Lesson video

Welcome to RSHE lesson on drugs and alcohol.

My name is Mr. Duffy.

I'm really glad you joined me today.

We're going to look at alcohol dependency.

This lesson covers issues about the use of alcohol and its dependency.

If this is a sensitive topic to you we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

So hopefully you've done very well on your intro quiz.

We then get to look at the definition of alcoholism.

Health and social risks associated with alcoholism, functioning alcoholism and you'll do your exit quiz at the end of the lesson.

So let's take a look at some key words then.

So alcohol contains ethanol, a type of alcohol produced by fermentation of grains, fruits or other sources of sugar.

And alcoholism is the most serious form of problem drinking and describes a strong often uncontrollable desire to drink.

So when would a person's alcohol consumption become a concern? Pause the video and I'll see you in a second.

The concern would be if they're drinking in excess of the NHS recommended number of units of 14 for men and women over a week.

If they were drinking more than that and drinking in excess of that on a regular basis, then it would become a concern.

So the signs of alcoholism then, it can be tricky to spot the signs as alcoholics can be secretive about it and can become angry if confronted.

The other issue is, it can be relatively straightforward and easy to hide alcoholism.

Certainly having to sneak a drink here and there, maybe drinking on an evening and they may not even see it as a problem having a bottle of wine or a couple of bottles of wine in the evening.

However below are the signs of alcoholism: A lack of interest in previously normal activities.

And I think that's key there is that it turns from maybe someone who just enjoys a drink on an evening where actually it's become more of a dependence, the more needing it than they would do normally and then actually nothing really matters apart from having alcohol.

Appearing intoxicated more regularly.

So someone who appears drunk on a regular basis.

Needing to drink more in order to achieve the same effects.

A little bit like with drugs really that they need to have more alcohol to get the same effects.

So they're building a tolerance.

Appearing tired, unwell or irritable.

An inability to say no to alcohol.

So maybe they're at a party and there's a drink and actually they weren't able to say, no.

It's.

I need a drink, I need a drink.

Anxiety, depression or other mental health problems and becoming secretive and dishonest.

This is the other issue is that they can be quite secretive about how much they drink and then as a result, hide it.

So it's quite difficult to see how much they were actually drinking.

But I think having the lack of interest in normal activities, appearing more drunk all these things add up to show the signs of someone suffering from alcoholism.

So alcohol and mood changes then.

So alcohol affects people differently, depending on how much or how long someone has been drinking.

People who drink very little will experience relaxation and release of their inhibition and this can lead to some of those dangerous risk taking activities.

But the amount of alcohol someone drinks and the effects that they have will make these things different from person to person.

So David and his friends are over 18 and they're having a drink in a pub.

What short term mood changes might David and his friends experience? Pause the video, write your answers down.

I'll see you in a second.

So David might in this short term experience euphoria, happiness, certainly going to start swerving his words maybe.

The long-term effects can have a serious effect on his mental health.

Regular heavy drinking interferes with chemicals in the brain that are vital for good mental health.

So while we might feel relaxed having a drink in the long run, alcohol has an impact on mental health and can contribute to feelings of depression and anxiety and make stress harder to deal with.

In the first instance, they might turn to drink because of maybe a bereavement or trauma you know.

Maybe they're having to deal with stress and actually they think, "I'll have a drink to deal with that." But in the longterm, dealing with those issues becomes harder.

First go back to David again.

David and his friends regularly drink alcohol over the weekend.

Having learned about alcohol and mental health at school, what would your concerns be for David's long term mental health? So in this scenario, we suggested that maybe he is drinking in excess of 14 units per week, what would your concerns be regarding his long term mental health? My first concern would be in this instance, that he may start slipping into what we would call, depression and anxiety.

We'd want to find the reasons why he is maybe drinking alcohol in the first place regularly every weekend.

It could be low self esteem, maybe he is on his own and he likes to go out with his friends and as a result, he feels happy and.

about his life and that he is you know, all those depressive reasons maybe put to one side whilst he's having a drink.

But that's going to lead to more anxiety and more depressions.

It would be my concern.

My, my long-term concerns as well on his mental health would be, brain damage.

Long term alcohol misuse can cause alcohol related brain damage or ARBD for short.

It is caused by a person regularly drinking too much alcohol or binge drinking over several years.

What's really important to understand here is this is over a prolonged period of time.

And as we said in previous lessons, treatment and getting a handle on it early is really important and some of these can.

things be reversed.

But there are different types of alcohol related brain damage.

People who get ARBD are generally aged between 40 and 50 and have been drinking for a prolonged period of time.

Maybe 20 years plus.

So one of the types of ARBD is what we call alcohol related dementia.

If a person has alcohol related dementia, they will struggle with day to day tasks.

This is because of the brain damage to the brain caused by regularly drinking too much alcohol over many years.

The person may have memory loss and difficulty thinking things through.

So he will struggle with those day to day tasks.

Logical thinking, they have problems with more complex tasks, such as managing their finances.

The symptoms may cause problems with daily life, for example the person may no longer be able to cook a meal.

That's going to have a huge impact on their employment.

Obviously 40 to 50 is not old.

They will still be in employment and if they have alcohol related dementia they are going to need some form of care and as a result they're not going to be able to perform that task at work and because of that could end up unemployed.

The other one is a really big word that is actually really difficult to pronounce.

It's called Wernicke-Korsakoff's Syndrome.

Now this is the most severe form of ARBD.

The damage to the brain is caused in a very specific way and it's because alcohol prevents the body from getting enough thiamine or vitamin B1 which is vital for brain cells to work properly.

This lack of vitamin B1 can have a severe and long lasting effects on the brain.

About quarter of people affected with this syndrome, who get treatment make a good recovery.

A quarter, 25%.

About half, 50% make a partial recovery and still need support to manage their life.

And about a quarter of people with the condition make no recovery at all and may need long term care in a specialist residential home.

Now this is the worst ARBD and this is someone who is.

who's drank excessively.

We're talking a lot of alcohol over a prolonged period of time.

So what are the symptoms then of Alcohol-related dementia and Wernicke-Korsakoff's Syndrome? What are the symptoms? Write your ideas down and I'll see you in a second.

So we've got that cognitive memory problems, haven't we? Memory loss, difficulty with familiar tasks, depression, damage to the liver, stomach and pancreas, poor temperature control, but we've also got, haven't we? Unable to do daily tasks, problems dealing with finances in the worst case scenario, total care.

Fantastic.

I really hope you've wrote a really good letter there to help John.

So all alcoholics lose their jobs, families and friends.

Is this true or false? It's actually false.

Not all alcoholics end up losing their jobs, family and friends as we've explained, they can hide it quite well.

We are always saved up with the classic picture of an alcoholic as someone who's always drunk too much and who's life is falling apart because of it.

And we see that, don't we? On a lot TV and films, end up homeless and you know, no job but that isn't always the reality.

Some people seem just fine even though they are abusing alcohol.

As I've said they're drinking in excess of those 14 units per week but they seem absolutely fine.

Experts call these people functioning or functional or high functioning alcoholics.

So what are the signs? Slightly different to an alcoholic who's maybe lost a job, lost their inhibitions.

Well, for functioning alcoholic, they're able to go about their daily lives in a relatively normal way.

They're able to hide what they're drinking and how much they drink.

So it makes the signs very, very difficult.

They may maybe turn up to work late, they may turn up to work maybe under the influence from the night before potentially but the signs are extremely difficult and that's because they're functioning.

That's because they're able to cope with the amount of alcohol that they're drinking and that's because they're drinking in excess of 14 units.

The signs as I said are the same as an alcoholic except some can function while others are unable to.

They may be turning up to work as normal, admittedly the may be under the influence.

The may not be as productive.

They may call in sick more often because they would rather stay at home.

Maybe they got hangover, maybe they're drinking in the morning.

They may have been caught drink driving from the night before.

These things might be small signs that actually, there is an issue here.

It's very difficult to see it because they're functioning.

And for a lot of people they actually put this down to maybe something else or they're just being caught unlucky or is it unusual that X person's off every Monday or every Friday? Well they've got high absence at work.

It's off that they come in at half past 10, look a little bit dishevelled, look a little bit scruffy but nonetheless they are in work but it's funny how they're always late.

But they make up for it because they work till 6,7 o'clock at night, so, okay.

And they may just not see them as signs because again, they are functioning.

So there's lots of help and advise.

If you want further information please go and have a look at Talk to Frank, please go onto the NIDA website, NHS or Adfam are all fantastic websites to gain further information on this topic.

I really hope you've learned a lot today.

I really hope you've enjoyed the lesson.

All right so I've been Mr. Duffy.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

All right, so I've been Mr. Duffy, I'm really glad you joined me today and I'll see you soon.

Goodbye.