Most people like to go out to grab a bite to eat and relax with a glass of wine after a hard day’s work. While that image sounds lovely and refreshing, that is not how drinking is described for some that drinks to solely get inebriated. Chronic drinking is a stage of alcoholism that is characterized by prolonged, frequent, and heavy alcohol abuse. With the inability to quit due to the obsessive nature of alcoholism, many alcoholics have a variety of interpersonal and legal problems due to drinking.
Dependence on alcohol not only brings about withdrawals with the cessation of alcohol, but alcoholics find themselves unable to stop once they start drinking. Chronic drinking is manifested by genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors.
Genetic factors
Alcoholic genes can be passed onto the next generation making them possibly predisposed to having an addiction themselves. Not everyone gets the genes that are passed down, but should approach drinking in any capacity carefully knowing the risk factors of having an alcoholic family member.
Psychosocial factors
Addiction can become an issue because of learned behavior. An alcoholic’s thoughts and behaviors may be skewed since they are typically not ready to admit that they have an addiction because they want to drink like a normal person.
Environmental factors
Drinking is socially accepted due to it being readily available and legal. Commercials glamorize alcohol and spirits, but do not show what happens when an addiction pursues. Marketing agencies are good at putting specific ad campaigns in specific markets to target specific drinkers based on race and gender.
Drinking alcoholically really takes a toll on the body. Not only does it weaken the immune system, but alcohol can also make the body more exposed to infectious illness by dropping the white blood cell count. Brain function is also affected negatively by disrupting balance and fine motor skills. When someone is a chronic drinker, they care more about drinking alcohol then they do about eating any food, making them be deficient in vitamins and malnourished. Major organs also get hit pretty hard with alcoholism. Liver disease and heart disease can complicate things for an alcoholic who cannot stop drinking.
While chronic drinking is a fact of life, it does not have to be. When alcohol is consumed in access over a significant period of time, it wrecks your soul, your mind, and your body as a whole.
Serenity Oaks Wellness Center provides holistic therapies that can reconnect the soul, the mind, and the body. If you or somebody you know has a chronic drinking problem, help is here. Contact one of our staff member to get you on the right path. Call us today to get started: 844-720-6847
