Alcoholism, one of the types of drug addiction, was recognized by official medicine in 1952 as a serious mental illness whose symptoms are constantly increasing. The disease manifests itself as an uncontrollable craving for alcohol. A person begins to drink alcohol uncontrollably, may go on a long binge that lasts for several days, or drink a certain amount of alcohol every day "out of fatigue", to relieve stress or just 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 experts for help.
In order 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 persistent alcohol addiction. 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, which leads to premature death, one can mention pancreatitis, a specific disease of alcoholics, which can quickly lead to the development of a cancerous tumor in the pancreas. If a person who is addicted to alcohol, despite the developing disease, continues to drink alcohol regularly and uncontrollably, he will not have more than ten years to live.
A person who is intoxicated does not control his actions, which is why drunk drivers and pedestrians are most often the culprits of traffic accidents. Most crimes are committed by people who are addicted to alcohol.
Social problems of alcoholics
For a person who starts drinking alcohol regularly and uncontrollably, it replaces family, work and hobbies. He gradually turns into something amorphous, his life flows in a vicious circle, from pile to pile through the hangover phase. Chronic alcoholism causes:
- Stopping development and declining social status.
- A negative change in ethical and moral character traits, which leads to rudeness towards others, vulgarity, looseness.
- Behavioral deviation. People who drink constantly, cannot forget their bad habit, acquire antisocial character traits, often resort to physical and moral humiliation of their loved ones, stealing money and valuables from home.
Active alcoholism, which has appeared in our society in recent years, 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 stop?
Due to the negative effect of ethanol on the brain, a person who drinks can perceive any information only one-sidedly: he hears and sees what he wants, and ignores everything else. Only information that is not capable of harming the friendship with the "Green Snake" penetrates into his consciousness. An alcoholic not only does not think about stopping alcohol abuse, but also categorically does not recognize the existence of such a disease as alcoholism.
It is impossible to get an addict to stop drinking for any reason by hanging posters on the walls about the harm caused by alcoholism. It is easier for an addict to get acquainted with the dangerous facts about the harm that alcohol causes, then he will probably start thinking about how to leave the habit that causes irreparable damage 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;
- forgetting about alcohol in the stage of damage to internal organs, an alcoholic can live for about 10 more years, but if you do not stop abusing him, death will occur much earlier;
- a person who becomes a drunken alcoholic before the age of thirty is guaranteed to end up in the grave by the time he is fifty.
Yes, these facts can influence an uncontrollable drinker and make him stop, but it is better that the motivation to treat alcoholism is carried out by an experienced psychologist. Neoplus drug 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. Then there is a motivational interview. The result of professional motivation in 98% of cases is the emergence of a desire among addicts to stop their addiction, and they make a voluntary decision to undergo treatment.
Is it dangerous to self-treat alcoholism?
Unfortunately, the question of how to stop abusing alcohol does not concern people who are addicted to alcohol, but their loved ones. It is the relatives of alcoholics, exhausted from regular drinking, realizing the futility of persuading them to undergo treatment, that seek information on how to stop drinking. It should be said right away that self-medication of 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 understands the danger of his habit and wants to give it up, and self-treatment of alcoholism, especially without the patient's knowledge, is dangerous because:
- The use of drugs that remove the desire to regularly drink alcohol, or that cause negative somatic reactions to alcohol, not only its taste, but also its smell, without a prescription from a qualified narcologist, represents a serious danger to the health and life of an alcoholic. By secretly giving the patient self-selected drugs, loved ones expose him to the risk of developing serious somatic diseases and worsening 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 suffocation and, in most cases, ends in premature death, because emergency help does not have time to arrive due to the immediate increase in clinical symptoms.
In addition, such treatment, without medical supervision, can lead to the following irreversible consequences:
- worsening of mental problems;
- causing injury to people around you or to yourself;
- emergence of suicidal tendencies and suicide.
To prevent such consequences, you need to persuade your loved one, who started drinking heavily, to go to a specialized clinic. This should be done as soon as possible when the first signs appear that a relative is developing alcohol addiction. It must be remembered that a person with chronic addiction can stop drinking alcohol only after completing a full course of rehabilitation. A delay could prove fatal.
Professional methods of treating alcoholism in a private clinic
The question of how to return to sobriety with the help of professionals interests many. This is often asked on the internet. In order to fully understand how to forget alcohol if you cannot do it yourself, it is worth considering 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 addiction;
- presence of damage to internal organs and psyche caused by alcohol.
Based on the obtained results, each patient is assigned an individual treatment regimen, but all selected measures are included in several general stages.
Cleansing the body
Without this stage, it is impossible to start the full treatment of alcoholism. Detoxification is carried out by infusion of absorption (binding) solutions. Individually prescribed drugs are added to them to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms present in a particular alcoholic. If necessary, non-drug detoxification can be carried out - plasmapheresis, hemosorption, hemodialysis.
Regenerative drug therapy
Patients with alcohol addiction who are admitted to our hospital for treatment are additionally prescribed a course of restorative and restorative therapy. Medicines, individually selected by specialists cooperating with Neoplus clinic, allow you to quickly:
- restore internal organs damaged by the breakdown products of psychoactive substances;
- they normalize 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. , specialist specialists in cooperation with our clinic prescribe additional therapy in order to treat it or maintain a state of remission. .
Psychological rehabilitation
The main and longest stage of treatment for alcoholism, without which one cannot cope with this disease, which forces a person to constantly drink alcohol. Psychotherapeutic treatment protocol includes:
- group psychological trainings;
- individual classes, conversations and consultations with a psychologist;
- The 12-step program has long been proven to be highly effective.
In addition, our psychologists work free of charge with codependent relatives of patients, in order to prevent a possible breakdown after discharge from the clinic.
Resocialization
This phase consists of restoring the ties with society 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. Therapy programs used in this phase include:
- detailed analysis of problems and irritations that lead to breakdowns;
- simulation study of situations that can cause relapse of the disease.
Our social workers and psychologists help patients to change unfavorable behavior patterns, break with the previous environment, regain everyday or professional skills and, if necessary, acquire a new occupation.
How to stop drinking forever, the advice of a narcologist
No former alcoholics. If the addict has stopped abusing, it does not mean that he has succeeded in stopping forever. There is no advice on how to quit drinking on your own. The only way out for an alcoholic to stop drinking is a consultation with an experienced narcologist and complete treatment in an inpatient drug treatment clinic. Professional help can make a person consciously want to stop drinking 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:advise:
- refuse any offer of drink;
- always control the amount of alcohol consumed;
- Avoid companies where people drink a lot.
To make sure you stop abusing alcohol, learn to relax using non-alcoholic methods: find a hobby, play sports, etc. If you are worried about insomnia and anxiety, you should contact a psychotherapist at the clinic.
If there are signs of alcohol addiction, contact a professional office for the treatment of alcoholism, which will give you free and anonymous advice on the treatment of alcoholism at any time of the day.