Топик: Substance abuse: Alcohol Consumption and alcohol dependence among the youth (Социологическое исследование проблемы алкоголизма среди студентов)

Loss of interest in food

Mood changes (anger, irritability, violent outbursts)

Personality changes (jealousy, paranoia)

Repeatedly driving under the influence

Injuring self or others while intoxicated

Carelessness about appearance

Slower thought processes, lack of concentration, confusion, trouble remembering things

Financial problems caused by drinking.

Physical symptoms may include:

Nausea or shaking in the morning

Poor eating habits

Abdominal pain

Chronic cramps or diarrhoea

Numbness or tingling sensations

Weakness in the legs and hands

Red eyes, face, and/or palms

Unsteady walking or falls

New and worsening medical problems.

Three distinct stages of alcoholism.

* Early Stage. A person in the early stage of alcoholism uses alcohol as a coping device to relieve tension or escape from problems. The alcoholic must drink more and more to achieve the same effect and has trouble stopping after one drink. The alcoholic makes promises to quit drinking but never follows through.
* Middle Stage. An alcoholic in the middle stage of alcoholism cannot get through the day without alcohol and may need a drink in the morning to overcome the "shakes." The middle-stage alcoholic will begin to manipulate others, lie about drinking, and may drink in secret or hide alcohol. It is harder and harder to get the same effects as tolerance increases. Irregular heart beat, hypertension, loss of appetite, irritability and insomnia are physical and psychological problems at this stage. The alcoholic denies that drinking is a problem.
* Late Stage. The alcoholic now lives to drink and avoids and distrusts others. All ambition is lost and the drinker is unable to cope with responsibility and is often absent from work. A late-stage alcoholic may suffer from reverse tolerance: the brain and liver can no longer tolerate a high level of alcohol, so the drinker becomes impaired after even small amounts of alcohol. Malnutrition, nerve dysfunction, loss of memory, mental confusion, impaired vision, hypertension, heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver can occur during this stage. If drinking stops, There are severe withdrawal reactions. Late-stage psychological problems include shame, guilt, severe depression, violent behaviour, low self-esteem, loss of control of emotions, loss of concentration and learning ability. At this point, the alcoholic "hits bottom." The alcoholic may continue to drink despite pain or disability. The only viable alternative is to seek treatment.

Long- term effects of alcohol.

Frequent and prolonged use of alcohol has many detrimental effects on the body. Heavy drinkers develop a tolerance for alcohol, which means that larger amounts of alcohol are needed to get the desired effect. A drinker is physically dependent if withdrawal symptoms are experienced when alcohol use is discontinued abruptly. Symptoms vary but include delirium tremors (the "DTs"), cramps, vomiting, elevated blood pressure, sweating, dilated pupils, sleep problems, irritability and convulsions. Most of these symptoms will subside in two to three days, though irritability and insomnia may last two to three weeks. Psychological dependence occurs when the drinker becomes so preoccupied with alcohol that it is difficult to do without it. Short-term memory loss and blackouts are common among heavy drinkers. A blackout, which is an amnesia-like period often confused with passing out or losing consciousness, results when the drinker appears normal and may function normally; however, the person has no memory of what has taken place. Research indicates that blackouts are associated with advanced stages of alcoholism, and there is a correlation between the extent and duration of alcohol consumption during any given drinking episode and the occurrence of blackouts.

Treating alcoholism.

The sooner alcoholism is detected, the better the chances of recovery. There are several effective treatment methods for alcoholism, and what works for one person may not work for another. Many options should be explored when seeking help. Local or state health organisations can be contacted to find out what treatment alternatives exist in each community.

Sociological research.

Reasons for choosing the questionnaire as a method of my survey and a sample design.

I chose a questionnaire as a method of a data collection primarily because of the lack of ability (mostly time) to try to conduct an interview. Secondary, I consider the interview to be the inappropriate type of a survey in the case of such a delicate problem as alcoholism. An interview, no matter formal or informal, might provide a large bias I the data, thus in the analysis, because many people may consider it to be undesirable for them to let others know the bare truth about their lives. Moreover, an interview can not be anonymous (at least the interviewer would be initiated in your problems). I also did not manage to avoid an overt participant observation…

As this sociological research is of a small scale (a sample of 36 persons) and was held among the students from one university (HSE), it did not include such complicated (and unnecessary in this case) methods of data collection as a telephone survey or mail survey, the refusals problem was eliminated. Though, just because of the same circumstances, it has a bias of representing only the smallest part of the Russian youth: Moscow students and my research would be more descriptive than analysing.

The multistage sample was conducted in the following way: 4 out 5 specialities were observed (I did not have the access to jurisprudence) and the representatives were chosen by a random sampling (using the table of random digits and student lists) according to a proportion of number of students on each speciality. Thus I have got 14 representatives of the economic speciality, 10- of management, 8- of sociological and 4- of the ICEF.