Alcoholism Essays - Alcohol Abuse, Twelve-step Programs, Free Essays

Alcoholism Essays - Alcohol Abuse, Twelve-step Programs, Free Essays Alcoholism Alcoholism is a disease of epidemic proportions, affecting 9.3 to 10 million Americans, and many professionals believe the figures are closer to 20 million (Weddle and Wishon). Alcoholism is a "physiological or physiological dependence on alcohol characterized by the alcoholic?s inability to control the start or termination of his drinking"(Encyclopedia Britannica 210). It consists of frequent and recurring consumption of alcohol to an extent that causes continued harm to the drinker and leads to medical and social problems. Alcoholism, however, does not merely cause harm to the alcoholic, but to the entire family as well, affecting an estimated 28 million children in this country (Weddle and Wishon). These children grow up in the unhealthy and abnormal family systems harmed by alcoholism, carrying the negative effects of this environment with them into adulthood. Consequently, adult children of alcoholics are the innocent victims of a disease which has shaped thei! r personalities and behavior as children and will, if not treated, promote their personal disintegration as adults. Most alcoholics don?t fit the stereotype of the lying in the gutter drunk. Alcoholics are likely to be persons of intense, if sometimes brief, enthusiasms. They often try to do too much too fast. They tend to demand perfection in themselves and in others. Frustrated, they may become painfully depressed or overly aggressive. There is a lack of inner stability with which to face life?s problems in a realistic manner (AL-Anon). As the disease of alcoholism sets in, the family is forced to make an unspoken decision?to leave the alcoholic or to stay and adapt to his illness. Because they do not want to disrupt their own lives or leave a love one, they deny the problem and try to adapt to the pressures and problems that alcoholism brings. Typically, as alcoholism takes over, the alcoholic becomes increasingly preoccupied with drinking. This can lead to spending less time at home, and neglecting their responsibility to the family. The following are symptoms of alcoholism (Alateen 5): Loss of control. The loss of control is usually progressive. At first the alcoholic can control his drinking most of the time. But he sometimes gets drunk when he doesn?t wants to. Eventually, he loses control more and more. Progression. The alcoholic may not drink more, but he gets drunk more often. He becomes less dependable. He becomes more and more obsessed with drinking and less and less concerned about his responsibilities. Withdrawal symptoms. When the alcoholic stops drinking he may suffer nausea and vomiting, headaches and the "shakes." He is usually is very irritable. He may even hallucinate. This is known as the DT?s (delirium tremens). Personality change. The alcoholic seems to have a Jekyll and Hyde personality. When he drinks, he is very different from the way he is when he is not drinking. Blackouts. These are a form of amnesia. The alcoholic really does not remember what has happened. Blackouts can even occur when the alcoholic isn?t drunk, lasting a few minutes or entire days. At first, we may think alcoholism is called a family disease because it seems to run in families. Most Al-Anon members are spouses of alcoholics. But they are often the children of alcoholics as well. They may have brothers or sisters who have the disease or are married to alcoholics. Doctors have observed that there are often more than one alcoholic in a family; for this reason they have said that there is a family tendency to develop alcoholism, just as there is a family tendency to develop diabetes ( Alateen 6). According to a recent study, if you are raised in an alcoholic home you have one chance in four of growing up to marry an alcoholic (Porterfield 120). The reasons are simple. Children of alcoholics learned to tolerate behavior that other people consider abnormal or bizarre; they have memorized how to live with an alcoholic. Most kids of alcoholic parents do drink, even if just socially. According to Coping with an Alcoholic Parent: Ninety-three percent of high school seniors have tried alcohol. Seventy percent use it once a month. One out every five high school seniors drinks daily. Some researchers think that as many as one third of the teenagers can

Definition and Examples of the Present Progressive Tense

Definition and Examples of the Present Progressive Tense In  English grammar,  the present progressive is a  verb  construction (made up of a present form of the verb  to be  plus a  present participle) that usually conveys a sense of ongoing action at the present time. This construction is also known as the durative aspect. The present progressive is used to describe activity that is in progress right nows of the present progressive can also be found in cases where a speaker is referring to things that are planned for the future, e.g., I am reading at the event tomorrow. There are many reasons to use the present progressive tense, such as: To refer to events that are in progress at the time of speaking or writingTo refer to things that are taking place or that are true around the moment of speaking or writingTo describe actions that are repeated or regular but are either temporary or may be judged to be temporaryTo describe regular actions in relation to a particular time or a specified event, especially when those events interrupt something already in progressTo refer to gradual processes of changeWith adverbs of indefinite frequency (such as  always, constantly, continually, forever) to describe events that are regular but unplanned and often undesired (Adapted from R. Carter and M. McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge University Press, 2006) The Present Progressive Is Not Passive Voice Students of English are frequently taught to improve their prose by removing passive language, i.e., sentences where the object of an action appears as the main subject (The pins were knocked over by the bowling ball). Passive language introduces be verbs (were  knocked over) that would not appear if the original sentence had been written actively (The bowling ball knocked over the pins). For this reason, some students learn to become wary of be verbs, thinking they are indicators of passive language. This is not always the case. The present progressive tense- a construction that always includes a be verb- should not be confused with passive voice. Present Progressive Examples The best way to get a sense of how the present progressive is used is to look at examples that appear in books, movies, and common speech. Take the following example, from Amy Reeds 2009 novel Beautiful: I am looking at my piece of pizza. I am watching pepperoni glisten. It is my third day at the new school and I am sitting at a table next to the bathrooms. I am eating lunch with the blond girls with the pink sweaters, the girls who talk incessantly about Harvard even though were only in the seventh grade. Here the present progressive is used to describe a series of actions (looking, sitting, eating) that are all occurring in the same present moment. The use of this tense not only unites these actions but also provides a sense of immediacy, grounding the reader in the present. The present progressive can also be used to describe actions that are habitual or regular or true across time: People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. This quote, from George Bernard Shaw, uses the present progressive to show that blame is always being assigned, from generation to generation, a symptom of human nature that will never change. Finally, the present progressive can also be used to refer to planned actions. In her novel Notting Hell, Rachel Johnson describes a host telling her guests whats for dinner: Anyway, tonight, we  are having  a perfectly balanced supper of fish fingers (essential fatty fish oils), baked beans (lovely roughage) and oven chips (bursting with potato goodness). Present Progressive vs. Simple Present The present progressive tense can be confusing, especially for English learners whose native language does not use this tense. In The Business Writers Handbook, Gerald J. Alred provides the following example: I am searching for an error in the document.[The search is occurring now and may continue.] In contrast, the simple present tense more often relates to habitual actions: I search for errors in my documents.[I regularly search for errors, but I am not necessarily searching now.]   Alred gives another example to provide a further distinction: I live in London.I am living in London. The sense of the first sentence  is that this is a relatively permanent state of affairs- there is no suggestion that the speaker is intending to leave any time soon. In the second sentence, however, the sense is that the situation is temporary; London is where the speaker happens to live at the moment, but this situation could change in the future.