Alcoholism
A Psychosocial Problem Among Youth

By Dr. Niranjan Prasad Upadhyay

EXCESSIVE use of alcohol kills many people, send many victims to hospitals, and disturbs many homes. According to the Japanese proverb, " First the man takes a drink, then drink takes a drink, and then the drink takes the man."

The technical name of the drug in alcoholic beverages is ethanol or ethyl alcohol. Alcohol is clear, colourless liquid produced through fermentation or distillation. Although many young people do not accept it, the fact is that alcohol is a drug. It is a depressant, which means it slows down activity in the brain and nervous system.

Use or rather abuse of alcohol is so common and marked in Nepal as it is available in each and every shop and that too in very cheap rates. People consume alcohol without knowing its harmful effects. It is now necessary to generate awareness regarding the hazardous effects of alcohol, not only on physical health of the individuals but also on their mental health as well as its impacts on families and society, and ultimately the psychosocial costs of alcoholism.

The use of alcohol creates psychosocial problem in the family. It extremely affects the young people of the school and college level. Abuse of alcohol degrades the mental and social capacity of the young people. Therefore, they lose their concentration toward their study and take to the habit of stealing, cheating and other anti-social activities to get the money for drinking alcohol. Although, such types of habit may occur at any age, it is most common during adolescence and young adulthood.

Researchers have shown that alcohol abuse in Nepal is mostly found among the youths between the ages of sixteen to thirty. Some researchers have quoted that such types of addiction emerge much more quickly when it is used for recreation or merry making. Some science journals have focused that young people are eight times more likely to take alcohol through the imitation of their own family members. Psychologists indicate that family members of alcoholics experience higher level of psychological distress. In several studies children of alcoholics found to show less social competency, more internalising and externalising behaviours, more negative performance, lower academic achievement and more psychiatric distress.

Alcoholism has been associated with diversified effects i.e. liver injury, various cardiac problems, psychological problems (depression, insomnia, suicidal tendency, low self-esteem, low academic performance), damage to endocrine and reproductive system and multiple adverse neurological effects. Helzer and Robins have pointed out that about 48 per cent of people with alcohol dependence meet criteria for other psychiatric disorders, a rate two times greater than that of non-alcoholics. Apart from these visible harmful consequences, there are several nonvisible consequences observed in psychosocial and economic perspectives i.e. increased family disruption, interpersonal conflict, poor social status, poor educational environment, money spent in alcohol and in the treatment of alcohol related physical problems etc. Researchers have stated that children of alcoholics often fail in their academic performance. Actually, the problem lies in the family. The whole family environment is disrupted and the children exhibit more adjustment problem in the home environment. Consequently, in the school activities they show psychological adjustment problem, which appear more related to behaviour than academic performance.

The life span of average alcoholic is about 12 years shorter than that of average non-alcoholics. In general, an individual is considered to be an alcoholic when his/her drinking seriously interferes with his/her physical and mental health, home situation, or his/her academic activities. Prolonged immoderate drinking can result in ulceration of the stomach, internal bleeding, and heart and liver damage. The continued excessive use of alcohol can result in the destruction of brain cells and in cerebral dysfunction.

The habitual use of excessive amount of alcohol as a means of adjusting to life’s problems commonly result in personality deterioration, as evidenced by a gradual, intellectual and moral decline. The individual’s behaviour typically becomes coarse and inappropriate, he assumes increasingly less responsibility, loses pride in his/her personal appearance, neglects his/her family, and becomes generally touchy and irritable about his/her drinking.

The use of alcohol has been found in Nepal since time immemorial. Social tolerance to alcohol use is quite high and so far alcohol has been taken seriously either by the government or by any social organisation.

Production, sale and consumption of alcohol is ever on the increase and it could be taken as the number one drug problem in the country.

Generally, the quantity and frequency of drinking alcohol in men is higher than in women. Men take alcohol 3-4 times per week with 4-6 glasses of liquor at each sitting whereas women take alcohol drinking at the rate of 2-3 times a week with 2-3 glasses of liquor at each sitting.A study released early in 1982 at the University of Michigan shows that consumption of marijuana, PCS, LSD and heroin is decreasing in high school students. However, consumption of alcohol is on the increase in this age group.

A multidisciplinary approach to treatment of alcoholism appears to be most effective. Although individual therapy is sometimes effective, psychosocial measures in the treatment of alcoholism more often involve group therapy and sociotherapy. Alcoholism should not only be treated as a social problem but also as a behavioural problem. Mental health clinics might play a crucial role to alleviate this social scourge by changing the behaviour of the alcoholism.

Romantic Spring

By Bijay Aryal

We are in the middle of spring. It has left behind winter and is looking forward to summer. It has often been hailed as the king of seasons. Spring has been a prolific source of song and poetry.

Generally, winter is mentioned as the opposite of spring just as the villain is contrasted with the hero. The season of blossom is something desirable that everybody seems to look forward to with pleasant expectation whereas winter is portrayed as something everybody would like to say goodbye to and whose approach is received with a heavy heart.

Spring is the time of bloom and is often associated with the general well-being, the atmosphere infusing you with warmth, enthusiasm, and euphoria. And winter is gloom all around, making you see and feel the very opposite of what spring has to offer. For George Herbert, Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, / A box where sweets compacted lie. Tennyson turned romantic. In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

And in films, especially of the Hindi variety, spring and winter metaphors abound. Even titles of Hindi films with the word spring or blossom attached to them run to dozens.

And how many songs Bollywood may have created in praise of the king of seasons, one can only guess. Two memorable lines from such a number:

Baagon ko to patjhar ne loota/ Mujhako loota bahaar ne (The gardens have been looted by Fall/ But I’ve been looted by Blossom). How the lyricist’s fancy has run!

Among the six seasons, Spring or Basant is spread over the months of Chaitra and Baisakh (mid-March to mid-May).

But for those who recognise the four seasons, March to May is the spread of bloom.

Symbolically, in Nepal spring is said to arrive with Basant Panchami in late January or February.

Or does spring deserve all these showers of praise? Trees are seen putting forth buds and leaves after a winter in which they had been stripped naked. But look at the dry wind that sends up clouds of dust. Doesn’t it depress your heart?

Here in Kathmandu and in the Terai, people often comment unfavourably upon the the dry winds of Chaitra and Baisakh when field upon field of golden-brown dust lies open with the mercury going up and up. Dry gloomy days that heighten a sense of separation. In the growth of vegetation and in greenery, the monsoon season leaves spring behind.

Seniority Titles

The word senior seems to have been used too much in Nepal, while referring to professional of any kind. Our professional and not-so-professional people sport the word senior attached to their title. Our print and electronic media have been using it in place and out of place.

If senior is built in with a person’s official designation and it had to be mentioned or if there arose a real need to do so, that would be another matter.

But here every journalist wants to be mentioned as a senior journalist, not just journalist; every doctor or engineer wants to called a senior doctor or senior engineer; every literary man wants to called a senior literatteur, and so on.

What are the criteria for judging a person senior and another person not senior? Isn’t it enough to say just Journalist A, Poet B, Dr. E? Leave the decision to think of them as senior or not to individual readers or listeners.