Substance abuse or drug and alcohol addiction involves ingesting or administering harmful substances to our bodies. Given this, it can be expected that the continued use of these substances will have negative effects on our bodies. For alcoholism, the effects include short and long term effects, both of which can be life threatening. Some long-term physical effects include increased susceptibility to liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and other life threatening diseases. On the psychological aspect, alcoholics may also develop certain mental illnesses as a result of alcoholism. However, among the two, it is the short-term effects that can affect not only the drinker but other people as well because some of these short-term effects are enough cause deadly accidents. Some short-term effects Some of the short-term effects of drinking can happen in as short as ten minutes after you begin drinking, and as you continue to drink, the effects you may feel may have more serous repercussions. Some of these include reduced inhibitions, wherein your behavior may change and you may end up engaging in activities that you would later regret and memory loss as a result of increased alcohol levels in your blood and which affects your brains control mechanisms. Other short-term effects also include the loss of muscle control, which can lead to slurred speech or falling accidents and stupor, which makes you unable to function and disoriented. In extreme cases, drinking a large amount of alcohol can cause you to go under a coma, have respiratory paralysis and die. All these symptoms have detrimental effects on the drinker and other people. An example of which is when you decide to drive a car even if you exhibit these short term effects of alcohol consumption, which most likely cause you to have an accident that not only endangers your life but of those who are on the road as well. Given this, it is very important that people are not only aware of the long-term effects of prolonged alcohol dependence since the short-term effects are as serious and as fatal. |
