Understanding the Impact of Alcoholism Over Time
One of the leading reasons you must address excessive alcohol use sooner rather than later entails the severe short-term and long-term consequences of the substance on your body. While it’s true in the short term, alcohol can cause tremendous stress, chaos, and disaster to your life, there are serious long-term ramifications on your mind and body that can result from alcoholism.
What Is Alcoholism?
Alcoholism is defined as a disease. The person who is suffering from this disease has a compulsion to drink to access for various reasons. There are many different reasons why a person may suffer from alcoholism. Some clients experienced a traumatic event during their life and have been unable to work through that experience’s emotional consequences. In contrast, many other clients may be self-medicating as a result of mental illness.
Unfortunately, there are several effects of alcoholism that can potentially impact your health and well-being for the rest of your life if your alcoholism goes unchecked. A few examples include:
Brain damage
When a person consumes alcohol, they are changing their overall brain chemistry while under the influence of alcohol. When a person drinks to excess, their memory, coordination, and clear thoughts will suffer. With prolonged alcohol consumption, there is the possibility of developing Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS). This syndrome can cause severe mental confusion, paralysis in the eyes, and the inability to walk.
Injuries and accidents
When you are under the influence of alcohol, there is an increased chance that your inability to make certain decisions properly. For example, you may believe that perfectly fine to get behind the wheel of a car because you have only had a “few drinks.” You may think that it is okay to engage in risky sexual behavior because the idea seems appealing at the time. You may feel it is fun to go for a quick swim. The enormity of these decisions, however, can be life-changing.
There is a chance that because you are driving under the influence, you may injure or kill a person that it is another car that you hit. You may contract a sexually transmitted disease and find yourself battling with this physical ailment for the rest of your life. Your reaction time to treading water may be non-existent, and as a result, you might sustain serious injuries as a result of a quick swim.
Chronic illnesses
Many people are unaware that a person who suffers from alcohol is at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. People diagnosed with type 2 diabetes cannot produce certain insulin levels. As a result, you are left with high blood sugar, resulting in various physical consequences such as neuropathy.
There is a long list of other chronic illnesses that a person with alcohol addiction may face, such as cancer, liver cirrhosis, heart disease, stroke, and pancreatitis. Medically assisted treatment can play a significant role in managing these health issues alongside addiction treatment. While it’s true that some people that suffer from alcoholism may be able to improve their physical health once they stop drinking, the chances of suffering from some form of chronic illness for the rest of their life is high.
Alcohol Rehab at Muse
The Muse Treatment team understands the difficulties associated with overcoming alcohol addiction. We work with you personally to help you to develop a treatment plan in hopes that we can aid you in avoiding the long-term consequences of alcohol use. Our sober living specialists are available today to help you start the process of removing the influence of alcohol from your life. Please give us a call today at (800) 426-1818 to begin your recovery journey.
