Facts About Alcoholism

Alcohol is one of the highly abused drugs around the world. According to the National Institutes of Health in 2012, more than 7.2 percent of adults have an alcohol abuse disorder. It corresponds to around 27 million individuals worldwide. Here are some alcoholism facts which every individual need to know-

It leads to short-term health hazards.
Abusing alcohol for short-term harm alcohol can cause severe damage to health apart from diseases. The injuries include accidents, homicides, falls, alcohol poisoning, sexual assaults. Individuals under the influence of alcoholism have inhibited judgments and decisions that can lead to harmful results.

It can also lead to long-term health effects.
The individual develops the medical conditions of long-term health hazards after the intake of alcohol for a quite long period of time. The hazards involve high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, digestive problems, memory loss, etc.

It relates to sexual assault and domestic violence.
Studies show that alcohol abuse is associated with sexual assault and domestic violence. But it doesn't mean that alcohol abuse can make an individual do all these but force the individual to involve in these actions under alcohol influence.

Alcohol has effects on the fetus.
Pregnant women, if abuse alcohol, then they tend to put not only themselves in danger but also cause a risk to the unborn child. Abusing alcohol during pregnancy can cause Fetal Alcohol Syndrome leading to certain deformities in the child such as hyperactivity, difficulty in vision and hearing, poor coordination, heart problems.

It also affects children in the family.
Children of alcoholic parents are seen to have a higher risk of experience alcohol-related mental health issues. Since the parent here is too much involved in the addictive behavior, children here are more likely to experience repeated neglect, behavioral problems, relationship problems, emotional instability and various other mental health problems.

Genetics is not the only factor responsible for alcoholism.
A family history of alcoholics does put the child at a higher risk for alcoholism but there are also certain other factors such as environmental factors. These include peer pressure, the setting, parenting style, etc along with the genetic seen to contributing to alcoholism.

Alcohol abuse has caused around 5.9 percentage of deaths worldwide.
Alcoholism is one of the lifestyle-related cause of deaths worldwide.
According to the global survey in the year 2014, abusing alcohol caused around 3.3 millions of deaths per year.

Many people think alcohol addiction or alcoholism is a choice of the individual and fail to focus on the fact that not they are affected by it, but also affecting their loved ones.

Alcoholism is a brain disorder and not the matter of character. The above facts are provided with a hope to make people understand the effects of this addictive disorder. If you or your loved one is addicted to alcohol, then help their recovery from their addiction behavior as soon as possible.