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Essay about alcohol effects health
Effects on drinking
Effects on drinking
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Drinking Alcohol Alcohol can and does kill millions of people. It can effect your brain and make you shake, lose all your senses, and kill off your brain cells. It also can cause your liver to deteriorate and not function properly. Liver transplants are hard to come by and do not happen often, if your liver goes out you do not have many chances of living much longer. You could also choke on your puke and die. Drinking too much alcohol can kill you, but millions of people consume mass amounts daily. College students drink and party a great amount. The average student drinks at least three nights a week and that is the weekend. Most sororities and fraternities encourage drinking. The fraternities make their pledges drink and the kids love it. It makes them loosen up and have a good time meeting new people. Drinking is also a good way for students who do not know anybody to meet new people and feel more comfortable when they go into an unfamiliar place with a lot of strangers around. When someone is drunk they feel more comfortable and able to talk to random people they do not know and have a good time. Once someone becomes familiar with certain people or just being drunk around strangers, it becomes a habit and that is when school work starts to not be important anymore. Students who drink start to stop attending classes because they are hung-over, tired because they did not go to bed, or just do not feel like going because they would like to start drinking again. The! re are those who can drink every night of the week and still go to class, do their homework, and keep their grades up. Those who can do that are very rare and end up eventually stop being able to do it anymore and fail out of school. It is not very hard for... ... middle of paper ... ...time where there was a lot going on and had many opportunities to drink. I am going to settle down for a while and become a book worm. I have on midterm this week on two next tuesday so it is time to focus on my work. Alcohol is something that many people consume. Some can handle it, and others do not know how to control it and it controls them. I know that I drink, but I know that it will not become a habit and I have it under control. I feel bad for people who are alcoholics and can not control their drinking. The worst is an alcoholic who does not think they have a problem. I just wish those who did drink could sit down have a couple and be happy. A lot of people get drunk and violent. I have friends who have broken many things and hurt a lot of people just because they were drunk and everyone let it go because of it. Alcohol can be fun when it is used wisely.
“80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college environment, will damage themselves mentally, physically, and socially later in life, because alcohol adversely affects the brain, the liver, and the drinkers behavior.
College students generally associate parties with drinking. They assume that if you are at a party, alcohol will be involved. Especially on four year campuses that have many fraternities and sororities, alcohol is even more prominent. “Thirsty Thursday” is something that was created by taverns and bars to endorse specials and get people in their doors to spend money, but it is more commonly known for when college students get drunk and start the weekend off early, as many colleges don’t have many classes scheduled on Fridays. Drinking is so prominent in our daily lives, due to the fact that there are so many things that promote it. Examples include: marketing, school projects, family gatherings, work outings, sporting events, concerts, peer pressure, and other random social events that seem to always include alcoholic beverages.
College student drunkenness is far from new and neither are college and university efforts to control it. What is new, however, is the potential to make real progress on this age-old problem based on scientific research results. New research-based information about the consequences of high-risk college drinking and how to reduce it can empower colleges and universities, communities, and other interested organizations to take effective action. Hazardous drinking among college students is a widespread problem that occurs on campuses of all sizes and geographic locations. A recent survey of college students conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health reported that 44 percent of respondents had drunk more than five drinks (four for women) consecutively in the previous two weeks. About 23 percent had had three or more such episodes during that time. The causes of this problem are the fact that students are living by themselves no longer with parents or guardians; they earn their own money; students need to be a part of a group, be accepted; and they have the wrong idea that to feel drunk is “cool.”
To recognize that they have drinking problems, alcoholics have to be completely miserable and willing to change. When they get to this point, it is called their "bottom." There are "high bottom" and "low bottom" drunks, but it doesn't matter as long as they get sober. There are many different reasons why an alcoholic decides to get sober, but in my own case, I lost my self-esteem, I couldn't control my drinking, and my life became unmanageable.
Alcohol use has been an important part of the American college experience since the eighteen century. The early form of drunken college kids with a lifestyle known as “the collegiate subculture”. In the 17000s when “the sons of the rich came to college for four years of pleasure and social contacts. They considered academic work an intrusipon on their fun and they were content to pass their courses with a ‘gentleman’s C’ grade. The collegiate subculture is antieducational with students associated with party scenes, taking precedence over academic endeavors.” Modern college drinking is not limited to power elite, usual universities partiers are from the wealthy. Students use alcohol to demonstrate their privilege status. College for them is not the only pathway to success. They are already success through family wealthy backgrounds. Alcohol consumption is a way to let everyone know about their status and that they had already “made it”.
We all know what it is like to wake up in the morning, with our head aching, and our body feeling like it was just hit by a train. College students world wide know this feeling. These are the results of binge drinking. The question of why college students continue to submit themselves to alcohol is unknown. While many reasons are given, the cause generally falls into one of three categories, peer pressure, insecurity, or to help solve there problems. But the one thing students don’t realize are the consequences and effects that binge drinking can have, health and social problems are just a few.
Alcohol is a very powerful drug. It can ruin someone’s life. It may also be able to ruin everyone that alcoholic lives around. But first what is alcoholism.
Alcoholism is an increasing problem, which has many objectionable consequences. "Excessive drinking involved in 70 percent of deaths from falls, 69 percent of drownings, 83 percent of fatal fire accidents, 40 percent of accidental deaths in the job, 50 percent of highway fatalities, 52 percent of spouse beatings, and 38 percent of child abuse." (Allan Luks, 13) So alcoholism causes many troubles. It can destroy a person's life: relationship with family and relatives, and even one's attitude toward life.
Alcoholism, as opposed to merely excessive or irresponsible drinking, has been thought of as a symptom of psychological or social stress or as a learned, maladaptive coping behaviour. More recently, and probably more accurately, it has come to be viewed as a complex disease in its own right. Alcoholism usually develops over a period of years. Alcohol comes to be used more as a mood-changing drug than as a foodstuff or beverage served as a part of social custom or religious ritual.
When people hear the word "drug," they usually think of an illegal substance such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana, or any other drug that can be found on the street. Most people never consider the fact that consuming alcohol can be just as harmful as illegal drugs, not only on the body, but on the mind and spirit as well (#1). If constantly abused, alcohol can be even worse for one than taking illegal drugs (#5) Irresponsible drinking can destroy a person's life as well as the lives of those around them. When people become both physically and psychologically addicted to alcohol, they become an alcoholic and suffer from a disease called alcoholism. One denotation of this term is "a diseased condition of the system, brought about by the continued use of alcoholic liquors" (Webster's Dictionary, 37). Another definition of this term, given to me by my English professor, Janet Gould who is in fact, a recovering alcoholic, is that alcoholism is a mental dependence and a physical allergy (#3). Alcoholism somehow affects us all through a parent, sibling, friend, or even personal encounters with a stranger. In fact "alcoholics may become angry and argumentative, quiet and withdrawn, or depressed. They may also feel more anxious, sad, tense, and confused. They then seek relief by drinking more" (Gitlow 175).
Although this may be true, some people will still argue that alcoholic drinks are not always a bad thing, especially if you are a teenager that wants to experience a little bit of danger and living to the fullest, as the Americans say live wild and free. Most of the new students in college feel that they are free from their parents; they can do anything want to do without worrying about the watchful eyes of their parents. The feelings of excitement that drive teenagers to try new things and experiment, for example drinking alcohol. Nowadays young people often ...
Increased abuse of alcohol leads to physical damage to the body. Alcohol is absorbed directly into the brain, dulling one’s senses and weakling one's will power. According to the article from the Mayo Clinic Health Information, “Excessive use of alcohol can produce several harmful effects on your brain and nervous system. It also can severely damage your liver, pancreas and cardiovascular system. Alcohol use in pregnant women can damage the fetus” (Mayo 1). Continued ingestion of alcohol affects every organ in the body. Every organ in the body is affected. The liver has serious effects that may lead to cirrhosis and death.. At first the liver adapts and tolerates alcohol. It works harder and finally damages itself in time. Alcohol leads the liver to the inability to metabolize facts. Furthermore, it leads to increase in cholesterol and triglycerides leading to clogged arteries. Red blood cells are also affected leading the individual to become anemic.
Imagine being in a bar with a few of your good friends. Everyone is drinking and having a good time. Your are going to leave and go home, but you friends won't let you because they know the dangers of driving after having a few drinks. Instead they ca ll a cab to give you a ride home. You would be extremely lucky to have such smart friends. Drunk driving is a very serious problem in our society today, but it is becomming socially unacceptable causing the numbers of alcohol related traffic fatalites t o decline considerably.
According to the article The Deadly Drinking Mistakes Smart Girls Make by Nicole Blades, there are several risks an individual runs when consuming alcohol. For instance, if someone is not a frequent drinker or are a light drinker, they could be at an even greater risk of alcohol poisoning than the average consumer because they either don’t know their limits or are not able to tolerate alcohol in high doses. Genes, gender, and weight are all factors that affect how quickly your body processes alcohol and for most beginning drinkers, they are unaware of how much their body can handle. They also generally tend to misinterpret the signs of when enough drinks are enough due to their inexperience’s, causing for greater risk of alcohol poisoning. Drinking alcohol without time in between can also be deadly because your body doesn’t have enough time to metabolize the alcohol, causing it to circulate throughout your body at a rapid pace. This can lead to “loss of inhibitions and euphoria, followed by ...
Alcohol in the form of alcoholic beverages has been consumed by humans since pre-historic times, for a variety of hygiene dietary, medicinal, religions and recreational reasons. According to the NIH Senior Health, drinking too much alcohol affects many parts of the body. It can be especially harmful to the liver, the organ that metabolizes (breaks down) alcohol and other harmful substances. People who drink heavily for a long time can develop diseases such as liver inflammation (alcoholic hepatitis) or severe liver scarring (cirrhosis). Alcohol-related liver disease can cause death. According to the statistics in the year 2010 by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and prevention) the number of discharges with chronic liver disease and cirrhosis as the first-listed diagnosis was 101,000 persons, while the number of deaths has been 31,903 persons.