I would say that there is a high probability that you know someone that is either in your family or a friend of someone in your family that has dealt with the consequences that alcohol brings. Alcohol can take a toll on our lives whether we abuse it or not. Maybe you are not personally affected by the consequences of alcohol in your life, but we as a society need to understand that there is a huge issue with people who abuse alcohol and cause these issues. Unless we address and spread the word about the consequences of alcohol and how it can end up being an issue in people's life nothing will change. These problems caused by alcohol will continue as if society is admitting defeat on a serious topic that needs to be addressed. In this essay I will explain the effects that alcohol brings onto people's physical, mental, and emotional health.
First, I am going to discuss the physical effects that alcohol can bring into people's lives. As I stated earlier there is an issue on our hand whenever it comes to people and their alcohol. We can see all the time that people are not just dealing with the mental and emotional consequences. With the mental and emotional consequences of alcohol, we can see that a physical issue is at hand. People are not just being hurt on the inside, people are dying and being abused because of it. There are people who are being abused by their spouses because of their alcohol issues (Finan, 61). We can see people who are not able to go on their day-to-day course because they are being preoccupied with not just the want but the need for alcohol. Not only are people not able to go on with their day to day lives because of alcohol, but they do not want to go out and do things with others. They themselves know that at some point their issue will take them over and they will have to come up with some sort of reasoning for leaving their friend or family to go and get what they need to remove that inner need for alcohol (Black, 21). Not only am I talking about having to change their routines randomly based upon their needs and avoiding plans because of the need for alcohol. I am talking about life and death for people. I am talking about people being addicted to alcohol to the point in which they die from drinking way more than they need to and are poisoned (Finan, 148). There are people who are locked up in prison who can’t get their needs or even medical attention that they need from alcohol who end up killing themselves (Finan, 251). Once again though I am not only talking about the death of people who just had drinking issues. There are children who suffer from their parent's issues and their own. Some parents think that they can’t help but to fuel their issue and would rather do so than feed and nourish their children (Finan, 14). Teenagers are dying every year because of all of the issues that alcohol can bring upon them and their friends (Nelson, 107). We can see that there are many physical effects and consequences that are brought by drinking alcohol. Whether or not you drink alcohol you can still deal with the issues that are brought by it.
The second thing I am going to discuss is the mental issues that come with drinking alcohol. Once again, these things can cause issues on people other than the person who drinks. The mental consequences that are brought by alcohol can even start at a young age. Children who drink are highly more likely to end up have alcohol dependence problems later in their lives (Nelson, 109). Alcohol can not only get you pulled over from not being able to drive correctly but once you get pulled over you can tend to think to yourself that you are fine. You can think that it is not your fault that you got pulled over and what this does is make it where your brain wants to think that it is not at all your fault and that your drinking was not at fault. It makes you want to think that your drinking is okay and that you can continue. Mentally you deny all responsibility for the actions caused by drinking just to continue on your way (Black, 20). Your actions as an alcoholic can cause others to not understand their life and why they are stuck with you. It can seem to them as unfair and they can question their own beliefs like their religion (Al-Anon, 9). As I said earlier, we saw that people would actually end up killing themselves whenever they could not get alcohol or treatment in some situations or even just becoming depressed and letting alcohol influence their decision of suicide. We can see that alcohol can mess with your mentality in a very weird way to the point in which you would consider or possibly commit the unthinkable, suicide. Whether it be direct or indirect we can see these effects cause people to hurt them or even end to killing themselves. We can see that alcohol in many ways can mess with your mental state and abilities.
Lastly, I will discuss the emotional effects that are brought by alcohol. We can already see where some of this is heading based on the previous text. We see people ending their lives over issues involving alcohol. This can cause emotional times in their friend's and family's lives. We can see children being rejected by their parents, and you may ask yourself what emotional effects would this have on them? People who are dependent on alcohol are very emotional because some of them know they have an issue and do not know what to do about it. What are they to do other than beg for help from doctors and people that can hopefully help? They have a dependency, and in their minds, they know that it may not be the best but it is needed for their body at that point in their lives (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 29). Alcohol users can get emotional withdrawals as well as mental and physical (Black, 23). The spouses of alcohol users can feel very emotionally stressed because their life is so difficult and complicated, and as if they are the only ones with this type of issue with their spouse. Although alcohol plays its part in many families throughout our world (Al-Anon, 252). The emotional effects and responses are not taken as serious compared to the others but as we can see it can be very damaging to the user, family, and friends.
Clearly, there are a lot of effects that alcohol brings onto people and their lives. Alcohol can bring effects that are physical, mental, and emotional. We can see the physical consequences in their lifestyles, abuse, and suicide. We see the mental issues in their dependency, denial, and thoughts. The emotional effects can be seen in the user, the family, and friends. Alcohol can be used correctly but when not treated for serious issues these effects can become an issue in everyone’s life and possibly fatal.