By Bro. Dr Adu Appiah-Kubi, Brong Ahafo Central Regional Physician.
Alcoholism or alcohol use disorder, is a condition in which a person has a desire or physical need to consume alcohol, even though it has a negative impact on their life.
Alcoholism is a global problem and has many negative repercussions on the abuser.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows there are 3.3 million deaths globally every year from the harmful use of alcohol.
There are three forms of Alcohol use disorder: mild, moderate and severe. Each category has various symptoms and can cause harmful side effects. If left untreated, any type of alcohol abuse can spiral out of control.
Drinking can impair how a person performs as a parent, a partner as well as how (s)he contributes to the functioning of the household. Alcoholism can easily cause accidents or violent tendencies which can leave lasting effects on families, especially children.
Children can suffer Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), when mothers drink during pregnancy. After birth, parental drinking can lead to child abuse and numerous other impacts on the child’s social, psychological and economic environment.
The impact of drinking on family life can include substantial mental health problems for other family members, such as anxiety, fear and depression.
Drinking outside the home can mean less time spent at home. The financial costs of alcohol purchase and medical treatment, as well as lost wages can leave other family members destitute. When men drink it often primarily affects their mothers or partners who may need to contribute more to the income of the household and who run an increased risk of violence or HIV infection.
Legal consequences
Alcohol contributes to criminal behaviour.
Alcohol can reduce your inhibitions and lead you to behave in a way that you would not consider if you were sober. Incidents that you would deal with rationally when sober, can quickly escalate and get out of hand after a few drinks and may end up involving the police.
Alcohol-related offences include assault, sexual assault, assault of police, property damage, disorderly or offensive behaviour, hindering police, resisting arrest and drink driving.
Health/safety consequences
Injury is the most likely health effect of a single incidence of drinking too much. But the types of injuries and the seriousness of injury can vary greatly depending on the circumstances (for example falls, road trauma and assault).
Alcohol poisoning, or overdosing on alcohol, can occur when you drink too much. Excessive alcohol consumption can affect your breathing, heart rate and gag reflex and potentially lead to coma and death.
While often physical scars fade, the psychological scars resulting from alcohol-related trauma can linger – sometimes for a lifetime. As well as some injuries such as head injury do not fully recover.
Social Consequences
There have many stories of how alcoholism has led to the break of marriages. Many a time, the partner of an alcoholic feel insecure having an alcoholic around their children. The constant friction and arguments mostly lead to strains in the marriage that can end in divorce.
What people think about us affects how we feel about ourselves. A humiliating drinking incident such as vomiting or passing out can result in ridicule, social ostracism and other forms of bullying.
Hangovers can lead to time off work, poor work performance and workplace accidents, all of which could put your job at risk.
Drinking too much can also affect personal relationships. Usually the people close to someone who regularly drinks too much are adversely affected.
Teenagers of parents with alcohol problems tend to drink more frequently, more heavily, and more often alone than other teenagers. These teenagers tend to drink to cope or to forget their problems, in addition to the usual social motives for drinking, which are shared by most adolescent drinkers.
Other social consequences of drinking too much can include:
Financial problems due to excessive spending on alcohol
Limited career opportunities due to a conviction for an alcohol-related offence impacts on work performance
Losing friends because of the way you act when you’re drunk.
Reduced sexual performance.
Treatment
This involves counseling by a professional, detoxification in a hospital and medications to reduce the desire to drink.