Drinking too much alcohol can harm your health Learn the facts

“We tend to look at smaller and smaller parts of the human body, and the human mind and the human brain,” to find the cause of something, Young said. In doing so, we lose sight of the bigger picture, including social and cultural influences that may play a role in alcoholism development. Factors including who you spend time with, how many liquor stores are near you and your religious affiliation all are linked with how much you drink, Young said. A drawback to framing alcoholism as a disease is that we tend to think of diseases as something that needs to be diagnosed by a professional, Young said. However, physicians often only meet with patients for a short time and cannot possibility have the same insight into an individual’s habits as she herself. When someone drinks alcohol—or takes drugs like opioids or cocaine—it produces a pleasurable surge of dopamine in the brain’s basal ganglia, an area of the brain responsible for controlling reward and the ability to learn based on rewards.

• Alcohol use progresses to the point that the only thing that can relieve the distress of withdrawal symptoms is drinking more alcohol.
• The dopamine neurotransmitters that manage pleasure are also responsible for eating food, engaging in social interaction, and having sex.
• Rather, they thought they had made poor choices regarding their substance use.

However, once someone’s drinking patterns become chronic, addiction changes their brain makeup, eventually causing them to lose control of their behavior. Besides the mental health portion of addiction, alcoholism is considered a brain disease because it affects its operation. Generally, alcoholism causes compulsive behavior and disrupts a person’s critical thinking ability. While researchers work hard to prove the disease concept sound and verifiable, repeatedly studies refute the impact of genetic predispositions. Strangely, cultural groups that don’t believe they can control their drinking have higher rates of alcoholism than those who believe they can.

Addiction is a disease with complex risk factors

Over-consumption literally changes brain chemistry, and as tolerance to alcohol increases, the person must use more and more to feel the same effects, further damaging both the body and brain. Those who are dependent on alcohol seem to drink at the expense of essentially everything and everyone around them – even the people they love dearly. Many people with AUD do recover, but setbacks are common among people in treatment. Behavioral therapies can help people develop sober house skills to avoid and overcome triggers, such as stress, that might lead to drinking. Medications also can help deter drinking during times when individuals may be at greater risk of a return to drinking (e.g., divorce, death of a family member). Health care professionals use criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), to assess whether a person has AUD and to determine the severity, if the disorder is present.

• Consider talking with someone who has had a problem with drinking but has stopped.
• Heavy drinking can cause physiological changes that make more drinking the only way to avoid discomfort.
• This article will discuss the causes of AUD, its symptoms, how it’s diagnosed and treated, and tips for living with AUD.
• These two organizations fund most of the treatment research that goes on in the United States.
• Heart problems or cardiovascular diseases can result from heavy alcohol use.

We also look at mental health repercussions beyond medical detox and group and family therapy. Most people struggling with alcohol use disorder might benefit from a dual diagnosis treatment plan that focuses on their addiction and mental health struggles. Addicts generally tend to suffer from anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses that make it challenging to fight addiction and stay in recovery in the long term.

What is moderate drinking?

However, it is common to suffer setbacks or relapses during substance abuse treatment. Seeking professional treatment for substance use disorders like alcoholism can help to prevent relapses and ensure long-term recovery. It’s also important to get treated for co-occurring disorders simultaneously. Alcohol addiction is a complex disease with psychological, biological and social components, and like other chronic illnesses, addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Some people can drink alcohol—and even over-indulge on occasion—without it becoming an issue. For others, drinking can turn into mild, moderate or severe alcohol use disorder, the term doctors and clinicians now use instead of alcoholism, alcoholic or alcohol abuse.

• Many of those who survive long years of alcoholism show a generalized deterioration of the brain, muscles, endocrine system, and vital organs, giving an impression of premature old age.
• Addiction is treatable and it is never too early or too late to ask for help.
• Studies show that drinking larger amounts of alcohol and the immune system’s health are related.
• If behavioral or mental symptoms aren’t appropriately treated, long-term alcohol abuse can lead to physical complications such as cirrhosis of the liver, chronic brain deterioration and, the most serious consequence of all, death.
• Alcohol abuse can cause pancreatitis, a painful pancreatic inflammation that frequently necessitates hospitalization.

If necessary, patients may receive intravenous fluids, vitamins, and other medications to treat hallucinations or other symptoms caused by withdrawal. The most severe form of alcohol withdrawal is known as alcohol withdrawal delirium or delirium tremens, often referred to as the DTs. Symptoms (which are typically experienced in addition to others caused by alcohol withdrawal) include delirium (confusion), high blood pressure, and agitation. They cannot tell whether a person has been drinking heavily for a long time. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the proper term for a condition in which there is an inability to control alcohol use despite a negative impact on health and other aspects of a person’s life. The dopamine neurotransmitters that manage pleasure are also responsible for eating food, engaging in social interaction, and having sex.

Disease theory of alcoholism

There is little question that a person exposed to enough carcinogens or radiation will eventually get cancer. With alcohol it is questionable if a person will become a problem drinker if exposed to alcohol. While cancer is a separate entity of its own within the body that first exists without the knowledge of its host, over consumption of alcohol, a substance consumed by choice, is necessary before a diagnosis can be made. That is to say that one must choose to create the condition before the condition can exist and subsequently be diagnosed. Rather than thinking in terms of cause-and-effect, it’s helpful to view the co-occurring nature of these conditions.