Alcohol And High Blood Pressure

Understanding What Alcohol Abuse Is And How To Recognize It

The consumption of alcoholic beverages dates back to the beginning of time. Unfortunately some of us are affected by the excessive consumption of alcohol in a very negative way. Hence the problem of alcohol abuse which has disrupted lives, societies and civilizations over the generations..

In today’s society consuming alcohol has become the norm and when consumed in moderation, it can be a relaxing tonic. Many people come home from a hard day of work and unwind with a drink. How do you know, though, when that relaxing drink has taken over your life? How do you know when you become dependent on it? Alcohol abuse in today’s society is becoming a serious problem. In the past people used to believe that alcohol abuse was a characteristic of a weak person, but now it is known that it is really a serious disease that has a chance of affecting us all.

Statistics on Alcohol Abuse

A surprising statistic is that 1 in 13 adults is affected by alcohol abuse. The online health guide, WebMD reported that in the United States alone, 12 to 14 million adults suffer from alcohol abuse and each year, around 100,000 adults will die from alcohol abuse. It has also been proven that alcohol abuse is a large factor in contributing to the country’s car accidents, suicides and homicides. Alcohol also affects many other things in daily life, including increased rates of job absenteeism, and increased reports of domestic violence and child abuse.

What are the Signs of Alcohol Abuse?

Occasional drinks at home or with friends does not mean that you have a problem with alcohol. As a guideline:

- in women, a key indication that there is a degree of alcohol abuse is if you consume more than seven drinks a week and more than three in a social gathering.

- In men, the rate of consumption would have to equal more than 14 drinks per week or an excess of four drinks while with friends.

Other signs include:

- alcohol cravings,

- a loss of control when drinking, which leads to the person unable to stop drinking. –

-Tolerances built up to alcohol can be another sign of alcohol abuse,

- physical dependence on alcohol, such as nausea, sweating and headaches if no alcohol is consumed.

Scientists are discovering that many other factors are involved with drinking, such as family history of drinking, family genetics toward drinking, stress levels, and social and environmental factors.

Alcohol abuse is a very serious disease that is escalating all over the western world. It is a treatable disease, but is difficult to cure and it can affect anyone. Many factors make people more susceptible to it than others. Whilst many people drink and enjoy themselves in moderation, it is important that we all hear the message and keep our consumption to recognized tolerable levels.

Unfortunately modern society has raised the specter of alcohol consumption to levels of absurdity as the fashion of Binge Drinking has become the norm amongst many of the young. This bad influence can only lead to more and more of us suffering from alcohol abuse.

Treatments for alcohol abuse are quite varied in keeping with the multiple perspectives of the condition itself. Counselors approaching the condition as a medical disease will recommend different treatment processes and goals than, for instance, those approaching the condition as one of social choice. Most treatments focus on helping abusers completely discontinue their alcohol intake, as well as providing life training and/or social support to help them resist a return to alcohol use. Since alcohol abuse involves many factors which encourage a person to continue drinking (psychological/social, physical, and neurochemical), all of these factors must be addressed in order to successfully prevent a return to active alcohol use.

The most common approach to alcohol abuse treatment is detoxification followed by a combination of supportive therapy, attendance at self-help groups, and ongoing development of coping mechanisms. The treatment community for alcohol abuse typically supports an abstinence-based approach, as studies have shown that the vast majority of people who abuse alcohol cannot learn to drink in moderation.

The effectiveness of alcohol abuse treatments vary from successful to counterproductive. When considering the effectiveness of treatment options, it is important to consider the percentage of those who drop out of a program, not just those who complete it. Most programs can boast a high cure rate for those who complete it because most people only complete a program if it works for them. It is also important to consider not just the percentage of those reaching sobriety but how many of those experience relapsing.

Here are the most common treatment options for alcohol abuse:
Detoxification
Detoxification (commonly referred to as “detox”) is the process of eliminating alcohol drinking and giving the drinker’s bodily system time to re-adjust to the absence of alcohol. Drugs that have similar effects to alcohol are used to ease the withdrawal symptoms, which can actually be deadly in extreme cases if left untreated. The most often used drugs are sedative-hypnotics, such as diazepam or clonazepam. Less frequently, barbiturates such as phenobarbital are used. Many weeks after alcohol intake has completely stopped individuals may still suffer from milder withdrawal symptoms; sleep is generally the last function to return to normal.

Detoxification is not a treatment for alcohol abuse itself, but is simply a treatment of the physiologic effects of ongoing abuse of alcohol. It provides an initial path for an abuser to stop drinking in the first place. Detoxification treatments without supplemental help for the patient to continue abstinence have a very high rate of relapse.

Detoxification often takes place within an inpatient environment, but some programs do offer outpatient detoxification.

Group therapy and psychotherapy
After detoxification, various forms of group therapy or psychotherapy can be used to deal with underlying psychological issues leading to alcohol abuse, and also to provide the recovering abuser with relapse prevention skills.

In the mid-1930s, the mutual-help group-counseling approach to treatment began and has become very popular. Alcoholics Anonymous is the best-known example of the support group movement. Other groups that provide similar self-help and support without AA’s spiritual focus include LifeRing Secular Recovery, Smart Recovery, Women For Sobriety, and Rational Recovery.

Medications
Medications for alcohol abuse are most often used to supplement a person’s willpower and encourage abstinence.

Antabuse (disulfiram), for instance, prevents the elimination of the chemical acetaldehyde. This causes severe discomfort when alcohol is ingested, effectively preventing the abuser from drinking in significant amounts while they take the medication. Heavy drinking while on Antabuse can result in severe illness and death.

Naltrexone has also been used because it helps curb cravings for alcohol while the person is on it. Both Antabuse and Naltrexone are used to encourage abstinence. The have, however, been demonstrated to cause a rebound effect when the user stops taking them.

Pharmacological extinction (also called the Sinclair Method)
Pharmacological extinction is the use of opioid antagonists [e.g. naltrexone] combined with normal drinking habits in order to eliminate the craving to consume alcohol. While standard naltrexone treatment uses the drug to curb craving and enforce abstinence, pharmacological extinction targets the endorphin-based neurological conditioning. Our behaviors become conditioned when we do something and endorphin bathes our neurons, and that conditioning is reversed when we do that thing and we don’t receive the endorphins. This method involves the alcohol abusers going about their normal drinking habits (limited only by safety concerns). Naltrexone is used to prevent the endorphins from being released by the alcohol, and thus rewarding the drinker’s neurochemistry. As such, the desire to drink is eliminted over a period of about three months. This allows an alcohol abuser to give up drinking as being sensibly unbeneficial. The effects persist after the drug is discontinued, but the addiction can return if the person drinks without first taking the drug. This treatment is highly unusual in that it works better if the patient does not go through detoxification prior to starting it.

This technique is used with positive results in Finland, Pennsylvania, and Florida, and is sometimes referred to as the Sinclair Method.

However, there is a lot of professional bias against this treatment for two reasons.
First, most alcohol abusers cannot successfully drink in moderation. Second, some studies have also been done which claim to demonstrate naltrexone to be of questionable value in supporting abstinence. However, the evidence is inconclusive.

Nutritional therapy
Nutritional therapy is not a treatment of alcohol abuse itself, but rather a treatment of the difficulties that can arise after years of heavy alcohol abuse; many alcohol dependents have insulin resistance syndrome, a metabolic disorder where the body’s difficulty in processing sugars causes an unsteady supply to the blood stream. While the disorder can be treated by a hypoglycemic diet, this can affect behavior and emotions. These side-effects are often seen among alcohol dependents in treatment. The metabolic aspects of such dependence are often overlooked, resulting in poor treatment outcomes.

There are other less popular treatments for alcohol abuse. This list is not meant to be an exhaustive compilation of every known treatment, but merely a general description of the most common treatments in use today. People are unique; what works best for one alcohol abuser may not be the same treatment that works best for another. For the greatest level of success, the treatment used must address the root causes of abuse to begin with. Only then will long-term success be achievable.

What causes college students to abuse alcohol? The answers are probably many, but the simplest answer is this: Because they can.Abusing Alcohol is Easy
When there are so few immediate consequences for excessive drinking, when repeat offenders are not disciplined, when parents are not notified about their children’s drinking activities, when students get mixed messages from the college administration about alcohol, when students have seen their parents drinking alcohol in an irresponsible manner, when students are not informed about the long-tern negative consequences of alcohol abuse, when there are few alcohol-free social and recreational activities that are attractive to students, when minors or intoxicated students are served alcoholic beverages by the local drinking establishments, and when the drinking activities in the sororities and fraternities are not monitored—drinking and excessive drinking become so very easy.What Draws Students to Abuse Alcohol?
When peer pressure or influence is added to the equation, when it is disregarded that drinking alcohol temporarily removes a person from his or her problems, when ignoring the belief or perception that drinking alcohol makes it easier to socialize with potential dating or sexual partners, when it is so acceptable to engage in activities that emphasize the drinking of alcohol, when the “good feelings” or the “fun” of getting an alcohol high or buzz are not considered, and when the party atmosphere at college is expected by students–it becomes more clear regarding what causes college students to abuse alcohol. More Than Education is Needed
While I am 100% pro-education, especially when it comes to drug and alcohol abuse prevention, I don’t think that education is the only solution or the only weapon that can be successfully used in the battle against college drug and alcohol abuse. Let me explain.Proactive and Reactive Measures
With respect to alcohol abuse in higher education, many reactive AND proactive measures have been initiated at some colleges and universities that have reduced the availability, acceptability, and irresponsibility of alcohol use on and off campus. The result: a noticeable, if not a significant reduction in alcohol-related problems manifested by students.
What are some of these measures? Establishing immediate consequences for excessive drinking, disciplining repeat alcohol abuse offenders, notifying parents about their children’s drinking activities, eliminating mixed messages by college administrators about alcohol (for instance, removing alcohol advertisements from stadiums and from sports brochures), informing students about the long-tern negative consequences of alcohol abuse, increasing alcohol-free social and recreational activities that are attractive to students, having college administrators talk to the owners of local drinking establishments so that minors and/or intoxicated students are not served alcohol, and monitoring the drinking activities in the sororities and fraternities. Medical Research and Treatment Are Not Enough
I assert, however, that the above proactive and reactive measures, most of which are NOT education-based, are needed to compliment educational approaches. Why? I am enough of a realist to believe that even if medical research eventually discovers viable ways to escape addiction and if the medical community is able to offer effective treatment to all who need it, there will always be those who, for whatever reason, will choose to disregard medical warnings, ignore their health, and who will discount common sense as they involve themselves in alcohol and/or drug abuse.
Copyright 2007 – Denny Soinski. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and give the author credit.

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