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Alcoholism and Rehabilitation: Understanding the Effects and Solutions

Alcoholism and Rehabilitation: Understanding the Effects and Solutions

As per the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 29.5 million people (aged 12 and older) experienced alcoholism (alcohol use disorder/AUD) in the previous year.

The chronic disease is the inability to stop drinking despite knowing its negative health effects. Of course, the effects don’t show up instantly. However, by the time it does, it’s too late.

We at Seasons in Malibu offer you the necessary treatment and tools to overcome alcoholism safely and enjoy your best life!

If you’re wondering how bad alcoholism can affect you, let’s get started.

Alcoholism and Rehabilitation

Alcoholism Effects

Alcohol not only impacts almost every organ but also your mental health. Knowing them raises awareness and discourages heavy drinking. So, let’s get right into it!

Liver Damage

The liver breaks down and flushes toxins out of your system. Heavy drinking has a massive impact on your liver.

Especially if you drink a lot and fast, your liver can’t keep up. Then, alcohol kills your liver cells and forms scars known as cirrhosis – a permanent damage.

If you consume excess alcohol long-term, it can also cause other inflammations like alcoholic fatty liver disease (steatosis), fibrosis, and alcoholic hepatitis.

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Cardiovascular & Circulatory System Diseases

Excess drinking also increases the likelihood of blood clots, high-fat levels in the blood, high blood pressure, and cholesterol.

Heavy drinking also causes other serious issues, including

  • Trouble pumping blood to the heart
  • Increased risks of death from heart disease
  • Heart muscle stretching and drooping (aka cardiomyopathy)
  • Irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia)

These issues increase the chances of heart attack, heart failure, and stroke by manifolds. Further, alcoholism also causes trouble in absorbing vitamins and minerals from food. This can lead to anemia and fatigue.

Brain & Nervous System Issues

Drinking impacts the communication pathways in your brain. Thus, driving and swimming after drinking is prohibited. Alcohol impacts your brain in the following ways:

  • You can’t speak properly, causing slurred speech.
  • Your memory becomes hazy, and you can’t remember much.
  • Your decision-making abilities are affected.
  • It impacts your mood severely.
  • You can’t move your body or lose your balance. Your body’s reaction time is delayed.
  • You may experience nerve damage and associated pain, which lasts even after sobering up.

On the other hand, long-term heavy drinking may lead to some serious issues:

  • It can permanently change your brain’s appearance and functioning.
  • It damages your brain’s frontal lobe – the area responsible for social behavior, performance, abstract reasoning, and decision-making. Thus, you slowly lose all these abilities.
  • You feel tingling and/or numbness in your hands and feet.
  • Emotional regulation becomes difficult.

It may lead to permanent brain damage that affects memory, called Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome.

Pancreas-Related Issues

Heavy drinking makes your pancreas release toxins that cause pancreatitis (a dangerous painful inflammation that makes your pancreas swell). It damages the pancreas’ ability to make hormones and enzymes for digestion.

Blood Sugar Issues

If both your pancreas and liver malfunction, you might suffer from hypoglycemia or low blood sugar.

The pancreas regulates your body’s insulin usage and glucose response. So, a damaged pancreas doesn’t let your body produce an adequate amount of insulin for sugar levels. This causes hyperglycemia or high blood sugar.

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Cancer

Research shows that in 2020 alone, there were almost 750,000 global cancer cases due to drinking.

The greater amount of alcohol consumption, along with higher frequency, increases your risk for alcohol-related cancer.

Alcohol damages your cells and, to date, has caused cancer in different areas, including the mouth, voice box, throat, esophagus, liver, intestines, breasts, colon, and rectum.

Drinking and nicotine consumption together make cancer-causing chemicals enter your cells more easily. This increases the risks of mouth and throat cancer.

Anemia

Long-term drinking prevents your body from adequate red blood cell production, causing you anemia. It makes oxygen transfer around the body difficult. Anemia leads to several problems, including inflammation and ulcers.

Further, excess drinking also makes you lose appetite and skip meals. This leads to even to iron drop in your body, worsening the condition.

Immune System Issues

Excess drinking also weakens the immune system. You become more vulnerable to diseases. Individuals with chronic drinking problems often suffer from tuberculosis and pneumonia compared to people who drink less.

Digestive Concerns

Alcohol also harms your digestive system. It causes inflammation in the stomach lining, which results in nausea and heartburn. If this becomes a regular feat, you may experience ulcers and chronic stomach, gut, and esophagus inflammations.

Booze also impairs your intestines’ abilities of thiamine and B12 absorption. With ineffective food digestion, you might also experience malnutrition.

Sleep Disorders

Alcohol has a sedative effect and can make you fall asleep. However, it can cause several sleep-related disorders after the effect wears off. You can have trouble falling asleep or may wake up several times a day. It also increases the chances of sleep apnea and snoring.

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Mental Illness

If you already have anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder, booze worsens it. It also causes dementia and depression.

Some also experience alcohol-induced mental illnesses, experienced only during intoxication or withdrawal. These include bipolar disorder, psychotic disorder, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and sleep disorder.

Alcohol Addiction Solution

If you or a loved one is suffering from alcoholism, it’s best to enroll them in our luxury rehab, Seasons in Malibu – one of the best alcohol addiction rehabs. Our experienced and knowledgeable staff offers you an effective alcohol treatment depending on your needs, history, and other details.

Our team of doctors conducts a detailed medical assessment followed by a personalized detox program with withdrawal symptom management.

Treatment options also include:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT helps you understand your thoughts, feelings, and actions, identify negative patterns related to alcohol, and manage them to stay sober.
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): DBT teaches you to stay mindful, regulate your emotions, and fix any broken relationships due to alcoholism.
  • Family Therapy: This offers help to everyone in your family who’s been affected psychologically by your addiction.
  • Group Therapy: It creates a collaborative environment where you can share experiences with each other and show empathy and encouragement besides getting therapy.

Conclusion

Alcoholism severely impacts your overall health and quality of life. Understanding these effects helps address your own dependence and show compassion towards recovering alcoholics. And, if you or a loved one is addicted, seek an alcoholism rehabilitation center and start recovery!