Drinking alcoholic beverages is a staple in many cultures, including the United States. Drinking is common in many social settings, but the line between what is acceptable alcohol consumption and what is alcohol abuse is sometimes thin. Alcohol abuse can cause substantial harm, to you personally and to the ones close to you. Ensure you know how to enjoy alcohol responsibly if you decide to drink.
Alcohol Abuse
You do not have to be an alcoholic to abuse alcohol. While an alcoholic is considered to be physically dependent on alcohol, abusers of alcohol can experience many of the same symptoms of alcoholics. If you allow yourself to consume alcohol in a setting where consumption is prohibited, such as a school, work or public event, you are abusing alcohol. Making the decision to drink in such settings is a behavioral characteristic of alcoholism that should be heeded. This behavior can be harmful to you and those closest to you, as alcohol abuse can lead to isolation by making drinking a higher priority than family or work.
Drunk Driving
Drinking too much alcohol can impair your judgment. Even one or two drinks can impact your reaction time. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 30 people die every day in the United States in motor vehicle accidents that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. That's almost 11,000 people per year and close to one-third of all crash deaths in the country. The amount of blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, legally considered too high is 0.08 percent, but alcohol begins to have an impact on your judgment and behavior at a much lower level. At 0.02 percent, your visual functions are impaired, and at 0.05 percent your coordination and steering abilities decline.
Drinking While Pregnant
Alcohol can cause harm to unborn children. Every year, up to 40,000 babies are born in the United States with FASDs, or fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, according to the March of Dimes. These disorders consist of a wide range of physical and mental birth defects. Conventional wisdom holds that excessive amounts of alcohol can harm a fetus, but the reality is that even moderate or light alcohol consumption can affect it. No amount of alcohol in pregnant women has shown to be safe for a fetus, says the March of Dimes. In addition, drinking while nursing can be harmful to an infant, and mothers should abstain from alcohol completely until they are no longer breast-feeding.
Physical Effects
Drinking causes some obvious side effects, such as slurring your speech, blurred vision and poor motor coordination. These are typical short-term effects from alcohol consumption. There are, however, much more serious long-term effects from drinking that are not always obvious. Sustained alcohol abuse can lead to liver damage, fat accumulation in the liver, cirrhosis, liver cancer, heart damage, high blood pressure, coronary disease, an enlarged heart, brain damage, bone damage, sexual difficulties, reduced sperm count and menstrual problems. Externally, too much alcohol in the long term can cause you to age prematurely.
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