Alcoholism - there is still an end or salvation

Hearing the word "alcoholic", we most often imagine a degraded person, whose appearance immediately suggests an addiction to strong drinks. In fact, everyone can get carried away with an addiction, both a decent, well-dressed woman, and an exemplary-looking schoolboy. You can understand the stages and types of alcoholism, as well as understand whether this terrible disease is curable, by reading this article.

Types of alcoholism

Narcologists distinguish three types of alcohol addiction.

A chronic alcoholic drinks regularly and systemically, while it is not so important which drink he prefers, because the goal in this case is to reach a certain stage of intoxication. The danger of this type of disease is that it progresses very quickly. At first, acquaintances, relatives and friends may not notice the problem, most of the people around them drink from time to time, on occasion and in reasonable doses. However, the habit may soon become a rule. The alcoholic convinces himself that he drinks alcohol only on weekends or after a hard day's work or when meeting with a friend, until the ritual goes into the system. Getting rid of addiction in special centers begins precisely with getting rid of the ritual, fencing off the people with whom he drinks.

What changes in the body does a chronic alcoholic feel?

• a person is no longer able to control himself and cannot refuse a glass or two;
• is developing hangover syndrome- hand tremors, bad mood, heart palpitations;
• "immunity" to alcohol is developed;
• neurological and mental disorders develop - hallucinations, delusions, etc.

A drunken alcoholic can take alcohol for three days to several weeks or even months. More often, this situation occurs when a person does not have the opportunity to regularly relieve stress in this way (problems in the family, responsible position). Then the alcoholic simply drops out of life for a long time in order to replenish the doses of alcohol he needs. It is very important here to determine the reason for this behavior.

Encoding or other methods of treatment are not an option for drunken patients. After getting into shape after a binge, sooner or later he will break again. The problem is aggravated by the fact that the body's tolerance to alcohol is very low.

Secret alcoholism is usually found in quite successful, realized individuals who simply cannot afford to demonstrate their weakness to the public. It is not easy to recognize this type of ailment, because outwardly such people look decent, but this is only temporary. When the disease worsens, it becomes more difficult to hide it from others, behavioral reactions often change, complexion worsens, women age faster.

Drinking beer is considered by many to be a completely harmless occupation, generally not perceiving this drink as alcohol. This is the insidiousness of beer alcoholism, the patient does not even notice how addiction develops, regularly drinking more than one liter of beer. Over the years, a bad habit passes into more severe stages, a person uses more and more, switching to a stronger intoxicant.

Particular attention should be paid to female alcoholism. Often a habit develops against the background of personal problems, disorder. First, there is a psychological dependence, which can very quickly develop into a physical one. A woman's appearance does not change for the better, often alcoholism leads to a riotous lifestyle, infection sexually transmitted infections, difficulty in conceiving and carrying.

A terrible child's alcohol addiction arises against the background of self-identification as a person, when a teenager wants to look adult and self-confident, to assert himself in the eyes of his peers. The consequences of the disease can become irreversible, there are mental problems, aggression, loss of control.

Causes of alcoholism

Most often, the cause of alcoholism lies in the person himself, his psychology. Disease people who are weak in spirit who do not know how to keep the blows of life and cope with difficulties are prone to. It happens that alcoholics simply do not have the necessary motivation for a normal existence, they are prone to depression, self-reflection, blaming everyone and everything for their problems, just not themselves.

Not having the ability or desire to start a family, have a child, find a good job, both men and women drown their grief in a bottle. A notorious person is always full of fears and doubts, afraid of being misunderstood and rejected by society, therefore he finds a way out in this way - under the influence of an intoxicating person, all uncertainty disappears instantly.

Workload is another psychological factor in alcoholism, drinking every day after a hard day, people acquire a ritual and, as a result, addiction.

Several factors can be attributed to the social causes of alcoholism:

1. The customs and traditions associated with drinking are very popular and strong in Russia. Most people are accustomed to associating the use of alcohol with any holiday and event, they no longer imagine any other way to celebrate the celebration.
2. The constant striving of society for material benefits and the imposition of the image of a successful person can drive a not fully realized personality into a bottle. Low wages, insufficiently prestigious work - a person tries to forget all this with the help of alcohol.
3. There are a lot of drinking people among doctors, rescuers, police officers, this is due to a special type of activity where stress occurs constantly.
4. In adolescents, the craze for forbidden drinks often starts with innocent advertisements that are everywhere. Bright, alluring videos and banners assure us that drinking this or that brand of beer is very “cool”.
5. Chronic and binge drinking is very common in countries with low living standards. Poverty, lack of work, disorder sometimes does not leave a person with a choice, all this leads to moral decline.

Physiological causes of alcoholism develop on the basis of certain characteristics of the organism. For example, due to pathologies arising from the mother during pregnancy. The manifestation of the disease depends on gender and age, scientists have proven that adolescents and older women are most susceptible to addiction. People with mental and neurological ailments - schizophrenia, a tendency to neuroses, etc. are prone to illness.

Among the reasons influencing the progression of the disease are genetic predisposition and poor heredity. The situation is aggravated if both parents suffered from addiction. This type of alcoholism is difficult to treat, because a child almost from birth observes an impartial picture of drunkenness of people close to him.

Symptoms of alcoholism

Typical signs of alcoholism have been known to professionals for a long time, take a closer look at your loved ones, it may not be too late to recognize and prevent the development of addiction.

1. It all starts with a gradual increase in craving for alcohol. The alcoholic is constantly looking for reasons for libation, the reasons may be different - holidays and feasts, meeting with a friend, life's troubles, hot weather. Unconsciously, he chooses those companies and places where you can treat yourself to your favorite drink. Over time, excuses become less and less convincing.
2. Soon the alcoholic changes his behavior, before the next feast he is in high spirits, finding a new reason to drink under the clink of glasses and glasses. Solve problems with family and more and more often he goes to the company where he will be understood, listened to complaints about life and sympathize.
3. The transition from domestic drunkenness to alcoholism is characterized by a comfortable state during intoxication. A person finds new excuses and arguments in favor of alcohol and himself begins to believe that this is the norm, just those around him do not understand. There comes a moment of denial of the harmfulness of a habit and a reassessment of values, diseases appear on the basis of alcohol consumption.
4. Further, the patient begins to lose self-control, not feeling when to stop. The critical mark of the dose of intoxicating rises, the body no longer responds to a couple of glasses and glasses, but requires more until the desired euphoria sets in.
5. At a certain stage, the gag reflex, as the body's reaction to poison, is lost. There is a complete victory of alcohol over a person.
6. The body has already trained to process alcohol-containing drinks and now does not respond even to large doses, frequent libations act to increase alcohol tolerance. How quickly this happens depends on individual physical characteristics.
7. A "hangover syndrome" develops, and general weakness of the body is added to severe malaise and headaches. The alcoholic does not withstand the withdrawal and begins to be treated with the usual method.
8. The harbingers of alcoholism are memory lapses. If a person does not remember the next morning what happened to him the day before, this is a very alarming bell, soon they will happen more and more often.

Stages of alcoholism

Each person's addiction to the potion develops differently. One has been practicing household drunkenness for years, while the other has enough for a short period of time to "get drunk" completely. Drunkenness narcologists call the initial stage of alcoholism and warn that even small doses of alcohol trigger irreversible mechanisms of action in the body. Already at this stage it is worth seeking advice from a specialist, if the patient wishes, he will be able to cope with the developing addiction.

People who do not have relevant knowledge about disease, are unlikely to immediately determine its stage. The severity of certain signs in each manifests itself in different ways and depends on the characteristics of the psyche and related ailments that can affect the course of alcoholism.

Having familiarized themselves with the three main stages of the disease, relatives and friends will be able to prevent the sad consequences:

1. The first stage of alcoholism is characterized by increased tolerance to alcoholic beverages. If earlier a couple of bottles of beer were enough for an alcoholic to get drunk and achieve the desired effect, now he needs a large dose of the potion. He can motivate his behavior in different ways - by a difficult situation at work or in the family, by the peculiarities of the weather, etc. All this is complemented by the desire to drink more and more often, and the physical and mental state of a person also undergoes negative changes, irritability, neurosis appears, rejection of criticism from loved ones, blood pressure rises, chronic diseases become aggravated, and "hangover syndrome" develops. At this stage, drinking does not yet become the meaning of life, but I already want to use more and more often.
2. At the second stage, the "hangover syndrome" always exists and shows itself in all its glory - an alcoholic experiences headaches pain, there is nausea and vomiting, in order to alleviate the condition, he again uses alcohol. The mental state is also aggravated - the patient is prone to depression, irritability, aggression, insomnia. Some ailments become chronic, but the person stubbornly denies that the cause of everything is his bad habit. The most common diseases at this stage are gastritis, stomach ulcers, diseases of the cardiovascular system, pancreatitis, nervous disorders, and decreased immunity. Cases of hard drinking are not uncommon, their duration varies from several days to a month or more.
3. In the third stage, serious health problems begin, memory impairment, failures, apathy in relation to business and work, chronic fatigue, and mental activity decrease. The state of an alcoholic also affects relations with family and friends, he increasingly shows aggression towards others, becomes whiny, does not take into account anyone's opinion, moral principles are erased. Tolerance to alcohol gradually decreases, even after small doses a person gets drunk, feels symptoms of poisoning. The level of life is no longer of interest to the alcoholic, he changes the social circle on his own kind, a complete degradation of the personality occurs. At this stage, the disease (cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, heart attack) can cause death.

Alcoholism treatment

Various treatments for alcoholism are widely used to get rid of addiction. But they are all based on a complete rejection of alcohol.

For a patient with the second and third stages of the disease, a hospital stay is more suitable, where he will be treated in a comprehensive manner - he will be taken out of the binge, the body will be cleansed of alcoholic poison, and then special medications will be prescribed and psychological support will be provided. At the final stage, a person is helped to adapt to a life without alcohol, this is very important.

Whichever drug treatment clinic is chosen for treatment, the main thing is that strict rules reign in it and the transfer of alcoholic beverages to patients can be excluded.

Outpatient treatment It is also allowed in cases where the addicted person has firmly and irrevocably decided to get rid of the addiction himself. Then you should enlist the support of friends and family and not go to companies where they could offer him a drink.

Alcoholism coding

Usually, coding means instilling fear of alcohol in a patient. For the first time this method was used in practice by a narcologist A.V. Dovzhenko.

Today, experts practice coding in different ways, but they are all divided into psychological and chemical ones.

The second, the traditional way, is used to instill in the patient a prohibition on drinking alcohol, with the main idea that drinking can cause death and mental illness. Of course, after such an installation, the alcoholic does not feel comfortable, he wants to stifle his condition with alcohol, but this is prohibited. In fact, this method does not in any way affect the true causes of addiction; only an experienced psychologist will help to understand this.

Neither coding according to Dovzhenko, nor taking medications, nor sewing in a spiral will give a good result if the person himself does not decide to get rid of the habit. After the end of 3-5 years, he will break again, so that this does not happen, it is necessary to carry out the social adaptation of the alcoholic.

Contraindications for this encoding are:

• unwillingness of the patient;
• neuropsychiatric ailments;
• cardiovascular disease;
• period of bearing the child;
• kidney and liver diseases.

Chemical protection acts on the patient more effectively. Different types of drugs act in this case in the same way - a special drug is administered to an alcoholic, after which, the next time it is used, it reacts with the components of alcohol and causes severe physiological consequences: edema, heart palpitations, convulsions, seizures. To improve protection, a combination of two methods is used - the Dovzhenko method and chemical coding.

The newest method of treating alcoholism is the impact on the biological points of a person laser beam, this method has a very high efficiency, only 1-2 sessions are enough. Among the contraindications are diabetes mellitus and cancer.

Treatment of alcoholism without the knowledge of the patient

Most alcohol addicted people deny there is a problem and assure that they can stop at any time. Sometimes treatment without the knowledge of the patient is the last desperate step that his loved ones take.

However, firstly, such treatment will not have the desired effect, because a person must admit his illness himself and want to get rid of it. Secondly, compulsory treatment is contrary to the law, the patient is prohibited from being treated without his knowledge, he must sign the appropriate document on consent to coding. Otherwise, he has every right to apply to the court.

The last edge of despair makes the alcoholic's family go to extreme measures, cheat and try to use folk methods to get rid of the disease. As an introduction, one of them is presented below, but it is worth remembering self-medication can lead to an exacerbation of chronic diseases, and the effect is likely to be very short-lived.

Alternative treatment for alcoholism

It is not even worth talking about the various conspiracies and rituals that "sorcerers" and "magicians" carry out. Even as self-hypnosis, these methods will not have the proper power. Most often, all kinds of herbs and plants are used for folk treatment of alcoholism.

It is believed that the most effective remedy in this case is getting rid of illness with the help of a dung mushroom. Moreover, many claim that it is so effective that it can be used only under the supervision of a doctor.

First you need to find a fresh mushroom, and this is not an easy task, because when it grows, it begins to die after a few days. Then the dung beetle is dried in a pan and washed into powder, after which a small amount is added to the patient's food. The course is 10 days, the required dose is 2-3 grams, its increase threatens a person with irreversible consequences. After treatment, even if a small amount of alcohol is consumed, the patient will feel unpleasant reactions of the body - nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, fever, a change in the color of the skin to bright purple.

Prevention of alcoholism

It is difficult to overestimate the measures for the prevention of alcoholism, because it is much easier to prevent a terrible disease than to try to get rid of it later.

Types of prevention:

1. Primary prevention means education for young people and adolescents. For them, conversations are held about the dangers and consequences of drunkenness, videos and interviews with alcohol addicted people are shown. Particular attention is paid to diseases that appear as a result of frequent libations - illness Gastrointestinal tract, liver and kidney, hepatitis, pancreatitis.
2. Secondary prevention is about meeting people who are willing and ready to be treated for addiction. Also, conversations are held with the patient's family, so that its members support the alcoholic and in every possible way contribute to getting rid of the habit.
3. Tertiary prevention is carried out by Alcoholics Anonymous. The patient, as a rule, is ashamed to admit his problems to others; for this, special clubs have been created where people share their experiences and experiences. In this they are helped by a psychologist who will listen and guide everyone on the path of recovery.