Often, we become witnesses of confessions of certain celebrities about their addiction to alcohol or drugs. In the press or from TV screens they tell their stories of falls and ups. However, probably even more often we can observe similar stories in real life, using the example of people close to us. But for some, the habit of relaxing a little after a hard day turns into a serious, chronic problem, the first signs of which are temporary clouding of the mind and the release of negative emotions.
Alcoholism is a chronic disease, leading to a complete lack of self-control and degradation of a person, as a person. It develops gradually, leading to the inability to control oneself in terms of booze. It can be compared to obsession. Each time a dependent person needs to drink a little more to experience intoxication, because it is difficult for him to stop in time. In addition to psychological dependence, physiological development very quickly develops the body literally requires alcohol, and this is fraught with the emergence of conflict situations in the family, society and in the work team. Stages of alcoholism and their treatment depends on the characteristics of the patient's body, his state in the psychological plan and the stage of the disease itself. Ethanol the main component of alcohol-containing beverages, is quickly absorbed into the walls of the stomach and thanks to blood penetrates into the human brain, where it interacts with nerve cells. A person experiences euphoria. The maximum concentration of ethanol in the blood comes after 40-90 minutes after taking. It is excreted from the body during the day, of which 10% is in the form of exhaled air and through the kidneys.
First the body reacts to it with vomitive reflexes, which fade as all the frequent use of alcohol. The main problem is that some people find it fairly easy to do it regularly, and they love the imaginary soothing effect that it gives. But over time, the "benefits" from alcoholism are getting smaller and the person needs more amount to get the same effect.
To recognize if a person has it problem you canby appearance and behavior. Often patients look much older than their age. By the face, the skin loses its elasticity. Muscles around the mouth weaken. Often a person is unclean, clothes are dirty, and they do not care how they look. Doctors prepared a list of classic symptoms of alcoholism, which shows that the level of your consumption has become alarming. To pass this test, you need to answer on these questions honestly. So you:
- Regularly drink alcohol to cope with anger, frustration, anxiety or depression and most importantly you are absolutely sure that you need it.
- If drinking give you confidence.
- If this habit affects your relationships with other people, they feel embarrassed for you.Also you can ask anyone whether you are aggressive when drunk.
- If you stop doing certain things just so that you have more time to drink.
- If you cannot stop drinking even when you can see that it badly affects your work and family.
- When you don’t want your family to know how much costs this addiction and you try to hide it.
- You keep drinking even if it makes you angry and youare disgusted with yourself.
- With every day you increase the dose and frequency of drinking.
- Every morning you feel anxiety.
- More often you cannot remember what happened during certain hours or even days.
If your answer is never then it is 0 points. If the answer is less than once a month, then 1 point. 2 points if the answer is monthly. If weekly, then 3 points and if almost every day then 4 points.
0-7: You are within a reasonable range of drinking and it is a low risk of problems.
8-15: The average level of risk. At this level there is a risk of developing health problems and life in general.
16-19: It is a quite high risk of complications. Independently to get rid of a habit at this level is very difficult. Therefore, you may need professional treatment.
20 and more: It is possible that you faced with the problem of alcoholism a long time ago and probably you already know that. The only way to fight alcoholism is to start complex course which consists of medications and psychological help.
How to curb the habit, so that it does not develop into a disease:
- Set the goal to reduce the amount of alcohol;
- Avoid situations where you can offer a drink, replace it with other activities;
- Choose drinks with a lower alcohol content;
- Seek help and take medication.
For the time when there is a problem of alcoholism or drug addiction many attempts have been made to develop means or methods to combat them. Fortunately, today, thanks to the discoveries in biology and pharmacology, medicine has made significant progress. If to talk about medications then of course you must have heard about Antabuse which is helpful in alcoholism but also there are other medication that works in a complex way – Revia which helps in different addictions as well as with drugs problems.
Effective drug treatment is first of all work with the psychology of the patient. Alcoholism is a biopsychosocioendric disease, it is necessary to create an environment in which a person gains new values, new meanings that replace the use of alcohol or drugs. Groups of mutual help, anonymous alcoholics, where people share their problems, support each other, find solutions can help. No drugs can give a person new values and spiritual development.