Deconstructing the Myths and Perceptions Surrounding Alcoholism

Getting into the habit of having a few too many on the weekends might seem like a surefire way to throw yourself into the clutches of alcoholism. Although regular binge drinking can certainly push those predisposed to the illness down the wrong path, alcohol isn’t the actual cause of alcoholism. There are numerous risk factors for alcoholism that underlie it, such as family history with alcohol, cultural experience, and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. For example, if one of your parents is an alcoholic, you are four times as likely to develop the illness than individuals in the general population are. The fact that many people view alcohol as a fairly harmless substance only exacerbates another common myth surrounding the illness: those who fall into alcoholism simply don’t have the willpower to handle it.

Alcoholism is a mental illness that can take its toll on the physical health of those suffering from it and tear apart their personal lives. Unfortunately, many people—without understanding the sense of helplessness that alcoholism creates as it throws you into a downward spiral of alcohol abuse—see alcoholism as something that can be stopped through sheer willpower. One study found that the alcoholic brain shows a reduction in white matter in regions of the brain important for learning new behaviors and impulse control; this is damage that increases with the level of alcohol consumption. Willpower goes only so far: with the nature of these neurological changes and the way that they affect how alcoholics perceive the world, it’s easy for the illness to take control.

Catherine Brawn Fortier, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and co-author of this study, explains the devastating effects of alcohol on particular brain regions:

The idea that alcohol affects the brain has been established for decades. We now can use neuroimaging techniques to see, in vivo, that alcohol has wide-ranging effects across the entire brain that contribute to a wide range of changes in psychological abilities and intellectual functions. These brain areas are critical to learning new information and, even more importantly, in self-regulation, impulse control, and the modification of all complicated human behaviors. In other words, the very parts of the brain that may be most important for controlling problem drinking are damaged by alcohol, and the more alcohol consumed, the greater the damage.

Alcohol is one of the most dangerous substances to detox from. Many believe that the decision to stop drinking is one that has to happen only on the behavioral level when, in reality, the effects that alcohol dependence has on the brain make quitting cold turkey a potentially life-threatening process. If your body has developed a high tolerance to alcohol, abruptly stopping can lead to dangerous side effects including hallucinations, mental confusion, seizures, and death. Gaining the desire to get clean is a positive step forward, but after making this decision, you must ensure that you have the help of a residential treatment plan to slowly wean yourself off of alcohol and ensure that you can take the right path toward a safe recovery.

Society’s perception of an alcoholic is typically one that consists of living in squalor, the unkempt addict drinking from a brown bag in an alley. However, alcoholism affects people of all socioeconomic statuses and can have equally devastating effects on physical and emotional health regardless. In fact, research has revealed a positive correlation between success and drinking, shattering the typical image of an alcoholic. The ability to hold down a job and be successful doesn’t preclude the possibility of alcoholism; it’s an illness that can take hold of people of all backgrounds. At the end of the day, many high-functioning alcoholics become skilled at hiding the illness behind the mask that they portray to the world, and they suffer through it in loneliness.