanging out with the rampant drinkers
We might be adults with our own minds, but we all know that peer pressure is a real thing. No matter how much you try to avoid, if you’re hanging out with a bunch of people who are into drinking, at one point or the other, you’ll fall for it too. So it’s advisable to choose your circle wisely.
All the above-mentioned ways are simple methods to not fall for the vices. Keep your mind open, but don’t forget the simple logic, that you’re your own hero. Only you can save yourself from this dark hole. Now the choice is yours.
As we all know from all the resources that are available to us, be it in the form of movies, literature, and other forms of educational substances, what havoc the habit of alcoholism can levy on people’s lives and on those who are there around them. But in spite of all this, more and more people are deliberately falling into the trap of alcohol addiction, and with a shameful record, none of the people in the administration or in the law enforcement can do much to do much about it. Here let us see what menace this habit brings upon the family lives of individuals dealing with this issue.
Marital issues caused due to Alcoholism
Alcoholism has a direct and devastating effect on families and especially married couples. Taking a single case study conducted on the families living in the low-income areas of Dharavi in Mumbai, in which one or more members suffer from the habit of alcohol abuse suggests a lot of things. This particular problem gives rise to a lot more problems in family life, starting from the prevalence of minor and major physical altercations between the family members as well as other major problems like domestic violence and sexual abuse of women and children.
Out of 15 married couples who are either in separation or are on the verge of divorce, almost all of them suggested in their answers that it is alcohol which is directly or indirectly responsible for the dismal state of their marriage. Almost all the women suggested the habit of alcoholism caused a heavy deterioration in the moral standards of their husbands, causing them to beat and abuse them. Also, a high rate of infidelity and unfaithful spouses in families dealing with alcoholism is highly common. These things have adverse effects on children of the families.
Crimes propagated by the habit of alcoholism in a family setting
So here we will list down all the negative aspects of alcoholism, mostly the list of crimes that are propagated by the habit of alcoholism. Some of the most common and heinous are noted down below-
Domestic Violence– The most common ill effect of alcohol addiction is the rapid increase in instances of domestic violence amongst the people of families experiencing this problem. Most of the time under the influence of alcohol the spouses can become increasingly abusive towards their partners and this causes a lot of problems in the family life. The things can cause the families to break up and cause psychological implications, especially on the victims and their children.
Sexual Abuse– Another common degeneracy that occurs due to the effect of alcoholism is the rampant rise of sexual abuse perpetrated by the alcoholic members of the families on women, men, and children. The person in the state of intoxication may not care about the consent of the other individual, in our culture where it is not respected enough. Many women, men, and children may come forward with serious trauma due to rampant sexual violence meted out on them.
Theft and robbery– The habit of alcoholism causes a rampant financial difficulty in the family and this is the reason why it is important for them to get more and more money. Once affected by this addiction, it is next to impossible to keep a normal job, so the only option people are left with is to go on a stealing spree and rob people of their hard-earned money. Such crimes are propagated by the addiction as a driving force and motivator to cause the crime, to get more money for getting alcohol.
Impact of alcoholism in children of the family
Perhaps the most vulnerable sections of societies when families are hit by such menace are the children. A lot of children who grow up in households and abuses related to alcohol are rampant, are diagnosed with severe cases of mental health crises like PTSD, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, and other cognitive development disorders. Most of the time the abusive circumstances will cause them a lot of problems and gives rise to a lot of problematic behaviour in them. Such things are totally not easy for children to go through. Most of the children go through the painful sexual abuse by the alcoholic member and this gives a trauma worth of lifetime.
Dealing with any sort of addiction is never easy for an individual, no matter what kind of, drugs, alcohol, fast food, chocolates, sugar, gambling, porn, sex, or any other thing. Dealing with it is a struggle that makes our lives miserable and gloomy, with a constant feeling of guilt and disgust for ownself. It gets out of bounds and out of control and that causes a lot of harm not only to the physical or mental health of the individual but also greatly harms the social life of the individual. The person starts losing friends, family, and love partners because of such factors and is doomed to a very unhappy state of life.
Here are some steps that you can take to stop yourself from being driven into the black hole of addiction-
● Yoga and other spiritual exercises
Yoga is a thousand years old spiritual tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. It is very effective for a wide range of bodily anomalies, both physical and mental. It is said that spending an hour per day doing yoga asanas can help you achieve a healthy mind and body. Almost after a few months of yoga, you will be able to feel positive changes in your mind and body. Such is the purpose of spirituality to get your mind, body, and soul with a sense of positivity and that causes a sense of fulfilment in the mind. With such a sense of fulfilment, it is extremely important to channelize the mind towards achieving great things in life, without the fact that alcohol is anywhere needed in life.
● Habitual productive hobbies with goals and target
Pick up the pen and paper and finish that write up that you want to do, take a laptop and start typing the collection of poetries swirling around in your head for so long. Pick up the paintbrush and complete that landscape painting that you have left incomplete for years. Pick up your guitar and tune unpatterned tunes and music, pick up that diary and write all the thoughts that have filled your precious mind for so long, sit by the piano, and play so many harmonies that will fill you with a sense of ecstasy. Also, keep in mind that you have to indulge in them with a sense of goal and aim in mind. Seta a target for every day and it will help you to win the battle against the addiction problem slowly and steadily.
● Have a pet, basically a therapeutic animal
Animals are the best partners a human being can have. The love that they shower on you is the purest and unconditional and so many psychiatrists and mental health professionals repeatedly suggest their clients and patients to keep a cat or a dog to give them company. The company of animals is the most beautiful thing someone can ever experience. Studies have found that pets are the most effective in reducing the feeling of a void in an individual that is involuntarily gifted to them by the current society. Fur buddies are the best buddies for mankind.
● Spend more time with the people you love
It is important that you keep yourself in a company of people that helps you be the best version of yourself. Someone who will give you continuous support in tough situations and help you get through them. Also spending time with them helps you feel positive and will gradually take you away from all the negative influences that this dark world has to offer. So go ahead, pick up your phone, call them and pay them a visit or ask them to hang out.
Getting into the vicious trap of addiction is a bad feeling. But if you can control yourself at the right time and take the pledge to overcome the issue it is really not that difficult. By following the steps mentioned above it is really easy to get yourself out of the dark trap of alcoholism. There is a piece of good news for people who haven’t yet reached such a level and have controlled themselves before time. If you are already here looking to get rid of your addictions then you’re halfway winning through the battle already.
Alcohol is a terrible poison, there’s no doubt regarding that one statement. Despite all the different warnings and awareness campaigns, none of them seems to be of any effect for the people who are alcoholics. Now is it true that people know about the harm that it causes on the surface level, but is it enough? It is important that people know exactly what harm the alcohol does to each and every vital organs of the body. Doctors and activists have tried to warn repeatedly and desperately, but it’s not something people are paying enough heed to. Let us see one by one how it harms the organs.
Effect of alcohol on Liver
The liver is one of the most important and one of the largest organs of the body and it is the part of the body that breaks down every material, solid or liquid that we intake. The kinds of stuff that we intake are broken down in the liver by various body chemicals that change them into useful stuff for the body. Alcohol provides an unattainable strain on the liver and it causes so much harm in the body that the liver becomes weak and starts producing excess amounts of toxic bilirubin. This causes jaundice like condition for the body and as a result, everything gets messed up in the body. The excess bilirubin kills the liver and the whole body eventually and it is not something to be taken lightly. Further damage causes cirrhosis from where the damage is almost impossible to reverse.
Effect of alcohol on the digestive system
As we have seen, the liver is an important organ of the digestive system and it is also one of the most important organs of the entire body. Alcohol causes a lot of harm to the intestines and the stomach. Alcohol hampers the production of digestive juices and causes a lot of harm in the overall digestive process. That is why most of the time we feel nauseating after drinking heavily. Alcohol is really not friendly to your digestive system. They corrode the walls of intestines increasing the risk of internal bleeding. Sometimes an excess of alcohol consumption even causes a tendency of frequent blood vomit.
Effect of alcohol on blood health
Let us venture onto the lesser-known facts of how alcohol damages the bone marrows and effect the blood production of the body. More than anything, alcohol consumption fills the blood with a lot of impurities and it keeps on accumulating. Causing increased risks of blood cancer and damaged blood health. The bone marrows don’t produce enough healthy blood and that affects oxygen transport throughout the body.
Effect of alcohol on the heart
The heart is the most important part of our body. The heart pumps the blood and it is the core of the body’s circulatory system. Alcohol consumption weakens the heart muscles, as a result, the heart has to work harder in pumping the optimum amount of blood, this causes a tremendous increase in blood pressure. An increase in blood pressure increases the risk of heart attacks and therefore heart collapse is one of the most common occurrences amongst alcoholics. People with a weak heart can’t have a healthy system. This reduces life expectancy by a lot of years. Also, some people get an increased urge to urge while consuming alcohol. Now that is direct sabotage to the heart and lungs. People with a weak heart and high blood pressure are repeatedly advised against the consumption of alcohol owing to such adverse effects of alcohol on the heart.
Effect of alcohol on skin and body
The most visible effect of alcohol can be witnessed on the skin and body physique. Skin starts to age and becomes saggy from an early age and this causes a lot of harm to the aesthetic and physical appearance of a person. This is because alcohol stimulates a rapid production of dead cells on the skin and that causes the skin to age at such a rabid level. Most people believe that red wine stimulates healthy skin because it contains grapes, but excess consumption causes the skin to be overfed by grape alcohol and that is harmful and not beneficial by any means.
India, a country of 1.3 billion people, which is almost 16% of the world population, is packed into 2% of the land area of the planet. With such a large population, it is natural that there are a lot of problems. The social problems here are multiplied threefolds when compared to countries like Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and other such countries, but scoring much lower than some developed countries of Europe and North America.
Alcoholism is one such problem, and it has caused a wide range of sufferings for the people dealing with it or for those people who are related to the ones who suffer from alcoholism.
Which states in India have the gravest of this problem?
As per the latest reports published by different studies published by different organizations and their studies, show that the states gravely affected by the monster of alcoholism are Assam, Punjab, and Kerala. Consequently, these states also show a lot of social, mental, and physical health crises related to the ills of alcoholism. Surprisingly, such problems related to alcoholism are also found in high quantities in the supposedly dry states of Gujarat and Bihar, indicating the thrill factor to attain the unattainable to be at work in this case as well. Other than that the highly urbanized states of Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan showed a high prevalence of such problems. The states with a high tribal population like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh have more prevalence of alcoholism in rural areas than in urban areas, but considering that these states are heavily rural, the alcohol consumption remains very high.
Which steps have been taken by the administration at the local level, state level, and national level to curb this problem?
There’s no doubt that India has achieved a lot after more than 70 years of independence, but the fact remains that there are a lot of things our country is still deficient in. we don’t have the proper infrastructure and resources yet to fully curb the problem of alcoholism and other problems related to it. In many different households, this vicious vice has caused a lot of problems related to financial instability and mental and psychological frustrations. Increased cases of domestic violence, sexual abuse also increases because of rabid alcoholism. One interesting fact is that all the above-mentioned states with the highest cases of crimes against women and children often perpetrated under the influence of alcohol.
Considering this plague, the local administration has put forward various helpline numbers and various NGOs have even brought out rehabilitation programs to help those who are dealing with this problem. There is a national level helpline number that can be accessed from anywhere, anytime and help can be sought from anywhere.
How to deal with this problem when alcoholic beverages are a multi-million dollar industry?
It is a vicious trap in this capitalistic world that hugely promotes the idea and lifestyle of addictions to people. It is very easy to get influenced now no matter which age group, religion, or social class you belong to. Despite a strong cultural prohibition against the habit of alcoholism, this habit is seen taking an upward sloppy growth. A study was conducted in the big megacities of Mumbai and Kolkata where the slum dwellers could be seen indulging heavily in alcoholism. Most of these people don’t have a proper source of employment. So it can be said steady and proper job opportunities can help curb this menace called alcoholism.
What can you do to help your friends or family who is dealing with this addiction to alcoholic drinks?
The first and foremost step can be to make them realize how to take this firm decision of quitting alcohol. We have to make them realize the burden this addiction to alcohol levies upon the individual in terms of financial, physical, and mental health aspects. The journey to getting sober is not easy, it is extremely difficult so we have to be with them at all steps to make them realize that they have our support in this pursuit. Also regularly helping them with the visit to the doctor and rehabilitation counsellor should be our noble duty.
In the wake of an ongoing pandemic that has threatened the life and routine of so many people, something has to be done so that people don’t have to suffer like crazy. Here I am referring to the Covid-19 pandemic. But there are other pandemics too that require urgent solutions right now. One is alcohol addiction, the other is mental health crises. As per scientific studies and sociological research, as well as numerous testimonials in literature, both of these phenomena are deadly crises of humanity. Also, both of these humane conditions are completely interrelated, we will see how.
Alcoholism and Mental Disorder
Alcoholism directly affects the functioning of the brain and can hamper brain chemicals. The chemicals of the brain have a delicate system which controls and regulates the behaviour of individuals, the right and proportionate amount of these chemicals help in having a healthy mental state. But the saddest part is this is very sensitive to slight changes in the environment.
Addiction issues cause massive changes in the behaviour and functioning of human beings. All these massive changes have a tremendous impact on the physical and mental health of individuals.
Over time all these mental health problems get worsened and if not treated on time may even kill the individual. The influence of alcohol makes it extremely difficult for individuals to seek treatment for these issues.
Alcohol abuse and Depression- Depression is one of the most horrific mental health conditions that is plaguing and destroying the lives of so many people. It has always been a crisis in the human civilisation and is known as one of the deadliest killers of humanity. The worst part about depression is that it cannot be diagnosed easily. Combined with the alcohol abuse, the diagnosis is nearly next to impossible. Alcohol abuse makes it highly difficult for the individual to go seek help as compared to non-alcoholic sufferers of depression. Alcohol abuse highly aggravates the problem of depression this way.
Alcohol Abuse and Anxiety- Termed as one of the fast-spreading diseases in the millenial and the gen-next generation of people, anxiety disorder has made life difficult for many people. Anxiety disorders cause a lot of malfunctioning physical conditions, like faster heart rate and high blood pressure increases the risks of heart attacks and other disorders which are strenuous for the body. Now an individual suffering from an anxiety disorder is already at tremendous risk, added to that alcohol addiction will make things worse at an unimaginable level. So it is important to approach a step by step method to cure both of the conditions. The individuals who can defeat both are no less than a high achieving winner.
Alcohol Abuse and Bipolar Disorder – One of the most frustrating mental diseases is bipolar disorder. In this disease, the person who is suffering from it has no control over their behaviour and this adds to a level of frustration in people. One can only imagine what levels that frustration can add up to if combined with an uncontrolled level of alcohol abuse. Treatment of the bipolar disorder is complex and difficult with a lot of routine centric drugs required to be taken in by the patient, alcohol abuse can hamper with the lifestyle and judgement of the people making it highly difficult for the people to get over this disease.
Why is it important to control alcohol abuse so that mental health crises don’t take place?
Health workers working with alcoholic patients sometimes face a difficult task tracking their patient’s mental health complaints because over drinking associated with alcohol addiction can coexist and result from several different psychiatric disorders. Thus making it highly difficult for the health care and psychiatric professionals alike to cure this condition. Nobody psychiatrist and the psychologist can convince an alcoholic to better themselves, nor can anyone suffering from any of the deadly psychological issues can be convinced to give up the habit of alcohol abuse. This is a terrible condition to be a victim of. Both don’t seem to be of much harm from the exterior but nobody can witness the damage that they inflict from inside, and most of them are so severe that if not acted upon on time can cause tremendous harm.
