Alcohol drinkers have various reasons why they drink. You don’t drink just to get drunk. Some people say drinking is a way to socialize, to unwind, to relax after work, or to have good times with friends.

For others, drinking is an escape to the real world. Serious problems confront us everyday. One way to forget about them is to get some booze. This constant escape leads to frequent drinking sprees. Before you know it, you’re addicted to alcohol. This can lead to alcoholism.

Others drink to overcome introversion. Drinking alcohol can make you less inhibited. When drunk, you become outspoken, aggressive or strong. However, when you consume more than what your body can take, you start to lose control. You can become out of control, promiscuous or rude.

Why drink? In some countries, people prefer alcohol over coffee or fruit juices. They enjoy its taste and usually have it regularly as their beverage.

Whatever reasons you have for drinking, it is undeniable that alcohol drinking can have short and long term effects to your life.

Short Term Effects

Alcoholic drinks, when consumed, can provide harmful effects to your body and behavior. When you consume large quantity of alcoholic beverages, it can result to psychological and physiological short term effects.

The psychological effects of alcohol abuse include rapid change in your mood. This change in your mood may vary. You may feel sociable. At other times, you can become anti-social.

Decrease in Anxiety

For some people, drinking can be relaxing. It can decrease anxiety and calm your nerves. In fact, the effects of alcohol are considered similar to the effects of anti-anxiety medications.

However, drinking too much alcohol has many destructive consequences like loss of memory, liver damage and even brain damage. These serious health problems can results to more anxiety when coping and finding ways to cure symptoms of those dreaded diseases.

Poor Motor Skills

Alcohol affects some organs of your body. When intoxicated, it can blur your vision, as well as desensitized your taste and touch.

Your normal activities and body function are affected. When you are drunk, you may accidentally bump into things. Unknowingly, you start to talk loudly and move slowly. You lose coordination. You are not be fit to do normal driving.

When drunk, your judgement is impaired. You will also have poor impulse control. Your ability to operate any device or machine is also affected.It is not safe for you to handle a knife or gun.

Because of hangover, you cannot function the next day due to physical discomfort, dehydration and mental lapses.

Unconsciousness

After a bout with too many alcoholic drinks, you may pass out.  This is very dangerous. It may be a sign of overdose.

An alcohol overdose suppresses your gag reflex.  You can die when vomiting while unconscious. Immediate emergency help is required when a drunken person loses consciousness.

Anterograde Amnesia

When you had too much liquor, you may experience short-lived alcohol induced amnesia. This may range from forgetting what you just did hours ago, or forgetting where you parked his car.

Intoxication can also cause a blackout. Alcohol blocks your ability to relay short term memories to long term memory.

Central Nervous System Depression

This kind of depression is caused by alcohol. It is characterized by drowsiness, lack of coordination and slurred speech.

When you are intoxicated, you suffer from confusion and feel lethargic.

Stupor

Stupor is an indication that alcohol poisoning has started. This is a stage when your body cannot anymore clear the toxins due to alcohol metabolism.

When this happens, you lose your strength to stand or walk. You cannot control body functions. You will experience uncontrolled vomiting.

Long Term Effects

Alcoholic beverage advertisements say “Drink Moderately”. The warning is a precaution against over-indulging in alcoholic drinking.

Alcohol, when consumed regularly and in large amounts can destroy cells in your body in the long run.

Liver Damage

Drinking for many years can cause liver disease. The recommended amount of alcohol to be taken by adults is 14 units maximum per week. But this can vary between male and female.

Because alcohol metabolism happens in the liver, too much intake can adversely damage your liver. Fatty liver, hepatitis and liver cirrhosis are alcohol-induced kidney diseases you must be aware of.

Fatty Liver

The first stage of alcohol-liver damage is fatty liver. Because of heavy drinking, your liver cannot breakdown the fats during metabolism.

Hepatitis

Alcoholic abuse causes liver inflammation or hepatitis. This happens when your liver cannot filter out your body toxins and they remain in your bloodstreams.

Cirrhosis

Alcoholism can impact your liver through the years. When alcoholic hepatitis remains untreated, your liver can deteriorate. This results in scarring. Your liver will not function well as compared to the time before scarring occurs. Because of this, your body cannot generate enough protein. It cannot wash out toxins effectively.

Cirrhosis is considered the most fatal effect of long years of hard liquor drinking. The symptoms of alcoholic liver cirrhosis are jaundice, skin itching and portal hypertension.

Stomach and Intestinal Ulcers

Excessive alcohol intake increases your risk of having an ulcer. It can start from simple gastric problem to serious stomach ulcer.

Too much indulgence in alcoholic beverages can irritate your stomach lining. This can lead to stomach ulcers. When you already have ulcer but still drink alcoholic drinks heavily, your symptoms may worsen.  You are at higher risk of developing stomach cancer.

Stroke or Death

Hypertension is common among heavy drinkers. Too much alcohol intake can increase blood pressure to very dangerous levels.

Some people argue that alcoholic drinks are good for lowering your blood pressure. According to doctors, men can have only 2 drinks while women are allowed only one drink in a day. This is still normal.

However, regular drinking in frequent and high amount is not a good idea. Its long term effects are risks to your health. When combined with unhealthy habits and lifestyle, you are in danger of other health issues.

No physical activities or exercise, overweight and too much salt consumption can cause elevated blood pressure. With these, you are at risk of having stroke or heart attack. Alcohol-induced hypertension can be very fatal — it can lead to sudden death.