By JONES H. MUNANG’ANDU –
TO be able to determine whether someone is dependent or addicted to alcohol, this person must fulfill certain conditions that have been determined by the World Health Organisation (WHO), amongst others.
The following are conditions for alcohol addiction (you don’t have to fulfill all of these conditions):
• Tolerance (need more alcohol to still feel the effect).
• Psychological dependence (have a desire for alcohol, varying from very little to very much).
• Withdrawal symptoms (get all kinds of physical reactions after you stop).
• Use alcohol to reduce the withdrawal symptoms. • Failed attempts to control the alcohol use.
• Spend a great deal of time on the use of alcohol or on the recovery of its use.
• Damaging effects due to the use on the person itself and its surroundings (problems at work or school, arguments with the people around the addict, dedicate less time to hobbies, illnesses).
• Use alcohol more frequently and in higher doses than planned.
• Continue to use alcohol even if you know it is damaging for you. However, with all these addiction effects, we may ask ourselves as to why do people drink alcohol?
Well, a lot of research has been done to find and explore the reason why people drink alcohol.
From research conducted in the Netherlands among 15 to 25 year-olds, the following answers came up:
• Sociability (71per cent )
• Like the taste (51per cent)
• Feel at ease (12 per cent)
• Get intoxicated (6per cent)
• Get drunk (2 per cent) • because everybody does it (6 per cent)
• To forget problems (0 per cent).
Alcohol gets risky when you need more to feel good.
If you can’t do that anymore on your own, and you use alcohol for it, at a certain point you run the risk of starting to drink more and more each time to still feel the effects.
This can be the beginning of an addiction. If you drink to feel good, you should ask yourself if you can also feel at ease without alcohol.
A point to note is, if we drink alcohol, we should do it responsibly whilst keeping in mind that we are responsible over our own lives and toxins that weaken our physiology.
*The author is a Motivational speaker, health commentator and Health practitioner Email; jonesmuna@yahoo.com
