When Janice was in high school, she had acquired a reputation as a person who studied a lot and who rarely, if ever, drank with her peers.  She seemed nearly obsessed about “standing out” academically so that she would be able to find a career that she not only got pleasure from but one that also gave her a degree of security from a financial perspective.

After much reflection, ultimately she made up her mind that she wanted to be a lawyer.  In order to pull this off, however, she would first have to finish four years of undergraduate education.

After Finishing High School Janice Gets Accepted Into A Distinguished Undergraduate University as Training For a Career as a Lawyer

After Janice graduated from high school, she applied to and was accepted into an esteemed program in English.  Her rationale for this decision was that this academic discipline would be good training for law school and wouldn’t be identical to the majority of law school applicants who elect to choose political science as their undergraduate major.

After graduating with a 3.95 GPA at the undergraduate level, she applied to and was accepted at an esteemed law school at one of the Pacific Ten universities.

She was pleased with her legal studies but on occasion she was swamped with all the work that law school entailed.  Akin to the way she handled herself in her high school and undergraduate days, nevertheless, she made pals painlessly but barely got involved in social events until the school period had ended.

After Being Pleased That She Had Done a Super Job on Her Finals, Janice Wanted to Let Her Hair Down and Do Something Besides Studying For a Change

Janice was the kind of person who worked attentively to reach her objective and then would take some time off when she could.  It just so happens, nevertheless, that a good number of the things she did between school sessions or during her summer vacations were unrelated to drinking.  Obviously, Janice was anything but a party-person.  Now that her final examinations for her second year in law school were finished and appreciating the fact that she had done extremely well on her tests, however, she felt like celebrating.

Drinking at a Local Watering Hole Leads to Alcohol Poisoning, Calling 911, The Emergency Services Number, and An Ambulance Ride to An Alcohol Treatment Facility

So Janice and some of her friends from college went to a local pub where they had a few beers.  As the hours went by, Janice continued to drink without having any concerns about homework the next day.  In point of fact, Janice told her buddies how excited she was to whoop it up and drink with classmates from her apartment.

As the evening went by, Janice and her buddies continued to drink.  In truth, she was having such a terrific time that she didn’t want the night to come to an end.  It was almost as if she was making up for lost time and making an effort to squeeze a year’s worth of laughter and fun into a single evening.  Such a “game plan,” it needs to be stressed, does not often work. In actual fact, when Janice went to the restroom and threw up, her buddies started to feel uneasy about her health.

A few minutes later when Janice started to speak in a confused manner, slur her words, and then pass out, however, her friends instantly knew that they needed to call the emergency number and ask for medical assistance because they suspected that Janice was exhibiting alcohol poisoning symptoms.

Once Janice was in the alcohol treatment hospital, the lead healthcare professional validated what her buddies had hypothesized, to be exact, that Janice consumed substantially more alcohol than her body could metabolize and, as a consequence, she experienced an alcohol overdose.

After the medical team pumped her stomach until no gastric contents were evident, Janice was placed in the recovery room.  After staying roughly four hours in recovery, Janice was then placed in one of the regular hospital rooms.  Fortunately, the most dangerous part of her hospitalization was over and all of her vital signs returned to normal.

In response to Janice’s state of affairs, her friends thoughtfully telephoned her Mother and Father.  Consequently, early the next morning, her Mom and Dad and her best buddies went to the hospital to visit Janice and look into her medical condition.

Janice Narrowly Escapes Death, is Thankful to be Alive, and Promises to Never Again Drink in an Excessive and Irresponsible Manner

Janice was very aware that she had dodged a bullet and, as a consequence, was thankful to be alive.  Her Mother and Father were aware how relentlessly she studied at college and how little she let herself experience a social life.  Nevertheless, they also realized that Janice needed to steer clear of hazardous drinking.

As a consequence, they recommended that in the future, whenever a drinking situation arises, that she always drink responsibly and in moderation.  Janice was of the same opinion and gave her word to her parents and to her friends that she would never again drink in an abusive and irresponsible manner.  In her own words, “I never thought that I would become one of the alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics in the local city newspaper. I now grasp the fact that irresponsible drinking is not for me.  I assert that this will never happen again.”

Fortunately, Janice was not only “book smart” but she also displayed a lot of common sense.  In other words, she instantaneously knew that she had made an error in judgment and made up her mind that she would never make the same mistake again.  In fact, she now grasped the fact that she had involved herself in “binge drinking” and that even one instance of this kind of abusive drinking can end in a fatality.

For several years alcohol dependency research has revealed the fact that there is strong association between alcohol addiction and life-threatening health conditions.

For example, in 2005, scientific examination showed that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion on an annual basis. It may be noted that this enormous alcohol-related cash outlay was significantly more than the cost linked with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is important to give emphasis to these facts, it is also important to highlight the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.

More to the point, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.

Undeniably, substance abuse examination has demonstrated the fact that alcohol dependency can amplify the risk for various forms of cancer, especially cancer of the liver, voice box (larynx), kidneys, colon, esophagus, rectum, and the throat. Heavy and repetitive drinking can also lead to immune system problems and abnormality to the fetus during pregnancy.

Heavy and Irresponsible Drinking Weakens the Problem Drinker’s Systems and Organs

What is more, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will likely be affected in a negative manner. For example, chronic, abusive drinking is particularly detrimental to the liver since the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been ingested. Extreme amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and destroys the ability of liver cells to regenerate. This medical circumstance results in a progressive inflammatory injury to the liver that can in the end lead to cirrhosis of the liver, an acute and possibly deadly disease.

Excessive, long-term drinking not only can result in acute liver damage, but it can also result in damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this critical may be unalterable and may, in turn, lead to serious llness or an early death.

The Relevance of Alcohol Treatment

It is imperative, as a result, to know how to identify the various alcohol dependency symptoms and signs so that the alcohol addicted person can be given the opportunity to seek the professional alcohol rehabilitation he or she requires.

Alcohol Addiction and Sophisticated Brain Exploration

Fortunately, medical exploration is constantly finding innovative and significant information. Recent alcoholism research supplies a first-rate example. More to the point, for roughly the past ten years, technologically advanced brain-imaging scanning devices have verified that continuous and recurring irresponsible drinking changes the configuration of the brain to a great extent, as a consequence resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or perchance as long as the person exists.

More correctly, medical examination has demonstrated that people who have been drinking excessively for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing permanent and severe transformations in the brain.

This type of damage may be directly related to the alcohol’s effects on the brain, to severe liver disease, or might be indirectly associated with the drinker’s poor overall health.

Malnutrition, Excessive Drinking, and Mental Disorders

As a final example of different medical conditions that are largely related to alcoholism, consider that according to medical investigation, the hazardous and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a health problem that reduces the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

This type of organ failure is related to malnutrition and to a variety of acute neurological and mental disorders including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical condition is a lasting incapacitating medical condition that is typified by incessant learning and memory complications.

Conclusion

It is plain to see that continued, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly associated with a variety of serious medical problems that can and do result in dangerous diseases and premature death. Such information needs to be underlined and presented to everyone in our society so that a large number of people will be able to abstain from abusive drinking while other individuals who have a drinking problem will get the professional therapy they require.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I took a drug abuse class. At that time, I did not grasp the fact that alcohol abuse in reality was a sub division of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for individuals throughout the world. I also learned quite a bit about alcohol rehabilitation and the different alcohol rehab clinics that are habitually available to alcohol abusers.

Some of the detrimental effects linked to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class certainly alarmed me. The ruined lives and frequent problems experienced by most alcohol addicted individuals made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. That is, I did not want to face the disaster and devastation that alcohol dependent individuals almost always encounter.

Reflect on this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old teenager wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What adolescent wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that consuming alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What teen wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related problems before he or she becomes twenty-one?

What teenager wants to encounter alcohol withdrawals when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause problems in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after an individual has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would a young person want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that focuses on excessive drinking?

These issues were so important that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was utterly astounding to me was the number of students who essentially didn’t care about the dangerous effects of irresponsible drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t be troubled with reality and how these effects can ruin their lives. For the first time in my life I started to comprehend a saying that my grandfather used to say to me all through my youth: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I enrolled into a drug abuse class. At that age, I did not grasp the fact that alcohol abuse in reality was a sub category of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for people throughout the world. I also learned quite a bit about alcohol treatment and the diverse alcohol rehab facilities that are regularly available to individuals who engage in abusive drinking.

Some of the negative end results related to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class definitely worried me. The ruined lives and abundant serious issues experienced by most alcohol dependent people made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. In short, I did not want to face the wreckage and ruination that alcohol dependent individuals almost always experience.

Think about this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old teenager wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What teenager wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that ingesting alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What teenager wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related issues before he or she becomes an adult?

What teenager wants to deal with alcohol withdrawals when he or she tries to quit drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause difficulties in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would a young person want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that revolves around hazardous drinking?

These issues were so noteworthy that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was utterly unbelievable to me was the number of students who basically didn’t care about the injurious outcomes of hazardous drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t be troubled with reality and how these outcomes can shatter their lives. For the first time in my life I started to figure out a saying that my grandfather used to emphasize all through my younger years: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.