Alcohol Dangers as a Drug

In our world today, partying and binge drinking in college a lot are often considered milestones we will experience at some point in their lives. There’s a recent trend of campuses who have had more students experiencing alcohol related problems and critical injuries thanks to easily accessible bars and the pressure to some exerted by the Greek system. Bars that offer tempting drink specials, sometimes mandatory hazing, and wine binging focused exchanges to get tipsy when work gets too tough are considered a social standard to live up to for fitting in. Studies show that almost sixty percent of college students drank alcohol in the past month, and almost two thirds of those students engaged in binge drinking during that same time. Many of us know someone who talked about their drunk night out meeting up with someone not safe at all. It’s disturbing to hear some those stories while wondering if your friend really remembered everything that happened. Especially in an open campus, seeing crimes regularly happen close to home isn’t much help either. Aside from risking your safety, actively living a binge drinking lifestyle is extremely negative and brings your body’s health down the drain. The truth is that we can still get tempted and maintaining self-discipline is almost impossible when everyone else is following along. Ultimately, we must be educated about alcohol’s effects and seek treatment if addiction is present.

Being High Functioning

Almost twenty percent of adults, especially college students who often consume alcohol, can be considered a highly functional addict in our country today. High-functioning alcoholics are hard to recognize sometimes since they have learned with trial and error how to mask it easily. Chronic drinking leads to a negative change in how they look on the outside, act with others, and feel throughout their day. Some signs of one, especially if they’re a college student, is if they use alcoholic drinks to wind down after stressful tests or become more outgoing at social gatherings, drink by themselves, black out often, run into problems with the campus police, often joke about having an addiction or get rather upset and defensive when confronted about their habits.

I’ve witnessed many of my peers start their taste of alcohol with a few drinks here and there. There’s nothing bad about having fun and enjoying a drink in moderation if you’re of age and know your limit when you go out. The point is that binge drinking to manage stress or self-medicate is what causes negative changes to occur in the body that are sometimes permanent. Drinking a lot of alcohol is socially acceptable in college and doesn’t have the same stigma attached to it as other popular vices like marijuana, cocaine, or Adderall. What seemed like a moderate activity can grow into a weekly wine night, tons of beers at happy hour, and endless vodka shots on weekends to celebrate just getting through to Friday. Rarely are such nights filled with truly wholesome memories, since drinking so much can cause it to end short or scary from a black out. The media and social norms around us are also constantly showing a glamorized version of drinking after work or at lunch breaks as a figure of humor. It seems like battling the side effects of alchohol is a piece of cake when done right. However, this notion is incredibly false and is misleading thousands of people who believe the lie.

Long-term Health Problems

It’s no joke that alcohol abuse can lead to serious acute and long term effects on a person’s mind and body. Besides severe withdrawal symptoms that develop, addicts may also develop a bad habit of experiencing memory loss and lose concentration on important tasks throughout the day. They could also develop anxiety and depression, increase risk of cancer in the colon, liver, throat, breast, etc., high blood pressure, and a damaged digestive system. A study about alcohol’s long term consequences also showed a link to a heightened risk in heart disease because of the heart not being able to effectively pump blood through the circulatory system and arteries. It depicts a striking statistic that the number of people in three years who developed heart failure, heart attack, or a condition of irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, were three times more likely in their risk if they drank a lot of alcohol in the past.

Overcoming Your Addiction 

While forming a plan to recover by yourself may seem more convenient, it’s more helpful to get professional assistance; for example, getting treatment from an established alcohol rehab in Florida. They can provide you with more education on the dangers of alcohol, health consequences, and recommend the best programs for alcohol addiction recovery so you’re in the best place possible!

Wine glass and Bottle on a wooden background

 

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