WHY SOME PEOPLE DRINK EXCESSIVELY? effects on blood and psycological problems

WHY SOME PEOPLE DRINK EXCESSIVELY

A drink or two can help to create an aura of relaxation and contentment, allowing cares and responsibilities to be forgotten temporarily, and encouraging sociability. Most people find this desirable--and recognize that it is desirable only as a temporary state. Some people, however, want to extend the state, cling to it, and accentuate it. When they yield to the desire, drinking more and more and even almost continuously, they become alcoholics, addicted to drink. 

Addiction involves an accommodation by the body to the presence of a drug. With the accommodation comes dependence. Details of the mechanism are not entirely clear, but it appears that the cells of the body may shift their metabolism.

They depend, of course, upon circulating blood for their nourishment. As they are exposed to alcohol in the blood, they accommodate to the presence of the alcohol. Once they have made the accommodation, they have, in effect, become as dependent upon alcohol being there as they once were upon it not being there. At this point, it is difficult to stop drinking. If an addict's alcohol supply now is taken away suddenly, he reacts with distressing symptoms which may include violent tremors, nausea, and headaches.

There is still no definitive answer to the question of what causes alcoholism. Both physical and psychological factors have been cited. Studies have failed to establish anyone specific type of pre-alcoholic personality. People who become excessive drinkers’ may or may not be immature or neurotic. Some, in early life, may have been well-adjusted only to regress, as the addictive process takes over, to immature behavior. As their addiction takes hold, all alcoholics, whatever their back- grounds, tend to become much alike in behavior.

It is as though the disease of alcoholism remolds them into a stereotype. The procurement of alcohol becomes their chief concern, superseding other interests, producing deterioration in their work, social life, and relationships with their families. One physician specializing in the treatment of alcoholics has reported that a battery of psychological tests given to 300 consecutive patients showed gross disturbance in every case. 

The patients did not conform to any single personality type and yet showed markedly similar character traits. All had low frustration tolerance and inability to tolerate tension or anxiety. All gave evidence of mental depression, withdrawal, low self-esteem, and a sense of isolation. In all cases, there was marked hostility.