These Are the Complications of Alcoholism
Complications of alcoholism is defined as excessive drinking over a long period of time creating medical, psychological, and social problems for the alcoholic. As months or years of drinking has passed, the nervous system gets used to the alcohol therefore it develops a tolerance. Then the drinker requires more amounts of alcohol to receive the desired effect. Despite adverse effects, the person continues to drink and will likely increase the amount and frequency. Over use they experience withdrawal symptoms, high blood pressure, tremors, physical dependence, can happen when they are not drinking.
This becomes to be a cycle of abuse, being at risk of dependence starts. Some complications of alcoholism are depression, low self-esteem, onset of puberty, relying on alcohol socially, emotional substitution, loneliness, and self-medicating.
There are medical complications of alcoholism they are: alcohol damages the organ systems even blood-forming (anemia, easy bruising), cardiovascular (abnormal heartbeat, heart failure, high blood pressure, increased heart rate), gastrointestinal (diarrhea, gastritis, inflammation and/or cancer of the esophagus), enlarged risk of communicable diseases (TB), liver damage, low blood sugar, hepatitis, liver cancer, and ulcers.
The neurological complications of alcoholism are: confusion, loss of coordination and concentration, nerve damage, psychosis, short-term memory problems, stroke, and visual difficulties.
Some social complications of alcoholism are suffering in relationships, higher rates of divorce and separation, higher rates of domestic violence, higher rates of violence and aggressive behaviors, higher rates of legal problems, and higher rates of death. Eighty percent of all suicides are related to alcohol abuse.
The psychological complications that are connected to alcoholism they include: 44% of alcoholics have mental health disorders that were present before dependence; mood disorders, and major depression can occur after dependence.
The assessment of alcoholism depends on interviews, self-report questionnaires to keep track of the quantity and the number of times the person drinks. All the questions focus on two different aspects: consequences of drinking and perceptions of drinking behavior. Clinics determine risk for abuse and dependence based on how much and how often a person drinks.