I vaguely remember standing in the hospital waiting room holding on to my mother’s leg as an impatient little four-year-old. The year was nineteen-ninety and as I look back I can picture the doctor coming into the room as all of our eyes turned to his frowning face and I studied the deep lines in his forehead as he started to unravel the fait that was about to consume my favorite uncle, Jesse’s life, to my parents and grandparents as they stood they ” re in total shock and horror. I was so young that I didn’t no what was going on exactly, but I was certain that it couldn’t have been anything good when I looked up and saw my family with tears in their eyes and my grandma weeping softly. It was apparent though that the reality hadn’t settled in even yet.
It came as such a shock, my uncle was so young and full of life and he now lay on his deathbed, all because of a choice that he had made, to abuse alcohol. It was so simple, he didn’t have to choose that way if he didn’t want to and I’m sure that he wouldn’t have drunk alcohol that night before he got behind the wheel of his brand new shiny, blue Mustang, if he would have only know his destiny would be that hospital bed and then the grave. As such a young child I remember looking down at that lonely face peering from the coffin that stared back at me so cold, stiff and lifeless. I pause to think of what he could be now. He could be so happy.
Why did he have to make that choice? Was it peer pressure? Or did he just want to have a good time? There are so many reasons that a person finds to abuse alcohol, but it’s known to many of them that it could be fatal. Whatever it was that drove him to make the choice that he did on that blistery January evening, I don’t know. But I do know one thing, he is no longer with us, and it was know ones choice except his own. Alcohol abuse can kill you and it does, it turns at you when you least expect it, it can take your life in an instant without your slightest thought.
Alcohol is abused when you drink enough that you don’t act like your own self. When you are in a state of passing out or you reach the point of getting a hangover. Many people today abuse alcohol, some without knowing it, and then there are others that have purposely chosen that path. Alcohol abuse can be regular usage that turned into a dependency.
Binge drinking can also be construed as abuse; drinking large amounts of alcohol in a short amount of time; but not necessarily every day. Alcohol abuse often grows into alcoholism, which is a dependence on alcohol and a disease. Alcohol is like exponential growth, when you have some, you always want more. Alcoholism is a chronic, often progressive disease with symptoms that often include a strong need to drink. There are so many consequences to drinking; one of the many, are serious health issues, such as fat cysts that build up in the liver. Alcohol also deteriorates the brain and kills the brain cells and cuts off your blood supply.
Woman who drink alcohol while pregnant are much more likely to have babies born with birth defects and low weight. It has also been proven that pregnant mothers often have a miscarriage or have premature infants. The next serious consequence to alcohol abuse would be job problems. You can’t give your all when your stomach is feeling woozy from the hangover that you gained at a party the night before. Yet another serious consequence to alcohol abuse would be relationship problems. Families are driven apart from alcohol abuse and so many relationships have been torn to threads.
Some people get very angry and abuse other persons when they are drunk. Many people have had awful memories of watching their mother or other relative get beaten or things thrown at them in a person’s drunken rage. People do things when they are drunk that they wouldn’t normally do otherwise. Once you start abusing alcohol it can lead to a craving, or a strong need to or compulsion to drink.
Drinking alcohol is like exponential growth; it starts with having a little bit to drink for fun and then moves on to abuse. Impaired control is the inability to limit ones drinking. This happens when one starts to drink and then after one they think that they feel so much better so they keep on drinking and drinking, more and more. Alcohol abuse is a consumption of alcohol so that the person drinking is impaired in mind. It is to use wrongly or improperly; to misuse; or to abuse a privilege.
Alcohol abuse is a disorder. There are many things that alcohol abusers face, such as a high risk of physical dependence; and withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, shakiness, sweating, and anxiety, when alcohol is stopped after a heavy period of drinking. When a person regularly abuses alcohol, his or her tolerance rises, and subsequently the need for increasing amounts of alcohol in order to feel its affects also rises. Alcohol use is on the rise and it’s a very dangerous substance that can be fatal when it falls into the hands of certain users and becomes abuse.
It screws lives up and causes things to happen that were unplanned and unwanted. Alcohol abuse destroys our bodies and ruins out lives.