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Stress is a threat to our physical and psychological wellbeing

Jun 08, 2013 Letters

 

Dear Editor,
Alcohol abuse (heavy /excessive use) and addiction (dependency) have gravitated into a lingering crisis for decades in the Guyanese society, thus warranting immediate attention. Any knowledge and insights will suppress unnecessary consumption of this addictive substance, thereby, saving lives and lessening any burden on society. We all know that Guyana is inherently endowed with high levels of stress and may be a predominant source fueling this problem.
Poverty together with a lack of education, abuse and inefficiencies, have produced excessively high levels of stress within the country, only to be worsened by a severe lack of support structures (programs handling psychological issues), thus pushing many into a state of despair, causing them to resort to heavy alcohol use, as means of coping with emotional and psychological pain, sadly trapping many in the cycle of alcohol addiction. Resorting to alcohol in dampening our emotional and psychological problems (“drowning our sorrows”) is unwise.  It causes more harm than good and should be absolutely discouraged, especially since alcohol is a highly addictive substance.
An abundance of research findings have supported a strong bidirectional relationship between stress and heavy alcohol use with this relationship being undoubtedly, harmful.  Excessive use of this substance alters brain structures and chemicals within them, thus lowering our thresholds for stress, making us more prone/susceptible to it.  Further, stress can in turn reduce the intoxicating effects of alcohol by many folds (physiological), thus further escalating heavy alcoholic drinking in exerting the same levels of intoxication.  Moreover, the overall impact of this bidirectional relationship gives rise to a high tendency for alcohol addiction, liver cirrhosis, high blood pressure (hypertension) and a deadly stroke, among a multitude of health-related problems, thereby increasing overall mortality. Venting stress by alcohol use is not an option.
Alternatives to handling high levels of stress, critically involve recognizing them and managing them.  Stress is subjective, making it difficult to define.  However, simply put, stress is a threat to our physical and psychological wellbeing, marked by elevated levels of stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline and norepipnephrine), with a natural adaptive response, being an escape /avoidance response for survival thus making maladaptive drinking not one of them.
Instead, we can minimize stress by pinpointing their sources and taking necessary actions against them.  We also, certainly, need to remove or minimize stress within society by bridging, the economic divide, by providing jobs, by improving living conditions, by improving standard of living, by curtailing corruption and ending all forms of abuse, in just citing a few beneficial alterations, that can be made in the Guyanese society, in alleviating this lingering crisis.
Annie Baliram

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