Depressants

Alcohol

__//**How does Alcohol affect youth vs. Adults in general? **//__



As youth develop they are going to just unintentionally gravitate towards be haviours that are impulsive, and they may seek something that is going to give them a different feeling than they normally would like alcohol and other drugs. This basically is what you can call experimentation and youth are more prone to experiment with substance like this than others would be. The reason being is youth are drawn towards rebellion in that they realize they are not supposed to be doing these things, but they are going to do it anyways to see what my consequences will be. If there are no consequences and nothing happens, that is when youth are more prone to continue with the behaviour. Subsequently as youth grow and develop if their consumption of alcohol increase between the ages of 18 to 24, and they are binge drinking at least once a week which consists of five or more drinks at night they may start experiencing problems. These problems range from minimal maybe missing a class or a day of work to greater where attaining the goals involved in normal development like marriage, educational attainment, employment, and financial independence has difficulties or failures. Alcohol also has seemed to be a major factor and has high correlation with youth who are considering, planning, attempting, and completing suicide. In one study, 37 percent of eighth-grade females who drank heavily reported attempting suicide, compared with 11 percent who did not drink (National institute of alcohol abuse and alcoholism, 1997). Even during late adolescences this is a time where the brain development is still at a crucial time, and when you add in alcohol it disrupts the brains overall levels of change and functioning in order to properly develop (Brown,2008). If an individual continues using alcohol into adulthood we know that alcohol affects individuals be reducing their inhibitions and levels of making appropriate judgement calls. What this means is when individuals are under the influence of alcohol they are less likely to make good decisions, and it will also affect their motor skills so they are not as inclined to be driving or operating any type of machinery. Since it lowers inhibitions it puts individuals into risky situations where they would not normally put themselves into. An example is a women at the bar who is heavily under the influence of alcohol is at greater risk of sexual abuse because she is not completely aware of what is going on around her. Heavy use of alcohol also puts individuals at risk of health problems like developing a fatty liver or complete liver failure which is called cirrhosis. It also is an irritant which affects individuals esophagus, gastric system, pancreas, and because of the high sugar content individuals can develop diabetes (pharmacology, 2013).

__//**How does Alcohol affect Mental Health Overall? **//__ There has been a high correlation of youth ages 12-16 who use alcohol regularly and the diagnosis of conduct disorder. There is also a correlation of boys ages 6-17 years of age with ADHD and have less of a social relationships had higher rates of alcohol abuse than other boys their age who either had higher levels of social functioning with ADHD or who did not have ADHD at all. Another study with post-secondary students have shown higher relations to anxiety disorders and depressive disorders and alcohol abuse. In general though it is well known that problematic use of alcohol has high correlations with depression and anxiety disorders. It is also known with extremely heavy use to develop alcohol induced psychosis (National institute of alcohol abuse and alcoholism, 1997).

When an individual has high alcohol consumption which leads to some sort of psychosis but they are also diagnosed with schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder, it’s difficult to determine whether or not the psychosis or psychotic episode is resulting from the substance or the disorder. It can become very confusing and some may misinterpret one for the other. There is a difference though between psychoses brought on by alcohol rather than because of a disorder like schizophrenia. Some of these differences are psychosis develops later in life, they have a higher level of depression and anxiety symptoms, better insight and judgment, and they have less functional impairment (Zhongshu, 2013).

__//** What’s the difference with Schizophrenia? **//__ Alcohol has a high dependence liability, and when mixed with a psychotic disorder like schizophrenia causes many other issues for the user, and can have further ramifications of developing a dependence. Since alcohol is sometimes used to mask individual’s personal problems, having this disorder and using alcohol for that purpose can give these individuals negative reinforcement when consuming the substance (National institute of alcohol abuse and alcoholism, 1997) (pharmacology, 2013). Looking at schizophrenia as a whole, a great number of individuals use alcohol along with their prescription or non-prescription drugs to cope with their disorder. When Alcohol is taken with individual’s antipsychotic medication, it has a sedating effect so the individual becomes very tired and drowsy (CAMH, 2012).  About half of youth who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis also have or will develop a substance use disorder. Primary Addiction Theory" gives reason to why individuals with schizophrenia have a greater chance of developing a substance problem or using in general. It is based on research that talks about there being a commonality in the cause of schizophrenia and substance-use disorders. “For example, a person could be born with a genetic predisposition to both schizophrenia and substance use, or these could appear together in response to stressors in an individuals environment. Another possible explanation is that the two disorders could develop independently but in some way affect one another. People with schizophrenia who take illegal drugs and/or abuse alcohol are more likely to have relapses, are more likely to require hospitalization. These individuals are also less likely to respond well to treatment because of the many factors going on in their life. Alcohol can interfere with the effectiveness of medications used to treat psychosis, and gives reasons to why individuals will stop taking their meds as well Alcohol too creates problems. It has also been said that individuals who are abusing are less likely to continue and go to their community treatments. Alcohol can increases depression which is a huge problem for people in the early stages of schizophrenia especially, and like discussed previously getting adequate treatment for these individuals is very difficult ("Schizophrenia and substance," 2007).