Turmoil of Alcoholism: An Exploration of Alcoholics in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital of Assam

Abstract

From time immemorial alcohol is used for refreshment and to prevent and cure diseases by different populations of the world. Preparing country liquor is an age old skill in a good number of societies which is handed down from one generation to the next principally through the process of enculturation. Country liquor is indispensable to the socio-cultural system of innumerable societies of the world. Such communities generally produce this type of alcohol from different floral parts utilizing their indigenous knowledge. In such societies country liquor is used in different contexts of life, even to appease the Gods and spirits. At present alcohol is less used as medicine and mostly used as addictive material. Consumption of excessive alcohol has created a kind of irreversible turmoil in the modern world causing physical, mental, economic and social degradation. It should be noted that alcohol is consumed even by the members of those societies, who do not have the pristine system of making this drink. When a person cannot resist his or her intense desire of alcohol consumption and take it frequently, which ultimately destroys his or her physical and mental abilities partially or to a great extent, additionally harming in his/her social and occupational arenas, then this anomaly of the person is known as ‘alcoholism’. Alcoholism is an alarming disease and the person suffered from is known as ‘alcoholic’. Today alcoholism is a devastating problem throughout the world. In this endeavour an intricate attempt has been made to evaluate some dimensions of the alcoholics treated in the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) of Guwahati, the capital city of Assam and the gateway of North East India.