Alcoholism, one of the varieties of drug addiction, was recognized by official medicine back in 1952 as a serious mental illness, the symptoms of which tend to constantly increase. The disease manifests itself as an uncontrollable craving for drinking alcohol. A person begins to drink alcohol uncontrollably, may go on a long binge lasting several days, or drink some amount of alcohol every day "out of fatigue, " to relieve stress or just for the sake of relaxation.
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 a return to a sober lifestyle can save them from health problems, so they are not going to 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 to health, it is worth remembering the serious diseases that develop in any alcoholic after several years of persistent addiction to alcohol. 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 in health, leading to premature death, one can name pancreatitis, a specific disease of alcoholics, which can quickly lead to the development of a cancerous tumor in the pancreas. If a person with alcohol addiction, despite the developing disease, continues to drink alcohol regularly and uncontrollably, he will have no more than ten years to live.
A person who is intoxicated does not control his actions, which is why drunk drivers and pedestrians most often become the culprits of road 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:
- Cessation of development and decline in social status.
- A negative change in ethical and moral character traits, leading to rudeness to others, vulgarity, laxity.
- Deviation of behavior. People who constantly drink, unable to forget their bad habit, acquire asocial character traits, often resort to physical and moral humiliation of loved ones, stealing money and valuables from home.
Active alcoholization, which has been occurring in recent years in our society, leads not only to health problems among drinkers and a deterioration in 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, a drinker 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 friendship with the "Green Serpent" 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 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 familiarize the addict with the dangerous facts of the harm that alcohol causes, then he will probably begin to think about how to quit the habit that is causing irreparable damage to his health in order to return to a sober life. Facts that can help get an alcoholic back on the path to sobriety include:
- in order to "earn" cirrhosis, a regularly drinking person only needs 10-20 years;
- having forgotten 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 person who becomes a binge alcoholic before reaching his thirtieth birthday is guaranteed to end up in a grave by his fiftieth birthday.
Yes, these facts can affect an uncontrollable drinker and make him quit, but it is better if the motivation for treatment of alcoholism is carried out by an experienced psychologist. The Neoplus drug treatment clinic in Yekaterinburg offers an intervention service. A qualified psychologist goes to the home of an alcoholic who refuses to undergo an inpatient course of treatment, at the request of his relatives. Then a motivational conversation is held. The result of professional motivation in 98% of cases is the emergence of a desire in the addicted person to quit his addiction, and he makes a voluntary decision to undergo treatment.
Is it dangerous to treat alcoholism on your own?
Unfortunately, the question of how to quit alcohol abuse concerns not people who are addicted to alcohol, but their loved ones. It is the relatives of alcoholics, exhausted from their regular drinking, and realizing the futility of persuasion to undergo treatment, who are looking for information on how to stop drinking. It should 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 medications that eliminate the desire to drink alcohol regularly, or that cause negative somatic reactions to alcohol, not only its taste, but also its smell, without the prescription of a qualified narcologist, poses a serious threat to the health and life of the alcoholic. By secretly giving the patient drugs selected independently, loved ones expose him to the danger 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, not supervised by a doctor, can lead to the following irreversible consequences:
- worsening mental problems;
- causing injury to people around him or himself;
- the emergence of suicidal tendencies and suicide.
To prevent such consequences, you need to persuade your loved one, who has started drinking heavily, 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 must be remembered that a person with a chronic addiction can stop drinking alcohol only after completing a full course of rehabilitation. Delaying it 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 is of interest to many. It is often asked online. To fully figure out how to forget alcohol if you can’t do it on your own, it’s worth considering the methods of treating alcoholism used in our clinic. After the alcoholic is admitted to the hospital, he is prescribed a full diagnostic examination. During the process, it is revealed:
- general condition of the patient;
- stage of development of addiction;
- the presence of damage caused to internal organs and the psyche by alcohol.
Based on the results obtained, 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 begin full treatment of alcoholism. Detoxification is carried out through infusion of absorption (toxin-binding) solutions. To these are added individually prescribed medications to relieve 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 dependence admitted for treatment to our hospital are additionally prescribed a course of restorative and restorative therapy. Medicines, individually selected by specialists collaborating with the Neoplus clinic, allow you to quickly:
- restore internal organs damaged by the breakdown products of psychoactive substances;
- normalize the functioning of the cardiovascular, nervous and digestive systems.
If a person who is unable to stop drinking is diagnosed with serious illnesses, hepatitis, HIV infection, borderline mental states, psychoses, epilepsy, etc. , specialized specialists collaborating with our clinic prescribe additional therapy aimed at treating them or maintaining themstate of remission.
Psychological rehabilitation
The main and longest stage of treatment for alcoholism, without which it is not possible to cope with this disease, which forces a person to constantly drink alcohol. The psychotherapeutic treatment protocol includes:
- group psychological trainings;
- individual lessons, conversations and consultations with a psychologist;
- The 12 Steps 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 of restoring connections with society lost during the time the addict was drinking alcohol, which is an effective prevention of relapse after treatment and a guarantee that the person will be able to stop drinking alcohol forever. The therapeutic programs used at this stage include:
- detailed analysis of problems and irritants leading to breakdowns;
- 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 their previous environment, restore everyday 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 an addict has stopped abusing, this does not mean that he has managed to quit forever. There is no advice on quitting alcohol on your own. The only way out for an alcoholic to stop drinking is a consultation with an experienced narcologist and full treatment in an inpatient drug treatment clinic. The help of specialists can make a person consciously want to quit drinking alcohol. The success of treatment depends on how strong the patient’s desire to give up alcohol is.
The following will help you forget about alcohol:adviсe:
- refuse any offer to drink;
- always control the amount of alcohol consumed;
- Avoid companies where people drink a lot.
To ensure that you stop abusing alcohol, you should learn to relax using non-alcoholic methods: find a hobby, play 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 treatment clinic, which will advise you on the treatment of alcoholism free of charge and anonymously at any time of the day.