ALCOHOLISM, SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, EFFECTS AND HELP
Alcoholism is a disease that affects many people in the world. This includes India (Punjab) and where ever one lives today. It not only affects the alcoholic, but also their family, friends, co-workers, and eventually total strangers.
Alcoholism is defined as a pattern of drinking in which harmful consequences result for the drinker, yet, they continue to drink. There are two types of drinkers. The first type, the casual or social drinker, for pleasure and only on occasion. The other type, the compulsive drinker, drinks because of an obsession, despite the adverse effects that drinking has on their lives.
The symptoms of alcoholism are changes in emotional state or stability, behavior, and personality. "Alcoholics may become angry and argumentative, or quiet and withdrawn or depressed. They may also feel more anxious, sad, tense, and confused. They then seek relief by drinking more". "Because time and amount of drinking are uncontrollable, the alcoholics are likely to engage in such behaviors as: -
1. Breaking family commitments, both major and minor.
2. Spending more money than planned.
3. Drinking while intoxicated and getting involved with the law.
4. Making inappropriate remarks to friends, family, and co-workers.
5. Arguing, fighting and other anti-social actions.
"The alcoholic would probably neither do such things, nor approve of them in others unless he was drinking."
The cause of alcoholism is a combination of biological, psychological, and cultural factors that may contribute to the development of alcoholism in an individual. Alcoholism seems to run in families, studies show that 50 to 80 percent of all alcoholics have had a close alcoholic relative. Some researchers have suggested that alcoholics have an inherited, predisposition to alcohol addiction. Additionally, alcoholics often drink hoping to "drown' anxious or depressed feelings. Some alcoholics drink to reduce strong inhibitions or guilt about expressing negative feelings. Social and cultural factors play roles in to establishing drinking patterns and the development of alcoholism.
The prolonged use of large amounts of alcoholism without adequate diet may cause serious liver damage, such as cirrhosis of the liver, loss of muscular control, delirium tremens causing hallucinations. Withdrawal may cause agitation, tremors and seizures. Alcoholics may suffer lack of concentration "blackouts," memory lapses, complete memory loss & brain damage. Having a problem- drinker parent often increases the risk of becoming a problem drinker oneself and leads to family conflict, job insecurity, divorce, and social stigma.
Alcohol abuse in the United States cost society from $40 to $60 billion annually, due to the lost production, health and medical care, motor vehicle accidents and violent crimes. One half of all traffic fatalities and injuries are related to the abuse of alcohol. Accidents and suicides that are associated with alcohol problems are especially prominent in the teen years. It is estimated that over 3 million teens between the ages of 14 and 17 in the United States today are problem drinkers. Education and realization of the effects alcoholism can have on the different aspects of a person's life are the best ways that we can help control the number of alcoholics in the United States.
ALCOHOLISM & FAMILY
Although alcoholism is an incredibly tenacious disease, the non-drinking members of an alcoholic family are not helpless to do anything about it.
Alcoholism affects all members of the alcoholic family in hurtful ways.
An alcoholic family is a troubled, pain-ridden family with constricted communication and suppressed emotional expression, but they have all learned to deny that pain and not to express their feelings.
If the family members are to recover from the effects of alcoholism and paradoxically provide the best chance to help the alcoholic quit drinking, all of this must be reversed.
They must learn about the disease nature of alcoholism and its effects on them. They must acknowledge the pain they have suppressed for years and begin to express it.
Instead of focusing their attention on his drinking, they must shift it away from him and refocus it on themselves. They must refuse to take any more responsibility for the alcoholic's behavior and no longer attempt to make him stop drinking or protect him from the painful consequences of his drinking:
- No more pleading or nagging.
- No more lectures or futile threats, which aren't backed up with inevitable consequences.
- No more making excuses for the alcoholic's drinking. No more calling in sick for her when she is hung over.
- No more keeping dinner warm or cleaning up vomit.
All of this may sound selfish for the family members to do - and perhaps it is - but paradoxically it creates the best chance they have to bring the alcoholic to sobriety. Without a co-dependent family enabling his drinking, he may decide to seek treatment. There are no guarantees this will happen, but certainly what the family members have been doing for years hasn't worked.
ENABLERS & HELP
If the continued use of alcohol/drugs has a destructive effect on an individual's family or interpersonal relationships, job performance, health or financial condition, there is good reason to suspect dependency. Any of these areas affected by alcohol/drug use is good enough reason for concern.
When dependency is suspected, every effort must be made to refer the individual to a qualified addiction counselor, where a complete and in-depth diagnostic evaluation can be conducted and critical clinical treatment services prescribed if deemed clinically necessary.
This is easier said than done, give the denial system mentioned previously. It is our suggestion that non-alcoholic concerned parties secure some reading material; see a counselor for advice; join Al-Anon, which is an educational, self-help organization for concerned relatives and friends of alcoholics; and learn as much about the illness as possible.
Intervention into alcoholism is a painful process for everyone involved and must be done with clear understanding that it is necessary, even crucial, if the individual is to survive and that half-measures will simply not suffice.
A crisis is often necessary in order to force the individual to accept the seriousness of his/her situation and accept help. Usually the individual will create his/her own crisis, and it only remains for the concerned person to let the alcoholic be responsible for his/her own behavior and therefore have a greater chance of recognizing the consequences of his/her continued use.
All too often, those well-meaning people around him/her have supported the alcoholic in his/her addiction. In fact, the well-meaning people actually help to continue the addictive pattern because they feel duty bound (or guilt ridden) to constantly pick up the pieces for the person using alcohol/drugs. Because they enable the addiction by preventing the alcoholic from facing the consequences of his/her behavior, they are called "enablers".
The enabler operates from many points of view. Often the alcoholic has succeeded in convincing the people around him/her that they are responsible for his/her alcoholism. "With a wife like you, who wouldn't drink" or "With my job pressures, anyone would drink/use drugs like I do". These are complete fabrications; no one is guilty of causing alcoholism since we don't know the single cause of it. These alibis only serve to pacify the conscience of the alcoholic and, at the same time, spread guilt among the people who support them. This guilt then strengthens the alcoholic's hold on his/her supporters.
Other "enablers" tend to operate from the premise that they control the drinking and in some way manage both the alcoholic and his/her problem. This doesn't work...alcoholics can stop drinking, but they cannot control their drinking. Total abstinence is the safest remedy we have at this stage of our knowledge.
Another type of enabler believes that alcoholism is only a symptom of some other underlying problem, and that if this causative factor can be dealt with, the alcoholism will disappear. This is simply not true and its fallacy has been demonstrated over and over again.
Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, whatever its cause is a "primary" illness and must be treated as such. The alcoholic or drug addict who uses chemicals will continue to do so destructively whether he/she has any problems or not. The point is that other problems cannot be successfully dealt with except in the absence of the chemical; and when sobriety is maintained, many of the problems disappear.
Unfortunately, this type of enabler is often times a professional such as a doctor, clergyman, social worker or marriage counselor. Fortunately, for the dependent people, these professionals are slowly coming to realize the error of their well-meaning endeavors and are gradually accepting dependency as a legitimate illness with a prescribed course of treatment.
One last word on the "enabler". An alcoholic or drug addict cannot die of their illness without the support of at least one other person described above. Although there is not guilt attached to dependency itself, it would seem that there is certainly a moral obligation on the part of the concerned persons to see that the afflicted person gets the help he/she so desperately needs.
In summary, intervention is a process of becoming detached from the problems created by the illness, not from the person, and letting the alcoholic take full responsibility for his/her behavior.
Stop lying for them, making excuses and protecting them from embarrassment. Be honest with them no matter how painful and tell it like it is, being neither judgmental nor critical of them as a person. It is not a moral illness though they have secretly begun to think it is, and you will only strengthen this assumption and make matters worse. Openly and honestly confront the person with the facts neither mitigating nor exaggerating anything. Point out the obvious conclusion and explain what help is available. Then tell the person what you are going to do and not what they are going to do. Lay out some alternatives that you are considering and give those options. Do not threaten any actions, which you are not fully intending to carry out. Remember that Compassion is the key to successful intervention.
The focus of your efforts is always to get this person to a trained professional counselor or to Alcoholics Anonymous. If you have a good relationship with a knowledgeable and understanding clergyman, doctor, or social worker, fill them in on your objectives and possibly they will serve as the instrument by which the alcoholic or drug addict can be induced to see a qualified counselor.
