The Causes and Risk Factors for Alcoholism

Is it important for you to know the causes and risk factors for alcoholism? Perhaps you have a teen daughter or son and want to know in advance what you may run up against regarding alcoholism and teens or perhaps you have a family history of alcoholism and want to know if you or your children are at risk for alcoholism. There are many reasons why individuals should know the causes and risk factors for alcoholism so no matter what your reason for making this inquiry, you should be able to find some good answers in this article.

Although the cause for alcoholism has yet to be established there has been a lot of valuable research done to try to determine what the cause(s) may be for alcoholism resulting in some good information that you can use. There is plenty of evidence that there may be some genetic or biological predisposition for developing the disease, alcoholism. The downside is that the research has sparked controversy between those that believe that there is an established connection between the increased risk for alcoholism among children with at least one parent suffering from alcoholism and the statistics that show raw data supporting the theory. Complicating the matter is that there are various factors that may contribute to an individual developing the disease of alcoholism.

The factors that contribute to the development of alcoholism include social factors such as family influence, peer pressure and society expectations as well as the availability of alcohol. There are also psychological factors that may contribute to the development of alcoholism including increased levels of stress, and inadequate skills at copping with the pressures of life that are reinforced by alcohol use in others. An individual may also have different factors that allow the behavior that contributes to the disease of alcoholism to continue.

Some chemicals in your brain contribute to the dependence on alcohol because of the alterations that take place the more alcohol you drink. One such brain chemical is gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which inhibits impulsiveness and also the chemical glutamate, which excites the nervous system. The chemical in the brain that triggers "feeling good" is also triggered when an individual drinks.

The physical addiction to alcohol occurs slowly over time as the individual continues to drink in increasingly greater amounts. The brain chemicals allow the individual to feel good while drunk and the individual likes “feeling good” and strives to bring back that feeling each time he/she drinks. They will require larger and larger amounts of alcohol in order to achieve the level chemicals that will allow that feeling to occur and the more alcohol the individual drinks the more intense the symptoms of alcoholism become.

The common risk factors that are associated with alcoholism are having a family history of alcoholism, experiencing high levels of stress, feeling anxious a good deal of the time, individuals who are always going through emotional turmoil and those who have low-self esteem or those who are suffering from depression as well as those who succumb to social pressures to "fit in".

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