“I will never become addicted to alcohol because I can easily control myself!” say both educated men with much hope for the future and teenagers who are overwhelmed with youth maximalist. Do you also have something similar in your mind right now? Then make a cup of tea, settle comfortably in a sofa and read carefully this article, because what we want is to make you completely aware of the fact that everyone including you might already be addicted to alcohol. The primary changes caused by alcohol are invisible because they appear in brains. Addicts do not become addicted with the intention to destroy their lives and to cause upset to those they love, as the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says. It all starts with changes in brain. It does not matter whether this is only the first bottle of beer – even the first stiffener will cause your brain and nervous system fail to operate successfully for a short time.
It is important to remember that, of course, after this first stiffen your brain will be able to resist alien bodies (ethanol) and keep functioning normally again, but if drinking continues in short periods it may result dramatic changes in brains. It is particularly impossible to detect when the addiction starts, but usually it is when drinking becomes regular and body’s ability to produce special chemicals is diminished because the alcohol replaces these chemicals. Deprived of its own resources (and the ability to create them) the body perceives that it needs alcohol to function and demands alcohol physical cravings. You do not believe us? Then look at yourself! Can you remember any party or just sitting with friends in a bar where you have not drunk in order to be in a good mood or to have an effect of euphoria? If the answer is ‘yes’ then you already are a potential alcoholic.
A person already is an addict if he starts to drink alone. It means that the appetite regulating mechanisms which are in the hypothalamus of the brain become impaired. This person does not want to eat anymore because these mechanisms are deranged and the person feels disgust towards food – alcohol is the only one who is attractive and can satisfy his physical needs and the body’s demand for it increases. After having reached this stage obviously follow doing almost anything to get a glass of vodka, hurting or ignoring friends and family, behaving like a child because now the brain degenerates – its functions are simplified and communication and coordination diminishes or fails. The addict cannot face him anymore and then the circle begins as it was in the story of the Little Prince (Sent-Exziperi) who met a heavy drinker who was stuck in a ‘circle of drinking’.
The reason for drinking becomes the ashamed feeling of the fact of drinking. To become an alcoholic is so easily because it is difficult to notice where the alcoholism starts, and when it starts, it can become unstoppable. Therefore, it is important to watch yourself and others and to detect addiction, because nowadays alcoholism is one of the most stubborn diseases of the humankind.