A couple of glasses of "fire water" can improve digestion, calm the nerves, relieve shyness and embarrassment. However, it is worth a little too much and alcohol becomes an open portal to our nightmares.
Here are 5 reasons why alcohol may be the worst drug of all.
If this trouble has not spared you, read our list the most effective remedies for alcoholism... Folk and medicines to combat binge.
5. Alcohol causes the greatest harm to life
The Harvard Grant Study is one of the longest running sociological studies of adult development. Since 1938, Harvard researchers have tracked the lives of 268 undergraduates who reported their emotional and physical well-being.
In 2012, Harvard Grant Study director George Weillant reported that alcohol was a key factor in the lives of the study participants. He was more important than intelligence, political views, or having wealthy parents. Alcoholism was the main reason for the divorce of the subjects, one of the main triggers for neurosis and depression (with alcohol abuse beginning even before mental problems), and is associated with smoking as one of the major contributors to early going to the grave.
4. Alcohol is the worst enemy of public safety
What is the world's most dangerous drug? According to a British study, the correct answer is alcohol. In 2010, the authoritative medical journal The Lancet published a study on the dangers posed by 20 available drugs.
It was conducted under the guidance of psychiatrist and neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt. While heroin, crack, and methamphetamine ranked first in terms of the risks they pose to individual users, one drug was found to be the most harmful to society as a whole. Drinking alcohol doubled the chances of harming other people compared to cocaine. Of the possible 100 points on the danger scale, alcohol got 45 (heroin is in second place, it has 20 points).
3. Alcohol kills more people than any other drug
High mortality rates from alcohol are among the top 3 reasons why alcohol may be the worst of all drugs. There are often stories in the media about new and very dangerous drugs. In September 2015, information appeared that the synthetic drug K-2 allegedly turns people into naked, pain-resistant zombies. However, such stories are silent about the fact that we already have an easily available, deadly drug.
According to WHO data from 2014, Russia accounts for 500 thousand deaths related to alcohol abuse. And about 8 thousand people die from other types of drugs in Russia every year. If we are horrified by the relatively small number of deaths from "spice", heroin and other drug abomination, ignoring the much greater danger, then it's time to ask the question: what is going wrong?
2. Alcohol and child abuse
One of the leaders in the anti-rating of the worst consequences of alcohol.The ugly truth of life is that some drunken adults beat, rape, and morally humiliate children. Children with one or two alcoholic parents are more likely than their peers to find themselves in unbearable living conditions, are underweight, and suffer from physical and mental illnesses.
Of course, a terrible childhood is a misfortune not only for children of alcoholics, but also for those whose mom or dad are addicted to gambling, heroin, etc. But the point is that these activities are either completely banned or reasonably limited. Alcohol is completely intertwined with Western and European culture and its consumption is actively encouraged.
1. Alcohol is the trouble of our culture
According to anthropologist Anne Fox, alcohol is not the cause of violence. Otherwise, we would see the same levels of violence in all drinking countries. Fox believes that our culture teaches how drunk people should behave. Various movies, television shows, and books show that drinking is something that ordinary people do on a regular basis.
At the same time, we are learning to equate drinking with aggression and lack of self-control. The result is a powder keg of all the worst possible outcomes.