Often we are oblivious to how poor some of our lifestyle choices are. We are sometimes our own worst enemy when it comes to our health (mental and physical).
Unhealthy lifestyle choices may harm your health, increasing your risk of developing chronic health conditions.
Making bad lifestyle choices can be the worst thing one can do. It doesn’t only affect the life of a single person, but as time goes by, the effects extend far beyond the individual. And they only get worse.
From short-term effects, such as increased anxiety, to long-term ones, such as affecting an individual’s job, financial conditions, and the entire family, poor lifestyle choices can take a huge toll on the life of a person and their family too.
Read on to learn about the three worst lifestyle choices a person could make.
- Excessive Alcohol Intake
In the short term, alcohol causes changes to your brain and neurochemistry, impairing your judgment capabilities and increasing your risk of injury. Drinking excessive alcohol in the long term maximizes the chance of many physical and mental health conditions, including depression, heart disease, liver failure, dementia, etc.
Pay attention to the amount of alcohol you are consuming. Alcohol can creep into your life more than you ever intended. When you’re addicted to alcohol, it affects your brain’s reward center, creating feelings of pleasure by releasing dopamine in the brain. As alcoholism progresses, an addict becomes unpredictable and hard to cope with. The person can be angry and frustrated, lashing out at their loved ones.
However, alcohol addiction can be treated if professional help is acquired. If you reside somewhere in the USA and are searching for the best treatment options, you might want to consider Delphi Behavioral Health Group, as they have facility centers across the country.
- Smoking
Smoking harms you more than you can ever imagine. It affects nearly all your organs, leading to diseases such as cancer, emphysema, heart disease, etc. Cigarette or tobacco smoking can also have long-term effects on your fertility, digestive system, throat, eyes, skin, and skeletal system.
You can get no benefit from cigarette smoking. Besides impacting your health, smoking can make it difficult for you to manage your expenses and harm the people around you. Yes, passive smoking is real. Your family members get affected the most.
Quitting smoking is not easy, but it is possible and worth it. You can even get professional support to break your smoking habit and improve your overall health.
- Being A Spendthrift
If you are a person who orders the latest pair of branded shoes every other week, buys the latest mobile phone despite already having two, and dines out every other day when you have dinner ready at home, you are spending money prodigiously.
You may be doing it for your satisfaction or pleasure, but this could be one of your worst lifestyle choices. Wasting money on things you do not need may hinder you from saving for the future and only lead you and your family to financial crises.
However, the worst out of these is an addiction to alcohol! This is because an addict is not just harming their physical but mental health as well. Here are some ways addiction and other bad lifestyle choices may affect your family:
- Alcohol Addiction Affects Your Children
If one of the parents is struggling with alcohol addiction, the impact of drug abuse is likely to play a part in the children’s development. Research suggests that one out of five kids grow up with a parent who has a substance abuse problem.
When a parent is addicted to substances, they will probably be busy searching for or purchasing the drugs or using them. As a result, this may distract parents from giving attention to and meeting the needs of their children, including not providing proper meals on time, not taking care of children’s hygiene, and lack of attention to their education. This may affect a child’s overall well-being, including mental and emotional health, which, in turn, may impact their self-confidence.
Studies show there’s a relation between the addiction of a parent and the risk of child abuse. In addition, abused children might use drugs and become addicts at a later age.
- Trust Can Be Compromised
Trust is essential in any relationship as it allows you to be more loving and open. When you are addicted to a substance, you are not likely to fulfill your promises and responsibilities, leading to further strain in your relationship.
Although most people mean to honor their agreements, the impact of the bad lifestyle choices inhibits them from doing so. People may delay things, give excuses, lie, and fail to follow through on their commitments. Eventually, family members get frustrated and may lose trust in an individual for failing to uphold obligations.
- More Stress
Having a family member addicted to drugs or alcohol, smoking, or ill due to wrong life decisions is an enormous stressor. From house chores to taking care of bills and making decisions, your family will more likely have more responsibilities on their shoulders. It may expose them to an increased risk of developing stress-induced health conditions, such as anxiety and high blood pressure.
It is entirely heartbreaking for your loved ones to see you suffering from a health condition and the situation only getting worse. They may often feel upset and annoyed in the tiring environment. Many might quit on you completely and even abandon you for their mental peace.
- Financial Issues May Occur
It may not be easy to manage finances if your family member is a chain smoker or addicted to a substance. They may funnel all their salary toward getting their needs fulfilled. This may cause the person to lose their job due to their poor attendance or performance. When it happens, they will probably turn to their savings to satisfy their drug cravings. As a result, the family will start having trouble paying for necessities, including food, rent, utilities, and clothing.
Conclusion
Poor lifestyle choices, such as smoking, substance abuse, and recklessly spending your money, does not only have various effects on you, but they may have a serious impact on your entire family. Bad lifestyle habits, such as drug or alcohol addiction, affect the entire family psychologically, socially, and financially. Coping with a family member who suffers from such a condition can be painful. Due to a stressful environment, intense emotions of family members may sometimes lead to conflicts and loss of trust.
