The phrase chronic alcoholism rapidly became a medical term for the
condition of habitual inebriety conceived as a disease; and the bearer of
the disease was called an alcoholic or alcoholist (e.g., Italian
alcoolisto, French alcoolique, German Alkoholiker, Spanish alcohуlico,
Swedish alkoholist).
Alcohol dependence, or alcoholism, is psychological and/or physical
reliance on alcohol. It is one of the most common medical illnesses seen by
physicians. If you are dependent on alcohol, you feel or show a need for it
when it is stopped. If you crave alcohol, or feel distressed without it,
you are said to be psychologically dependent. If you have bodily changes
when alcohol is stopped, such as hot and cold flashes and/or tremors, you
are said to be physically dependent.
Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial and
environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The
disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterised by continuous
or periodic impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug
alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in
thinking, most notably denial.
Currently there are three different theories to explain alcoholism:
* Genetic Theory defines alcoholism as the result of a predisposed reaction
to alcohol due to chromosomes, genes or hormonal deficiencies.
* Psychological Theory defines alcoholism as a condition that exists in
which people have a preset disposition or personality that sets off a
reaction to alcohol.
* Sociological Theory defines alcoholism as a learned response and believes
that addiction is a result of the influences of society.
Whatever definition or theory is used, it is known that alcoholism is a
progressive illness that can be treated. Each alcoholic has a different
drinking pattern, but the one thing all alcoholics have in common is an
uncontrollable drinking habit.
What are the symptoms?
Alcohol dependence takes many forms, including intermittent drinking,
continuous drinking, and binge drinking. Many alcoholics become able to
drink ever larger quantities of alcohol before feeling or appearing drunk.
Alcohol users commonly medicate themselves with alcohol, using it, often
daily, to help them relax, as a confidence booster, or in order to avoid
withdrawal symptoms.
Behavioural symptoms of people who are dependent on alcohol may include:
Trying to hide evidence of drinking
Promising to give up drinking
Drinking stronger alcoholic beverages or starting to drink earlier in the
day
Having long periods of intoxication
Drinking alone
Problems at work
Missing work
Blacking out
Loss of interest in food
Mood changes (anger, irritability, violent outbursts)
Personality changes (jealousy, paranoia)
Repeatedly driving under the influence
Injuring self or others while intoxicated
Carelessness about appearance
Slower thought processes, lack of concentration, confusion, trouble
remembering things
Financial problems caused by drinking.
Physical symptoms may include:
Nausea or shaking in the morning
Poor eating habits
Abdominal pain
Chronic cramps or diarrhoea
Numbness or tingling sensations
Weakness in the legs and hands
Red eyes, face, and/or palms
Unsteady walking or falls
New and worsening medical problems.
Three distinct stages of alcoholism.
* Early Stage. A person in the early stage of alcoholism uses alcohol as a
coping device to relieve tension or escape from problems. The alcoholic
must drink more and more to achieve the same effect and has trouble
stopping after one drink. The alcoholic makes promises to quit drinking but
never follows through.
* Middle Stage. An alcoholic in the middle stage of alcoholism cannot get
through the day without alcohol and may need a drink in the morning to
overcome the "shakes." The middle-stage alcoholic will begin to manipulate
others, lie about drinking, and may drink in secret or hide alcohol. It is
harder and harder to get the same effects as tolerance increases. Irregular
heart beat, hypertension, loss of appetite, irritability and insomnia are
physical and psychological problems at this stage. The alcoholic denies
that drinking is a problem.
* Late Stage. The alcoholic now lives to drink and avoids and distrusts
others. All ambition is lost and the drinker is unable to cope with
responsibility and is often absent from work. A late-stage alcoholic may
suffer from reverse tolerance: the brain and liver can no longer tolerate a
high level of alcohol, so the drinker becomes impaired after even small
amounts of alcohol. Malnutrition, nerve dysfunction, loss of memory, mental
confusion, impaired vision, hypertension, heart disease and cirrhosis of
the liver can occur during this stage. If drinking stops, There are severe
withdrawal reactions. Late-stage psychological problems include shame,
guilt, severe depression, violent behaviour, low self-esteem, loss of
control of emotions, loss of concentration and learning ability. At this
point, the alcoholic "hits bottom." The alcoholic may continue to drink
despite pain or disability. The only viable alternative is to seek
treatment.
Long- term effects of alcohol.
Frequent and prolonged use of alcohol has many detrimental effects on
the body. Heavy drinkers develop a tolerance for alcohol, which means that
larger amounts of alcohol are needed to get the desired effect. A drinker
is physically dependent if withdrawal symptoms are experienced when alcohol
use is discontinued abruptly. Symptoms vary but include delirium tremors
(the "DTs"), cramps, vomiting, elevated blood pressure, sweating, dilated
pupils, sleep problems, irritability and convulsions. Most of these
symptoms will subside in two to three days, though irritability and
insomnia may last two to three weeks. Psychological dependence occurs when
the drinker becomes so preoccupied with alcohol that it is difficult to do
without it. Short-term memory loss and blackouts are common among heavy
drinkers. A blackout, which is an amnesia-like period often confused with
passing out or losing consciousness, results when the drinker appears
normal and may function normally; however, the person has no memory of what
has taken place. Research indicates that blackouts are associated with
advanced stages of alcoholism, and there is a correlation between the
extent and duration of alcohol consumption during any given drinking
episode and the occurrence of blackouts.
Treating alcoholism.
The sooner alcoholism is detected, the better the chances of recovery.
There are several effective treatment methods for alcoholism, and what
works for one person may not work for another. Many options should be
explored when seeking help. Local or state health organisations can be
contacted to find out what treatment alternatives exist in each community.
Sociological research.
Reasons for choosing the questionnaire as a method of my survey and a
sample design.
I chose a questionnaire as a method of a data collection primarily
because of the lack of ability (mostly time) to try to conduct an
interview. Secondary, I consider the interview to be the inappropriate type
of a survey in the case of such a delicate problem as alcoholism. An
interview, no matter formal or informal, might provide a large bias I the
data, thus in the analysis, because many people may consider it to be
undesirable for them to let others know the bare truth about their lives.
Moreover, an interview can not be anonymous (at least the interviewer would
be initiated in your problems). I also did not manage to avoid an overt
participant observation…
As this sociological research is of a small scale (a sample of 36
persons) and was held among the students from one university (HSE), it did
not include such complicated (and unnecessary in this case) methods of data
collection as a telephone survey or mail survey, the refusals problem was
eliminated. Though, just because of the same circumstances, it has a bias
of representing only the smallest part of the Russian youth: Moscow
students and my research would be more descriptive than analysing.
The multistage sample was conducted in the following way: 4 out 5
specialities were observed (I did not have the access to jurisprudence) and
the representatives were chosen by a random sampling (using the table of
random digits and student lists) according to a proportion of number of
students on each speciality. Thus I have got 14 representatives of the
economic speciality, 10- of management, 8- of sociological and 4- of the
ICEF.
Considering the fact that I dealt with students, I was not afraid of
personal questions. Students, as young and open class of population, are
far from being embarrassed when they are asked such.
The list of questions.
1. Your sex:
M___ F____
3. Your speciality?
A) Economics B) Management C) Sociology D) ICEF
2. Your attitude to the alcohol ?
А) Negative
B) Simply do not like, when there is someone drunk beside me.
C) Neutral
D) Positive
3. Do you drink alcohol?
А) Yes C) Did not ever try.
B) No
4. If not, why? ______________________________________________
5. If yes, in what age did you try it the first time (approximately)?
A) 5-10 years D) 15-17 years
B) 10-13 years E) 17 and over
C) 13-15 years
6. How often do you drink alcohol?
А) Almost every day B) Less than three times a week
C) Less than two times a month
7. Do your parents drink (in general)?
А) No C) Yes, only mother
B) Yes, only father D) Both
8. With whom do you usually drink (the most often case)?
А) With friends from the university B) With other friend/buddies
C) With parents
9. Can you drink alone?
А) Yes, happened to be B) No
10. Do you drink to overcome a hangover?
А) Yes B) Yes, but not in the morning
C) Never
11. Do you need some reason for drinking alcohol like Birthday or another
holiday?
А) Yes, always B) Not necessarily.
12. How can you classify your alcoholic consumption?
А) I have no dependency
B) I have some warnings about my dependency
C) Only psychological dependency
D) Physical dependency.
13. Do you care about the amount of alcohol you drink per day? (Several
answers are possible)
А) Yes
B) No
C) No, if there is no my girlfriend/boyfriend beside me.
D) No, if my parents wouldn’t see/know.
E) No, if it is a big holiday (I can allow myself)
14. What alcohol beverage do you drink in the most often case?
А) Beer
B) Cocktails (Gin-Tonic , etc.)
C) Wine, Aperitifs (Martini, Karelia ,etc.) or champaign
D) Strong alcoholic drinks (Vodka, Cognac, Scotch and etc.)
15. Have you ever tried to give up drinking?
А) Yes B) No
16. Have you ever tried to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed?
А) Yes, it worked B) Yes, it did not work
C) No
17. Would you drink less, if parents set up more strict requirements to
your behaviour?
А) Yes B) No
18. Would you drink less, if they ceased to give you pocket money?
А) Yes
B) No, I would take a loan, but will drink/somebody would treat. C)
No, I earn money myself.
19. Comparing with the previous year, do you drink:
А) Less/less frequent C) As much/with the same frequency
B) More/more often
20. Did alcohol affect your study results, from your point of view?
А) No B) Yes, they become better C) Yes, they become worse.
21. How did you pass the previous exams/entry exams?
A) Excellent B) Well
C) Satisfactory D) Failed
22. Why do you drink alcohol? (Several answers are possible)
А) To remove stress
B) To raise the mood
C) To support to company
D) To celebrate some holiday
E) Your variant of answer_________________________________
23. Do you care, what others think, when they see you drunken? (Except
people, who know you)
А) No, if they are not policemen B) Yes
24. Have you ever had extrinsic behavioural manifestations
(aggressiveness/depression) connected with the consumption of alcohol?
А) Yes B) No
25. Did you have blackouts (of a non- traumatic nature)?
А) Yes, once/sometimes B) No
26. Do you smoke?
А) Yes
B) No
27. Do you take drugs, even the weakest ones?
А) Yes, have tried once C) Yes
B) Yes, but very- very rarely D) No
The analysis of a data received.
I have got 21 male and 15 female respondents. Among these people there
are only 1 men and 1 women who do not drink alcohol at all.
The attitude towards the alcohol is distributed as following: 39% -
positive (among them: 13- men and only 1 woman); 39%- neutral (among them:
6 men and 8 women); 22%- simply do not like, when there is someone drunk
beside them (among them: 2 men and 6 women) and none of the respondents
said that their attitude is negative.
29% of male and 27% of female respondents have parents who do not drink
at all. 4% of male and 13% of female students have only father who drinks
(in general) and 4% and 6% respectively- only mother. The percentage of
both parents drinking (in general) is 62 for men and 53 for women. This way
the difference between the current and the next generation (the youth) can
be shown. As we see from this data, the percentage of non-drinking parents
is far from 1/21 and 1/15 (5% and 7%) of their offsprings. Most of the men
drink with their friends from the university (55%) and the largest part of
female responses to this question fall on the answer B)-with other
friends/buddies (50%).
The next few questions I consider to be rather interesting, because they
primarily deal with the alcoholic dependency and its stages. The question
about drinking alone as one of a symptom of alcoholism brought up the
results of 50% of male students who could do this, and only 29% of female
who have also chosen this answer. Drinking to overcome a hangover is normal
for 55% of men and 14% of women. Doing the same thing at any time except
mornings is suitable for 15% and 7% of students respectively. And only 30%
of men and 79% of women consider this to be “not their style”.
Unfortunately, as much as 85% of men and 64% of women do not need a normal
reason for drinking like celebrating some party, etc. Two out of 20 male
respondents and two out of 14 female have doubts about their dependency and
2 men consider themselves to be psychologically dependent already.
From the graph above we can see the following interesting fact: none of
the women do not care about the presence of the their boyfriends while they
are drinking and male respondents do not take their parents into
consideration deciding haw many drinks to have.
Here we can see the tendency of male students usually drinking beer or
strong alcoholic drinks, and females usually drinking cocktails of
aperitifs.
The question concerned ever trying to give up drinking and never
following though was aimed to reveal one of the symptoms of the first stage
of alcohol dependency. The results were: 30% of men and 14 % of women tried
to do so. 25% of men and no females tried to reduce the amount of alcohol
consumed and succeeded and 5% and 7% respectively tried but did not succeed
in reducing it.
Only 30% of males and 7% of the females would reduce the amount consumed
if their parents were stricter about their behaviour. But if they cease to
give them pocket money 40% of male respondents and 43% of female
respondents would do it.
Only 20% of men and 14% of women consider their study success to be
dependent from the results shown on the graph above.
50% of males and 36% of females wrote, that they drink to raise their
mood; 20% and 10%- to support the company; 15% and 20%- to remove the
stress; 15% and 34%- to celebrate some holiday respectively.
Almost 80% of males and 21% of females said that there don’t care what
others (not those, whom they are aquatinted with and if they were nit
policemen) would think if they saw them drunken. The answers to the
question “Have you ever had extrinsic behavioural manifestations
(aggressiveness/depression) connected with the consumption of alcohol?” are
35% of male respondents and 14% of female said “yes” and 65% and 86%- “no”.
40% of males and 14% of females have already got aquatinted with blackouts.
From my point of view, these results are much like the real ones, as I
am also a student and I am doing the overt observation of all this every
day. The situation seems to be catastrophic, and something should be done
about it.
Literature used.
1. Britannica encyclopaedia ’99.
2. Socis magazine № 5,3,8 1997 ;№ 10 1998
3. http://search1.healthgate.com/hid/alcoholism/
-----------------------
[pic]
[pic]
[pic]
[pic]
[pic]
[pic]
[pic]
[pic]
[pic]
Страницы: 1, 2
