ALCOHOLISM AND ITS REMEDIAL ACTIONS

Addiction to alcohol is alcoholism. Addiction is very complex and takes many forms. There are many factors which increase the use of alcohol such as genetic, familial, social, medical and economic and peer pressures. CAUSES OF ADDICTION Addiction is a multi-faceted phenomenon with many theories of causation. One well-documented cause is genetic. There are some abnormal genes that occur more frequently in males than in females which predispose males to being more susceptible to addiction. There are also strong predispositions for a son to become addicted if the father is an addict or alcoholic. The over-indulgence of alcohol and intoxicants is mainly caused by the stress of poverty in both the rural and urban environments or by peer pressure particularly among the youth. Other causes include illiteracy, pressure of tests exams for students, or the erroneous belief that alcohol is good for health. Behind addiction there is a psychiatric problem, such as depression, manic-depressive psychosis, insomnia disorder or anxiety disorder. Childhood trauma is the deepest cause. Stress, economic pressures and dysfunctional social systems are the main triggers of alcohol and drug abuse. Addiction is common in families where there are authoritarian or patriarchal attitudes and physical violence. HARMFUL CONSEQUENCES Alcohol is the widespread substance of addiction in India and it has the harmful effects on the physical psychological health of alcoholics, their families, the work place and society Alcohol addiction is far more prevalent in men. Alcohol has harmful consequences since it exacerbates the impulses of an individual. The alcoholic behave abnormally. The alcoholic cannot stay away from alcohol for even a single day. He is preoccupied with thoughts of alcohol or searching for and acquiring alcohol, at any time during the day or night. The effect of alcohol consumption such as hangover,headache,impaired judgement,unclear thinking,emotional instability,depression and inability to face stress,adversely affect his functioning. He cannot do his job properly, he neglects or harms his family, he loses interest in his children and he neglects himself, his wife, his work colleagues, his society and all his responsibilities. LACK OF AWARENESS There is a lack of awareness and knowledge about the dangers of substance abuse especially among people in rural areas, which is one of the reasons for the high rate of addiction. In rural areas where people are less educated, very poor and often illiterate, learning takes place through imitation. During a ceremony or social gathering, a young man drinks alcohol, following the example of the older men and the habit is born, eventually becoming an addiction. This is the routine procedure for an individual to become an alcoholic. ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN INDIA Recent trends in alcohol demand suggest that alcohol consumption is rising fastest amongst developing countries. In India, there has been a significant growth in recorded sales in the last decade after the 1992/93 trade liberalization. Analytical studies at state level suggest a strong link between alcohol consumption and crime,violence,and alcohol-related illnesses. Abuse of alcohol in India has reached 20 to 40 percent of the population in many areas.In certain rural areas,it has reached to 70 percent. ALCOHOL ACCESSIBILITY Alcohol abuse and dependency are aggravated by easy availability of liquor. Government authorities turn a blind eye to the illegal activities of producers and sellers. The sale of alcohol and the excise it generates is a major source of revenue for the different states and Central Government and there is a little incentive to limit or control the production and distribution of alcoholic drinks. If there is prohibition in one state, people will go to the next. The mass media is free to publicise and glorify the use of alcohol. Television advertising of alcoholic drinks glamorises the product. HARMFUL EFFECTS Any form of alcohol is a poison. It damages brain,liver,kidneys,pancreas ,duodenum and central nervous system. Drinking alcohol causes a number of incurable diseases affecting the liver, lungs,kidney,stomach and brain. It consumes the physical,mental and moral energies of man and shortens human life. ADDICTION IN THE FAMILY Alcohol reduces a person‟s self-control and stimulates violence has the severe consequence that most of the money earned, by the alcoholic male is spent on cheap liquor and little money reaches his wife and family. Thus financial deprivation is further abuse of the wife and family. In the early stages of addiction it is passed off as normal because no one is being drastically affected. As the addiction progresses, the alcoholic‟s behavior becomes erratic and the family starts resenting it and demanding that he be an effective parent and spouse and take responsibility for the functional aspects of being the head of the family. His unpredictable behavior may lead to daily conflicts and problems between the couple. It has ruined many promising careers,wrecked many happy homes and impoverished many rich and prosperous families. It is a cause of crimes. Under the influence of drink, people have committed adultery and such other hineous crimes as the murder of their own wives and children.The use of liquor makes a man forget all decency.It destroys the peace of family life. ADDICTION IN THE WORKPLACE At the workplace,the early stages of addiction may manifest simply as absenteeism,an inability to concentrate and reduced performance. His absenteeism increases and he often takes leave without pay. Eventually, it leads to loss of production and depending on whether he has a secured government job or a less secured job in the private sector,he loses his economic independence. If a man consumes alcohol before going to work,he is more likely to over react. ALCOHOL AND DRIVING If a person who has drunk beyond certain limits it affects his capacity to drive safely. He drives recklessly, breaking traffic rules, overtaking other vehicles indiscriminately and is more prone to causing accidents. His impairment is serious, for he loses his ability to focus and judge speed and distance, skills which are extremely important while dealing with machinery or while driving. Whether driving a two wheeler or a four wheeler, statistically, the number of accidents that occur to people who are driving under the influence of alcohol is much greater than those not influenced. There is also a much higher chance of head injuries. The highest number of head injuries in accidents occurs to people driving under influence of alcohol because their ability to control their body on impact and protect themselves is diminished. Nowadays the younger generation celebrates occassions such as New Year by using considerable amount of alcohol at parties and the number of car accidents among young adults that night is very high. ADDICTION IN WOMEN AND DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY Addictive behavior in women is the same in practice s it is in men. The medical complications and detrimental effects are worse for women because the female body is tolerant of the poisonous effect of alcohol and other drugs. A pregnant mother‟s addiction harms her offspring. The child may be born with birth defects; it may be underweight, emotionally unstable and have difficulty with learning and forming relationships and/or be born with an addiction. This is called foetal alcohol syndrome. Women‟s rate of addiction, however, is less than men. This is partly because of a greater sense of responsibility to the children, as well as overall greater emotional and psychological strength which may be a consequence of socialization. However, by trying to buffer the stress from their husbands, women become enablers and end up making matters worse. This behavior is compounded by the fact that women and girls are socialized into accepting and adjusting to inappropriate and abusive spousal behavior. Society expects this from the wife and in this way the social norms contribute to the problem of alcoholism. Among the middle classes, particularly members of the extended family tend to blame the wife for a man‟s drinking. They fail to realize that alcoholism is a slow and progressive disease. It is likely that his drinking started early in life and at the time of his marriage the signs of alcoholism were undetectable. His impairment becomes evident much later. The wife is unlikely to have played any role in its inception, yet she is blamed by her in-laws. This adds even greater pressure to her difficulties in coping with the irresponsible and erratic behavior of her husband. The dysfunctional family is the fertile ground that produced the alcoholic or addict. An alcoholic man may introduce his wife to alcohol so that she does not nag him about his alcohol use. When both are sitting and drinking, who is going to nag whom? Until about 20 years ago in India, there was a social taboo against drinking in front of others, especially the elders or children. Nowadays drinking is considered much more socially acceptable. Children who come from alcoholic families may begin as social drinkers, but have an inherent weakness to develop abnormal patterns of drinking rapidly. One factor is that children of addicts have a genetic predisposition to becoming addicts themselves. When Gandhiji thought about what type of country India would be after the independence,he dreamed of a land free from intoxicants,but since the independence use of alcohol has increased. He strongly wanted to introduce prohibition in India. Gandhiji said,If I were appointed dictator for one hour for all India,the first thing I would do would be to close with compensation all the liquor shops.He believed that prohibition was very essential to safeguard and protect the lives of poor labourers and workers REMEDIAL ACTIONS To become free from addiction, a dependent person requires medical and psychological therapy as well as spiritual empowerment. The spiritual component is essential to sustain the sobriety of recovering addicts. A public awareness programme on the subject of alcoholism and other forms of addiction would be valuable. It is ineffective simply to tell people not to drink alcohol or to say that it is bad. To understand how to deal with alcohol withdrawal, one need to understand what happens to the body by the usage of alcohol. The contributory causes, the harm of alcohol and its pattern of development need to be clarified. The progression of drug abuse has to be shown clearly, using illustrations from people‟s experience, so that the public can see where drug and alcohol abuse lead. Conventional complementary therapies are available to treat drug and alcohol addiction through some hospitals and clinics These include medically supervised detoxification, management of withdrawal symptoms and psychotherapy. Meditation is also used as a therapy because of its surprising effectiveness in supporting long term recovery. The conventional treatment that the psychiatrists give for abuse is psychotherapy and counseling and usually the patient is able to quit. Sometimes, he might require some mild,antianxiety or anti-depressant medication. Treatment generally starts by detoxification and addressing the withdrawal symptoms.This usually requires hospitalisation.The patient needs to be under constant medical and psychiatric supervision throughout this period. Formal psychiatric treatment involves individual counseling and other kinds of therapies like group therapy, family therapy and self-help groups. Patients are encouraged to participate in 12 Step self-help groups or at traditional religious organizations because any spiritual practice assists in the process of rehabilitation. The 12 Steps of alcoholics anonymous , We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable, We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, . We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him, We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrong, . We were entirely ready to have God, remove all these defects of character, We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings, We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all, .We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others, . We continued to take a personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our Conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry out that. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. These steps have become the blueprint for overcoming any addiction.