By Susan Luees DavidOn May 23rd the NST have published that Malaysia ranked world’s 10th largest consumer of alcohol. This is something to be proud of my friends? I’m not saying this is solely contributed by the Indian and Chinese community only but ALL, I repeat ALL. I would like change this negative achievement of us therefore I want to start from home which is my community. Here I would like to share the effects of Alcoholism. There are many and varied. Let us consider them by the various people and groups of people they can affect:
Individuals:-
Emotionally – alcoholism numbs the feelings we have and makes it so that we self-medicate any time we start to get sad, angry, or scared in any way. We stunt any emotional growth or progress that might be made were we to be sober instead.
Socially – alcoholism fixed my anxiety at first, but eventually I drank in isolation–afraid to venture out into public because I was such a madman. I could only seek out other hard core alcoholics and drug addicts that consumed like I did.
Spiritually – alcoholism is like trying to find God while running on a hamster wheel. We live in fear and abandon our hopes and prayers we might have once had.
Physically - The physical effects of alcoholism are well documented and there is a high morbidity rate. Most say that the average alcoholic that continues to drink will die something like 22 to 36 years ahead of their time (depending on which data you look at). This is complicated because most alcoholics also smoke cigarettes and some abuse other substances as well, which also affect their health. Those who do recover from alcoholism will sometimes quit smoking, or continue to smoke, so mortality rates can become very confusing when trying to look at things like this.
Mentally - “water on the brain.” Yes, a lifetime of drinking does in fact turn your brain into mush eventually. This is well documented as well.
Families:-
Alienates children – kids take it the hardest, because they don’t know if the “switch has been flipped or not” with their alcoholic parent. Living this way has a negative effect on grades, social skills, and just about every other aspect of a child’s life.
Perpetuates abuse – well known and well documented. What might be understated is the amount of verbal abuse that is simply “put up with.”
Divorce!!!!
Worse than divorce in some cases – the family holds together despite the dysfunction and potentially passes the disease on to others. Consider that children of an alcoholic parent are 4 times more likely to become alcoholics themselves.
For young addicts and alcoholics, they have proven that group therapy is worse than no therapy at all, but family therapy has shown some degree of promise. These points to the fact that addiction is a family disease and needs to be treated as such in most cases.
Society as whole:-
WILL LOOK DOWN ON YOU & CHASE YOU OUT OF THE SOCIETY AS A DIRT
In general, my dear Indian wife, how are you going to save your husband from the above?
Here kicks in our famous “patti vaithiyam” cook super extra thick dhal curry which means you need to add extra “parupu” to your dhal, it shouldn’t be watery at all but must be as thick as possible. This dhal curry need to be served with well fermented idli or thosai.
“Fermentation” in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. A more restricted definition of fermentation is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol.
Fermentation usually implies that the action of microorganisms is desirable, and the process is used to produce alcoholic beverages such as wine, beer, and cider. Fermentation is also employed in the leavening of bread, and for preservation techniques to create lactic acid in sour foods such as sauerkraut, dry sausages, kimchi and yogurt, or vinegar (acetic acid) for use in pickling foods.
