Stress and Alcohol

In the world today, many people have some sort of stressor pertaining to their home life or even their job. Seventy-five percent of the general population experiences at least "some stress" every two weeks (National Health Interview Survey), and half of those, experience moderate or high levels of stress during the same two-week period. Most of these individuals seek refuge in the worlds most common and legal drug, Alcohol. They also may not see it, that is, their stress may contribute to the development of alcoholism. This is because alcoholism is usually a slow process affecting the person.

Everyone has their own definition of alcoholism, yet all have one thing in common; it is a disorder. But what is the real definition of alcoholism, and why do many people become affected with this ever-growing disease? Alcoholism is a disease in which the affected individual is addicted to alcohol. One sign of an alcoholic is that they may not drink for months or even years, but when they do, they have difficulty stopping. This is the only sure sign of an alcoholic, a consistent lack of control. Many use alcohol to boost self-confidence and to relax around others. They may drink to forget problems or to ‘relieve stress’. There have been

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One problem with this investigation is, studying lab animals was done easier because, “a definitive exploration of this connection (alcohol influences on stress) in humans has been more difficult, since that the subject can only recall certain situations, due to the affects of alcohol. Why do most humans still drink to reduce stress? As stated in the second journal reviewed, there is a folk tale saying that alcohol does reduce stress. A Person with low cognitive functioning had a high effect of alcohol.

Stress management is the key to reduce a persons level of chance to becoming an alcoholic.

Researcher found that the groups of the heaviest drinkers were made up of middle class manager, and higher-class manager of which work requires no advance skills and sophisticated knowledge. Though, in other studies he researched, the effects of Alcohol had either increased, decreased or even had no effect at all on the level of a subject’s stress. They also want to know why and how, from other research done, alcohol reduces stress, and is it true that it does. He broke down the subject into four parts: family history of alcoholism, personality traits, self consciousness, level of cognitive functioning (which means how a person processes new information entering the brain), and gender.

Some findings by the researcher’s proved that there is a direct connection between the time alcohol has been consumed and a stressor initiated on the subject. They might be the ones that have to keep the computer systems up to date and machinery in order. Or does any of those problems listed cause the person to drink heavily. Though other studies have found the family history is irreverent because some families with history of alcoholism were not influenced by the effect of alcohol. Then what is too much? Too much stress. The next group of heaviest drinkers was consisted of middle class manager, and higher-class manager of which work DOES requires advance skills and sophisticated knowledge.

Approximate Word count = 2251
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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