纽约时报 美国的酗酒问题有多严重?(2)（在线收听）

    That trend is especially alarming because previous research suggests that people who drink to cope — as opposed to doing so for pleasure —这一趋势尤其令人担忧，因为先前的研究表明，为应对压力而不是享乐而饮酒的人，have a higher risk of developing an alcohol-use disorder, which is the inability to stop or control drinking even when it causes harm.

    患酒精使用障碍的风险更高，也就是说，即使饮酒造成伤害，这些人也无法停止或控制饮酒。

    Alcohol can be calming in the short term: It slows activity in the amygdala,酒精可以在短期内起到镇静作用：其可以减缓杏仁核的活动，the area of the brain that readies the body's "fight or flight" response to real or imagined stress by increasing heart rate and blood pressure and amplifying our awareness of threatening stimuli.

    杏仁核是大脑的一个区域，通过增加心率和血压来增强我们对威胁性刺激的意识，为身体对真实或想象中的压力做出“战斗或逃跑”的反应做好准备。

    But over time, alcohol's dampening effect on the amygdala decreases, while the region itself becomes "hyperactive in between bouts of drinking," according to Aaron White, a senior scientific adviser at the N.I.A.A.A.

    但美国国家防止酒精滥用与酒精中毒研究所的高级科学顾问亚伦·怀特表示，随着时间的推移，酒精对杏仁核的抑制作用逐渐减弱，而杏仁核本身却“在两次饮酒之间变得过度活跃”。

    Achieving the same level of relief requires drinking more, and more often.

    这样一来，要达到同样的缓解作用，就需要更多、更频繁地饮酒。

    There are already indications that groups feeling the most pandemic-related stress are seeing greater increases in alcohol consumption.

    目前已有迹象表明，因疫情相关压力受影响最严重群体的酒精消费量正在增加。

    A survey of 12,000 physicians, for instance, found that more than 40 percent were experiencing burnout, very likely amplified by the pandemic,例如，一项对1.2万名医生进行的调查发现，40%以上的医生正在经历职业倦怠期，这很可能因疫情而加剧，and of those, more than a quarter were drinking to deal with it.

    这些医生中有超过四分之一为应对这种情况而饮酒。

    And though pre-pandemic research showed that parents were less likely than people without children to engage in risky levels of alcohol consumption,尽管疫情前的研究表明，相比没有孩子的人，有孩子的人更不可能进行危险程度的饮酒活动，parents appear to be among those drinking more now — especially if their children are engaged in remote schooling.

    但现在似乎有孩者也在饮酒的人群中——尤其是如果他们的孩子在接受远程教育的话。