Some Of The Negative Effects Of Alcohol
Throughout almost all epochs and stratas of human society, alcohol is the cohesive bedrock of many social activities. Today in particular alcohol is order of the night and often the outright icebreaker in social activities varying from parties, discos and dinners, manifesting in different beverages such as beer, wine and spirits. Many in particular are fond of the qualities of happiness and disinhibition it seems would be provided by alcohol consumption. However, there are vices underpinning such virtues which ultimately drive many closer to these dangerous excesses going from general irresponsibility to major life crises. This article will detail the problems from the basic ones to the more serious ones.
As an undergraduate student it is easiest to account for the more common dangers arising from alcohol speaking from the perspective of a student enjoying a night out with friends, where alcohol features more prominently than in other typical scenarios such as dinners. The most mundane yet for that matter most recurring of particularly negative effects of alcohol is that of basic intoxication. Addiction, lack of coordination and usually a sense of unrestrained happiness comprise the most noticeable symptoms of drunkenness. Although one does not necessarily lose conscious control there is a false sense of confidence deriving from drinking, which can have many bad consequences for the person involved. Lack of coordination is subtle depending on the extent of drink. In slowing down mental reflexes one is slower to catch events as they occur, and it is because of this that driving after drinking is prohibited, as one will be too slow to adjust the car and react to events as spontaneous as they are. People usually find euphoria, but bear in mind alcohol is a depressant, and the "depression" will overtake the euphoria as the disinhibition wears off. Furthermore as one becomes more accustomed to drinking and becomes more conscious of their condition the experience may no longer be so euphorical.
Sickness is a common reaction either in the short term or the long term ("hangovers"), depending on the type of drink consumed and individual temperament. Symptoms include headaches and stomach aches and can last for several hours - and this may result in vomiting. Prolonged hangovers can seriously hamper ability to perform day-to-day tasks for some time.
So, how to enjoy a night out and yet stay healthy? Eat plenty of food before drinking, as an empty stomach is more susceptible to the intoxicating influences of hangovers. And ideally both during and after the festivities drink plenty of fluid. This is especially important in averting more painful hangovers. Alcohol is a diuretic and hangovers are usually a response to lack of water in the system. Take care to avoid experimenting with tendencies beyond recommendation; for instance it is not recommended to drink liquor in excess or blend it with others.
The long term dangers of alcoholism on the other hand arise problematic drinking beyond socially accepted standards where one becomes psychologically addicted to alcohol and it becomes more than just a basic night out. The more grave consequences arising from alcoholism include brain damage, liver cancer and I'm sure that you can think of some others.
As essential as it is to understand these dangers with regards to your wellbeing, don't be disheartened from enjoying yourself. If you can identify problems and rectify them preemptively you can enjoy yourself without having to endure the worst of repercussions from the embarrassing to the excruciating.
Negative Effects To Expect When Giving Up Alcohol
To stop drinking alcohol, you need many things, mostly, a lot of willpower. There's absolutely no point in attempting to give up alcohol if you don't really want to do it. If you try giving up alcohol and in the back of your mind you don't want to, there's a very high chance that you'll be back drinking in a matter of weeks, or even days. If you decided to forget about alcohol because of all of the negative effects associated with drinking alcohol, that's your first big step in the right direction. However, you need to know some things before giving up alcohol for good. We all know about the negative effects of alcohol when drinking it, but there are actually quite a few negative effects that a person may experience when they are in the process of staying away from alcohol. This may sound bad, but you must remember that once the period of going through these bad effects are over, you'll be back to normal. On the plus side, they usually don't last for too long, so always remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So, here's some of the negative effects that you might go through when you give up alcohol :
1. Itching - It might be hard to believe, but there itching is actually quite common for people that have just given up alcohol. There's a few reasons why this happens, but you don't really need to know why to be honest. If you experience this, I'd recommend getting professional help from a doctor or whatever to make sure everything is ok. In the majority of cases, this will only last a day or two, and while itching is very annoying, it's nothing that you should get too worried about at the end of the day. It might result in your sleep patterns being disrupted though which is something that nobody likes.
2. Shaking - This is considered as a normal/mild negative effect of abstaining from alcohol, but it can still be scary for a person to go through something like this. You'll more than likely get nervous about shaking for no particular reason, but in most cases it's nothing to worry about. The reason why this happens is because the amount of alcohol in a persons blood rapidly drops so fast that the body doesn't know what to do. Now and again, you may experience this the following day after drinking a large amount, and this is because of the same reason. This negative effect usually happens within the first 24 hours of when the person stops drinking alcohol.
3. Hallucinations - Now, this is way scarier than the previous two negative effects of giving up alcohol. Nobody likes to experience hallucinations, it's a horrible thing to go through. Some hallucinations can last hours upon hours which makes the person very confused when it's over. It's quite interesting that they has been no scientifically proven method of helping a person who has a hallucination, or even to prevent them from happening. This can sometimes make people go back to alcohol since they don't want to constantly have these hallucinations, but you should always try to stay positive. These will not last for long and if you have got these it means that you are close to being totally clean from alcohol. This effect of giving up alcohol usually happens around six or seven days after the person stopped drinking.
4. Loss Of Sleep/Weird Dreams - It's completely normal to not get as much sleep as you used to get when not drinking(if your body was used to consuming a lot of alcohol before). The loss of sleep may not sound too bad, but you have to remember that everyone needs a certain amount of sleep each night in order to be in a good mood for the next day. To some, it might only be a few hours, while to others it could be 12 hours. One of the last things that you want to happen is to be extremely tired everyday, as this may make you tempted to start drinking again so that you can fall asleep more easier and finally get some much needed sleep. While alcohol may look as if it allows you to sleep within minutes and gives you a good sleep, this isn't true. A "normal" sleep of a couple of hours would be of much more benefit than a 12 hour sleep from drinking a lot of alcohol. So keep positive, eventually you'll be able to sleep without a problem. Dreams are another thing that some people get from not consuming as much alcohol as they did before. I don't think anyone enjoys having very strange dreams that they can't explain, but it's actually pretty natural. This is basically your brain and mind going in to overdrive, trying to force you back to drinking alcohol again, but don't fall for it - it'll all work out eventually.
Even though these effects of giving up alcohol may seem to be horrid, they will go away much quicker than the negative effects of alcohol over the period of a couple of years. What would you rather, a week or two of negative effects, or years and years of negative effects of alcohol on your mental health, on your body etc? I know what I'd rather do, so now it's up to you.
Short Term Negative Effects Of Alcohol
There's many serious negative effects of alcohol but sometimes we only think about the long term effects that are serious. This shouldn't be the case as the short term effects can often be just as bad, if not even more serious on a person. Alcohol has always been abused by humans since day one and more than likely this will remain the same worldwide. There's many short term negative effects of alcohol including :
- Sleep : I bet you always thought that when you consume a large amount of alcohol it actually makes you sleep easier and gives you a more enjoyable sleep. This is really not the case, when you sleep after drinking you will wake up still feeling just as tired as you were before you had that so called "great" sleep. It's a false economy, so don't fool yourself into thinking that drinking alcohol helps you sleep at night, it doesn't.
- Behavioral Changes : This is probably one of the most obvious negative effects of alcohol that nearly every one of us have experienced at some stage in our life. Alcohol changes the way your brain thinks about things and because of this it makes a person act in a completely abnormal way that they would never think of acting like if they were not drunk. Ever wonder why a friend is doing things they usually wouldn't ? This is the main reason why they are acting stupid.
- Fitness : If you are the type of person that plays football or other sports consuming alcohol, even on a short term basis may not be a good idea for you. This is because alcohol dehydrates you as your liver needs water and because the alcohol effects this natural process, your liver will eventually take the water from other parts of your body to compensate for that lost water. Water is needed to keep your fitness levels high, so without this water your fitness will suddenly drop, something that you definitely don't want to happen if you need to play for your local football team the following day.
- Reaction times : Another negative effect of alcohol is how it can change a persons reaction times so quickly. Just after a few drinks a person can get a lot slower with their hand to eye coordination and this is the reason why driving while drunk is banned in the majority of countries with some countries even banning people to drive after a very small amount of alcohol.
- Mood swings : After a person drinks a certain amount of alcohol it can make their mood change for no particular reason at all. For some people alcohol makes them more relaxed and outgoing but for others it makes them more volatile to reacting badly to something that they wouldn't even think about if they were sober or didn't drink so much alcohol. It's useful to remember how much alcohol you can drink without being one of these people who reacts to something so small.
That's just some of the short term negative effects of alcohol mentioned above, I'm sure you can think of some more that I haven't talked about.