1, what is alcoholism?
Alcoholism is a disease, a worsening disease, which cannot be cured, but can be contained. The cause of this disease is due to the sensitivity of the body to alcohol and the psychological impulse to drink. No matter what kind of adverse consequences this psychological effect will bring, it cannot be overcome by one's own will alone.
Many alcoholics who can't give up drinking will blame themselves for their weak moral values, or think it's because of their unbalanced mentality. But AA's view is that alcoholism is not morally wrong, because it is a disease. At this stage, subjective will is useless, because alcoholics have lost the ability to choose freely in the face of alcohol. It is important to face up to the reality of illness, in addition, we must have the desire to recover. Experience shows that AA's plan will be effective for all alcoholics who really want to quit smoking and practice hard. For those who don't really want to give up drinking, this plan can do nothing.
2. How to judge whether you are really an alcoholic?
Only you can judge this question. Many people who joined AA have heard that he is not an alcoholic. If you want to quit drinking, you just need more perseverance, a change of environment, more rest, or more hobbies. But these people finally joined the mutual abstinence association, because deep down, they felt that they had been conquered by alcohol and were ready to get rid of their irresistible desire to drink at any cost.
There is a saying circulating in the mutual abstinence association: it is impossible to get a little addicted to alcohol. A person is either an alcoholic or not. Only people who drink know whether they have reached the point where drinking is out of control.
Self-rated alcohol dependence
If you really want to quit drinking but find that you can't completely quit; In other words, if you can't control the amount when drinking, you will always be drunk; Or, you don't like the taste of alcohol, and you drink too much to pursue the feeling of drunkenness and drifting caused by alcohol. Then you may have alcohol dependence.
Alcohol dependence is not necessarily drinking every day.
Mild dependence:
1) The cumulative consumption of liquor per day is less than 250ml or less than 4 bottles of beer.
2) The official drinking history is within 4 years, and the aggravating history is within 1 year.
3) The frequency of daily drinking increases and the amount of drinking increases.
4) Emotional excitement, irritability, behavior out of control, fighting, picking fights, throwing things, etc.
5) Increased tolerance to alcohol.
6) Arguing with family because of drinking.
7) Delaying normal work because of drinking.
8) Every time I drink it, I feel uncomfortable, regret, blame myself and feel depressed. It doesn't matter.
9) Sometimes you don't need to drink it at ordinary times, but once you do, you can drink it in large doses for a few days until your body can't stand it, and then drink it every half month, January or longer.
Second, moderate dependence:
1) The cumulative daily drinking amount is 250ml.
2) The official drinking history is between 4 and 8 years, and the aggravating history is between 1-2 years.
3) Drinking is out of control, and the number of drinking alone increases.
4) Drinking every day has become the most important thing in life.
5) Stealing wine.
6) Once you don't drink, you will feel unwell, flustered, flustered, sweaty and restless, and the symptoms will be alleviated after drinking.
7) The body is thin, and there are reactions such as gastrointestinal discomfort.
8) Work and family life are greatly influenced by drinking.
9) I have a desire to give up drinking, but I can't quit.
10) Sometimes you don't need to drink it at ordinary times, but once you drink it, you can drink it in large doses for several days until your body can't stand it, and then drink it at intervals of half a month, one month or more.
Triple dependence:
1) The cumulative consumption of liquor per day is >: 500ml. Or more than 8 bottles of light beer.
2) Official drinking history of more than 8 years, aggravated by more than 2 years.
3) Get up every morning and drink on an empty stomach.
4) drink every day, get drunk every time you drink, don't eat after drinking, and feel weak.
5) Hand shaking and sweating, insomnia, diagonal or S-shaped.
6) Compulsory abstinence is invalid or many hospitalizations are caused by drinking.
7) Gastrorrhagia, hypertension, cerebellar atrophy, fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, femoral head necrosis and other complications due to drinking.
8) There have been personality changes, paranoia, temper changes, no sense of responsibility for the family, and indifference to the family (wife and children).
9) Losing interest in everything, refusing to associate with people and drinking are the most important things in life. .
10) memory loss, tinnitus and hypertension.
1 1) has mental disorders such as hallucinations, auditory hallucinations and hallucinations.
12) Sometimes you don't have to drink it at ordinary times, but once you drink it, you can drink it in large doses for several days until your body can't stand it, and then drink it at intervals of half a month, one month or more.
13) because of long-term heavy drinking, mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and mania have appeared.
14) alcohol withdrawal syndrome is obvious: once you don't drink alcohol, you will have vomiting, convulsions, tremors (hands, face, tongue), delirium, epilepsy and other symptoms. It will ease after drinking.
3. Can an alcoholic drink normally again?
After a period of abstinence, alcoholics will find it okay to drink a few cans of beer or a few glasses of light wine. However, this will lead him astray and develop into a drink that must be drunk at every meal. Before long, the drunkard will binge drinking again and relapse. If you are an alcoholic, you have only two ways to go: either make your drinking problem more and more serious and bear all kinds of disasters caused by it; Either give up drinking completely, keep a clear head and live in a new and meaningful way.
Step 3 Use the "24-hour" plan
In the days of alcoholism, we often solemnly swear "never to drink again" when we are very uncomfortable. "I swear not to drink for a year." From the bottom of my heart, we really don't want to get drunk again. Of course, some people will have reservations: saying that this oath is only for "spirits", not for beer. In fact, beer and wine can also make us drunk, but we just need to drink more to achieve the same effect as white wine. Drinking beer and wine is no less harmful to us than drinking spirits.
However, after a while, vows and painful memories will be forgotten. I don't know when we started drinking again. Our forever will never last.
Of course, some of them did keep their promises and quit for a long time, two months, six months, or a year. Until the time came, we felt that we should be able to drink freely and control it ... We resumed drinking and soon got into the original trouble with new guilt and regret.
Alcohol dependence is a permanent and irreversible disease. Our experience tells us not to swear to stay awake for a long time. A more practical and effective statement is: "I just don't drink today."
Maybe we drank it yesterday, but we can decide not to drink it today. No matter what kind of temptation and anger we encounter, we try to avoid drinking the first glass of wine today.
If the desire to drink is too strong, then divide the 24 hours into smaller units-at least one hour-and we can tolerate the discomfort caused by this temporary abstinence, then one more hour! Another hour! Go ahead. If we succeed today, we have reason to believe that we can succeed tomorrow.
The "24-hour" plan is very casual. We can start over at any time, no matter where we are. At home, at work, in the hospital ward, at 4 pm or 3 am, we can always decide not to touch alcohol for the next 24 hours or 5 minutes.
We are just trying to live today (now), just to stay awake-it really works. Once this way of thinking becomes a part of our thinking, we find that a 24-hour life is equally effective and satisfying for dealing with other things.
Step 4 take action
The more we want to stay away from alcohol, the more we want to drink. So simply staying away from alcohol (or not thinking about drinking) is not enough.
Once you stop drinking, how do you spend your free time? Most of us have formal work to do, but we still have a lot of free time to kill. Therefore, we must cultivate new hobbies, arrange colorful activities to fill these hours, and at the same time find a suitable outlet for the energy once addicted to alcohol.
There are many meaningful things that are suitable for us to do.
1. When you start abstinence, you can take a walk or take a brisk walk. Especially to new places you've never been before. Go for a leisurely stroll in the park or country road, but it's not a tiring March.
2. read. Although some of us can't settle down to study, we really should read some books, which can broaden our horizons, increase our life experience and concentrate more.
Visiting museums or galleries, some people choose photography is also good.
4. Swimming, running, cycling, yoga or other exercises recommended by doctors.
5. Deal with long-neglected housework. Tidy up the wardrobe, dresser, file documents in different categories, or deal with things that we have put off for a long time. But when we do these things, we should not be greedy and do what we can. Don't clean the whole kitchen or all the files at once, but clean one drawer or one folder at a time and do other work another day.
6. Try to cultivate new hobbies. Choose activities that are not too expensive or demanding, purely entertaining, without competitive pressure and refreshing. Such as singing, writing, tropical fish, carpentry, basketball, cooking, bird watching, amateur performances, wood carving, gardening, guitar, movies, dancing, stone carving, potted plants, collection and so on. Many people find that the activities they really like now are actually hobbies that they never considered trying in the past.
7. regain the fun of the past. A watercolor painting, table tennis or go, reading notes, etc. The one you haven't polished for years, continue these hobbies. But if you think it's no longer suitable for you, give it up.
8. Go to class. Learn Japanese or English? Love history or math? Want to know about archaeology or anthropology? Or cooking, computer operation, and then go to correspondence, TV University or adult education (just interest, not necessarily credit certificate). There are many places where you can take classes only once a week. Why not try it? Taking classes can not only broaden your horizons, but also broaden your life. In case you are tired of the content of the class, don't hesitate to quit immediately and learn to give up activities that are not beneficial to you or have no positive, positive and healthy significance. Let us summon up courage to face it again and have the opportunity to appreciate a new side of life besides drinking.
9. Volunteer to do some useful services. Many hospitals, children's service institutions and social welfare organizations are in great need of volunteers to provide various services. We can have many choices. When we can contribute to others, even if it is only a trivial service, we will find it particularly useful. Even when we talk about the process of participating in these activities and related information, we will feel very interested and particularly involved.
10. As most of us know, there are many ways to get a new hairstyle, wear new clothes, change glasses, or even update teeth, which will have unexpected pleasant effects.
1 1. Relax. Not everything we do in our daily life must be positive and innovative. We also need to do some activities purely for fun, such as kites, zoos, comedy movies, soul music, detective stories and so on. If you don't like them, then find other fun activities that have nothing to do with drinking, just treat yourself.