Alcohol can have many effects on someone’s life, most of them being negative. Alcohol is a serious drug and many people often disregard the many effects that it may have on one’s body. Alcohol is actually more dangerous than people make it out to be and you should use precautions when drinking. Alcohol has many negative effects on one’s life such as health complications, social issues, and emotion problems. Excessive drinking usually differs between men and women. For men, excessive drinking may include drinking more than 4 drinks on any day or 14 throughout the week. Contrary to men, for women it is categorized that excessive drinking is drinking more than 3 drinks in a day and 7 per week. According to research, it is estimated that 1 in 4 people who go beyond these limits are associated with an alcohol use disorder, while the other 3 of 4 people, are at risk to developing a disorder. Medically, excessive drinking can affect things like having high blood pressure, strokes, more likely to have liver diseases, can affect one’s immune system, brain complications, heart problems, pancreas diseases, and can affect cancerous cells. Socially, alcohol can affect one’s family and or friends lives by causing mental complications for them like having fear, anxiety, or depression, can affect one’s job, and there is also a link between violence and excessive drinking. There are also emotional impacts that alcohol may have on one’s life in relation to excessive drinking such as affecting one’s sleep pattern, mood changes, more likely to develop depression, anxiety, or psychiatric problems with coordination. Other, less important, but still relevant factors related to drinking alcohol are things like getting help or controlling habits, underage drinking, the law system, and the effect on the economy. Another problem, dealing with alcohol, is the excessive use or expectation that college students have in relation to drinking. There are events like tailgating or watching sporting events, darties also known as “day parties”, and functions that happen during college that influence people to drink excessively. Once again, alcohol is a dangerous gateway drug, and when used the wrong way or too much, it can change one’s life in a very negative way.

One of the most influential ways that alcohol may have negative effects on someone’s life, is that one can develop medical problems within their body. The more common health risks that are seen today are liver disease, pancreatitis, cancer, ulcers and gastrointestinal problems, immune system dysfunction, brain damage, malnourishments and vitamin deficiencies, osteoporosis, heart disease, and accidents and injuries happening when under the influence. There are definitely much more health risks when involving alcohol but these are the more common ones at hand. 

The liver is one of the most common organs in one’s body that will be effected by excessive drinking. There have been many studies conducted on the effect that alcohol has on your liver and most of them will conclude that about 90 percent of individuals that heavily drink will come across an alcoholic fatty liver. Then the more one drinks the more they enable themselves to things like alcoholic hepatitis, which is the inflammation of the liver. Then going from alcoholic hepatitis about 40 percent of those with hepatitis will develop cirrhosis, which is a liver condition that scars the liver.  

Pancreatitis is also a common pancreatic disease that can come about drinking too much alcohol. Pancreatitis is a painful inflammation of the pancreas, that will most likely lead to being hospitalized. This type of health risk is more likely to happen to a long term alcoholic of about 5 to 10 years. There are two types of pancreatitis; acute and chronic. Acute pancreatitis only lasts for a few days and there is usually no permanent damage. Acute pancreatitis occurs after excessively drinking because of the enzymes entering your blood and symptoms include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and fever. On the other hand, chronic pancreatitis occurs when the pancreas is inflamed because of alcohol and it doesn’t go away, therefore it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to anymore. Symptoms of chronic pancreatitis include severe pain, weight loss, foul-smelling feces, pain in the back, and jaundice. 

Cancer is a horrid disease that is the uncontrollable division of abnormal cells.  Cancer, the word that no one wants to hear that they have, is another thing that can be the outcome to excessively drinking alcohol. This is another long term effect of heavy drinking, like pancreatitis. The different types of cancer that can be developed from alcohol are cancers of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, stomach, liver, colon, rectum, and breast. Alcohol heightens your risks to developing any of these types of cancer. Another reason to avoid excessively drinking alcohol is because you could avoid the risk of developing cancer, which is one of the most intense diseases that one can experience. 

Another health risk that can be caused by alcoholism is developing ulcers of the stomach and other gastrointestinal problems. These include things like stomach ulcers, heartburn, acid reflux, and gastritis. Alcohol can affect secretion of gastric acid, cause a delay of gastric emptying, and can also impair the muscle movements in the bowel. Excessive drinking can cause a dangerous amount of internal bleeding because of enlarged veins in the esophagus. 

The immune system being weak is another thing that may be more subject to when drinking excessively, therefore an individual would be making himself more likely to develop diseases and get sick. This happens to the immune system because when alcohol is consumed, it drops the white blood cell count. 

Another high risk involving one’s health when abusing alcohol is one is more feasible to having brain damage. When drinking alcohol, one’s body undergoes the altering state of brain receptors and neurotransmitters, therefore this effects one’s thinking ability, emotions, and reactions to different things. Alcohol is considered a central nervous system depressant, and this means that is causes problems with processing information and decision making. Alcohol also effects serotonin and GABA receptors and this may reduce one’s fear, therefore they are more likely to things that involve taking risk or getting in trouble. Another way that the brain is effected by alcohol is that it influences motor coordination and balance, and can cause injuries from falling or running into things. Memory is another thing effected by alcohol and can be as serious as developing permanent dementia over long term alcohol abuse periods, which can cause memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning. It can also make a person “blackout”, or not being able to remember anything that they may have done after excessively drinking. 

Malnourishment and vitamin deficiencies is an obvious health risk because one is not taking care of their body the way they should be when deciding to partake in excessively drinking. When a heavy drinker eats the nutrients are not broken down the way they should be and the energy is not effective within one’s body. Another thing effected by alcohol is that bleeding from gastric ulcers could possibility lead to iron deficiency anemia. 

Osteoporosis is a condition where the bones on one’s body lose tissue and become fragile. One would never think that alcohol could affect something like the breakdown on bones, but surprisingly it does. This increases the risk on someone fracturing their bones during an accident. Alcohol also has an effect on calcium, vitamin D production, and cortisol levels which makes individuals more prone to potential bone weakening. 

Heart problems are another thing that could be obtained from alcohol abuse. Things like high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, heart attack, sudden cardiac death, and stroke could be causes by excessive drinking. The heart, being a vital organ in one’s body, being affected by alcohol is a major health risk because one needs their heart in order to pump their blood throughout their body. 

The last major health risks that involves alcohol is it is more likely to be in an accident or obtain an injury. Drinking alcohol excessively, one is putting themselves in danger in relation to getting in a car, driving a boat, drowning, or even suicide and homicide. Alcohol is the leading cause of most of the injuries that come into the emergency room, caused by stupid decisions and carelessness. 

Medically, the effects that alcohol could have on someone’s body should be enough of a reason to avoid alcohol abuse or excessively drinking. Every time one makes the decision to drink they are putting themselves more prone to develop any of these health risks, along with the many others that are not listed above. The more one drinks chronically, the more one is harming their body. Alcohol, when taken in more than able to metabolize, is stored in the bloodstream, therefore alcohol is being circulated throughout the body, which is the major reason why alcohol comes with the many health risks. A major factor that can affect one’s probability to developing any of these health risks of alcohol is their age. The younger one is, the more prone they are to develop these diseases and health problems because their body itself is not finished developing fully. This being said, people who start to drink at a young age are 4 times more likely to attain alcoholism and put themselves more at risk to developing these health risks. 

Medical reasons having to do with one’s health isn’t the only thing that effects one’s life when drinking alcohol. Drinking alcohol can also cause problems socially, such as problems with one’s family, friends, job, and reputing a bad reputation for oneself. 

Alcoholism has a huge effect on the people around you. Alcohol causes people to have an altered judgment, therefore when under the influence people may not make the best decisions in regards to the people who they love, being their family. These can happen in ways like physical, mental, or verbal abuse when under the influence, divorce of parents, emotional problems to the rest of the family, and other hardships. When someone is under the influence, they may become abusive because violence towards family members is common because the alcoholics thoughts and decisions are altered and may misinterpret what the victim is trying to tell them. When a child has an alcoholic as their guardian they are more likely to be fearful of their surroundings, have anxiety, and eventually become depressed. They may also be afraid to make new friends because they are embarrassed of what they might think or to have them over at their house because they never know what could happen. First hand, I can relate to alcohol affecting my life because growing up as a kid, my dad was an alcoholic. When I was about 5 years old, he actually ended up drinking and driving one night on the way home, hit a car at his fault, and killed a man in the marine corp. He was charged with a driving under the influence, as well as man slaughter. Me being his daughter is a great example of how excessive drinking can influence a person’s family. We were all devastated for a while and my mom was over her head, having 4 children without a father. I was only 5 years old so I really didn’t understand why my dad wasn’t around very much until I got older and my mom could finally explain everything to me and my siblings. My dad was sentenced to 6 years in prison and even now I remember visiting him in jail and just thinking he was an awful person for doing what he did. This whole experience has had a big influence on my life because I basically was raised without a father. My mom ended up filing for divorce while my dad was still in jail. I went 3 years without talking to my dad, until the day my nephew was born, he came and visited and it was really uncomfortable seeing him and even being in the same room. 

Abusing alcohol can affect the types of friendships you have or even may lose because a virtuous friendship, as I learned in philosophy, is a friendship between good men who are alike in virtue. This means that they have mutual trust, have a goodwill for one another, wish the good of the other friend, and are aware of one another’s good will. When someone is friends with someone they should both enjoy doing the same activities. When someone becomes addicted to alcohol, they could lose friendships and respect of friends because they may have different views on alcohol. Also, friendships could arise from being an alcoholic with another substance abuser because they both really enjoy drinking, which can end up in really bad situations. Either way losing a good friend that has good intentions for you, or gaining an alcoholic friend will both have negative effects on your social life with friendships. 

Another negative effect that alcohol can have is on one’s job. Alcohol abuse can lead to absences in the workplace, or just showing up later than expected. This can happen for many reasons like waking up late, waking up to a hangover, staying out late the night before going into work, waking up still drunk, or just losing motivation to go. Excessive drinking may also influence a decrease in one’s work productivity. This means that they are avoiding completing their job to their full potential and this could be harmful to themselves, and the company that they are working for. Missed deadlines is another big issue in excessively drinking and having a job. If one has tasks that are due the next day but instead decide to go out and drink with some friends, they are abandoning their responsibilities and duties. Another effect that alcohol may have in the work place is fighting with colleagues, because alcohol heightens one’s mood and may cause them to do something out of the ordinary. Carelessness is another thing that might be affected by alcohol at work. Alcohol alters one’s perception and it may be to the extreme to where the employee might just stop caring about their job in general. Therefore, alcohol abuse may lead to unemployment through different types of actions taken by the employee caused by alcohol and excessive drinking. 

Many people will act different when they are drunk compared to when they are sober. Alcohol will make people do things they wouldn’t normally do; therefore, they may misbehave in public or do something that they wish they didn’t. This could build up a bad reputation for that person and could potentially affect them socially. Alcoholics tend to misbehave at social gatherings that include but are not limited to things like wedding receptions, parties, celebrations, festivals, concerts, sporting events, functions, and many other social events that involve alcohol involving different holidays. Misbehaving at these gatherings or events can have a negative outlook socially, because then people will think differently of that person who did make a fool out of themselves and got too drunk. No one wants to have a bad reputation, and this could be avoided by limiting yourself when drinking at social gatherings or avoiding drinking generally. 

Controlling alcoholism and then getting through being an alcoholic may seem impossible to some people, but it is definitely possible. There are many groups and resources in order to help recovering alcoholics. The first step to overcoming alcoholism is admitting to being an alcoholic. This is going to take a significant amount of time to get over, but it is accomplishable with the support and love from the people who are close. The most effective way to overcome being an alcoholic is going to rehab. At rehab, one is secluded from temptations and are surrounded by people who are in the same position. Another common and effective way to recover from being an alcoholic is A.A, which stands for Alcoholics Anonymous. This is more of a fellowship to connect with other people who have had a drinking problem. This is designed to help individuals that are seeking recovering from being an alcoholic. This is a twelve step program that is used to live a life without alcohol. During A.A. meetings, individuals will tell their testimony to the members of their group, which is a safe place for them to open up and relate to each other and lean on each other to get through this phase in their life. In order to avoid becoming an alcoholic in the first place, is that one should start out drinking at the appropriate age, 21 in the United States, and they should limit themselves to begin with. Limiting intake is a very important part of drinking alcohol because then one is less likely to become addicted to alcohol. Another way to control drinking behaviors is by not drinking when emotional. Also, another way to avoid alcoholism is by not going out too often and not hanging out only with people who are drinkers as well. Drinking excessively is becoming a bigger problem but can be controlled easily and becoming an alcoholic can be avoided. 

 Underage drinking is getting significantly worse than before. Teenagers are finding it easier to get their hands on alcohol as generations go on. Alcohol influences underage drinkers the most because their brains aren’t fully developed until early 20’s so they are putting themselves at risk when drinking before the designated drinking age. The part of the brain that this most effects their brain deals with judgement or planning. Another major effect of underage drinking is that it also has a greater possibility to increase the risk of developing depression. They learn to rely on alcohol when they are emotional and therefore whenever they feel sad or not themselves they will take up drinking in order to temporarily cure their pain. Alcohol influences underage drinkers to do things that aren’t regularly like themselves, like criminal behavior or causing any types of problems. Underage drinking is becoming a problem but can be avoided by a few different ways depending on the severity, that were discussed in the previous paragraph that talks about controlling alcoholic behaviors. 

Another important factor that is related to drinking alcohol and excessive drinking is the laws in the United States. The main law is the drinking age, which is 21 years old in the United States. There are also laws associated with underage drinking like selling or distributing alcohol to youth, minors in possession, prevention of impaired underage drivers, or possessing a fake ID. There are laws for a reason and they are only there to make the environment and community safer to be in. Along with other laws, these laws are made to protect underage people from alcohol abuse. Each state differs in particular laws but most of the laws are made about the same. Things include things like different BAC (blood alcohol concentration) for different situations, the time that liquor stores may be open, what grocery stores are and aren’t allowed to sell, and many other things. The law system is pretty particular about alcohol related charges and they are usually hard to get dropped, so when consuming alcohol when or where you aren’t supposed to, one should be careful or just don’t do it. 

Insert paragraph about the economy and alcohol here

Insert paragraph about college kids and excessively drinking, effects on schooling, jobs, college career, personal image, etc. 
