Your Population

My population consists of substance abusers of alcohol, and I suppose my assumption of my population has changed very little after I have read more about alcoholism.  I think that when I did my first post about my assumptions of substance abusers it was widely spread since I had not limited my topic to a single type and there are so many substances which can be abused.  I think that the way in which my assumption has changed is that through my research I have found that some people and institutions classify alcoholism as a disease (which it can be hard sometimes to think of it as being so) in which there is a strong compulsion to drink no matter what the negative effects of doing so may be caused by it.  And therefore if it is a disease, a small part of me thinks that it is not in essence the fault of the individual whose brain chemistry has made them susceptible to becoming addicted to alcohol and are the victim of its lure.  But even so I do still feel that those who drink alcohol to excess should know the limitations of how much they should drink (though I suppose after a few drinks even if they did set a limit they are less likely to follow it because their judgment in impaired) And while I said I think substance abusers are for the most part “bad people” that may have been going a little far with alcoholics/ism as the subgroup I am focusing on for substance abusers. I think they are more so misguided and impaired and that the labeling of “bad” would for me apply to individuals whose lives are controlled by alcohol and have basically allowed it to tear every part of their lives to pieces and repeatedly resort to violence and abuse of some sort when they drink; continuing to do this even after they sober up and see how they have hurt the people around them.

I still what to do research about the brain chemistry of those who drink, and I think that will help me understand more as to why alcoholism is a disease.  I have been able to piece together slightly why it is the most accepted form of substance abuse which occurs in daily life, but I want to dig deeper into that idea more so.  And maybe even researching what sort or type of people it has more of an impact over (such as background, race, and gender)

I have found some basic information on why it is that people drink such as in one case people do so because they are depressed and they drink to alleviate that depression but what they do not realize is that alcohol is a depressant itself so it is just worsening their depression.  Also that people in certain social circles are more so pushed to drink than those in other social circles.  Also I found an interesting section in an encyclopedia that talked about how men who drink more do so sometimes because they associate dinking with having power and rationalize that if they drink more they will have more power.  And I have found other general tidbits about alcoholism as well, such as it is more likely that those who grew up around an alcoholic are more likely to abuse it themselves than a person who grew up in a family where there was no alcohol abuse present.