Opinion: College social life

Throughout the years, alcohol usage has been elevating among college students. Alcohol affects students, teachers, and the personal life. Transitioning to college can be stressful at times and considered a big step for some students. Thus, some students turn to alcohol as a coping mechanism, building direct and indirect relationships.

The relationship between alcohol and college students

A relationship is defined as a common linkage between associated factors. The factors are college students and alcohol. Alcohol is considered to be a colorless-flammable liquid that is meant for intoxicating it users. However, based upon environmental factors of students living on campus and attending parties, drinking is a heavy influence. Initially, college students drink alcohol during recreational times, but that has a tendency to lead to a stronger urge of common usage.

Direct effects of alcohol on students

According to D’Hoore, Lorant, Nicaise, and Soto (2013), alcohol use contributes to over 10 percent in disease and injuries. In a similar comparison, an author by the name of David Freeman (2005) quoted in an article: “ Heavy drinking can also cause cardiomyopathy, a potentially deadly condition in which the heart muscle weakens and eventually fails.” Therefore, excessive drinking can be very dangerous and can have an impact on your heart, which causes rapid death. There are many more diseases and problems that are caused by heavy drinking such as liver disease, digestive problems, sexual problems, birth defects, and bone loss. In addition to these direct effects of alcohol use comes a common headliner: Alcohol usage causes more accidents among college students.

Alcohol is a substance that acquires you to be legally over the age of 21, meaning that you are responsible enough to acknowledge the effects it has on the brain and body if you consume too much of it. The dynamical personalities of typical college students are: young, impatient, and indecisive. Young is a word that strongly defines immaturity and has little experience. Impatient is an adjective that describes the act of being restless, short-tempered, or intolerant. Indecisive fairly means: leading to no conclusion. Being immature, short-tempered, and having no idea of what it is you want to do, can be considered a psychological theory of Alcohol and College Life. Contrary, mixing alcohol with these three personality traits is a very bad idea and can result in a crash if the possibility of driving occurs.

According to Payne, Hahn, and Lucas (2013) alcohol can act as a depressant. A depressant is a substance that causes one to be depressed. The first drink of alcohol is measured through hourly rates depending on the amount consumed. Starting at 0.02-0.03 ounces results in being light-headed. That is only from one alcoholic beverage. Therefore, imagine an hourly drinking young, short-tempered, and indecisive college student who’s intoxicated on the road, driving. Driving is an action that requires the brain to be consciously aware of its surroundings. Having the impairments of intensified emotions may cause you to speed. Your senses of vision, hearing, and reaction time impaired might also cause you not to see the stop sign or the red light, and drive forward, which could result in a bad accident. The consumption  of alcohol among college students indirectly affects the family.

Indirect effects of alcohol on the family

Alcohol consumption among college students has a tremendous effects on families. One effect is creating conflicts, such as arguing, and the most extreme measure is physical brawls among family members. Researchers Chermack and Giancola (1997), Roizen (1993) stated that alcohol consumption is associated with physical aggression. Aggression while drinking is calculated through your testosterone level as a male. The higher the male testosterone is, the more vulnerable he’ll be to violence while being intoxicated.

Alcohol also causes people to become more exaggerated in responses. When family members confront the students concerning their drinking problem, they are more prone to make a smart remark. Therefore, agitating the concerned families, which might result in verbal assaults through heated words exchange, slandering, and profanity. All of these are indirect effects alcohol consumption by college students has on families.

Conclusion and Evaluation

The government permitted alcohol to be created and distributed with regulated rules. Every United States citizen that has reached the age of 21 can buy alcohol. Alcohol is meant to be drunk responsibly, and not used as a public recreational substance. According to Green Facts. Org over 76 million people are affected by alcohol use which leads to disorders, accident deaths, homicides, and suicides. Alcohol use among college students has grown rapidly and victimized my household as well. My sister attended MSU and became subjective to alcohol. The first step of rehabilitation in alcohol use starts with the individual himself/herself. They first have to acknowledge the problem of excessive drinking. Also, national organizations, online websites, and support groups are working diligently to secure the gap between alcohol addiction and alcohol recovery. Here are many listed sites:

• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care- http://findthebestrehab.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/insurance_companies.png
• United Health Care- http://findthebestrehab.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/insurance_companies.png
• AmeriHealth- http://findthebestrehab.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/insurance_companies.png
• Oxford Health Plans- http://findthebestrehab.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/insurance_companies.png

Henceforth, without the proper education of how alcohol affects us as a human being, we will continue to drink irresponsibly, take the lives of others, including our own, all in the act of consuming too much alcohol.