** Alcohol ** Information on Alcohol (Ethyl Alcohol, Distilled Spirits, Beer, Wine, Liquor, Ethanol) You Can Purchase Drug & Alcohol Test Kits Online Clinical Effects of Alcohol Intoxication Loss of Motor Control Depression of Reflexes Depression of Heart Rate Loss of Inhibitions Lethargy Delirium Tremens (tremors) Liver Disease Aggressive Behavior Alcoholism Insomnia Sleepiness Stupor Coma Death No matter what we accomplish in this life, if our children turn out poorly, we will have failed. The Definition of Alcoholism Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. Alcoholism is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial. Each of these symptoms may be continuous or periodic. "Primary" refers to the nature of alcoholism as a disease entity in addition to and separate from other pathophysiologic states that may be associated with it. It suggests that as an addiction, alcoholism is not a symptom of an underlying disease state. "Disease" means an involuntary disability. Use of the term involuntary in defining disease is descriptive of this state as a discrete entity that is not deliberately pursued. It does not suggest passivity in the recovery process. Similarly, use of this term does not imply the abrogation of responsibility in the legal sense. Disease represents the sum of the abnormal phenomena displayed by the group of individuals. These phenomena are associated with a specified common set of characteristics by which certain individuals differ from the norm and which places them at a disadvantage. "Often progressive and fatal" means that the disease persists over time and that physical, emotional, and social changes are often cumulative and may progress as drinking continues. Alcoholism causes premature death through overdose; through organic complications involving the brain, liver, heart, and other organs; and by contributing to suicide, homicide, motor vehicle accidents, and other traumatic events. "Impaired control" means the inability to consistently limit on drinking occasions the duration of the drinking episode, the quantity of alcohol consumed and/or the behavioral consequences. "Preoccupation" used in association with "alcohol use" indicates excessive, focused attention given to the drug alcohol and to its effects or its use (or both). The relative value the person assigns to alcohol often leads to energy being diverted from important life concerns. You Can Purchase Drug & Alcohol Test Kits Online "Adverse consequences" are alcohol-related problems, "disabilities," or impairments in such areas as physical health (eg, alcohol withdrawal syndromes, liver disease, gastritis, anemia, and neurologic disorders), psychologic functioning (eg, cognition and changes in mood and behavior), interpersonal functioning (eg, marital problems, child abuse, and troubled social relationships), occupational functioning (eg, scholastic or job problems), and legal, financial or spiritual problems. Although the alcohol dependence syndrome may theoretically occur in the absence of adverse consequences, we believe that the latter are evident in virtually all clinical cases. "Denial" is used in the definition not only in the psychoanalytic sense of a single psychologic defense mechanism disavowing the significance of events but more broadly to include a range of psychologic maneuvers that decrease awareness of the fact that alcohol use is the cause of a person's problems rather than a solution to those problems. Denial becomes an integral part of the disease and is nearly always a major obstacle to recovery. Denial in alcoholism is a complex phenomenon determined by multiple psychologic and physiologic mechanisms. These include the pharmacologic effects of alcohol on memory, the influence of euphoric recall on perception and insight, the role of suppression and repression as psychologic defense mechanisms, and the impact of social and cultural enabling behavior. How Do You Know If You Have an Alcohol Problem? You Can Purchase Drug & Alcohol Test Kits Online Chances are if you are asking the question, you have an alcohol problem. Here are some factors to consider: Inability to control your drinking - it seems that regardless of what you decide, you frequently end up drunk. Alcohol is used to escape your problems. Changing from your usual reserved character into the "life of the party". A change in personality - does alcohol turn you from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde? A high alcohol tolerance level - you can drink almost everyone under the table. Blackouts - sometimes you don't remember what happened when you were drinking alcohol. Problems at work or in school as a result of alcohol consumption. Concern shown by your family and friends about your abuse of alcohol. If you have an alcohol problem, or if you suspect you have an alcohol problem, there are many others out there like you, and there is help available. Talk to someone you trust such as a school counselor, friend or parent. Below are some resources. Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA) 1-310-534-1815 National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) 1-301-468-0985 Al-Anon Family Groups 1-212-302-7240 and 1-800-356-9996 Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) 1-212-686-1100 Women for Sobriety, Inc. (WFS) 1-215-536-8026 Alcohol abuse and its related problems cost society many billions of dollars each year. Estimates of the economic costs of alcohol abuse attempt to assess in monetary terms the damage that results from the misuse of alcohol. These costs include expenditures on alcohol related problems and opportunities that are lost because of alcohol. Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream. It is measured in percentages. For instance, having a BAC of 0.10 percent means that a person has 1 part alcohol per 1,000 parts of blood in the body. In review of studies of alcohol related crashes, reaction time, tracking ability, concentrated attention ability, divided attention performance, information process capability, visual functions, perceptions and psycho-motor performance, impairment in all these areas was significant at blood alcohol concentrations of 0.05 percent. Impairment first appeared in many of these important areas of performance at blood alcohol concentrations of 0.02 percent, substantially below the legal standard in most States for drunkenness, which is 0.08 percent. Approximately half of traffic injuries involve alcohol. About one-third of fatally injured passengers and pedestrians have elevated blood alcohol levels. For fatal intentional injuries, half of homicides involve alcohol, as do one-quarter to one-third of suicides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that about 30,000 unintentional injury deaths per year are directly attributable to alcohol. Another 15,000 to 20,000 homicides or suicides per year are associated with alcohol. You Can Purchase Drug & Alcohol Test Kits Online Resource: Substance Abuse Sourcebook, edited by Karen Bellenir, Copyright 1996, Omnigraphics, Inc.

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