alcohol abuse

The scene is all-too familiar for many American families. One family member gets blotto and ruins holiday get-togethers to such an extent that it spells humiliation for everyone concerned. Not the least of which are any children present who have to witness the intoxication of their parent or grandparent or other family member.

Maybe this is the holiday season you can do something about it. Here are some tips on how to handle a family member who typically – let’s say, regularly – gets drunk during the holidays.

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Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are two eating disorders that typically affect teen and adolescent girls. In essence, girls who suffer from eating disorders have an intense, and often unreasonable, fear of getting fat. To ensure that no weight will be gained, anorexics will reduce their daily caloric intake to almost nothing. Bulimics will eat, only to later purge by vomiting, taking laxatives, taking diuretics or a combination of all three.

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There are many risk factors for developing alcohol dependence, with both environmental and biological influences playing a role. One of the environmental risk factors that can be very powerful is past experience with trauma. Though it is unclear how trauma affects the decision-making process involved with alcohol dependence, research has shown that trauma dramatically increases the risk for developing alcohol dependence.

A study published by Carolyn E. Sartor and colleagues examines the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol dependence in women. The researchers sought to distinguish PTSD-specific influences on alcohol dependence from the contribution of co-occurring psychiatric conditions and from the influences more generally associated with trauma.

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