Alcohol Ruins Lives
Effects, Real Life Stories and Prevention Methods
Binge Drinking
Binge drinking is consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in one night.
One of the most popular yet dangerous ways of enjoying a party or a night out is binge drinking.
Drinking these many alcoholic beverages will lead to you making poor choices, behaving aggressively, a loss of movement and a really bad hangover.
On top of that, it can give you alcohol poisoning and other risky health issues.
When too much alcohol is consumed this fast, it can act as a poison and just tear the organs in your body.
Effects of Alcohol
Several people enjoy a single drink without any problems at all, however drinking heavily can lead to many serious and harmful side effects to your health.
Short Term Effects:
There are several short term effects that occur when you consume too much alcohol. Some of these include:
· Nausea
· Vomiting
· Slurred speech
· Headaches
· Impaired judgement
· Blackouts
· Impaired vision and hearing
Long Term Effects:
To add on to the short term effects, binge drinking and drinking heavily over a long period of time can seriously affect your body in a negative way.
Brain Damage
Binge drinking causes many things such as blackouts, memory loss, and anxiety. Moreover, long-term drinking can also cause permanent brain damage and alcohol dependence. This is horrible because not only can your body get severely damaged, but your brain starts to depend on the alcohol in order to function daily.
Cancers
Did you know that drinking alcohol is the second largest risk factor for mouth and throat cancer? In fact, it’s second only to smoking which is the largest risk factor. Additionally, cirrhosis of the liver is often caused by heavy alcohol consumption. This is really dangerous because it can lead to liver cancer. Finally in women, alcohol can be dangerous since it can cause breast cancer and even affect a women’s child if she is pregnant.
Heart and Lungs
Alcohol not only affects your brain, but two of the other most crucial organs in your body; the heart and the lungs. Alcohol leads to high blood pressure, which is extremely dangerous since it can lead to having a heart attack or stroke. In the long run, is also weakens your heart muscles which basically affect all the other organs in your body including the lungs and brain. Lastly, people who drink lots of alcohol have a higher chance of catching lung infections and suffer collapsed lungs.
To sum up, heavy long term consumption of alcohol can lead to so many health risks for your body that are not worth it to go through. These are just the physical affects, but many people who are dependent on alcohol or drink heavily also damage their relationships, dreams and aspirations.
REAL LIFE STORIES
Samantha
“When I was thirteen, friends would make fun of me if I didn’t have a drink. I just gave in because it was easier to join the crowd.
“I was really unhappy and just drank to escape my life. I went out less and less, so started losing friends. The more lonely I got, the more I drank. I was violent and out of control. I never knew what I was doing. I was ripping my family apart.
“Kicked out of my home at age sixteen, I was homeless and started begging for money to buy drinks. After years of abuse, doctors told me there was irreparable harm to my health.
“I was only sixteen but my liver was badly damaged and I was close to killing myself from everything I was drinking.”
Paul
“By the time I was in my mid-twenties I was locked in to drinking.
“A lot of my first concerns were about drinking, and everything else came second. I started to realize that when I did not have a drink I had a sense of panic and I would start shaking.
“If I had to go without a drink, I would go through shakes and sweats. I couldn’t go for more than a few hours without a drink.”
Jan
“When I went to quit drinking, I realized that alcohol had taken to my body in such a way that I couldn’t stop. I would shake like I was going to break, I would start to sweat, I could not think until I had another drink. I could not function without it.
How To Say No
How To Say No
The best way to say no is to be assertive.
Assertive means to show confidence and have a forceful personality.
This could be difficult to do. However, if you follow these easy steps, you will definitely be able to say no.
1. Make eye contact
2. Try not to say "umm"
3. Give a reason or excuse
4. Be honest and confident
By following those steps. You will not be forced into doing something that you don’t want to do.
But a foolproof way of saying no is to avoid the situation as a whole. If you don’t end up facing that situation, there is no possible way for you to make a wrong decision and end up doing something that you could regret later.
FOR HELP WITH DRINKING
Drunk driving is a major problem in Canada. MADD (mothers against drunk driving) is an organization that hopes to end drunk driving. You can find lots of useful info or even donate for the cause to support them in ending drunk driving.
Email: info@madd.ca
Website: http://www.madd.org/?referrer=https://www.google.ca/
Location: 2010 Winston Park Drive, Suite 500 Oakville, Ontario L6H 5R7
Phone: 905-829-8805