Alcohol addiction - the dark truth

Alcohol addiction – the dark truth

Jul 24, 2022 News

Health Facts

By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – Alcoholism in the simplest term is described as the addiction to the consumption of alcoholic drinks. While addiction in any form is never a good thing, alcohol addiction has some uniquely harrowing effects on a person’s health and social wellbeing.

Dr. Travis Freeman of the Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) Unit of the Ministry of Health explained that owing to the culture in Guyana where “rum” and other forms of alcohol is present at almost every function or social gathering, it is quite easy for persons to access and oft-times abuse the substance.

The DDR Unit officer pointed out that alcohol falls under the category of psychoactive substances.

He explained that “Psychoactive substances affect how the brain works, it affects changes in the mood thoughts, or behaviour.” This means the judgment of an alcohol user or abuser is often impaired.

While speaking on Kaieteur Radio’s Your Health Matters programme, Dr. Freeman emphasised that while alcohol use in Guyana is not prohibited, it lends to some severe health and social issues.

He noted in many cases persons are introduced to alcohol use very young but because of individual genetic make-up and susceptibly to the feeling the substance brings, some people tend to get hooked on it. He noted that this form of addiction usually creeps up on a person.

According to Dr. Freeman, the habit may come as a desire to be socially accepted in a certain clique or group, and then before they realise it, they have developed an uncontrollable dependence on alcohol.

He noted that a person with an alcohol problem not only drinks excessively, meaning too many to count at one time, but he/she would sacrifice relationships, finances, job, social standing, and basically anything of value just to drink and satisfy their craving.

The medical officer noted too that very often an alcoholic or substance abuser has a lot of underlying matters influencing their use.

“People often deal with stuff affecting their lives; financially, family life, peer pressure, or sometimes it is just something they do not wish to confront in their lives so they get high to avoid it, etc…,” he said.

The medical officer noted there are several health complications of alcohol use. “Severe alcohol use damages key organs in the body. In Guyana, that is one of the main causes of cirrhosis liver…that is damage to the liver and eventual death. There is also the impact on the brain and nervous system, alcoholism can result in the development of dementia or forgetfulness at an early stage…” he added.

He continued that many people fail to realise that these are mental health issues; drug addiction, or substance use disorder, is a brain disease.

“We need to exercise empathy because alcohol or drugs affect your brain, making it difficult to stop using, even if you want to. The first step to addiction treatment is seeing the problem and deciding to get help,” he quipped.

As stated by Dr. Freeman not only does alcoholism affect individuals but it has a severe social impact. This is cited in a 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) report on alcohol use in Guyana.

According to the report, alcohol use results in substantial costs to society including property damage, job loss, and health service costs.

“Alcohol use has many potential consequences including accidental falls, burns, drowning, brain damage, impaired driving resulting in accidents, deaths, and injuries, poor school performance, work productivity loss, sexual assault, truancy, violence, vandalism, homicides, suicides, lower inhibitions, increased impulsivity, risky sexual behaviour, early initiation of sexual behaviour, multiple sexual partners, pregnancy and STDs.”

That WHO report also points to evidence that dates to 2010 when on average, Guyanese consumed more than 8 litres of pure alcohol compared to the global figure of 6.2 litres.

Data from Guyana shows that youths who start using alcohol before the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence and two and a half times more likely to become alcohol abusers than those who wait until the age of 21.

According to Dr. Freeman, the Ministry of Health has seen the need to treat this phenomenon with a public health approach and as such, the DDR Unit has been working with private non-governmental stakeholders at the Salvation Army and the Phoenix Drug Rehabilitation Centre to help people get intervention, treatment, rehabilitation from alcoholism and other forms of addiction.