Health blog post

 In Health we were set a task that required us to research and provide information about something that is around health. The topic I chose to do was alcoholism. 

The first thing we did was to find a topic that we were interested in researching, once we finished choosing your topic we had 5 big questions to ask and answer. 

Here are my 5 big questions, I chose these questions because I think that they are the most important questions to be asked. 

Why do people become alcoholics?

There are many reasons why people become alcoholics. It could be from a mental illness or psychological problems such as low self-esteem, high stress, or depression, or maybe it could be passed down in the family. It could have been passed down from either the father or mother's side or even both.

What is alcoholism?

Alcoholism is an alcohol use disorder. It is when one can no longer control their use or intake of alcohol and experience emotional distress when they are not drinking.

Who is disadvantaged and advantaged in relation to gender and sexuality around alcoholism? 

Even though there are different patterns of alcohol usage around the globe, males are more likely than women to be heavy drinkers or alcoholics. Men may use drinking as a way to facilitate anger, export power, or to take risks. Women are more likely to stop drinking. That may be related to generally lower levels of drinking, social roles, or does not want to resume drinking.

How does alcoholism affect the brain when intoxicated?

Alcohol Heavy drinking has an effect on the complex structures of the brain. It blocks the chemical signals between brain cells. Leading to common symptoms of being intoxicated. Examples blurred vision, impulsive behavior, slow reaction times, difficulty walking, slurred speech, and poor memory

What are the consequences for long term and short term alcoholism?

Drinking too much overtime can cause many physical and mental health illnesses. A long term effect of alcohol abuse puts you at risk of liver disease, pancreatic, heart disease, inflammation in the stomach, and some cancers, it can affect your immune system or catch more colds and illnesses more than usual more than others who don’t drink.

From there we came up with 3 strategies that will help prevent or deal with the topic we chose. These strategies are helpful to use if you are ever going through something like this topic. 

Find alternatives - 

Taha hinengaro and Taha whanau. Finding alternatives will improve on your mental health by finding ways to decrease the amount of drinking you do. Activities such as exercise, music, and getting a massage can provide opportunities to hang out with friends or plan a date without going to a bar or club. If you rely on alcohol to wind down at home, effective stress relief alternatives can include meditation and gratitude journaling. Finally, there are many delicious alternatives to alcoholic drinks for sober or sober curious.

Set goals- All 3 dimensions. When people successfully change their habits they usually follow a simple plan and choose a goal. 

For example 

• When bored or stressed workout instead of drinking 

• Avoid drinking in large groups

• When out with friends avoid getting alcohol 

The first decision is to decide what you wish to achieve by changing your drinking, there are a number of choices you can make depending on your current drinking pattern. The following guide may help you in your decision but only you can make the decision that is right for you.

Get support - Taha hinengaro. Although a few people have too much pride in themselves to want support, support could be something like a support group for alcoholics, support could also be asking your family members or close friends around you for help. Getting support can improve your taha hinengaro in many ways, It can decrease the number of mental illnesses you have, it can help make new and better connections with others, and to see how others may have gone through it and what their outcome was. 

Taha tinana. Getting support will improve your taha tinana by decreasing the amount of alcohol you put inside your system. It also can help decrease the physical illnesses the body may have gained by drinking too much alcohol.

We then chose to make/create something that relates to the chosen topic, we did this to teach others about our topic/findings. 

Here is a photo of my collage and of me painting my artwork. 

This discovery task was challenging because you had to make sure you understood the topic and the findings of the research, the way I coped with the challenge was to choose a topic that I understood, and that made a lot of pressure go away. I am proud of myself for working independently and for doing two create tasks. I think I worked well independently because if I were in a pear I would also have to depend on the other person in my group to contribute to the work.

This is the link I got my photos from.