Social Care and Health: Exploring Alcohol Misuse and Life Chances

This essay examines the impact of alcohol and drug misuse on an individual's life chances, drawing upon various theoretical perspectives. It explores the interplay of nature versus nurture, highlighting how both inherited characteristics and environmental factors contribute to health behaviors and the likelihood of substance abuse. The essay also delves into the concept of social inequality, illustrating how factors like income, employment, and social status can influence an individual's choices regarding alcohol consumption and, consequently, their health outcomes and life opportunities. Furthermore, the essay discusses the short-term and long-term implications of alcohol misuse on the body, detailing the risks associated with excessive consumption and the potential for addiction. Finally, it provides an overview of the formal and informal social care services available to address alcohol misuse within a specific geographical area, emphasizing the importance of these resources in supporting individuals struggling with substance abuse and promoting positive health outcomes.

Running Head: HEALTH BEHAVIORS
HEALTH BEHAVIORS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Introduction
The concept of nature and nurture related to health behaviors is a significant factor for
people to indulge into alcohol misuse and other health related issues. The concept of nature is
about the inherited characteristics that a person has, which gives the capabilities and tendencies
to a person. The nurture part is about being formed according to the social experiences and
environment, which is a learned behavior. Nature and nurture is a sociological theory used to
determine the behavior of a human and its root cause. Nature is also known as nativists that is
inherited by genetic factors and a nativists will imply that genes specify everything. The basic
foundation of this theory is that humans are a product of evolution and the difference in an
individual occurs due to genetic coding. Nurture also means empiricists that suggests that a
human brain is a blank slate, which is also known as tabula rasa when it is born and it is
influenced by the environmental factors known as behaviorism (Coll, Bearer and Lerner 2014).
Social inequality is another aspect that signifies the existence of unequal opportunities and
unequal rewards according to social positions or class in a society. This makes an impact on the
social groups because the dimension of their lives are affected such as the children and older
people from poor families are more vulnerable to die from accidents, neglects, and chronic
diseases (Biondo and Young). This paper will explore how alcohol or drug misuse impacts upon
life chances related to the theoretical perspective.
Discussion
Health behaviors of an individual influences their life choices, which impacts their life.
This makes it necessary to have positive inclinations about the choices that are made related to
substances that are not beneficial for the health such as alcohol misuse. One of the theoretical

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perspective about changing health behavior is the influence of contributions by the agency and
structure. The medical researchers do not pay attention to the aspect of agency-structure theory
but it plays an important role in the development of health and lifestyle (Veenstra and Burnett
2014). Both of these concepts are dominant in determining the choices of an individual and the
debate is about to which extent. The concept of structure has an impact on the structural
conditions, which forms the dispositions of an individual including the behavior that is evolved
due to the conditions of the society. Whereas, agency looks after the capacity of individuals to
make decisions without the interference of structural influences. A question arises in this context,
is that the decisions made by people regarding their diet, lifestyle or alcohol misuse are
dependent on their choices or are influenced by the social class, position and gender. This theory
can be used as a framework for making choices related to health and lifestyle (Allen and Balfour
2014). Few lifestyle choices are linked to the outcomes of health that is observed by people
every day. Most probably, this was not considered during the past but people these days are more
conscious about their health and they come up with different methods to improve their health and
quality of life. The health and lifestyle paradigm shows that the age, race, gender and living
conditions gives a person experiences and socialization skills, which influences their life choices
and that is the agency. Agency interplays with life chances that is the structure and this interplay
signifies the dispositions to act such as the habits. The habits of an individual leads to their
practice, which is the actions they do such as smoking, diet, alcohol misuse, and exercises. This
whole process forms the lifestyle of an individual and it reproduces with time. This theory
signifies the triggers and influences that leads to the development of health and lifestyle (Gray
and MacKillop 2014). The concept of nature and nurture is another theory that can explain why a
person has the tendencies of alcohol abuse. The nature shows that a person’s family history or

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genetic coding can make them turn into an alcohol abuser but if the concept of nurture is applied
then it can be said that an individual’s social economic background and environment can make
an impact on their alcohol use (Farhud 2015).
Inequalities in society is a social determinant of health that includes the class, status and
position of an individual. Health and income is related to each other because the higher the
income, more consumption and lower the income, lesser purchases. If an individual has a higher
income then they tend to spend more on alcohol and people with lower socioeconomic status,
tend to abstain from substances due to financial restrictions (Sudhinaraset, Wigglesworth and
Takeuchi 2016). An individual’s employment status is linked to their lifestyle through an
associative and causal relationship because if a person is not employed for a longer time they can
contribute to the poor health outcomes for other and that includes alcohol misuse. The overall
issue about social inequality is that it affects the mental health of an individual such as stress,
anxiety, depression and severe damage to the general health (Smith, Foster and Brown 2017).
Alcohol misuse is a collective issue of certain behaviors that includes alcohol abuse,
alcohol use, and risky alcohol dependence. These issues lead to the risk of poor health outcome
due to excess consumption of alcohol. According to the National Health Services nhs.uk (2020),
a unit of alcohol contains 8 g or 10 ml of pure alcohol and that is around a half pint lower to
normal strength beer/cider/lager, which has 3.6% ABV, and a measure of single small shot
measure (25 ml) of spirits, which is 40% ABV. Alcohol as a chemical has a strong intensity and
it can effect several areas of the body such as the brain, heart, bones and liver. It has both short
term and long term implications. The short term implication on a person with normal alcohol
tolerance includes effects on nervous system and brain, which influences the judgment and
decision making skills causing recklessness and inhibition after having 4-6 units of alcohol. After

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8-9 units, the reaction becomes slower including slurry speech and losing focus while looking at
something, and the body stops filtering the alcohol, which leads to hangover on the next day.
Consuming 10-12 unit affects the coordination leading to the impairment, which can cause
accidents. It starts having a depressant effect on the mind and body that makes the person feel
drowsy. This unit also reaches the toxic level and the body starts excreting the alcohol through
urine, which makes the person feel highly dehydrated after waking up leading to severe
headache. This amount of alcohol in the body increases the complications in the system such as
symptoms of nausea, indigestion, diarrhea and vomiting. When a person drinks 12 units of
alcohol in a shorter period of time, the person is at risk of suffering from alcohol poisoning
because the liver removes one unit of alcohol from the body in an hour. The major issue starts
occurring after when the alcohol starts interfering with the automatic functions of the body such
as heart rate, breathing and gag reflex that prevents from choking (Dedert et al. 2014). In the end
stage, it can also make a person fall into coma. Some of the other risks associated with alcohol
misuse is injuries and accidents, loss of personal possession, antisocial behavior and violence,
unplanned leave from college or work and unsafe safe. The long term implication of alcohol
occurs when an individual drinks alcohol for many years and it slowly starts damaging all the
systems including the organs. The major organs that got affected is nervous system, brain,
pancreas, liver and heart. The habit of heavy drinking increases the blood pressure, blood
cholesterol levels, and risk of stroke and heart attack (Fernandez-Sola 2015). It can weaken the
immune system that makes a person vulnerable to serious infection. Alcohol has social
implications as well that includes domestic abuse, criminal activities, divorce, unemployment,
homelessness and financial problems.

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Withdrawal from alcohol after being addicted to it for years can lead to a number of
episodes. The symptoms include agitation, tremors and seizures. This is due to the fact that
alcohol has suppressing effects on the central nervous system including brain. It is seen that
when alcohol us removed from the body, it suddenly activates the nerve cells and brain that leads
to excess excitability that causes seizures. The Barking and Dagenham area has social care
provision that has formal and informal services for people who are into substance abuse such as
alcohol misuse. The formal services are paid care services by healthcare systems and it is given
by NHS known as Alcohol Support and St. Luke’s Service. Another formal service found is CAS
that provides alcohol rehabilitation and detoxification in the Barking Town Center. Dagenham
has similar services for alcohol misuse. The informal services are given by the family members
and closed ones without the help of official organizations. They provide counselling and
treatment for people who have been a victim of alcohol misuse or are trying to withdraw from it
such as Alcohol Programme Plan (Heath 2014).
Conclusion
In conclusion to this paper, it can be said that health behavior influences the health
outcome of an individual. The decision made by them regarding health can affect their health
outcomes and it is influenced by social theories and perspectives. The nature and nurture concept
could be the reason for them to turn into substance abusers and that is reason that can degrade
their general health. The health inequalities and differences in societal status could also influence
their decisions about their choices about alcohol consumption.

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