YOU - yes, you - DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING???????

Pepe LeFrits

READ:

For most people, alcohol is a pleasant accompaniment to social activities. Moderate alcohol use -- up to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women and older people (A standard drink is one 12-ounce bottle of beer or wine cooler, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits) -- is not harmful for most adults.

Nonetheless, a substantial number of people have serious trouble with their drinking. Currently, nearly 14 million Americans -- 1 in every 13 adults -- abuse alcohol or are alcoholic.

Several million more adults engage in risky drinking patterns that could lead to alcohol problems. In addition, approximately 53 percent of men and women in the United States report that one or more of their close relatives have a drinking problem.

The consequences of alcohol misuse are serious--in many cases, life-threatening. Heavy drinking can increase the risk for certain cancers, especially those of the liver, esophagus, throat, and larynx (voice box). It can also cause liver cirrhosis, immune system problems, brain damage, and harm to the fetus during pregnancy.

In addition, drinking increases the risk of death from automobile crashes, recreational accidents, and on-the-job accidents and also increases the likelihood of homicide and suicide. In purely economic terms, alcohol-use problems cost society approximately $100 billion per year. In human terms, the costs are incalculable.

Alcoholism, which is also known as "alcohol dependence syndrome," is a disease that is characterized by the following elements:

Craving: A strong need, or compulsion, to drink.

Loss of control: The frequent inability to stop drinking once a person has begun.

Physical dependence: The occurrence of withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety, when alcohol use is stopped after a period of heavy drinking. These symptoms are usually relieved by drinking alcohol or by taking another sedative drug.

Tolerance: The need for increasing amounts of alcohol in order to get "high."
Alcoholism has little to do with what kind of alcohol one drinks, how long one has been drinking, or even exactly how much alcohol one consumes.
But it has a great deal to do with a person's uncontrollable need for alcohol.

This description of alcoholism helps us understand why most alcoholics can't just "use a little willpower" to stop drinking. He or she is frequently in the grip of a powerful craving for alcohol, a need that can feel as strong as the need for food or water.

While some people are able to recover without help, the majority of alcoholic individuals need outside assistance to recover from their disease. With support and treatment, many individuals are able to stop drinking and rebuild their lives.

Many people wonder: Why can some individuals use alcohol without problems, while others are utterly unable to control their drinking? Recent research supported by NIAAA has demonstrated that for many people, a vulnerability to alcoholism is inherited.

Yet it is important to recognize that aspects of a person's environment, such as peer influences and the availability of alcohol, also are significant influences. Both inherited and environmental influences are called "risk factors."

But risk is not destiny. Just because alcoholism tends to run in families doesn't mean that a child of an alcoholic parent will automatically develop alcoholism.

The Hill Billy

Seriously off-topic in this forum.
Mods - Suggest it should be moved to Personal Issues & poster given a ticking-off for flaming.

WhiteWashMan

Hill Billy wrote:

Seriously off-topic in this forum..

how is it off topic?

Hill Billy wrote:

.
Mods - Suggest it should be moved to Personal Issues .

is it a personal issue?

Hill Billy wrote:

poster given a ticking-off for flaming.

who is the poster flaming?

Blub2k4

WhiteWashMan wrote:

how is it off topic?



is it a personal issue?



who is the poster flaming?

You are a mod of this forum so one would have expected you to read the forum charter at the very least.

Charter wrote:

Not Tolerated

This is not a forum designed to promote underage drinking, binge drinking, alcoholism, abstinence, pioneers, peoples’ personal agendas about the evils of drink, other peoples’ personal agendas about beating a quick path to cirrhosis of the liver or any kind of alcohol-related violence whatsoever. Alcohol is not bad. People are bad. QED macho stories of alcohol-related violence, or threads about alcohol leading to violence, will result in immediate banning from this board. If you want to harp on about the home-wrecking abilities of a bottle of gin, go to the humanities forum. Warnings will be given to posters who fail to recognise that this is a forum about alcohol, not about their personal lives. Bannings will be handed out thereafter to repeat offenders.

noby

I have to agree with Hillbilly.
What is your point, Pepe?

The Sweeper

MB, behave yourself. The B/W/S forum isn't about the evils of alcohol. Moved to humanity.

Pepe LeFrits threatened with a severe beating in the Vauxhall area. If you spam the forum on the evils of alcohol, Mike, I WILL ban you.

amp

I guess the topic then is the evils of alchohol and such. Annnnnnd play ball!

Zombrex

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

READ:

OK

Wow, thanks for pointing out alcoholism existed, I'm sure most people had no idea :rolleyes:

This is a discussion board, do you actually have a point, a question or a topic of debate?

If you just want to make people aware of alcoholism a link to a medical website probably would have done the trick, if it was even necessary.

GuanYin

Unreferenced pimping is caled plagiarism, kids.

On a serious note.... ermmm I agree that the Irish culture tends to be "drink to get drunk and enjoy oneself" rather than the more european "drink while enjoying oneself". South Park said it best, its all about "dishipline"

Dades

I blame the weather.

Most of the year it's too cold to be outside so we stay in the pub. Then in summer when it gets warmer, the governement runs those ad campaigns to get everyone to drink cider outside from a pint glass with ice.

DublinEvents

I actually have never been able to fathom the reason for drinking alcohol. If you think about it, it's a fuel. You can set it on fire. Now why the heck would you drink something that is inflammable??? I have never even tasted alcohol and my life is so much better without it. Alcohol is just like tobacco. You know it's harmful. You know it ruins lives. But like a God damned hypocrite, you choose to close your eyes and let these God damned capitalists sell poison just coz it makes money. Great!

Ciaran500

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

Alcoholism, which is also known as "alcohol dependence syndrome," is a disease

And thats where I stopped reading

DublinEvents wrote:

I actually have never been able to fathom the reason for drinking alcohol. If you think about it, it's a fuel. You can set it to fire. Now why the heck would you drink something that is inflammable??? I have never even tasted alcohol and my life is so much better without it. Alcohol is just like tobacco. You know it's harmful. You know it ruins lives. But like a God damn hypocrite, you choose to close your eyes and let these God damned capitalists sell poison just coz it makes money. Great!

Something being flammable is no reason not to drink it. If you burn fat or grease you can get alot of energy from it.

Also, don't knock it till you try it although I'd agree with you about people that go out just to get langered.

Wibbs

DublinEvents wrote:

I actually have never been able to fathom the reason for drinking alcohol.

Many drinks that contain it are very pleasant to the palate for a start. In small doses it has a relaxant effect and in small doses also has a therapeutic effect.

If you think about it, it's a fuel. You can set it to fire. Now why the heck would you drink something that is inflammable???

Weak argument. Sugar is also a fuel. Hell you could set fire to meat. In fact I do, every time I try to BBQ.

I have never even tasted alcohol and my life is so much better without it.

How would you know(and don't say it's like heroin. it's not)?

Alcohol is just like tobacco.

Eh hardly.

You know it's harmful.

To some. To most it's not.

You know it ruins lives.

True it can. Many things can, but we don't ban them. Many people are addicted to food.

But like a God damn hypocrite, you choose to close your eyes and let these God damned capitalists sell poison just coz it makes money. Great!

Huh?

Zillah

DublinEvents wrote:

I have never even tasted alcohol and my life is so much better without it.

Uh, thats a fairly ridiculous thing to say. How can you claim your life is better without it without having lived some of your life with it?

You do realise that people, most people, enjoy alcohol without harming themselves or others? The reason they do so is because its fun.

Dades

DublinEvents wrote:

But like a God damned hypocrite, you choose to close your eyes and let these God damned capitalists sell poison just coz it makes money. Great!

I'd just like to draw your attention to one of the links in your sig...

Just look at those hypocrites!