Nine months.
These two words describe a phase of awakening.
A time during which the has learnt to appreciate the sunrise and marvel at the sunset.
A time he has regained control of his life.
He has became a free man.
Free from the allure of friends luring him for a drink.
Free from his own guilt after a night reeling with drunken stupors.
FREE from the bondage of alcoholism.
Alcoholism had become part of his everyday life.
He made up stories to accelerate and justify his addictions.
For Timothy Tunje, alcoholism had caused no shortage of problems in the two decades that he would rather forget now.
He lost friends.
Disappointed families
Disconnected from peers.
Lost the enthusiasm of life.
It was more than a social drink.
Alcohol had become his sole and soul companion.
What started as a sip became a glass and later graduated to a couple of bottles and eventually he could comfortably gulp them in their ten’s at a sitting.
Today, Timo boldly speaks about beating alcoholism. According to Timo, the financial effects of alcoholism on the family members of addicts can be massive. But he celebrates the great sacrifices made by his nuclear family members and close friends.
“I lived at their homes as I sought second chances. But when relapses happened, I was disrespectful. Their personal spaces didn’t matter,” said Timo adding that at one point he ended up living in a peri-urban area where his family couldn’t trace him.
“I lived alone, took up to drinking to my last coins,” said Timo adding alcoholism cost him personal relationships and at one point, a job.
Alcohol consumption is a common coping response to stress, and historically. In fact, alcohol consumption has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Persons experiencing stress often report increased alcohol consumption and misuse.
“When individuals experience periods of economic or psychological stress, they often consume more alcohol, resulting in increased symptoms of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence,” read excerpts of a study by Elysse Grossman and colleagues in December last year.
What are the leading causes of alcoholism?
According to researchers, adolescents with a family history of alcoholism are at risk for developing alcohol use disorders. The scientists further noted that atypical brain structure and function exist prior to any substance use, and may contribute to an increased vulnerability for alcoholism in these individuals.
Whereas having a familial history of alcoholism is just one of many different factors involved in future alcohol abuse the scientists noted that personality and behavioral risk factors are also important to consider.
What treatment is available for alcohol addiction
A 2019 research study identifies a gene that could provide a new target for developing medication to prevent and treat alcoholism. Scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU discovered a gene that had lower expression in the brains of nonhuman primates that voluntarily consumed heavy amounts of alcohol compared with those that drank less.
What does this mean?
The prevalence rates of co-occurring mood and alcohol use disorders are high, with individuals with alcohol use disorder being 3.7 times more likely to have major depression than those who do not abuse alcohol.
Whereas genes play a great role into becoming an alcoholic, new research now also shows that you don’t have to be a drinker for your brain to be affected by alcoholism.
Did you know that family history of alcoholism affects a person’s brain anatomy and physiology?
A new study released early this year showed that just having a parent with an alcohol use disorder affects how your brain transitions between active and resting states – regardless of your own drinking habits.
he study, performed by researchers at Purdue University and the Indiana University School of Medicine, discovered that the brain reconfigures itself between completing a mentally demanding task and resting. But for the brain of someone with a family history of an alcohol use disorder, this reconfiguration doesn’t happen.
The scientists defined a “family history of alcoholism” as someone with a parent who had enough symptoms to constitute an alcohol use disorder
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