Fighting alcoholism- A battle for the new generation

Andrew Heanngam Pamei *

Excise Dept disposing off seized (2330 litres) Country Made Liquor in Jan 2012

"Wine is arrogant, strong drink is riotous; whoever deceived thereby is not wise"- Proverbs 20:1.

Alcoholism is a mental obsession that causes a physical compulsion to drink. By mental obsession, what I mean, is, a thought process over which one has no control. For better understanding, let's consider this, do you ever wake up in the morning with a song playing over and over in your mind? It might be a commercial jingle you heard on television, or perhaps a song from the radio, or the song you often listen to everyday, but it kept playing and playing and playing in your mind. Remember what was that like?

No matter what you did, that silly tune kept on playing. Think about it. There was something going on in your mind that you didn't put there and, no matter how hard you tried, couldn't get out. Such is the nature of the disease of alcoholism. When the drinking song starts playing in the mind of an alcoholic, he is powerless. He didn't put the song there and the only way to stop it is ultimately to take another drink. The problem is the alcoholic's mental obsession with alcohol is much more subtle than a song playing in his mind. In fact he may not even know it's there. All he knows is he suddenly has an urge to take a drink, a physical compulsion to drink.

Alcoholism, when one talks of this topic, it seems to be very normal and is no slur on any person today. It plagues people and society and creates the most domestic violence, but I would at times wonder why very few of us speak about it. It is so closely woven into our lifestyle that the topic is no more worth discussion. One third of all acts of violence in our society, are perpetrated under the influence of alcohol. They give rise not only to personal suffering, but also to socio-economic costs.

Heavy alcohol consumption narrows perception and so can lead to an increased proneness to violent behavior in certain situations. Research says that alcohol is a factor in 40% of all violent crimes, which include rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault. Men and women suffer, children suffer, families suffer, loved ones suffer and people get killed. Alcohol and crime goes hand in hand, and it's simply a fact.

Alcoholism is now common among the teens too. Teen drinkers are more likely to lose hope. Use of alcohol greatly increases the chance that a teen will be involved in a car crash, homicide or even to the extent of suicide. The risk of injuring themselves, may be even fatally, seems to be higher in teens when they are under the influence of alcohol.

Suppose you drink and drive and caused the death of someone, you'll never get over it as long as you live, for, it'll haunt you night and day. Drinking may appear a lot fun (young or old alike), but it can absolutely destroy you. It'll take away your powers of reason and enslave you in a vicious and terrible way. It destroys both mind and body.

It'll build within you such cravings that you'll do anything to satisfy them. One can look really stupid when drunk. The impression is that drinking is cool, but the nervous system changes that come from drinking alcohol can make people do stupid or embarrassing things, like throwing up, or peeing on themselves. Teens who drink put themselves at the risk for obvious problems with the law. They are more likely to get into fights and commit crimes than those who don't.

They also often find problems with school for, drinking can damage a student's ability to study well and get decent grades, as well as affect physical performance.

In today's society, there is no single age group of people more affected by alcohol and drugs than young people. In some ways it feels like it is an issue everywhere: for you, your family and your friends. Plain and simple, try as you might, one can't simply escape the issues of alcohol and drugs. Even young women of today's generation are getting a distorted message regarding their right to match men. They binge drink to prove their right to equal men, which is now a feminist issue and indeed a foolish perception women have.

Alcoholism also greatly affects family members just as much as it affects the person drinking. When one lives with a drunken parent, one may feel embarrassed, angry, sad, hurt or emotionally disturbed. There may be also reasons why a parent's drinking can contribute to feelings of anger, frustration, disappointment, sadness, embarrassment, worry, loneliness and helplessness. For instance, one might be subjected to a parent's changing moods.

Parents who drink can behave unpredictably. Children growing up around them may spend a lot of energy trying to figure out a parent's mood or guess what that parent wants. Sometimes, it may be hard to do things with friends or other people. For some people, it feels like too much trouble to have a friend over or do that everyone else does. You just never know how your parent will act. Will your parent show up drunk for school events or drive you and (your friends) home drunk? Although each family is different, people who grow up with alcoholic parents often feel alone, unloved, depressed, or burdened by the secret life they lead at home.

Some parents with alcohol problems might mistreat or abuse their children emotionally or physically. Sometimes, alcoholic parent neglect their kids by not providing sufficient care and guidance. No matter what happens, most children of alcoholics love their parents and worry about something bad happening to them. Kids who live with drunken parents try all kinds of ways to prevent them but as family members don't cause the addiction, they can't stop it either.

When a person drinks, he is surely but slowly killing himself and it is really hard and at the same time hurting to watch someone we love and care do that. It is more hurting to know that the ones whom we care is in there somewhere but he is facing a daily battle, literally for his life, with the desire to get this alcohol into his system.

Alcoholism also results many serious diseases. Binge drinking, for a typical adult, is drinking five or more drinks in about two hours and those binge drinkers are at a particular risk of experiencing the so called blackout, where long term memory is impaired thereby causing complete inability to recall the past. It greatly affects the brain and other internal organs of the body.

Difficulty in walking, blurred vision, impaired memory: Definitely, even with a guess, one can say that it affects the brain- the most important part of the body. Long term consumption of alcohol causes alcoholic hepatitis, which causes the liver to swell and become damaged. Alcohol can damage or destroy liver cells.

The liver breaks down alcohol so it can be easily removed from the body, but with the consumption of more alcohol than liver can process, liver can become seriously damaged and thus leads to diseases like Alcoholic hepatitis-(swelling of the liver) and Alcoholic cirrhosis- (scaring of the liver), where a hard scar tissue replaces soft healthy tissue, which is the most serious type of alcohol related disease.

Let me conclude with a short story. Once, a medical doctor was invited as a guest speaker to address a group of alcoholics. He wanted to make a demonstration that would be powerful enough to make people realize that alcohol was injurious to health. For the demonstration of an experiment, he took two containers, one with pure distilled water and one with pure alcohol. He put an earthworm into the distilled water and it swam beautifully and came up to the top.

He put another earthworm i1nto pure alcohol and it disintegrated in front of everyone's eyes. And the doctor concludes his experiment, showing how alcohol would affect the body's internal organs, like how it disintegrated the worm. And it is said that the demonstration was the eye opener for the alcoholics gathered there and they lived a new and healthy, happy lives thereafter.

And a simple message I would like to share from this story to my fellow readers battling this slavery of alcoholism is that, it is never too late for the U-turn in your life. If this story cannot be an eye opener for you, may the alcoholics who changed their lives from this short albeit, simple, demonstration of a medical doctor be an inspiration for you to change your life.

Our lives aren't just measured in years but they're measured in the lives of people we touch around us, so, Let's try to help our brothers and sisters a little bit more when it comes to this matter of alcoholism, for it is a disease which doesn't look like a disease, but like any disease, it needs to be treated. It is a battle which anyone can fight. I know it is hard, but this is worth fighting for. Lives don't depend on whether or not people can get job or get married.

What is more important is that, lives do depend on a healthy lifestyle and a drug/alcohol free community for a peaceful living. Life is not about how long it is, but how good it is, that matters. God bless you all.

"Consort not with winebibbers, nor with those who eat meat to excess; For the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and torpor clothes a man in rags"- (Proverbs 24:20-21)