How Alcohol Affects A Person's Life

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Alcohol has been around for a long time. Alcohol dates all the way back to the Before Christ times and has been around ever since. When people think of alcohol they think of something that lets them let loose and have fun. Alcohol can be a way to have a little fun, but when the use becomes excessive it can become dangerous. Even drinking too much for one night can be risky. There are many ways in which alcohol affects someone's life. Abusing alcohol cannot only affect the drinkers life, but also the lives of the people around them. Alcoholism or alcohol dependence has four key characteristics; craving, loss of control, physical dependence, and tolerance. Craving is when the drinker has a strong urge to drink and want it all the time. Loss …show more content…

It is all up to the alcoholic to decide when they want treatment. Forcing someone into treatment will not do well because they do not want to recover yet. The alcoholic has to go in and decide that they actually want to get help with their addiction. One way to get treatment is to see a family doctor who may then prescribe treatment or refer the person to a hospital treatment center, private rehabilitation center, or a self-help group (Silverstein). The first step no matter where the patient goes is assessing how far they have progressed as an alcoholic. So they can get the correct treatment in the right amount of time. Since alcohol can cause malnutrition, some recovering alcoholics are put on strict diets so they can get the right amount of food each day. The patient will then go through detoxification to get all of the alcohol out of their system, in which they will experience withdrawal (Horgan). These withdrawal symptoms may include sweating, vomiting, shaking, fevers, and headaches (Horgan). Once they have done their treatment in a hospital or center they then are referred to an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group. They are recommended to go to help them stay sober. Being with other used to be addicts can help a person from relapsing. Although a person is never fully recovered from being an alcoholic, it is a never ending journey of

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