Alcoholism in college these days is a growing problem; campuses around America are just starting to implement different types of programs to raise awareness of the dangers and negative effects it can have on your heart long-term.
Many college students actively engage in partying. We have all been to a crazy party sometime or other in our college careers where at least one person leaves feeling pretty sick and can’t remember what happened. At first glance, this doesn’t seem like too much of a problem, and these young adults tell themselves it’s an easy mistake to make and hopefully they just drink more responsibly next time. However, sometimes a person’s affinity for alcohol can become too much and it eventually turns into an addiction we all know too well – alcohol abuse.
Many colleges know this can be a major problem, especially with how easily alcohol can be obtained on a college campus these days. For example, the University of Illinois has a page called “rethinkthedrink” where information can be found about the serious risks of drinking alcohol and attempts to educate students on how to drink responsibly on a night. It helps you make a plan for the night by asking how much you plan to spend on drinks and what you plan to consume per hour, thus reminded the individual to maintain a safe and responsible drinking pace throughout the night. Campuses know they will never be able to fully put an end to drinking in college (and the use of other drugs for that matter), but they are trying their best to reduce the number of injuries and even casualties per year because of drinking accidents. As the saying goes, it’s all fun and games until something bad happens. Recently I had to bear the horrible news that a friend’s friend at a party had drunkenly stumbled off the dance floor and is now in the hospital needing major surgery.
There are multiple reasons why people may become alcoholics over the course of their college career. These reasons could range from exam pressure, loneliness and even just becoming psychologically dependent on it, as it is a drug after all (which most people seem to forget). According to the statistics “in 2015, 26.9 percent of people ages 18 or older reported that they engaged in binge drinking in the past month; 7.0 percent reported that they engaged in heavy alcohol use in the past month”.
If you think you have fallen into this trap and slowly beginning to consume an unhealthy amount of alcohol Elevate Rehab can help you overcome an addiction and treat the mental health issues that often go hand in hand with drug and alcohol abuse. Based in the beautiful landscape of northern California, it is one of America’s prominent alcohol rehab facilities.
Making sure to stop the addiction before it goes too far is key, as alcohol can have a wide variety of negative effects on the body. Most of all it can impact your heart. There are many types of life threatening heart problems alcohol abuse can give you, one of these being atrial fibrillation. Alcohol poses a unique threat to heart health because it increases a person’s risk of this issue by 60%. This is a dangerous form of arrhythmia which makes the heart incapable of efficiently moving blood into the heart’s ventricles making the individual more susceptible to blood clots, strokes, heart failures and other life-threatening complications. These are not issues that you want to have to deal with; binge drinking alcohol is clearly not worth the risks that come with it.
Along with dangerous short term and long term heart problems, alcohol abuse can also contribute to cancer, anemia, cardiovascular disease, dementia, seizures, depression, memory loss and many other health problems. These diseases are a steep price to pay for what started out to be a little bit of fun at a party. If you currently drink, please drink responsibly and if you think you have an alcohol addiction please seek treatment and help right away.