Addictions [1/3]

Today I would like to talk about addictions.

  

Alcoholism

 

Various ways of becoming addicted to alcohol have been identified. Some people drink until getting drunk to begin with, while others start from consuming acceptable amounts of liquor in the company of other people (in which case their drinking gets out of control only gradually). In both cases, from a certain point onwards, their lives start revolving more and more around alcohol (while everything else ceases to matter). Alcohol addiction is not an inevitable result of every case of hard drinking. When the addiction starts to take shape however, it always progresses in a few easily predictable steps.

 

The first step can be described by the impact of liquor consumed on behavior. On that stage alcohol causes mood swings or momentary euphoria that suddenly turns into depression. Getting drunk still is under control but the amounts of alcohol consumed are gradually increasing.

The next step can be characterized by focusing one’s entire life around drinking. Craving occurs in the morning. The circle of one’s acquaintances shrinks and becomes limited to just other drunkards. In this case, the worst problems arise in the sphere of interpersonal relationships. Financial difficulties and problems in school or work are also very common.

Step three cannot be called anything but alcohol obsession. Continuous drinking, lack of response to bodily reactions and overall condition of one’s organism occur at this stage. The dangerous habit often causes blackouts and may even lead to death.

Alcohol consumed in excess is not only a problem of the poor and undereducated, as we often tend to think. Alcohol addiction affects people from the worlds of science, business, politics, and culture alike. Why do some individuals cope with a drinking problem and do not develop alcoholism, while others are drown into addiction? The answer is: it is probably all in the genes. It has been proven that children born into a family with a history of alcoholism are much more bound to become addicted than other children their age. This means that some people inherit a kind of a tendency to alcoholism.

Workaholism

 

Workaholism is a state of dependency on work which causes an perceptible imbalance in daily life. It has been concluded that workaholics tend to be urgent, perfectionist, yet uncertain of themselves, timid, undervalued, and afraid of other people. Typically, those are ambitious people, the ones who like to compete and win, and who crave for success at any cost.

 

A person who flees from conflict situations, independent of what caused such a situation, is under threat of developing workaholism. Therefore, the origins of workaholism are roughly the same as in the case of other similar addictions. Negative effects of overwork may be of different intensity, starting with what can be called normal burden and ending with extreme work overload which can be a great threat to one’s health.

Young businessmen focused on career are too tired for love. They often live by themselves. The same applies to women. Currently, more and more educated women puts their career first. Marriage or birth of children move away to a later stage in life.

“Coffeholism”

 

Caffeine is derived from the bush with a rather friendly name coffea arabica. We consume it in coffee, tea, coke, energy drinks like Red Bull or Tiger, and chocolate, as well as in yogurt, and candies. It originated in Ethiopia and arrived in Europe around the sixteenth century. What is the impact caffeine has on human body? Caffeine is a substance that can be easily abused. Often people drink two, three, and even four coffees during any single day. This can lead to serious caffeine intoxication.

Signs of such poisoning may be:

abnormal thinking, tremor, anxiety, sweating, flushing, chills, chase thoughts, tinnitus, brief flashes and darkness in the vision, nausea, abdominal pain, dizziness, cardiac arrhythmia, arrhythmia pulse.

A large dose of caffeine causes paralysis of the heart muscle and respiratory paralysis.

We should also consider the positive aspects of drinking coffee and other caffeinated products. Coffee stimulates metabolism and excretion of urine (diuresis), increases the efficiency of thinking, makes mental and physical fatigue vanish. It may also improve memory, logical reasoning and matching processes. It also increases lung ventilation.

 

Have you ever been addicted to coffee, work, or alcohol?

Have you ever been in a similar condition?