What is alcohol abuse exactly? It can refer to a night out or it can refer to habitual misuse or over-consumption of alcohol. While you can always recover from a night out, when your body is constantly processing alcohol, it's going to cause damage over time that will be tough to reverse-- if not impossible.
If you're a woman and you're roughly supposed to have a drink an hour to maintain blood alcohol levels, and you have two drinks in an hour for the next three hours, you're going to be drunk and in less control over how you make choices and respond to situations. That could be classified as alcohol abuse because you're using the substance in a manner that results in intoxication.
It can also refer to just a chronic abuse of alcohol. Abuse can be similar in some ways and different in others, happening for different reasons or motivations. Abusing alcohol does not even necessarily mean that there's an alcohol addiction there. However, abusing alcohol does open the door for addiction. Men are supposed to drink 2 drinks a day and 1 a day for women maximum to stay healthy and avoid causing damage to the body. More than that can be problematic.
It just seems like a drink. It may be different colors, it may have bubbles. Alcohol can seem benign because it tastes good, and it can be festive. However, that does not prevent it from causing real damage.
The more alcohol there is present in the blood, the more that there may be serious side effects that happen in the body. That can be things you unintentionally do, like accidents due to lack of coordination, as well as the physical fallout in the body of continually dealing with alcohol, because being drunk can cause damage to major organs in your body.
Alcohol hits the bloodstream from your stomach lining and 33% of what you've imbibed goes straight into the blood. The small intestine slowly absorbs the rest. Consuming too much alcohol means more alcohol in the blood rising quickly and then makings its way to the brain, heart, and more once in the blood.
Too much alcohol in the blood that goes to the brain means that your brain is getting literally flooded with the alcohol. That causes a disruption in the neural pathways that interferes heavily with the neural messaging network. This can cause a number of effects, including mood change, behavior change, difficulty thinking clearly, coordination problems, and more.
Alcohol abuse has an effect on your body. It can damage your heart and cause cardiomyopathy, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and stroke. The liver detoxifies your system and views alcohol in your system as a contaminate. So, they release enzymes specially produced in the pancreas and liver so that they can break down the alcohol so that it's not so toxic.
If it's doing this all the time, the liver will become inflamed and result in manifestations such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis. The pancreas will also become inflamed and lead to potential development of pancreatitis, which is inflammation. That swelling prevents your body from digesting things properly and can also damage other systems as well. That damage can be irreparable once it gets to a certain point.
On top of this, chronic use can raise your risk of getting cancer in your throat, mouth, and esophagus. This is perhaps because of the constant oral intake where the cells are constantly degenerating due to the abuse. You're also at higher risk for breast and liver cancer too. You're also risking developing a weak immune system that is less adept at fighting off diseases.
Alcohol can really damage your body over time. If you have a problem, consider going to substance abuse rehab and pursuing a different lifestyle. If you can change paths now, you will be healthier in the end and better off for it. Chronic alcohol abuse is guaranteed over time to diminish quality of life or health or both. Change your path now...while you still can.
