The Silend Enemy

When I started this blog it was an open question. Who deserves to be label as an alcoholic?

The question was open, but my mind was not. I wanted to find the information and to prove myself right. I wanted to reach the conclusion that everyone who enjoys an alcoholic drink would become labeled as an alcoholic.

I DID find the answer to that question. Not everybody who enjoys a drink is an alcoholic, but also it doesn’t take a lot of heavy drinking to become an alcoholic. Most people opinion’s of who is an alcoholic is very different and extreme. Many people think that an alcoholic would be someone who has destroyed his life.  It only takes a little alcohol on a regular basis for a person to start experiencing the consequences of alcohol.

 In other words; I was wrong, but so were the opinions of the majority of the people I talked to during the past couple of months.

Alcoholism or alcohol dependency should be looked at as the decease that it is.  We should be aware of it the same way we would be about any other decease or sickness.

For example; We don’t go out in the snow without gloves and a winter jacket because we don’t want to get a fever or a cold. In the same way, we should not drink every day or multiple times per week, because we don’t want to become alcoholics.

Today we live in a society in which alcohol is not only accepted, the majority of people feel it is necessary let loose with a few cocktails. Working as a bartender, I was able to observe many successful people who would return to my bar and get a drink after a long day of work to relax. But what if every day was a long day at work? And that one drink after work happens to be every day?
The reality is that it does not take a lot of alcohol for the human body to start developing a dependency for alcohol. And trust me; getting your body used to not having alcohol is not easy. Drinking and getting crazy sometimes is fun, but in my personal opinion it is not worth it compared to the hard times after.  I think all of us has experienced this dreaded morning at some point after a few too many ‘Cheers’.
In other words, Limit yourself to no more than half a bottle or a few beers per week. Don’t use alcohol to avoid problems or to feel better about a bad situation. The side effects of alcohol will be worse than whatever problem, or whatever bad situation you may be having.

Know your limits and always keep in mind what alcohol really is.

- Jairo Jimenez

Works Cited

Allsup, Richard. "Psychological Dependence On Alcohol: A Process Model." Healthcare Counselling  & Psychotherapy Journal 10.4 (2010): 17-22. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.



Why Do People Drink?

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While doing my research about alcoholism, I got to read many articles and many websites and I found that alcohol is nothing more or less than poison. In the article by Richard Allsup, he explains what alcohol is. He also mentions that alcohol has multiple uses for example biofuel (bioethanol). And that is what alcohol is. it is the same as bioethanol diluted with water and mixed with other ingredients, or ‘congeners’ which give the drink its smell and taste. In other words when you go out to the bar and ask for a drink you may as well be asking for a glass of fuel.

This is why alcohol is not good for our human bodies. It is responsible for 25 percent of all hospital admissions these days!

This raises a new question: why do people drink?

I started drinking heavily at age 21. I had a good job and a good financial situation and nothing to do with my spare time.

I would say that my major motivation to start drinking was social. (Which according to the survey done in Netherlands that is the reason why 71 percent of people drink)

But that is not the case for everybody.



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In the article “Psychological dependence on alcohol: a process model” Allsup explains the depressant effects of alcohol, and how alcohol can be attractive to people in two levels.  The first one would be as a tranquilizer. Alcohol tranquilizes stress.

It is not uncommon for somebody to go out for a drink and have a drink or two after a long and stressful day at work or for a house mom to finish off the day with a martini before bed.

The other reason would be social. Alcohol makes us do things that we would not do without the influence of alcohol, like: dancing, talking to people, let our hair down and get crazy and have fun, I am sure we all have personally seen the most antisocial and shy person have a couple of drinks and turn in the life of the party. And this is what makes people think of alcohol as a stimulant and not a depressant. But once the party winds down; the alcohol will come back and get us as a depressant.  (By the way it is attributed to physical deceases and is detrimental organs and at the same time.)

And the Search for Answers Continues.

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As the search for answers continues I have run into an article by Richard Allsup, called “psychological dependence on alcohol: a process model”.

In the article, Allsup talks about why people like to drink from a scientific point of view and also Allsup explains why does alcohol dependence occurs from an scientific point of view.

I’m excited to have found this article and read about why the human body becomes dependent of alcohol and people becomes alcoholics

In the article, Allsup uses units to explain the readers how much alcohol does a person need to consume for certain situations to take place.

Percentage of alcohol in a drink equals the number of units per liter of that drink.

Therefore a liter of tequila on average will contain 40% to 55% alcohol. Thus; it would contain anywhere from 40 to 55 units

 Allsup also explains how alcohol works by using the analogy of a dimmer switch.

Basically when a person drinks, the person would turn the dimmer switch down, and our bodies’ nervous systems will turn the dimmer switch back up by releasing additional chemicals to our brains.

Our nervous systems will then get acclimated to releasing these chemicals, therefore the person would need to keep drinking often to keep a chemical balance in our brains. If a person would stop drinking the alcohol withdraws would start too happen due to the lack of the chemical balance in our brains. That is a basic explanation of how our bodies become addicted to alcohol and alcohol dependence starts.

According to the article a person would only have to drink 50 unites per week for this chemical imbalance to start happening.  There are on average 40 to 55 units of alcohol per a liter bottle of hard liquor. And there is on average 20 drinks per liter. Therefore

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(50/20=2.5 units per drink)

(2.5*x=50)

(50/2.5=X)

 
Therefore (2.5*20=50)

Using these equations; an individual only needs to consume 20 drinks per week for our bodies to start developing alcohol dependency. (This is only 3 drinks per night.)

 Most people would not consider themselves alcoholics if they only drink 3 drinks per night. But according to the article that is all that would take for our bodies start asking for more alcohol.

search for answers

As my search for answers begins I have visited a few websites. There was a few in particular that manage to give me some answers to my question: ‘At what point does one becomes an alcoholic?’

A website on particular caught my attention www.web4health.com a website that provides free medical advice on mental health, psychology, personality disorders, relationships, stress, anxiety, depression, emotional abuse, substance abuse, sexual abuse, types of mental illness, etc. in this website people asks question about several topics and get answers from professionals.

 Two questions that were asked caught my attention:

When are you addicted to alcohol?

Why do people drink alcohol?

 In response to why do people drink alcohol; The Site referred to research done in Netherlands among people from ages 15 to 25.  According to the survey; 71% of people drink for social reason, 51% of people likes the taste, 12% of people like feeling at ease, 6% of people likes to get intoxicated, 2% of people likes to get drunk and 6% of people said that is because everybody else is doing it.

 I liked to see the people are responses on this topic;  but was is not the answers that I am looking for.

In the past few months I have discovered that people’s opinion of alcoholism is usually intertwined with their personal level of alcohol consumption.

 For example; if somebody drinks one glass of wine per week, they would consider anybody who drinks two glasses of wine per week an alcoholic. And if someone drinks to the point of intoxication 6 nights per week, they would say that you become an alcoholic once that you start getting intoxicated 7 times per week.

 I am not looking for opinions; I am looking for the facts.

The other question:

“When are you addicted to alcohol?”

These websites had mucho more useful information and resources.

It stated some of the conditions than an individuals display to be considered and alcoholic.

(Also stated that you don’t need to have all of this conditions to be considered and alcoholic)

 These conditions are:

·         Tolerance build up (needing more alcohol to still feel the effect).

·         Psychological dependence (have a desire for alcohol, varying from very little to very much).

·         Withdrawal symptoms (there are all kinds of physical reactions after you stop).

·         Use alcohol to reduce the withdrawal symptoms.

·         Failed attempts to control the alcohol use.

·         Spending a great deal of time on the use of alcohol, or on the recovery of its use.

·         Damaging effects due to the use (on the person and surroundings) For example;(problems at work or school, arguments with the people around the addiction, dedicating less time to hobbies, and illnesses).

·         Use alcohol more frequently and in higher doses than planned.

·         Continuing alcohol use even if you know it is damaging for you.

 I would agree with considering anybody with these symptoms an alcoholic. Yet, at the same time these symptoms seem too extreme for me.,

 I also visited the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) website www.aa.org.

In this website I found a quiz that AA gives their new members to find out the severity of their problem. This quiz is only 12 questions long and if you are to answer yes to 4 of them on the eyes of AA you would be consider and alcoholic.

 
These questions are:

1. Have you ever decided to stop drinking for a week or so, but only lasted for a couple of days?

 2. Do you wish people would mind their own business about your drinking—stop telling you what to do?

 3. Have you ever switched from one kind of drink to another in the hope that this would keep you from getting drunk?

 4. Have you had to have an eye-opener upon awakening during the past year?

 5. Do you envy people who can drink without getting into trouble

 6. Have you had problems connected with drinking during the past year?

 7. Has your drinking caused trouble at home?

 8. Do you ever try to get “extra” drinks at a party because you do not get enough?

 9. Do you tell yourself you can stop drinking any time you want to, even though you keep getting drunk when you don’t mean to?

 10. Have you missed days of work or school because of drinking?

 11. Do you have “blackouts”?

 12. Have you ever felt that your live would be better if you did not drink?

 Those are good questions to ask yourself if you are wondering whether you have a problem or not. However, not the kind of answers I am looking for.

It seems to me that some of the answers to this question could be based around what people around the individual taking the quiz would think or do. For example and individual only drinks 1 or 2 drinks per day, never gets drunk but his wife or his family does not approve of drinking at all. More likely this individual would answer yes to questions 2,5,6,7 and 12 just because his family does not approve of having 1 or 2 drinks per day. Is this individual really an alcoholic?

Links:

www.web4health.com
www.aa.org

            

 

My name is Jairo Jimenez and I am an alcoholic.

5 years ago I found myself in a really good financial situation, with lots of time to spare and nothing to do with my spare time. There was an awesome bar right across the street from my apartment, here in Fort Collins, Colorado.

I would frequently hang at this bar about 5 or 6 times per week. By going to this ‘watering hole’ I would meet new people, make new friends, and get involved in awesome conversations about anything, and everything, and of course get drunk. After the years went by, I got to learn a lot about alcohol, and eventually, I became a bartender. Which is a really reliable profession, as a bartender I managed to make a decent leaving, put myself through school, and have a little money to spare. It seems to me that no matter how bad the news says the economy is, the Bars never seem to run out of costumers. The come in hoping to get one to several alcoholic drinks in them.

Four months ago, I went to see a doctor because i was concerned about a pain in the right side of my abdomen. I was prescribed to quit drinking as soon as I could before my liver gave up on me, and I would have to start facing the real consequences of drinking. After three weeks of shakes and, over a month of insomnia, I decided to never drink again.

I have been sober for four months now; and I don’t think I will ever drink again.

But seeing people’s reactions; after I quit drinking, has raised a few questions in my mind.

When does one become an alcoholic?

Do we wait until our own organs start rejecting our own body to consider ourselves alcoholics?

Does the fact that you like to drink makes you and alcoholic?

These questions have been on my mind for the past couple of months, due to the fact that people around me think than it is really impressive that I haven’t had a sip of alcohol for the last four months. These are people who never drink more than two beverages per night out.

 These are people with families and successful carriers. Should we consider these people alcoholics because of the fact that they look forward to having those couple of drinks every once in a while?

And this questions really got in my mind when the same doctor who treated me after I physically hurt myself as a consequence of drinking told me “I could not go that long without a drink” he does not drink more than a few drinks per week but he says that he could not do without those drinks.

Would this be considered alcoholism? This is man with a family and is a successful doctor who never gets drunk.  Would he be considered an alcoholic because he looks forward to that day off where he would sit down in a bar and have a couple of drinks?

When I was drinking in excess, 5 to 6 times per week; people would judge me and call me and alcoholic. And my answer always was: "I am not an alcoholic, I am a 4.0 student." Or, "I am not an alcoholic, I am a responsible working man who works 6 days a week, and is never absent and never late to work." I finally admitted to having a problem when the delirium tremens started happening and I started the battle that I fight everyday today, the battle of making it one more day without a drink.

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The question and the purpose of this blog is to find the answers to at what point those one deserve to be called an alcoholic. Do we become alcoholics right after we have our first drink? Or do we need to wait for our bodies to give up and our lives to crash in consequence of alcohol for us to consider ourselves alcoholics? Or, do we become alcoholics somewhere in the middle of those questions?