Alcoholism, one of the varieties of drug addiction, was recognized by official medicine in 1952 as a serious mental illness, the symptoms of which tend to increase constantly. The disease manifests itself as an uncontrollable desire to drink alcohol. A person begins to drink alcohol uncontrollably, may go on a long binge lasting several days, or drink a certain amount of alcohol every day "out of fatigue", to relieve stress or simply to relax.
How to stop drinking and what are the dangers of alcoholism?
Most people suffering from alcohol addiction are not fully aware of the dangers of this disease. They do not think that only returning to a sober lifestyle can save them from health problems, so they will not stop drinking alcohol. The question of getting rid of alcoholism usually worries their relatives, who turn to specialists for help.
To understand the danger of chronic alcoholism for health, it is worth recalling the serious diseases that develop in every alcoholic after several years of constant alcohol dependence. The main place among them is occupied by:
- from the digestive system: gastritis, ulcer, enterocolitis;
- from the cardiovascular system: cardiomyopathy or cardialgia;
- from the liver: cirrhosis or hepatitis;
- from the brain: alcoholic pellagra, Morel's disease;
- from the psyche: delirium (delirium tremens) or psychosis.
Among the causes of serious deterioration of health leading to premature death, pancreatitis, a specific disease of alcoholics, can quickly lead to the development of pancreatic cancer. If a person with alcohol addiction, despite the developing disease, continues to drink alcohol regularly and uncontrollably, he will not have more than ten years to live.
An intoxicated person does not control his actions, which is why drunk drivers and pedestrians are most often the culprits of traffic accidents. Most crimes are committed through the fault of people addicted to alcohol.
Social problems of alcoholics
For a person who begins to drink regularly and uncontrollably, alcohol replaces family, work and hobbies. He gradually turns into something amorphous, his life flows in a vicious circle, from stack to stack through the hangover stage. Chronic alcoholism provokes:
- Arrest of development and decline in social status.
- A negative change in the ethical and moral traits of the character, leading to rudeness to others, vulgarity, laxity.
- Behavioral deviation. People who constantly drink cannot forget their bad habit, acquire antisocial character traits, often resort to physical and moral humiliation of loved ones, theft of money and valuables from home.
Active alcoholism, which has been observed in recent years in our society, leads not only to health problems among drinkers and deterioration of the quality of life of society as a whole, but also to high mortality among young people.
How to convince an alcoholic to quit?
Due to the negative effect of ethanol on the brain, the drinker can perceive any information only one-sidedly: he hears and sees what he wants and ignores everything else. Only information that is not able to harm the friendship with the "Green Snake" penetrates into his mind. The alcoholic not only does not think about stopping the abuse of alcohol, but also categorically does not recognize the existence of such a disease as alcoholism.
It is impossible to force an addict to stop drinking for any reason by hanging posters on the walls about the harm caused by alcoholism. It is easier to acquaint the addict with the dangerous facts about the harm that alcohol causes, then he will probably begin to think about how to give up the habit that causes irreparable harm to his health in order to return to a sober life. Facts that can help an alcoholic get back on the road to sobriety include:
- to "earn" cirrhosis, a person who regularly drinks only needs 10-20 years;
- forgot about alcohol at the stage of damage to internal organs, an alcoholic can live for about 10 more years, but if you do not stop abusing, death will occur much earlier;
- a man who becomes an alcoholic before the age of thirty is guaranteed to end up in the grave by his fiftieth birthday.
Yes, these facts can influence the uncontrollable drinker and make him quit, but it is better if the motivation to treat alcoholism is done by an experienced psychologist. The Neoplus addiction treatment clinic in Yekaterinburg offers an intervention service. A qualified psychologist goes to the home of an alcoholic who refuses to undergo inpatient treatment, at the request of his relatives. After that, a motivational conversation is held, in 98% of cases the addict wants to give up his addiction and he makes a voluntary decision to undergo treatment.
Is self-treatment of alcoholism dangerous?
Unfortunately, the question of how to give up alcohol abuse does not concern people who are addicted to alcohol, but their loved ones. Relatives of alcoholics, exhausted by regular drinking and realizing the futility of persuading them to undergo treatment, seek information on how to stop drinking. It must be said right away that self-medication for alcoholism, which is a fairly common practice in our modern society, poses a serious threat not only to health, but also to human life, and is also completely useless.
An addict cannot stop drinking alcohol until he realizes the danger of his habit and wants to give it up, and self-medication of alcoholism, especially without the knowledge of the patient, is dangerous because:
- The use of drugs that eliminate the desire to regularly drink alcohol or cause negative somatic reactions to alcohol, not only its taste, but also its smell, without a prescription from a qualified narcologist, poses a serious threat to the health and life of the alcoholic. Secretly giving the patient medicines chosen independently, relatives put him at risk of developing serious somatic diseases and exacerbation of chronic diseases.
- Folk remedies, with which it is impossible to drink alcohol due to immediate vomiting, can cause an acute allergic reaction in the form of suffocation. Dysfunction of the respiratory system quickly leads to asphyxia and in most cases ends in premature death, since the ambulance does not have time to arrive due to the immediate increase in clinical symptoms.
In addition, such treatment, which is not controlled by a doctor, can lead to the following irreversible consequences:
- worsening of mental problems;
- causing injury to those around you or to yourself;
- the emergence of suicidal tendencies and suicide.
To prevent such consequences, you need to convince the loved one who started drinking to go to a specialized clinic. This should be done as early as possible, when the first signs appear that a relative is developing an addiction to alcohol. It should be remembered that a person with chronic addiction can stop drinking alcohol only after completing a full course of rehabilitation. Delay can be fatal.
Professional methods for treating alcoholism in a private clinic
The question of how to return to sobriety with the help of professionals is of interest to many. Often set online. In order to fully understand how to forget alcohol if you cannot do it yourself, it is worth looking at the methods of alcoholism treatment used in our clinic. After the alcoholic is admitted to the hospital, a complete diagnostic examination is prescribed. During the process it is revealed:
- general condition of the patient;
- stage of development of dependence;
- the presence of damage to the internal organs and psyche from alcohol.
Based on the obtained results, an individual treatment scheme is determined for each patient, but all selected measures are included in several common stages.
Cleansing the body
Without this stage, it is impossible to begin full treatment of alcoholism. Detoxification is done by infusing absorbent (toxin-binding) solutions. To these are added individually prescribed drugs to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms present in a given alcoholic. If necessary, non-drug detoxification can be carried out - plasmapheresis, hemosorption, hemodialysis.
Regenerative drug therapy
Patients with alcohol dependence admitted for treatment in our hospital are additionally prescribed a course of restorative and restorative therapy. Medicines individually selected by specialists cooperating with the Neoplus clinic allow you to quickly:
- restoration of internal organs damaged by the breakdown products of psychoactive substances;
- normalization of the work of the cardiovascular, nervous and digestive systems.
If a person who cannot stop drinking is diagnosed with serious diseases, hepatitis, HIV infection, borderline mental states, psychoses, epilepsy, etc. , the specialized specialists cooperating with our clinic prescribe additional therapy aimed at their treatment or maintenance of a state of remission.
Psychological rehabilitation
The main and longest stage of treatment of alcoholism, without which it is impossible to cope with this disease, which forces a person to constantly drink alcohol. The psychotherapeutic treatment protocol includes:
- group psychological trainings;
- individual activities, conversations and consultations with a psychologist;
- The 12-step program has long proven its high degree of effectiveness.
In addition, our psychologists carry out free work with codependent relatives of patients aimed at preventing a possible breakdown after discharge from the clinic.
Resocialization
This stage consists in restoring social ties lost during the time the addict drank alcohol, which is an effective prevention of relapse after treatment and a guarantee that the person will be able to stop drinking alcohol forever. Therapeutic programs used at this stage include:
- detailed analysis of problems and irritants leading to accidents;
- simulation study of situations that can provoke a relapse of the disease.
Our social workers and psychologists help patients change unfavorable behavior patterns, break with the previous environment, restore daily or professional skills and, if necessary, acquire a new profession.
How to quit drinking forever, advice from a narcologist
There are no former alcoholics. If the addict has stopped abusing, it does not mean that they have been able to quit for good. There is no advice on how to give up alcohol on your own. The only way out for an alcoholic to stop drinking is consultation with an experienced narcologist and full treatment in an inpatient drug addiction treatment clinic. Professional help can make a person consciously want to give up alcohol. The success of the treatment depends on how strong the patient's desire to give up alcohol is.
The following will help you forget about alcohol:advice:
- refuse any offer to drink;
- always control the amount of alcohol consumed;
- Avoid companies where people drink a lot.
To make sure that you stop abusing alcohol, you should learn to relax using non-alcoholic methods: find a hobby, do sports, etc. If you are worried about insomnia and anxiety, you should consult a psychotherapist at the clinic.
If there are signs of alcohol dependence, you should contact a professional drug addiction treatment clinic, which will consult you free of charge and anonymously at any time of the day about the treatment of alcoholism.