Alcohol basics
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The risks:
- Alcohol is a depressant - if you're feeling down, it will make you feel worse;
- Long term excessive drinking can lead to physical as well as psychological dependency;
- Tolerance can develop, which means you need more to get the same effect;
- A long term, heavy drinking habit may cause serious damage to internal organs. It can also cause skin problems, trembling (the shakes), obesity, brain damage, mood swings and personality changes;
- Getting very drunk can lead to loss of consciousness. Users then have a slight risk of choking to death on their own vomit;
- Drinking too much can lead to alcohol poisoning. This can kill, although it is fairly rare;
- Mixing alcohol with other drugs is seriously dangerous. Drink slows down the nervous system and, combined with other depressant drugs, it could cause the body to shut down altogether.
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