What is this disease?
As follows from the wording, alcoholism isThis is an alcohol addiction. But to better understand the meaning of this phrase, let's look at it in more detail. A person addicted to alcohol does not just like to drink - he simply cannot do without alcoholic beverages, drinking becomes an important part of his life. If a person simply likes to meet with friends and sit with a glass of beer, this does not mean that he is addicted, but if such a pastime is frequent, then he firmly steps on this road - the path to alcoholism. A person suffering from addiction not only develops a craving for alcohol - alcohol takes such a stable place in his life that gradually both his value system and his outlook on life change. The horror is that a person who becomes an alcoholic often does not understand that something really serious is happening to him.
What are the causes of this disease?
- Alcohol in small doses causes a pleasant feeling of relaxation and lifts the mood. Therefore, there is a desire to use this method to relax more and more often.
- Alcohol is available in our country. Alas, despite the law on the prohibition of sale to minors, often alcohol falls into the hands of adolescents who are not yet able to treat this substance with proper gravity.
- The inability of many of us to take the early warning signs seriously enough (“I drink on Saturdays – what’s so bad about that?”).
By the way, alcoholism can overtake evenelderly people who never even thought about drinking. For example, my grandmother has heart problems and insomnia, so she drinks drops like Valocordin every day. What's wrong with that? But the medicine is alcohol-based! So grandmothers who become alcoholics are not that rare. This is a clear example of how a person provokes the development of a terrible disease solely due to insufficient awareness of the issue.
How does dependence develop?
The first stage of alcoholism -psychological dependence In other words, at first, drinking becomes a habit. A person starts drinking, for example, when meeting with friends or in the evening after a hard day at work. It seems to him that nothing terrible is happening, he just wants to relax. But gradually the habit becomes so strong that the person can no longer do without it. For example, when meeting with friends, he automatically starts wanting to drink, even if he was not going to do it today. He is simply used to the fact that he always drinks in company. And if in such a situation he does not manage to drink for some reason, then he simply will not even know what to do in this company. A person simply forgets how to communicate with people without drinking. At this stage, it is not too late to go back. And it is not as difficult as it seems. At this stage, it is important to realize that what is happening is wrong, it should not be like this. If there is awareness, then the next step will be to break the stereotype (friends-beer), fight the habit with the help of some willpower. If a person manages to take the first steps, then over time the craving for alcohol will disappear. But it often happens that a person simply does not understand the seriousness of the situation ("I'm drinking with friends - what's wrong with that?"). In this case, the person drinks more and more often and drinking becomes part of everyday life. And then it will only get worse. The second stage of alcoholism is physiological. At this stage, serious problems begin, caused not only by psychological reasons. Gradually, the body gets so used to the constant supply of alcohol that it can no longer do without it. This is the stage at which binges occur. The mechanism is as follows. A person meets with friends, drinks. But after several years of passion for alcohol, such a feature as the absence of a stop signal appears: a person stops controlling the dose. He drinks and cannot stop, even if he is already drunk. As you can guess, such situations are already fraught with the emergence of serious incidents. The next day there is a hangover. If a healthy person who has had too much to drink the night before feels nothing but disgust at the thought of alcohol the next day, then an alcoholic has the opposite situation: he really wants to drink. The person feels so bad that he needs a dose of alcohol - only it can alleviate his condition. At this point, the person does not quite accurately reflect reality, his consciousness is distorted. He has only one thought - the desire to drink. And it becomes unimportant that he needs to go to work, and that he is ashamed in front of his family, and that the smell of fumes can be smelled a mile away.
- He just can not help but drink
This condition can be compared to the feeling of hunger.in a healthy person. For example, you did not have time to have breakfast and went to work hungry. What will be going on in your head by the evening? That's right, it will be extremely difficult for you to concentrate on anything, and even important matters will lose some of their significance, because thoughts of warm soup, fried cutlets, cheese sandwiches will creep into your head... Food is necessary for any person, and, remaining hungry, he cannot help but think about it. The same thing happens with a person suffering from alcohol addiction. Alcohol becomes no less important for him than food. If not more. This is where conflicts with others arise. There is little point in reproaching an alcoholic for yesterday's drunken behavior. You can be hysterical, not understanding why he is not ashamed. He just has no time for it now, because he wants to drink. As a rule, it is extremely difficult for a person in such a state to resist temptation, and he drinks. Which, by the way, helps to reduce the feeling of guilt after yesterday. But there is no control over the dose again. The person gets drunk again, and then everything goes in a circle: another hangover, more alcohol. At this stage, many patients develop psychosis - alcoholic delirium, commonly known as delirium tremens. Alcoholic delirium (delirium tremens) A person cannot drink constantly. Periodically, there are days when he simply cannot drink, for example, for health reasons or when he runs out of money. But the body is used to it. Thus, against the background of alcohol withdrawal, the brain can fail. In this case, a person loses sleep and has hallucinations, mainly in the evening. The most common images are silhouettes of people, as well as all sorts of "scurrying little things": insects, mice, snakes. In such cases, it often ends with hospitalization in a psychiatric clinic. The symptoms of delirium tremens are easily treated and, due to the effect of drugs, disappear in a couple of days. The third stage of alcohol addiction - degradation This stage occurs after many years of alcohol "experience". A person's intelligence decreases, social connections are lost, a person "goes downhill". Probably, each of us has seen drunk people sleeping on the street in the dirt. Many of them are not just tramps, but people suffering from the final stage of alcoholism. They look terrible, their behavior leaves much to be desired... Nothing interesting happens in their lives, where is the self-respect of such a person, it is not very clear...
What happens to an alcohol-dependent person?
- People often want to drink, which is not always connected with holidays and joyful events. This becomes his need for an outfit with food and sleep.
- Gradually there is a so-called increasetolerance, i.e. increase in the volume of the drink. For example, if a person used to drink a bottle of beer and began to get drunk while drinking the second, then he starts to drink peacefully 4-5 bottles and stay reasonably sober.
- If a healthy person drinks superfluous, then vomiting becomes a natural reaction of the body to intoxication. The alcoholic gag reflex disappears with time.
- During the drinking, the stop signal disappears: a person does not feel when he "has enough" and continues to drink while he can.
- The next day, a hangover and a need to drink again to relieve the condition.
- Over time, the interests of a person narrow down, and the circle of communication decreases. He simply ceases to be interesting that is not associated with drinking.
- Because of the constant poisoning of the bodycells of the brain are destroyed. Over time, the person's way of thinking becomes more and more primitive, attention and memory worsen. The central nervous system itself suffers: there is a tremor of hands, a violation of coordination of movements.
- Once a friendly person is changing character: he becomes deceitful, aggressive and irritable, and at the same time his sense of self-worth increases, so he constantly demands admiration from others.
Why is this disease difficult to cure?
Of course, to force the body to wean itself offsubstance that was regularly entering it is very difficult. But the reason is not only psychological. And it is not even only about the habits that were described above. Alcohol addiction helps to reduce a person's criticism of his illness. Criticism of the disease and behavior is a person's ability to understand that what is happening is terrible, wrong. A protective psychological mechanism is triggered here. Who likes to admit that they are an alcoholic? Accordingly, if a person previously agreed that he drinks too often, then over time he begins to think that he does not drink so much and is not so drunk. A person can verbally agree that he is sick, but to believe it himself, and even more so to find the strength to radically change his usual way of life - it is very difficult, and only a few cope with this. Thus, the problem of alcohol addiction is often seen not by the person himself, but by his loved ones who suffer because of what is happening. Remember: if you do not want to help yourself, then no one can do it for you! Don't ruin yourself and your loved ones, stop in time! After all, family is more important than a bottle!
