e environment they grow up in. If children areexposed to drinking as a activity in which drinkers are careful and moderate they are morelikely to become a responsible drinker. If the children grow up seeing heavy alcohol useand abuse they are more likely to use alcohol in that way. Also, if the children areexposed to large amounts of peer pressure from the kids around them they are more likelyto drink. Alcoholism is also a disease that can be acquired over a long period of time. Alcoholics may start out as social drinkers who are able to control their drinking, but theymay lose this control and be carried into the alcoholic class. Some people may drink dailyjust out of habit on a controlled level. But they may become careless about their habitsand the step across the line to alcohol dependence is a short one. Once they are dependenton the alcohol they will build a tolerance to it, this will cause them to drink more and moreto get the same effects. Drinking more only makes their dependence worse and eventuallythey will develop into a full blow alcoholic.Women AlcoholicsAlcoholism is a disease people see as mostly a male problem. But this is incorrect, asmany as half of the nation’s alcoholics are women. The reason it seems there are not asmany female alcoholics is that female alcoholics are usually closet drinkers. You rarelysee a woman alcoholic publicly show alcoholic behavior, while with men it is verycommon. It is easier for a woman alcoholic to damage her body than it is for a man. Thephysical damage is worse than men’s because women wait longer to seek help becausesociety places a greater stigma on o woman who drinks to much. Women’s livers don’tprocess alcohol as well as men’s. This makes women alcoholics susceptible to developingcirrhosis and other liver problems with lower levels of alcohol in their bodies and aftershorter periods of drinking. Large amounts of alcohol in women may interfere withfert...
