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Dangers of Alcoholism
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Dangers of Alcoholism
People consume alcohol for different reasons. For most people, alcohol is an essential part of their social life. Whenever they spend time with their friends and family, they have to take alcohol because it is part of their social norms. Another example of this is workmates and friends catching up after a hard day’s work to unwind over a bottle of beer, or a glass of scotch. Other common reasons for taking alcohol include to numb negative emotions and moods such as stress and anxiety. A person with these types of emotions takes alcohol to forget their problems temporarily. People also consume alcohol to boost their confidence, for example, when they want to do something but they don’t feel confident enough. Despite all these reasons, the consumption of alcohol comes with adverse long-term consequences such as diseases, mental health problems, and addiction, as well as short term consequences like impaired judgment.
Alcohol consumption, especially excessive consumption, is a serious issue in society. An important step in addressing the challenges of excessive drinking is finding out some of the factors that push people to drink. An article on Psychology Today titled ‘Why Do People Drink?” gives some of these motivating factors. Before a person takes any action, they have to determine the value and benefit that comes from it, and alcohol consumption is no different. Past experience with alcohol is the first determining factor if the person had a positive interaction and reaction to alcohol before; they are more likely to do it again (Heshmat). The second factor is personality type; impulsive people are more likely to consume alcohol excessively without caring about the consequences. Another factor is social norms; some people consider alcohol an essential part of social interactions like parties, weddings, and spending time with peers.
When a person consumes a few drinks, several things happen to them in the short term. The first thing is that it lowers their inhibition, and they can do things that they wouldn’t do ordinarily. For example, a person can gamble away a lot of their savings and risk their financial security under the influence of alcohol. The second temporary effect of alcohol consumption is impaired judgment and a low level of concentration. Drunk driving is one of the consequences of impaired judgment. Drunk drivers cause hundreds of thousands of deaths each year across the world. Apart from posing a danger to their own lives when driving under the influence, drunk drivers also threaten the lives of motorists and pedestrians on the road (Hingson & Zha 1479). Automobile accidents can also result in serious injuries that cost a lot of money to be treated.
When a person consumes significant amounts of alcohol over a long time, they get addicted. Alcohol addiction is a serious issue. A survey carried out by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2017 showed that about 14.4 million Americans over the age of 12 experienced an occurrence related to alcohol use disorder. An alcohol addict faces many problems in life related to their addiction. One of these is that their education, family, and work are affected. At work, an addict will fail to show up on time and do shoddy work on the jobs assigned to them. Eventually, they will lose their job if they do not get the help that they need on time (Roman & O’Brien 162). An alcoholic also neglects their family responsibilities, such as financial and emotional wellbeing of family members. An alcohol addict needs to go to rehabilitation centers to get treatment that will help them manage their alcoholism. However, the process of recovery takes a lifetime of work and commitment.
The long-term consequences of excessive alcohol consumption are quite severe. The most well-known disease caused by alcoholism is liver cirrhosis that kills tens of thousands of people each year (Scaglione et al. 695). Alcoholism has also been found to increase a person’s risk of developing cancers such as mouth, esophageal, and breast cancer. Alcoholism also affects a person’s brain by reducing the gray matter in the brain. Excessive consumption of alcohol affects other areas of the body such as the cardiovascular, reproductive, and nervous and digestive system. Women who consume alcohol while pregnant risk giving birth to babies with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome that leads to developmental issues as the child grows up. From this discussion, it is clear that excessive consumption of alcohol is harmful for many reasons. People should avoid excessive consumption of alcohol to safeguard their mental and physical wellbeing, as well as that of others around them.
Works Cited
Heshmat, Shahram. “Why Do People Drink?” Psychology Today. 3 March 2017. Retrieved from www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201703/why-do-people-drinkHingson, Ralph W., and Wenxing Zha. “Age of drinking onset, alcohol use disorders, frequent heavy drinking, and unintentionally injuring oneself and others after drinking.” Pediatrics 123.6 (2009): 1477-1484.
Roman, Paul M., and Lauren A. O’Brien. “Dangerous concoctions: alcohol, employment and the family.” Risky Business. Routledge, 2016. 157-176.
Scaglione, Steven, et al. “The epidemiology of cirrhosis in the United States.” Journal of clinical gastroenterology 49.8 (2015): 690-696.
Dangers of Conformity
Dangers of Conformity
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Conformity is a social response to real or imagined pressure that involves matching behaviors and beliefs of an individual to fit into a group. Conformity may also involve adaptation to group’s pressure or the majority influence imposed by an individual in a group. It is common to find an individual trying to fit into a certain group or society simply because he desires to act right or maybe because he wants to be identified with the society. There are different forms of group pressure that may be very dangerous in one’s life such as ill-treatment, encouragement, mocking and criticism. It is important to understand some of the reasons why people conform (McLeod, 2007).This essay analyses some of the effect, causes and dangers of conformity.
According to Mann (1969), there are different types of conformity which involve normative, informational and ingratiation. But Kelman (1958) distinguished between three types of conformity that involve compliance, internalization and identification. Considering informational conformity may always be caused by lack of adequate knowledge to the group or perhaps someone is in undecided condition and therefore associates their behavior with the group. Informational conformity may further mean that an individually agree with the group’s views and decides to fit in that particular group (Shami, 2003). Unfortunately, even as people change their behaviors to adapt to the public pressure, some do not agree with the public privately. An individual may just force himself into a behavior he does not like just to please the public or may be gain favor from the public. However, it is worth noting that not everyone accepts to be influenced by the group or society because they value being independent and value their private lives and decisions (Sunstein, 2003).
However there are several dangers of conformity especially considering that people are at times forced to do things that they do not love doing. It is clear that when people do not do what they want and love doing then it is like denying an individual a very crucial right. In some instances, conformity has deprived us of achieving our dreams that we wanted to achieve while we were young. When an individual grows, there are always great ambitions that later fade in life because of trying to conform to a particular society (Sunstein, 2003). Our passions and desires are always cut short because we want to be like everyone because we feel being independent is threatening. People have come up with great things such as theories simply because they refused to remain comfortable or denied to think in the same way as the society. For instance, Christopher Columbus was convinced that the world was round regardless of people’s opinions against it. Conformity is very wrong because it denies people chance to be inventive and innovative for fear of being irrelevant to the society. Someone may simply not take the right direction because the group or the society may be against it (Levin, Carney & Barrett, 2003).
It is indeed unfortunate to believe in something you are not sure about such as faith because the group believe in it. Someone may not even have the time to know more about the faith or religion but just goes into it without looking back. People may carry out some horrible and bad acts because they follow instructions that the society demand them to be (Bakken, 2000). An individual who finds himself in a group of criminals may turn out to be a criminal just because the individual want to be accepted in the group. Many people have found themselves in trouble after many years just because they have taken most of their years doing what they don’t love (Kostick, 2008). For, instance a child may want to be a singer but the parents would force the child may be to study medicine or something different. The child may therefore do something or be in a career that is not interesting. At the end, the child may not love the career and therefore perform poorly in the career (Waack, 2007).
People are just afraid to be different and this hinders them from getting the best out of worse situations. In some situations, many people may not want to take risk in some situations because they always want to remain relevant. For instance, a nurse may sometimes not consider an emergency situation of an ordinary man if may be there are other procedures that need to be followed first just because that is the way the hospital operates (Kaplan & Johnson, 2001). This clearly shows that conformity can even cost an individual’s life if not well taken care of. Why should an organization or a nation be corrupt but no one can stand up and condemn such kind of vise because it is done by almost everyone. It is therefore apparent that conformity is very dangerous and can hinder or catapult someone to do unwanted things.
References
Bakken, B. (2000). The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and The Dangers Of Modernity In China. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Kaplan, H. B., & Johnson, R. J. (2001). Social Deviance: Testing a General Theory. New York, NY [U.A.: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Kelman, H. C. (1958). Compliance, Identification, and Internalization: Three Processes of Attitude Change. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, 51–60.
Kostick, Kristin Marie. (2008). Buying Into Culture: An Exploration Of The Effects Of Cultural Conformity On The Island Of Mauritius. Connecticut: DigitalCommons@UConn.
Levin, C., Carney, J. E., & Barrett-Graves, D. (2003). Elizabeth I: Always Her Own Free Woman. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Mann, L (1969). Social Psychology. New York: Wiley.
Mcleod, S. A. (2007). What Is Conformity? – Simply Psychology. Retrieved From Http://Www.Simplypsychology.Org/Conformity.Html
Shami, J. (2003). John Donne and Conformity in Crisis In The Late Jacobean Pulpit. Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer.
Sunstein, C. R. (2003). Why Societies Need Dissent. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Waack, B. (2007). Post Event Misinformation Effect, Source Strength, and Eyewitness Memory Conformity. Laramie, Wyo: University Of Wyoming.
COMPARISON OF D. JOHNSON’S SON AND THE LAME SHALL ENTER FIRST.
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COMPARISON OF D. JOHNSON’S SON AND THE LAME SHALL ENTER FIRST.
Jesus’ Son is, in many ways, a collection of short stories concerning “addiction and recovery.” It’s about a guy who’s an opium addict who shares tales during his life about his various meetings and events. The two stories are related to the character’s life and how he gets stuck to escape reality and gets trapped in the darkness. He is an insensitive drug addict, which prompted him to take several mistaken actions, but he recalled what he had accomplished since his split from Michelle (his girlfriend). His boy was miscarried and knew he might handle it better if he hadn’t been the way he was in the moment. E.g., Shepherd was addicted to helping others to gain respect and opportunities in the community in “The Lame Shall Enter First.” Still, after his Son committed suicide, he knew he had to pay more attention to and understand the feelings of his baby instead of getting lost in others’ lives to make him appear beautiful. Another fascinating idea is that both the new and the stupid film deal with memory and how drug use or even simply depression may be confused. They are associated with the idea of unprocessed sorrow over a child’s death and a serious relationship that FH subsequently faces in BH and the lame loss of Norton’s mother.
The author uses trust in his novel, entitled “The Son of Jesus.” As it is related to the life of an FH rapist, the title represents the viewpoint of the author Johnson on confidence. The title means that after his bad journey as a user of heroin, the narrator somehow becomes Jesus’ Son. P. 133, according to Beverly Home, “I never knew, I never imagined of a heartbeat, that there might be a room for people like us,” it said. As the writer learned that he had another chance to restart his life, it was hard for him to recognize because he thought he had done bad things. After all, it was impossible that he might receive grace from God (Giraldi). It is said that Johnson claims that religion still exists and that, when you are in a poor mood, God will not give them up.
In “The Lame Shall Enter First,” O’Connor uses Sheppard, his father, as a foil for his Son Rufus. This text is full of irony, particularly concerning religious details. Sheppard is an atheist, and Rufus is profoundly religious. Rufus was angry with the savior complex of Sheppard and told Norton, “God, guy… how do you do that? He believes he’s Christ Jesus!” It’s no coincidence that Sheppard is the name of the father. Shepherds can guide and track the ironic sheep. Norton is driven astray by the neglectful parenthood of Sheppard. He cannot supply his Son with mental assistance (O’Connor).
The character is self-destructive and dependent on drugs and alcohol in each of the stories of Jesus’ Son. I think the character still chases somebody or wanders. He is an insensitive drug addict, which prompted him to take several mistaken actions, but he recalled what he had accomplished since his split from Michelle (his girlfriend). His boy was miscarried and knew he might handle it better if he hadn’t been the way he was in the moment. I conclude that the child played an important part in that novel because it has been read in other stories; it represents pureness and a part of a better life.
Sheppard, the father’s character in “The Lame Shall Enter First,” insists that he is holy and God and an atheist. Sheppard is also self-destructive as he abandoned his Son to be honorable in society in favor of Rufus. Shepherd has social immaturity. He has no remorse for his Son, who is still weeping, having lost his mother. Shepherd spoke with Norton gullibly, thinking that he was wasting his time weeping for his mother and going on to equate his Son to a child he served with, Rufus. Sheppard thought Rufus had been wise and lucky to have him and commended Rufus with pride while dismissing his wife. Shepard recalled his error and went to Norton’s room to apologize at the end of the book. However, it was too late because after his mother died, Norton became alone and committed suicide. His emotions overcame him, and it was hard for him to move from his home.
And other sentences, they were also hooked to their ignorance of reality and caught in confusion. Both the fear that sends them deeper down the darkness and the action that they desperately escape from. Their addiction leads them to extreme conduct and reactions such as violence, emotional explosions, deception, and lies. The novel Jesus’ Son is analogous to the “Lame Shall Enter First” because FH is an impregnated and drug addict of Jesus’ Son, which forced him to make such bad decisions. Yet he recalled what he had done since his break up with Michelle (his giant) and the child’s miscarriage if he had not done so like he was then. As Shepard recalled, in The Lame Shall Enter First, his Son was not offered sufficient treatment and parental assistance and went to Norton’s room to apologize; it was too late since Norton found himself lonely after his mother’s death and committed suicide. His emotions overcame him, and it was hard for him to move from his home. Like in other reports we have read, the child played a critical role in both stories. The kid represents innocence and a sense of a better life. These two examples illustrate the idea of being a child. The community today and many of our parents put much too much pressure on their children to act like adults. Parents must understand and acknowledge the value of giving their children a childhood to learn and develop in their lives.
These two stories are linked by themes and views of the author, such as religion, education, and self-destructive behavior. We may see in these stories that the narrators choose not to live an ordinary life, rather an extraordinary life. They may not have their idea of life in mind, but tradition kept them from being who they truly wanted to be. As a consequence, puberty is just a period in which our ancestors condition us. They teach us how we should live our lives instead of encouraging us to construct our own from the beginning.
Work cited
O’Connor, Flannery. “The Lame Shall Enter First.” The Sewanee Review 70.3 (1962): 337-379.
Giraldi, William. “The art of reading Denis Johnson: the enduring appeal of Jesus’ Son.” Poets & Writers Magazine 41.6 (2013): 23-28.