Alcoholism: Health, Social, and Financial Burden
Alcohol has been used as a sedative as it is expected to activate the pleasurable components of the brain to produce a sense of relaxation and euphoria. For instance when people become stressed, or need to forget about sad moments, they tend to engage in alcoholic behaviors because of the notion that it helps minimize the impact. However, alcohol only provides a measurable amount of pleasure for a short time and does not actually solve the real problem. The society should engage in campaigns to end alcoholism because it deteriorates the health of a person, leads to financial burden, and its acceptance allows people to ignore its harms.
Impact on Health
Alcohol consumption is bad for the body because it affects most of its organs including, the kidney, liver, and brain. When a person consumes alcohol, the rate of urine secretion by the kidney becomes higher not because of the fluids taken but because of osmotic effect. Despite the argument people make that, beer is good for the kidney excess consumption can lead to destruction of the nephron reducing the functionality of the kidney to less than 40 percent which may later lead to kidney failure (Paton & Alex 84). Alcohol leads to alcoholic liver disease which in most cases is associated to death as the liver has no means of regenerating itself. The impact of alcohol on the brain is that it reduces the attentiveness and causes unsteadiness. Continuous drinking of ethanol is likely to reduce consciousness which may lead to slurred speech and accidents especially for drivers. The risk of intentional injuries for alcoholic drivers is more than that of non-alcoholic drivers. Additionally, alcohol impacts the body negatively by causing fatigue, headache, insomnia, and headache (Alcohol: The Health, Social, and Financial Burden).
Social and Financial Burden
Social and financial burden are major impacts resulting from alcohol consumption. For instance, the areas of personal life including family and friends tend to be broken due to exaggerated arguments. Work is affected as well as the rate of absenteeism tends to rise which also negatively affects work productivity. The effects of alcohol on work may lead to work termination which influences cash inflow in families and the society in general. The costs associated with this financial burden include unpaid labor costs, healthcare costs, and crime costs (Palmer & Norman 14). Other indirect costs related to alcoholism include premature deaths and suffering. All the consequences of alcoholism can be avoided which provides more reasons as to why alcohol should not be opted for pleasure or relaxation.
Alcohol as a Drug
When naming drug related harms, most people tend to forget alcohol but not cannabis and heroin simply because alcohol has been socially and publicly been accepted. Therefore, people use alcohol for celebrations and the physical effects that it provides knowing that there are harms and consequences associated with it. The society needs to ban consumption of alcohol so that it can be viewed as harmful as any other drug both for adults and for under-age drinkers (Allsop, Steve n.p). Making alcohol drinking a norm reduces the people’s vigilance towards taking actions to reduce alcoholism as well as the government taking initiatives to minimize consumption of alcohol.
Prevention and Treatment
Consumption of alcohol is known to contribute to most deaths in the United States and should therefore be prevented under whatever circumstances. Some of the prevention means which can be adopted include educating the affected individuals or putting them under Medicare to get them to stop drinking. The society can therefore unite together to start treatment programs or rehabilitation centers for alcohol-dependent individuals. The programs should however not target a small “high-risk” group but a large population of drinkers so that the measures are successful (Toomey, Traci & Alexander 195).
Conclusion
Alcohol consumption is a major problem that is known to cause major health risks and death. The society needs to take preventive measures to reject drinking because acceptance makes people ignore its harms and affects social life. The effects associated with ruined social life include costs such as crime, loss of family and friends, and health costs.
Works Cited
“Alcohol: The Health, Social, and Financial Burden.” MyVMC, 10 Mar. 2016, www.myvmc.com/lifestyles/alcohol-the-health-social-and-financial-burden/.
Allsop, Steve. “Social Acceptance of Alcohol Allows Us to Ignore Its Harms.” Theconversation.com, The Conversation, 26 Oct. 2018, theconversation.com/social-acceptance-of-alcohol-allows-us-to-ignore-its-harms-10045.
Palmer, T. Norman. “The Biochemistry of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse.” Science Progress (1933- ), vol. 73, no. 1 (289), 1989, pp. 1–15. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43423797.
Paton, Alex. “Abc Of Alcohol: Alcohol In The Body.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 330, no. 7482, 2005, pp. 85–87. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25458624.
Toomey, Traci L., and Alexander C. Wagenaar. “Policy Options for Prevention: The Case of Alcohol.” Journal of Public Health Policy, vol. 20, no. 2, 1999, pp. 192–213. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3343211.
