Skip to main content

Alcholism - Physical Symptom

Jaundice is the only clear outward symptom of long term alcoholism that I know of, other than looking and behaving drunk. Jaundice causes the skin the go yellow. I can clearly remember a moment when I was working (I won't tell you what area it was, but it was providing advice to people).

A mother and daughter came to see me. The daughter's problems where to some extent caused or exacerbated by the mother's controlling influence. The daughter was noticeably yellow. It is quite surprising to see someone so noticeably yellow. She was a long term daily alcoholic and is possibly dead by now.

Jane my partner has been yellow too. The skin and the eyes go yellow. It doesn't happen that often for her, though. I can only think of one or two occasions in 9 years. This is because she is a binge drinker and a binge drinker gives the liver time to recover from the effects of processing an extreme quantity of alcohol.

Jaundice starts at the face and works down the body. Jaundice is caused by the liver being unable to remove bilirubin (a chemical released from dead red blood cells). The liver is unable to remove this chemical because it is damaged by the alcohol. Read more about it here.

Another physical symptom that I have seen in Jane is a general failure of the body to function as well (a breakdown of the body). This is my own thought. Alcohol damages the body generally when taken in excess. The brain is damaged generally and slowly. Alcohol causes depression at least temporarily. So immediately after a binge when she has come back from the hospital she is depressed and tearful.

The general damage to the body is evident in an unhealthy looking person and if you are middle aged you will look older than you age most likely.

However, one reason why it is difficult to spot and alcoholic is that there are few really clear outward symptoms at least early on. Another comes to mind but it isn't a symptom - the smell of the person. If they are daily drinkers they smell of booze (clearly). If a binge drinker you can smell the sweet smell of processed alcohol on the breath. This smell pervades the air and is quite noticeable once you have lived with it for a while.

For Jane there is secondary damage too. Her teeth have been damaged y her constantly making herself sick at the end of a binge. The acid in the stomach corrodes the back of the teeth.

She has also complained of stomach problems and has been in hospital for that not too long ago. She hasn't told me what the result of the tests were, however. Alcohol causes vomiting which indicates that it is a poison to the body. Alcohol damages the stomach by causing ulcers the result of increased acid production due to the irritation caused by the alcohol.

Photo copyright Jen_Mo under creative commons
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

I'd like to hear the experiences of both alcoholics and the victims of alcoholics, please.

Popular posts from this blog

Alcoholism and Death

photo copyright crowolf published under a creative commons license kindly granted. These 2 ignominiously go together - Alcoholism and Death . Just after Jane's mini-binge (believe me it was a very minor binge by her standards) of about 20 hours she felt, as usual, suicidal. Jane always feels huge remorse and regret after a binge. She feels bad about letting herself down and bad about messing me around (although it wasn't that bad to be honest - it did though mess up what could have been some time together, which we are lacking at the moment due to work). Jane really does genuinely feel suicidal after a binge. But I must say I don't think she'll ever do it. She hasn't got the courage - I know that sounds horrendously cruel etc etc but this blog is about the plain truth unvarnished. It takes courage to kill yourself and a lots of despair. Jane has the one but not the other. Anyway to get more positive. We had a little talk and I in my usual style, mentioned...
67 comments
Read more

Alcoholism is a Disease

1904 Advertisement I have always wondered if alcoholism is a disease . Is this just some sort of idea someone dreamed up years ago as a method to make a buck. You know it could have been that way. People think diseases are either curable or that the symptoms can be controlled to an extent where the person can live pretty normally. The signal sent to alcoholics by the idea that alcoholism is a disease is, "I can be cured by a pill" or "there is hope". And they go off and search for a cure to this mysterious disease...... It may be a disease, though. What is the definition of "disease"? It is an abnormal condition that impairs bodily functions with accompanying symptoms (after Wikipedia). Or here is another definition: An alteration of the state of the body or parts of it interrupting normal function (mine after ThinkExist.com). These are broad definitions. We usually think of diseases as say a virus that infects us and causes illness; the common cold is t...
28 comments
Read more

Living With An Alcoholic

Here is what it is like Living With An Alcoholic . Whatever a normal relationship might mean, it doesn't exist. It is snuffed out by the dreaded Mr V (vodka). One of the first things that comes to mind is that alcoholics are known to be unreliable and just plain liars. And I am not being critical of alcoholics. I am just describing the facts. Alcoholism drives the alcoholic to lie and deceive. It becomes a way of life. And broken promises abound. Promises to change and stop. These are all well intentioned but can never be kept until the alcoholic is what AA calls a recovering alcoholic. Recovering alcoholics are alcoholics who are able, for the time being, to control their alcoholism. It is as good as it can get for them and their partner. So living with an alcoholic is a very fragile existence, the relationship always undermined by a breach of trust or a potential breach of trust. Then there are the rows. These occur during the binge drinking or continuous drinking (if the alcohol...
38 comments
Read more