Alcohol Addiction

From Rofflehaus

1 The Mechanisms Behind Alcohol Addiction
2 Factors That Make An Individual Predisposed To Alcoholism
3 Stress, Serotonin, And Binge Drinking
4 Addiction Treatment
- 4.1 References:
5 See Also

[edit] The Mechanisms Behind Alcohol Addiction

A girl ruminating on whether she would drink that delicious Newcastle her friend left behind.

The number of people who are struggling with alcoholism is increasing every year. Alarmingly, it is the youth-- 18 to 29 year olds-- who are known to be the heaviest drinkers. A lot of research has been done to know the reasons behind an individual's alcoholism. What lures them? What causes them to be alcohol abusers or alcohol dependents? Some alcohol rehabs have disclosed that there are quite a number of adolescents seeking treatment for alcoholism in their facility. It has also been established that there are a lot of factors that are behind this spreading medical condition which happens to be a serious problem in our society today.

[edit] Factors That Make An Individual Predisposed To Alcoholism

**Alcohol and traffic deaths from the Department of Uncited Statistics**
Between 1982 and 1993, 266,291 deaths in the United States were alcohol-related -- one fatality every 30 minutes.
Traffic fatalities in alcohol-related crashes rose by 4 percent from 1994 to 1995. The 17,274 alcohol-related fatalities in 1995 (41 percent of total traffic fatalities for the year) represent a 24 percent reduction from the 22,715 alcohol-related fatalities reported in 1985 (52 percent of the total).
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that alcohol was involved in 41 percent of fatal crashes and in 7 percent of all crashes in 1995.
The 17,274 fatalities in alcohol-related crashes during 1995 represent an average of one alcohol-related fatality every 30 minutes.
More than 300,000 people were injured in crashes where police reported that alcohol was present -- an average of one person injured approximately every two minutes.
Approximately 1.4 million drivers were arrested in 1994 for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. This is an arrest rate of one for every 127 licensed drivers in the United States.

It has been argued that a person's genetic make-up can influence his chances of becoming an alcohol abuser or alcohol dependent. NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) and NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) have both come to the conclusion that alcohol dependence, like drug abuse, is a developmental disorder. This arises early on in life, during adolescence, or even before that.

There can be a variation in one's genetics or a gene that immediately puts a person at risk for changes in his neurochemistry that are accompanied with alcoholism. However, his environment in early childhood could be one that promotes resilience. Hence, though his genes may make him more vulnerable to alcoholism, a happy childhood and good family relationships can protect him from becoming an alcoholic. Genes only contribute to part of the risk for alcohol problems. Just because a person has a predisposition to alcoholism does not mean that he is automatically going to be alcohol dependent.

[edit] Stress, Serotonin, And Binge Drinking

Since time cannot be turned back to determine the factors that contributed to an adolecent's alcoholism, some experts have chosen to use monkeys as subjects to further examine and know the factors that cause one to become an alcoholic. It has been revealed that alcohol intake and alcoholism has a lot to do with stress, serotonin, and binge drinking.

The study has shown that the higher level of stress, the more the individual is prone to drinking large amounts of alcohol. This has been proven by taking some newborn monkeys away from their mothers to create a level of stress and observing both the maternally-raised monkeys and nursery-reared monkeys. The nursery-reared monkeys were the ones who drank more alcohol.

Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, has been attributed as one of the causes of alcoholism. In the monkey models, the researchers followed the development of the animals-- neurochemically and behaviorally-- to discern the mechanisms in the risk pathway.

Binge drinking, on the other hand, is a problem among adolescents. NIAA has statistics that show that approximately 12 percent of individuals in 8th grade and around 30 percent of individuals in 12th grade admit that they drink 5 or more drinks in a row. Researchers intend to focus on how adolescent drinking may up the risk of drinking excessively in adulthood. They also intend to delve more on how binge drinking during adolescence is able to influence physiology, behavior, and maturation.

[edit] Addiction Treatment

The support and understanding of friends after an individual gets out of rehab is really important.

Fortunately, those afflicted with alcoholism can still be treated. A large number of alcohol addiction treatment center are around nowadays specifically for this purpose. It is the goal of the treatment programs to be able to help alcoholic persons attain and keep up abstinence, regain their sense of self esteem and self worth and learn how to effectively handle the stresses of their active lives while keeping away from alcohol. There are even treatment programs that allow other family members to join in on counseling and therapy sessions as an alcoholic is said to progress faster into recovery when a sober loved one is involved in the treatment. This way, the patient would not have to feel as if he is going through the process alone. When he gets support and love from his family members and friends, he will be able to function better and be able to face life with a lot more optimism and vigor and the readiness to leave alcohol behind.