One of the concerning facets of alcohol use is the fact that many people are not aware that the way they drink is problematic. A lot of people gauge their relationship with alcohol, good or bad, on the way they see their peers drink. People shouldn't form impressions on their use based on what they see with others. What ends up happening, much of the time, is that men and women keep drinking in harmful ways for great lengths of time; dependency, alcohol use disorder, and physical harm is often the result.
Alcohol is ubiquitous and harmful drinking is pervasive in the U.S. It is unlikely that alcohol will ever be replaced as the go to substance for both times of happiness and sadness. With that in mind, we must do everything that we can to educate people about the costs of prolonged, habitual drinking patterns. In every sense, this a matter of life and death.
Nearly Half of Imbibing Adults, Drink Too Much
Young adulthood is typically a time of excess; once children leave home to begin writing their story, they find themselves no longer bound by restrictions. Young adults can make decisions for themselves, including how much or how often they consume alcohol. Many such individuals indulge in their newfound freedoms; in some ways, we can expect that those embracing their twenties will consume copious amounts of liquor and beer. For some, for most for that matter, will let up on frivolous drinking as they get older and settle in with the responsibilities of life, i.e., career and family. But, and for a not small number of men and women, alcohol ends up playing a significant role in their life.
New research suggests that nearly half of the adults in America who drink alcohol, consume too much and they do so for many years, Science Daily reports. Researchers from Boston University School of Public Health found that about 40 percent of U.S. adult drinkers drink in potentially dangerous ways. What’s more, the research shows that 73 percent of high-risk drinkers were continuing to imbibe perilously two to four years later; and 15 percent of non-risky drinkers started drinking harmfully by the end of the research period. The findings of the BU study appear in the Journal of Substance Use.
"Some people just stop drinking too much, but most continue for years, and others not drinking too much will begin doing so during adulthood," says lead author Richard Saitz, professor of community health sciences at BUSPH. "Public health and clinical messages need repeating, particularly in young adulthood. Once is not enough."
Without intervention people are likely to keep drinking in harmful ways, Saitz adds; and, he says that more must be done to interrupt at-risk drinking patterns, according to the article. As an aside, it’s worth mentioning that research appearing in the British Medical Journal this week shows that since 1999, deaths from cirrhosis of the liver rose roughly 65 percent in the U.S. Such deaths are increasing 10 percent a year among Americans ages 25 to 34.
Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment
Harmful drinking patterns can, and often do, result in the development of alcohol use disorder. Without treatment and a program of recovery, the outcome of excessive alcohol use is never promising. If drinking is severely impacting your life, please contact Celebrate Hope at Hope By The Sea to begin a journey of lasting addiction recovery.
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