Dakota Beacon

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s bring the best of times -- and the worst of times. Family and friends gather to socialize -- and drink. People celebrate and exchange gifts -- and drink. Folks ring out the old year and ring in the new -- and drink.

Alcohol consumption throughout history was always integral to human experience. Over millennia cultures routinely produced and consumed alcohol for religious or social reasons. If a substance could ferment, it has been distilled and consumed for its exhilarating effect. Grains, fruits, even milk, ferment to render an intoxicating liquor.

During the Holiday Season alcohol consumption climbs precipitously. Office parties, house parties, bars, and lounges afford many opportunities to imbibe.

Aside from a hangover, most imbibers exhibit no physiological harm from their drinking. These folks ingest the alcohol and process it quite normally. After a few drinks, their body reacts to the alcohol and begins to shut down. Some feel sleepy; others feel tipsy, dizzy, or even ill. Enough is enough and they stop drinking.

As a simple molecule, ethyl alcohol, rapidly enters the blood stream initially without digestion. Alcohol molecules then quickly penetrate the blood-brain barrier, also gaining easy access to every other organ in the body.

A liver enzyme eventually metabolizes the alcohol into a toxic substance called acetaldehyde. Further oxidation breaks down the acetaldehyde and prepares it for elimination. This is how the process works in a normal person.

Other people differ. In the unwitting ten percent of the drinking population whose body processes alcohol abnormally, the stress caused by the alcohol induces the body to adapt. Unprocessed acetaldehyde circulates in the blood and disturbs the complex function of the body’s cells making them less efficient in detoxification.

Because alcohol is a rich source of energy, cell mitochondria alter their structure to accommodate access to easy energy. Cellular tolerance, especially by nerve cell membranes, compensates by allowing the presence of greater quantities of alcohol without toxic effects. Over time, permanent damage can result. This change may become irreversible.

For that unwary ten percent of drinkers, this is the first step toward alcoholism. Alcohol dependency follows. If not arrested, the condition worsens.

The story does not stop here. Every heavy drinker has their counterpart. Intended as a joyous time, the Holidays become hell-on-earth for those enmeshed in the life of an alcohol abuser. This is the drama of the co-dependent in relation to the heavy drinker. All who know and associate with these two opposite numbers can see what is happening even if the participants cannot see it for themselves. It is a dangerous drama and the more closely intertwined are the participants on stage, the more likely they risk emotional or even physical harm.

As this drama plays out, it becomes an ugly dance between the alcohol abuser and the co-dependent people surrounding him or her. The actors are real people speaking their lines on cue as if scripted. Each person portrays their own relational struggle with the heavy drinker.

While alcohol abusers practice the fine art of denial, those people closest to them learn to survive by employing their own form of denial. Just as the alcohol abuser denies their problem, so too, the co-dependent denies their own problems with the abuser. They seek protection by not risking a rupture in their dysfunctional (or, as they see it, “normal”) relationship with the heavy drinker.

I once discussed drinking with a young pastor full of wisdom beyond his years. His comment made sense. “Drinking may not be prohibited legally or scripturally,” he said, “but drinking never made anyone a better person.”

Alcohol is as much a part of our society as is the celebration of the Holiday Season itself. Nothing is more indicative of the life of a community than to observe the last two institutions standing in a dying American town -- a church and a bar. Question: How great a role should alcohol play in a community? Each generation will argue the answer.

Where there is help there is hope for both the alcohol abuser and the co-dependent. Help is readily available to anyone willing to acknowledge they have a drinking problem -- or to any person willing to acknowledge they have a problem with an abusive drinker close to them. Any doctor, pastor, or social worker can assist in finding the right help. Just ask.

Just ask? That may be the hardest part of getting help. Asking for help presumes a person acknowledges a problem in the first place. Robert Frost’s poem illustrates the struggle to acknowledge:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).