Alcohol addiction is a family problem for many families. Some are unaware of the danger of alcohol cravings, considering it a common bad habit that can be treated with a simple effort of will. In fact, with the development of psychological and physical addiction to alcohol, the patient can only be helped by professional pharmaceutical therapists who know how to stop drinking.
Alcoholism is a dangerous chronic disease. Without timely treatment, it leads to pathological disorders in the work of internal organs and systems, personality degradation, and increases the probability of premature death.
How to convince someone to stop drinking
One of the main problems faced by family members of the addict is how to convince a person to stop drinking. The problem is that after the formation of his addiction, a person loses the ability to objectively evaluate the surrounding reality. Because of this, he can sincerely believe that everything is in order for him, if necessary, he will give up alcohol on his own at any time.
In fact, at this time, physical dependence has time to develop. Ethanol toxins penetrate into internal tissues and organs, actively participate in metabolism. Alcohol becomes necessary for the normal functioning of the body, as soon as its level decreases, a person begins to experience excruciating withdrawal symptoms. The easiest way to deal with them is by having another dose of alcohol. This leads to prolonged excessive alcohol consumption, dependence develops, and concomitant chronic diseases appear.
Getting an alcoholic to quit smoking is not easy, and coercive therapy is prohibited. Such a decision can only be made in court. However, the provision of medical care without the consent of the patient is ineffective. As long as the person does not want to stop drinking, the probability of relapse will remain very high.
Alternatives to compulsory treatment
To obtain the consent of an alcoholic, family members are advised to intervene. To do this, all members of the family must unite and act together:
- Refuse ultimatums, threats, and scandals. This will not help convince the alcoholic to get rid of the addiction. Instead, a person can become even more self-enclosed.
- It is necessary to refuse any help to solve the problems caused by alcoholism until the patient agrees to accept drug treatment.
- The use of home remedies and methods should be abandoned. They can only help in the early stages of addiction, and even then not always. Often times, the patient's condition can only get worse, and alcoholism will move to the next stage.
- Instead, you must choose a drug treatment clinic in advance.
- Take advantage of the situation where the patient suffers from withdrawal symptoms. They are so atrocious that most agree to see a doctor to stop suffering.
Another way is to contact motivational psychologists from the drug treatment clinic. They conduct confidential conversations at home, they are well acquainted with the peculiarities of the psychology of alcoholics to achieve a result.
Motivation to get rid of addiction.
A frank conversation will help the alcoholic make an important decision and agree to go through all the stages of complex therapy. During it, the family members will be able to give arguments and compelling reasons that should convince a person to make this responsible decision. These reasons may include:
- Children and Family: Waiting for or planning for a child is incompatible with alcoholism, as is raising young children. For some, the deciding factor is the emergence of a real and tangible threat of losing a family.
- A state of health, when new diseases begin to be detected in a person, internal organs gradually fail, systemic failures occur in the body, this becomes clear evidence that it is necessary to stop.
- Racing begins to suffer greatly due to addiction. The prospect of losing a job, everything that had to be achieved before in the professional field, becomes a good incentive. Drinking alcohol over time inevitably affects job success: brain activity decreases, sense of responsibility weakens, discipline is poor.
- Reputation is rarely the main reason to stop drinking, but it does exist. At a minimum, this argument should be used in conjunction with other reasons the alcoholic is quitting alcohol. If the patient is chronically addicted, self-esteem loses value due to severe psychological changes and personality degradation.
- Moral or physical fatigue due to the systematic use of alcohol. In some cases, it is possible to make a person look at himself objectively from the outside, realize the nonsense and hopelessness of such a situation. The main thing may be the fact that the patient stops enjoying alcohol, the satisfaction he had before, not a trace remains.
- Significant changes in lifeIn this case, a clear awareness of the monotony of current reality and the desire to radically change everything must play a role.
After obtaining the voluntary and informed consent for the complex treatment of alcoholism, you should proceed to the stages of therapy. The program is developed individually, taking into account the psychological and physiological characteristics of the patient. Regular meetings are held with a psychotherapist, if necessary, to keep the level of motivation at the appropriate level.
How to start addiction treatment?
Patients and their families should be prepared for the fact that the fight against alcoholism will take a long time, on average, about a year. For starters, doctors are doing everything they can to rid the body of alcohol waste and ethanol toxins.
For this, drug detoxification is carried out if the patient cannot simply endure a week without alcohol on her own. They also do the same when they refrain from drinking heavily.
The patient is given a dropper with powerful drugs in the form of solutions. There are two reasons why it is not possible to organize diffuse therapy on your own, even if you read a lot of posts on the Internet:
- Only an experienced doctor, based on the results of rapid diagnostics, can determine which drugs to include in the dropper, what the dosage should be.
- Mostly, when removing a person from alcoholic beverage and cleansing the body of toxins, powerful drugs are used, which can be purchased at a pharmacy only with a prescription.
The dropper is placed for approximately two hours. All this time the narcologist is at the side of the alcoholic, monitoring the indicators of the vital organs. Upon leaving, he leaves the medications with relatives for the next few days, gives advice on what to do when the patient regains sanity.
Diagnosis
To decide which alcohol dependence treatment methods should be used, you need to conduct a comprehensive examination. It allows you to make an accurate diagnosis of the patient, to establish all the existing risk factors.
Diagnosis includes examination and questioning of the patient, the appointment of laboratory tests. The complex of these measures allows you to establish:
- stage of addiction;
- physiological and psychological characteristics;
- how long and how often a person has been drinking alcohol, what kind of alcoholic beverages he prefers;
- If the treatment is not carried out for the first time, the past experience is specified, for what reason there was a relapse;
- concomitant chronic diseases and dangerous disorders;
- allergic reactions;
- intolerance of individual components of drugs;
- the level of motivation of the patient, how much he wants to get rid of the addiction.
After evaluating the results obtained, the narcologist, during the consultation, together with the patient and her relatives, discusses a comprehensive treatment program, gives recommendations on how to carry out therapy more effectively.
Coding
The next step in the fight against alcohol addiction is coding. Doctors use both drug and non-drug methods. The diagnosis only helps to establish which of the options will be effective and safe.
Coding of alcohol can be done at home or in a hospital. It all depends on the condition of the patient and the recommendations of the attending physician. Common coding methods for drinking alcohol include:
- Introducing implants or other methods of introducing disulfiram-based drugs into the body. The active ingredient blocks liver enzymes responsible for the breakdown of toxins from ethanol into water and carbon dioxide that are completely harmless to humans. When this does not happen, the nervous breakdown patient experiences excruciating symptoms of severe poisoning. The patient's condition deteriorates dramatically in just a few minutes, even with a small dose of alcohol. This is an effective method of prohibitive therapy, as a person forms a stable psychological barrier. He constantly reminds himself that he can die if he dares to drink. The probability of death is high if an effective antidote is not administered in time.
- Use of naltrexone-based medications. This is another drug coding technique, but not as dramatic as the one above. In this case, the active substance blocks the receptors in the brain, which are responsible for obtaining a sensation of pleasure when drinking. As a result, if the patient, after coding, still dares to drink, he simply will not feel anything. Because of this, he will decide to give up alcohol, as it makes no sense, at least for the duration of the coding.
- Psychotherapeutic technique based on the immersion of the patient in a deep trance state. In this position, the suggestion of the patient increases enormously, while he is fully aware of where he is, what is happening to him. An experienced doctor gives clear guidelines for aversion to alcohol and a healthy lifestyle in the future.
The coding period varies from several months to five years. They often choose a coding for a period of one year, this time is enough to stop drinking, the patient managed to realize the benefits of a sober life, go through the rest of the stages of complex therapy.
Psychological rehabilitation
To consolidate the effect achieved after coding, it is required to undergo a course of psychological rehabilitation in an inpatient department of a narcological clinic. If the previous stages of treatment could be arranged at home, now hospitalization is required. This is the only way to exclude the possibility of a relapse, protecting a person from negative external social influences.
During psychological rehabilitation, it is possible to finally eliminate the physical and psychological desire for alcoholic beverages. For this, the following techniques are used:
- Individual and group psychological sessions that help the patient to understand her problems, learn to solve life's difficulties and have fun without drinking alcohol.
- The 12-step rehabilitation program is an effective technique originating in the USA. It is based on the recognition of powerlessness when solving a problem, accepting the help of a Higher Power (can be a religion or a mentor, an ex-alcoholic which has been successfully cured thanks to this program).
- The Day Top rehabilitation program is based on the possibility of self-healing, the doctor takes an observation position.
- Family psychotherapy helps not only the alcoholic, but also his relatives, when they develop codependency, it helps to reestablish relationships in the family.
To exclude a relapse, after discharge, each patient receives post-rehabilitation psychological support.