Alcohol use
There is considerable number of drugs that scientists consider as addictive. Scientists define addiction in terms of a how a given user depends on a chemical for survival. Drugs are substances that individuals utilize to enhance their feelings. Enhancing feelings is a broad and subjective clause that may refer to happiness, emotional stability, awareness, and tranquility. In other cases, people utilize drugs to enhance confidence. Alcohol serves most of these purposes by effecting different feelings to different users. Over time, alcohol manipulates the user such that one gains psychological and physical dependence on the drug. Alcohol, therefore, is the world’s most addictive drug because it highly affects the brain.
High rates of alcohol addiction relates to the high availability of alcoholic beverages in markets. From ancient times, marketers and entrepreneurs were aware that alcohol shares a huge revenue potential. This promotes leisurely attitudes towards alcoholic beverages (Sher, 2008). For instance, in France, natives regard wine as an integral part of daily life in the society (Sher, 2008). This pattern repeats in Germany, where individuals partake of beer as a normal accompaniment to meals. In turn, young individuals adopt these attitudes while using alcohol. Such individuals will not regard alcoholism as detriment to their bodies, but as a social trademark justifying them as ideal members of a particular society.
Alcohol controls a user’s body by manipulating the brain’s reward center. When a user takes alcohol, the drug stimulates the brain’s reward center toward hyperactivity. This occurs in spite of the fact that benefits may not physically manifest. Dependence arises out of the fact that alcohol increases a user’s confidence towards the addictive substance while cutting down the confidence on the normal things that had previously defined such a person’s life. Dependence begins from a physical level and proceeds into the psychological level. Confidence in alcohol replaces other coping feelings thereby restraining the normal working system of the body. Eventually, the subconscious memory informs the body that alcohol is a substance needed for living a normal life.
Alcohol use entails one of the worst withdrawal symptoms. Long use of alcohol suppresses the body’s normal chemistry thereby eventually suffocating the natural reward system. In turn, when alcohol is not present in the user’s body, feelings of panic arise. Attempts at surviving without the drug do not affect the brain’s reward system. This situation of misery entails feelings of irritability, anxiety, and tension. When the body lacks alcohol, it creates psychological and physical pain that signals that the body is in deep distress. It is essential to emphasize that the length and severity of withdrawal symptoms vary according to the extent of destruction to the normal reward system (Gifford, 2010). Common withdrawal symptoms include depressions, shaking, craving, and insomnia.
Alcohol is the world’s most addictive drug because it highly influences the brain. Alcohol is one of the most available drugs in the world. In turn, individuals easily develop casual attitudes about its use. These attitudes stream into the subconscious of affected individuals thereby limiting their rationality to perceive the negative effects of alcohol use. This is worse in the case of young people growing up in affected societies such as Germany. Alcohol severely devastates the brain’s reward center by suppressing normal triggers of satisfaction. This continues, as alcohol becomes the sole trigger of satisfaction in an individual’s body. Alcohol also entails severe withdrawal symptoms that deter users from quitting alcohol drinking.
References
Gifford, M. (2010). Alcoholism. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO.
Sher, L. (2008). Research on the neurobiology of alcohol use disorders. New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
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