IN SUPPORT OF ‘DRY LAW’

From Sampath’s Desk:

 IN SUPPORT OF ‘DRY LAW’

 

Alcoholism is a condition of an almost irreversible disease in an addict. So, say an emphatic 'no' to alcohol the first time and forever. It indeed takes a long time to become a typical addict. If one has the determination, resolve and willpower, he can stay away from the habit, showing stiff resistance. 

 

Alcoholism, a bane, is also called ‘alcohol dependence syndrome’, causing the severest cluster of health problems. What a person generally starts as casual drinking or for fun, drinking to give company to his friends/peers, drinking for celebrating specific occasions, etc. slowly gets him enchanted, bewitched, and enmeshed and finally entraps and enslaves him into the habit forever unless he showed the stiffest of defiance. It needs a strong conviction to keep the insalubrious habit at bay once contracted. In other cases, a person voluntarily takes or forced to inebriation on one lame excuse or the other like for example for ‘forgetting mundane worries’ as the drunkard generally puts it, gets too ensnared into the harmful alcoholism to extricate himself from the maelstrom habit once forced into. Binge drinking is ‘simply drinking to get drunk’. Binge drinkers form the severest and most irreversible addiction group.  

 

Both binge drinking and/or drinking often can cause health damages almost alike. The most dangerous harm caused due to long-term heavy drinking is liver-related like cirrhosis, and cancer in some, besides affecting the central nervous system, asphyxiation, vomiting, strokes, etc. Alcoholics are also more accident-prone than any other addicts of intoxicating substances like cocaine, heroin, pan, tobacco and other drugs. The worst fallout is the mental obsession compelling the victim to drink again and again with a mental fixation and longing for always remaining drunk and the state of hallucination it gives – a condition of a whirling vortex of despair, despondency, and helplessness - over which the drunkard completely loses his control with efflux of time. Still worse, the unhealthy habit goes on in an endless spiral.  And when that happens, he starts feeling worn-out, powerless and exhausted - all that strongly impels him into still severe forms of dejection and depression. The insalubrious habit never allows him to wriggle out. Life purportedly becomes hell if he were to go without drinking even on a single day. He thus gets himself entangled and tied into the whirlpool of the noxious habit.

 

Medical interventions do help to a great extent in de-addicting and rehabilitating drunkards. But the will-power of the victim is a sine qua non, more effective to combat the addiction with counseling playing a vital role. However, sudden withdrawal is fraught with physical and psychological problems. Of course, not everyone who stops drinking encounters bizarre withdrawal symptoms, but many with a long history of drinking may get bouts of withdrawal symptoms that inflict a mélange of physiological and psychological aberrations. But a medical professional can come to the rescue of an addict by giving him certain medications and also counseling. The addict like any other patient has to strictly follow the prescribed DO’s and DON’Ts and should continue to nurse a strong resolve to quit the habit. There is an imperative need for the addict to realize the gravity of the health hazards if he persisted with the habit without making amends.

 

On a lighter plank, to demonstrate the destructive effects of alcoholism, a doctor put a worm in a glass of alcohol to see the worm die moments after. Then the doctor asked the patient, “What do you understand from this?” Pat came the reply, “Alcohol is good to kill worms in the stomach.” Though looking like a joke, the underlying lesson is that alcoholism deserves to be ditched forever. For, it will destroy the drunkard’s life.

 

Most binge addicts neglect themselves, their families and everything else! They waste money, time, health and other possessions for continuing the harmful habit. They live in a weird world of their own. Some tend to behave impertinently and rudely in public once drunk, picking up spats and bickering, and indulging even in violence for no reason. A diabetic should better shun alcohol because conditions of unconsciousness due to overdrinking and hypoglycemia are almost similar that may prove to be fatal sometimes. Alcoholism also quells appetite making drunkards skip meals, a condition fraught with another danger of ill-health in them.

          

Due to Alcoholism, countless man-hours are lost every day, which otherwise could be channeled for creative and constructive purposes. It is in the interest of individuals, families, society, and the nation at large to enforce ‘dry law’ so that people’s time, energy and efforts are not frittered away and our manpower is gainfully utilized to the maximum.

 

 

R.SAMPATH

15/1/2016