Stress and Alcohol
In the world today, many people have some sort of stressor pertaining to their home life or even their job. Seventy-five percent of the general population experiences at least "some stress" every two weeks (National Health Interview Survey), and half of those, experience moderate or high levels of stress during the same two-week period. Most of these individuals seek refuge in the worlds most common and legal drug, Alcohol. They also may not see it, that is, their stress may contribute to the development of alcoholism. This is because alcoholism is usually a slow process affecting the person.Everyone has their own definition of alcoholism, yet all have one thing in common; it is a disorder. But what is the real definition of alcoholism, and why do many people become affected with this ever-growing disease? Alcoholism is a disease in which the affected individual is addicted to alcohol. One sign of an alcoholic is that they may not drink for months or even years, but when they do, they have difficulty stopping. This is the only sure sign of an alcoholic, a consistent lack of control. Many use alcohol to boost self-confidence and to relax around others. They may drink to forget problems or to 'relieve stress'. There have been
The methodology of the research started with the finding of 465 Japanese male white-collar workers at the head office of a Steel company. Only 397 of them were used because there was evidence of missing data that may interfere with the study. To the remaining subjects, a questionnaire was given to them, asking about their job position (which had four categories to describe what their position was: staff member, lower class manager, middle class manager, and higher class manager [Journal of Studies on Alcohol v 61 no3 May 2000:462-5]) at the factory, and the stressors that relate to them. Some of these stressors included by the participants were: [Journal of Studies on Alcohol v 61 no3 May 2000:462-5] "feeling time pressure," "work requires advance skills and sophisticated knowledge," "purpose or goal of a job is not clear," and "work needs to be done quickly." The research also included how much alcohol each subject consumed on weekly basis (scores of 23.29 or more are defined as heavy drinker and less than 23.29 were moderate drinkers). poems and scenes in plays that show that consuming alcohol is a great way to forget about the stress. "The Greek poet Alcaeus suggested drinking as a way to cope with distress and even Shakespeare in a scene in his play Julius Caesar" [Alcohol research and Health v23 no. 4: 1999; pg250-5]. As the alcoholism progresses, they may begin having financial, work, or family problems. An alcoholic may get drunk without planning to and make promises to limit or stop drinking, but fail. They may also lie about their drinking, sneak drinks at work or school, have blackouts, go through personality changes, or drink in the morning to cure a hangover. This next journal is by Michael A. Sayette entitled; "Does drinking reduce stress?" wants to find out just what the title says. All of us at one point or another have consumed alcohol just after some sort of stressor. Like most teens, they may drink right after a enormous exam, and adults may drink after that "day of hell at the office".
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2251
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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