Effects Of Alcoholism

It is said that if you are an alcoholic, you will not be the only person to suffer for it, but your friends, your boss, and definitely your family will suffer greatly from the effects of alcoholism. It is well known that some of the effects of drinking are impaired memory, slowed reaction times, slurred speech, blurred vision and difficulty experienced in walking.

Thus it is very clear that the brain is affected by alcohol, however each of the difficulties listed in the last sentence can actually become chronic. Therefore it stands to reason that when a person drinks heavily over a lengthy phase of time that person may have brain deficits that will continue to persist well after that person achieves sobriety.

Blackouts, which are suffered equally by either men or women, may have had some rather serious effects of alcoholism on the drinker. For instance, those who suffer from alcoholic blackouts find out that they had willingly participated in either potentially dangerous or actually dangerous events. These include having had unprotected sex, drunk driving and sometimes vandalism or being involved in other practices that are clearly against the law and would not have caused participation by the alcoholic had they not been drinking and thus feeling the effects of alcoholism.

The list of such effects seems to be rather endless when one takes into consideration such things as developing cirrhosis of the liver, or suffering alcohol–induced damage to the heart muscle such as cardiomyopathy, as well as nerve damage such as peripheral neuropathy. Unfortunately the effects of alcoholism are very far-reaching and definitely as grim as they can be.

It appears that at least 80% of alcoholics may suffer from Wernicke’s encephalopathy, also referred to as the Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome. The great doctor, Wernicke, describes mental confusion, difficulty with all muscle coordination but especially with paralysis of the nerves that move the eyes.

Other doctors who have followed up on this disease caused by alcoholism, report that a given patient may be having huge problems in remembering old information, which is called retrograde amnesia, or they may instead have difficulty with anterograde amnesia, which means that they cannot remember new information. Thus they may be able to thoroughly discuss in great detail an event that happened early in their lives, but in less than an hour later might not remember even having had that particular conversation.

In cirrhosis of the liver, what the liver does is it breaks down alcohol into harmless by products and then clears them from the body. However, with prolonged liver dysfunction, many become brain damaged, called hepatic encephalopathy. This in and of itself causes extreme changes in sleep patterns, moods, as well as giving the patient a different personality; and psychiatric conditions involving extreme anxiety and depression, severe cognitive effects like a highly shortened attention span; as well as extreme problems with coordination. This kind of patient may flap or shake their hands, but in most serious cases, the patient will slip into a coma that is fatal.

You may want to check out my other guide on alcoholics anonymous meetings and what is alcoholism

Effects Of Alcoholism

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