The bottle is never too far from the hand of Mr. Smith. He goes home and yells at his children. He sometimes hits them and his wife, too. When the family isn't fighting, they're not talking. Mrs. Smith is depressed and the kids are emotionally wrecked. This situation isn't as fictional as it may sound.
             Alcoholism is a widespread problem all over the United States. 104 million people (46.6%) in the United States are current drinkers, and 12.6 million (5.6%) are heavy drinkers. Although massive damage can be done to the body by abusing alcohol, the waste is not limited to just the alcoholic. Alcohol can destroy the social and private lives of any person who abuses it.
             The destructive power of alcohol can be made into a cycle. The cycle begins with the consumption of alcohol. What alcohol does is activate the "pleasure circuit" releasing dopamine, producing a feeling as low as mild happiness or as high as euphoria. Chronic use of alcohol will kill off dopamine receptors and essentially make it harder for the user to be happy. The simple things that made the user happy before, like a good conversation or a good book, will be seemingly useless (Newsweek 2001, 40). When alcohol is first consumed, it passes almost immediately into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, it shoots for the brain and begins its reign of terror instantaneously. Naturally, just a few drinks won't make the drinker notice any obvious effects, but the more alcohol is taken in, the more obvious it becomes. A person's inhibitions are what gives him a sense of what to do and what not to, and are one of the first things to go. Once the inhibitions are gone, the drunken individual is susceptible to doing or saying a number of things he/she wouldn't.
             This cycle continues by progressively decaying life at home. In an article written in Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, it was written that alcoholic fathers spoke less, smiled less, and were generally much less sens...