Three Different Types Of Alcoholics example essay topic

1,364 words
... ent types of alcohol than poorer people do. There are many different effects of drinking. One effect is an altered state of consciousness that allows one to things they wouldn't do if they hadn't been drinking. Another effect alcohol has is altering sexual experiences and performances. Alcohol will usually make people feel a stronger desire for sex. People use liquor so their spouse will respond more favorably to their sexual oncoming.

Alcohol will add to social or physical pleasure, increases aggression and dominance, improves sociability, and reduces tension. A younger person will usually be affected more by a less amount of alcohol than an older person will. Most people have the same effects although they may be at different levels. Alcohol has both positive and negative health consequences. Some positive effects are moderate drinkers have the lowest risk of coronary artery disease, small amounts of alcohol will increases HDL the good lipoproteins which protects against cholesterol build up in the arteries. Also women who enter menopause are prone to cardiovascular diseases but three to six drinks may reduce this risk.

There are many more negative effects than positive effects. Alcohol effects the liver greatly. It may cause fatty liver, hepatitis, and cirrhosis. Alcohol also affects digestion and nutrition because it contains a lot of "empty" calories so people who drink aren't as hungry. Drinking will also cause cancer such as tongue, larynx, pharynx, liver, and esophagus cancer. Alcohol also affects the brain tissue and parts that alter activity.

Alcohol dementia sends about twenty percent of admissions to state mental hospitals. Alcohol also causes a permanent disease called Korsakoff's psychosis, which is the inability to remember recent event or learn new information. Another syndrome is Wemioke's disease that affects vision and ataxia that is the loss of the ability to control muscular movement. Another area alcohol affects is the heart. It may cause heart failure and a decrease in the ability for the heart to contract. Long term drinking will increase high blood pressure.

Drinking may also cause Is hemic heart disease, which is deficient to blood circulation. Alcohol may have many different even deadly reactions with other drugs. Forty to fifty percent of teens, which responded to a survey, admitted using cocaine after alcohol, but only two point four percent have used it more than once. The mixing of Cocaine and alcohol creates a new metabolite, which increases the strength of addiction to cocaine and the damage it does to the brain. Elders who mix medication and alcohol have more side affects to the medication. There are three different types of alcoholics; type 1, type 2, and type 3.

Type 1 alcoholics are characterized as "born alcoholics". These types of people are born with a genetic defect in the endorphin producing system. They drink to increase the endorphin. Since alcohol only temporarily creates a false sense of well being one will eventually drink more and more. Type 2 alcoholics are classified as "stress induced" drinkers. They are born with normal brain chemistry.

They drink to reduce stress so they usually only have temporary alcoholic behavior. Type 3 alcoholics are classified as "drug induced" drinkers. They drink because they use other types of drugs. They once had normal brain chemistry but drugs and alcohol interfered with the ability for the brain to produce endorphin. Here is a list of questions that teens should ask themselves to see if they have a potential of becoming an alcoholic. Question number one: Do you miss full days of school or class periods because of drinking?

Question number two: Do you drink to build up self-confidence? Question number three: Does drinking affect your reputation? Question number four: Do you drink to escape school or home worries? Question number five: Does it bother you when people say you drink too much?

Question number six: Do you need to drink before going on a date? Question number seven: Do you get in to money problems because of buying alcoholic beverages? Question number eight: Have you lost friends since you have been drinking? Question number nine: Do you hang out with a crowd of heavy drinkers? Question number ten: Do your old friends drink less than you? Question number eleven: Do you drink until there isn't anything left?

Question number twelve: Have you ever-lost memory from drinking? Question number thirteen: Have you ever been stopped or arrested by police, or put into a hospital because of drunkenness? Question number fourteen: Do class lectures about drinking bother you? Question number fifteen: Do you think you have a drinking problem? If they answer yes to at least three questions they are either an alcoholic or have a high potential of becoming one. If they answer yes to one of these questions they should be alarmed.

There are thirteen steps in alcoholism. Step one is beginning to drink because one feels the liquor is taken in moderation serves a social purpose. Step two is when one has been intoxicated regularly. When one thinks liquor means more to him than it does to others and they start sneaking drinks and making alibis they are in step three. Step four is one regularly consumes more alcohol than intended. One will make excuses for why he drinks during step five.

In step six one will drink for a "quick-eye opener" Step seven is when one will be commenced to heavy drinking alone while before he only drank with others. During step eight he becomes antisocial and self-conscious. Step ten is when one starts to feel sorry for himself during his time of soberness but he soon blames the world for his drinking. In step eleven he feels anxiety and fear. He begins doing anything to maintain his supply.

During step twelve one faces the truth about their alcoholism. In the final step they will get help. In this paragraph I will give some statistics. 24 billion dollars is used each year in medical, rehabilitation, insurance, property damage, lost income, tax revenues, and police and emergency vehicles for drunks. On the average weekend night one out of ten drivers on the road is drunk. 80 percent of all fatal alcohol related crashes occur between 8: 00 p.m. and 8: 00 a.m.

65 percent of drivers who kill themselves in single car wrecks are drunk. One out of two Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related car crash. The number one cause of death among teens is car crashes; drunk drivers cause more than half of these accidents. There are many groups who help people overcome their alcoholism. I will talk about one of the most famous, Alcoholics Anonymous. AA has organizations through out the world consisting of men and women who want to help each other overcome their problem.

Some of these people share their success stories with those who need incentive to become sober. Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935. It has 63,000 groups in the Unites States, Canada, and over 110 other countries. Anyone who joins must realize that it isn't a medical or religious organization. The mailing address is P.O. box 459 Grand central Station, New York, New York 10017. To terminate my term paper, I feel alcohol has its ups and downs.

While it has certain positives, it also has many negatives. I'd also like to say I enjoyed doing my research paper because I learned many things about alcohol and alcoholism that I didn't know before I did my research. In the next couple of pages I have a table showing the alcohol involvement for drivers in fatal crashes and a chart of different drugs and the interactions they have when taken with alcohol.