Alcohol Abuse and Its Effects

Alcohol abuse manifests itself in several ways. Two of these ways are tolerance and
withdrawal. Tolerance means that a person progressively increases their alcohol intake in
order to achieve the desired effect or intoxication (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
Withdrawal entails taking the same or related substance with the goal of avoiding or relieving
the withdrawal symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). These two ways are
both a result as well as a cause of various psychosocial and environmental problems. This
paper examines how tolerance and withdrawal influence psychosocial and environmental
problems, such as problems with primary support group, occupational problems, and housing
problems.
Tolerance of alcohol often leads to a person needing more than normal amounts of
alcohol. As a result, they end up using more resources to fund their alcohol abuse habit.
Withdrawal, on the other hand, leads to the person being under the influence of alcohol for
longer periods (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The result of using up a lot of
financial resources to fund substance abuse habits and not being sober most of the time leads
to myriad of problems.
With regards to problems related with primary support group, the effects of tolerance
and withdrawal can lead to disruption of family life. For instance, tolerance and withdrawal
often lead to financial problems in families and use of violence to solve family problems
(Joshua, 2017). These issues can lead to separation and divorce. They also lead to physical
and sexual abuse of spouses and neglect of children.
Tolerance and problems related to withdrawal also result in a number of occupational
and housing problems. For instance, person nursing withdrawal symptoms may be forced to
take alcohol in the morning before going to work. Being drunk at the workplace may cause

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problems with their boss and colleagues leading to, among other things, job losses. As for
housing problems, the effects of tolerance of substances and withdrawal can lead to problems
with the landlord as well as neighbors. Such discord can lead to the person being thrown out
of their house.

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References

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental
Disorders Fourth Edition.
Joshua, J. (2017). The Market and the Social and Private Costs of Alcohol Abuse. In The
Economics of Addictive Behaviors Volume II (pp. 59-71). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.