How does alcohol affect older people?
The older a person gets, the more they slow down. As you age, the time it takes for you to walk, talk, think, and react is not the same as it was when you were younger— all of these bodily functions slow down. So what happens when an older person becomes addicted to alcohol? While age is not a disability, it can affect your mental and physical ability, so when you take age and combine it with an excess of alcohol, you are endangering yourself and others.
With age, it is likely that it takes less alcohol to feel a “buzz.” In other words, many people find that when they get older, alcohol can affect them much more rapidly than it did when they were younger. Unfortunately, if you are addicted to alcohol, you want more and the desire for the “high” impedes the messages from your body telling you to stop. Pride also plays its part. Few of us like to think about aging. We want to continue doing everything we’ve always done. If someone has always had a lot of drink, they want to continue, without thinking about how the regular wear and tear of age and the years of drinking in combination can cause serious problems.
Any health problems a person has, such as high blood pressure, will only be worsened by abuse of alcohol. In addition to this, many older people take a lot more medications that they did as young people. Prescription medications, combined with a health condition, and seemingly harmless over-the-counter drugs can become deadly when you throw alcohol in the equation.
Older persons who abuse alcohol and don’t get help put themselves in danger of falls that could have been prevented and hurting themselves with sharp objects and other equipment. They are also susceptible to causing car crashes that can injure not only them, but their passengers and other people on the road as well.
