Alcoholism is a progressive fatal disease. This disease is caused by human sensitivity to alcohol and psychological impulse to drink. At present, there is no medicine or psychotherapy in the medical field that can be "cured"-we can't simply change our characteristics by hospitalization or taking medicine, so as to return to the normal and moderate social drinking state in the early stage of drinking.
Thousands of alcoholics can't stop drinking. Not only do we see many alcoholics die of drinking-from "D.T." or convulsions, or cirrhosis caused by drinking, but we also see many deaths caused by drinking that are not caused by alcoholism. Moreover, when car accidents, drowning, suicide, homicide, heart disease, fire, pneumonia or stroke are listed as the direct factors of death, the fact is that the serious drinking behavior of alcoholics leads to the conditions and direct causes of death.
Most of us haven't reached the final stage of terrible alcoholism, so now we feel far from that fate when drinking. But if we keep drinking, there is no doubt that we will only die.
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. However, drinking is not morally wrong, because it is a disease. At this stage, it can't be overcome by one's own will, because alcoholics have lost the ability to choose freely in the face of alcohol.
So we don't have to be embarrassed about our illness. There's nothing to be ashamed of. It's not our fault. We don't want to be alcoholics. We don't want to get this disease, just like no one wants to get pneumonia. Experience shows that as long as you have a strong desire to quit drinking, fully realize the seriousness of the problem, and take care of yourself in an alcohol-free and happy way, you can still live a happy, healthy and valuable life like a normal person.
We summarized some common drinking patterns: 1. We regard drinking as the most important or very important thing in life, occupying a central position in our hearts and never forgetting it. 2. Compared with the initial drinking, the amount of drinking increased gradually. 3. the speed of drinking is getting faster and faster. 4. Often drink secretly alone or behind your family's back. 5. Take wine as medicine to relieve emotional distress. 6. Possession of alcohol. 7. Often forget things after drinking. 8. Unplanned drinking often leads to accidents after drinking. 9. Drinking in the morning, commonly known as "open-eyed wine", some people even drink after waking up at night. 10. Drink before going to bed. 1 1. Like to drink on an empty stomach, and seldom eat vegetables when drinking. 12. Choose the brand of wine if possible. 13. Because drinking and quarreling with family members affect family harmony, or drinking affects work. 14. I once gave up drinking, but it didn't take long for my old illness to recur and get out of hand. Generally speaking, if a person's drinking behavior has more than three manifestations, it is highly suspected that it is alcohol dependence. It is often seen that some alcohol addicts have brought many adverse effects on their health, family harmony and work because of drinking, and even have some illegal behaviors after drinking. Although they feel guilty and regret for these consequences, they still can't completely stop drinking, stop drinking and drink again and again. Do they have no ambition and perseverance? No, this is because alcohol dependence is a disease, and it is a worsening disease. This disease, like diabetes and hypertension, cannot be completely eradicated. But it can be controlled. The reason for drinking again is related to the sensitivity of the body to alcohol and the psychological impulse to drink. No matter what bad consequences will be brought about by drinking again, you can't overcome it by your own perseverance. Like other diseases, there will be some characteristic clinical manifestations. Once you become dependent on alcohol, suddenly stop drinking or suddenly reduce the amount of alcohol you drink, there will be many physical discomfort symptoms, which is called alcohol withdrawal syndrome. For convenience, some people divide alcohol withdrawal syndrome into three stages according to time and severity: the first stage of alcohol withdrawal syndrome: it usually appears 6 ~ 12 hours after drinking, showing tremors in both hands. In severe cases, it can accumulate the whole upper limb or even the trunk. In severe cases, besides common symptoms such as anorexia, insomnia and irritability, tongue trembling may also occur. The second stage of alcohol withdrawal syndrome: it occurs 24 ~ 72 hours after alcohol withdrawal. In addition to the above symptoms, auditory hallucinations often occur, and the content is mostly abuse or persecution, which can lead to impulsive behavior and less excitement. Three-stage alcohol withdrawal syndrome: delirium tremens, which often occurs 72 hours after the last drinking. At this time, the patient is unconscious, has obvious tremor, walks unsteadily, and may have various vivid hallucinations, such as seeing various small animals, and the patient shows nervousness, anxiety and fear. The memory of patients is obviously impaired, and some patients may have epileptic convulsions. Even in developed countries, once delirium tremens occurs, the total mortality rate of treated patients can still reach 10% ~ 15%, and even higher for untreated patients. Therefore, it is impossible for long-term drinkers to suddenly stop drinking. If you highly suspect alcohol dependence, you should go to a specialized hospital for treatment as soon as possible. People who form alcohol dependence can't control their drinking behavior or their drinking quantity, so can they still drink normally after a period of abstinence? As far as we know, no one has ever been able to drink "normally", or just stopped drinking for months or years in social situations. Once a person develops from binge drinking to uncontrolled and desperate binge drinking, there is no turning back. Alcoholics don't deliberately drink to cause trouble, but excessive drinking is bound to cause trouble. Many people who depend on alcohol think that it is okay to drink a few cans of beer or a few glasses of light wine after a period of abstinence. Not many people get drunk after drinking a bottle or two of beer. So I mistakenly thought that I could quit by drinking only two or three bottles of beer every day. Occasionally, they can do it in a few days or weeks. Then it will be concluded that even drinking will be "comfortable". However, they will drink more and more beer or wine at a time, and before long, they will drink as much as before. Another wrong idea is to replace high alcohol with low alcohol. For alcoholics, wine is wine. No matter whether it is martini, whisky and soda water, champagne or a small glass of beer, no matter what wine you drink, it will lead to excessive drinking and repeated drinking. Therefore, it is very dangerous for alcoholics to try to control their own alcohol consumption or to drink only low-concentration alcohol after abstinence for a period of time. But in order to ensure complete abstinence from alcohol, it can only be a teetotaler. How can we do that? In addition to completing the treatment of alcohol withdrawal under the guidance of a doctor, you should also receive long-term rehabilitation treatment, including the treatment of related psychological or mental diseases, anti-relapse drugs, psychotherapy and joining some self-help rehabilitation organizations. As long as you have the desire to give up drinking and make unremitting efforts, you will succeed.
Abandon old ideas
In the past, during drinking, we accumulated some deep-rooted ideas from life. Even after we stop drinking, they can't disappear like magic.
Although we are far away from the days of leading a drunken life, the disease of alcohol addiction still lingers. Therefore, we find that if we can try to get rid of many old ideas that are budding again, it will help us to recover.
And these old ideas do happen again and again. The goal we strive to achieve is to regain a sense of relaxation and freedom from the shackles of old ideas in the past. Many of our past thoughts and habits.
The concept it forms limits our autonomy.
When we look at it carefully with brand-new eyes, it turns out that they will only crush us and are useless. We don't need to stick to it any longer, unless it is proved to be useful by clear tests and it really works.
We can now use very specific standards to measure the current practicality and authenticity of an idea. We can say to ourselves, "I often think so when I drink." Does this mode of thinking help me stay awake now? Is this kind of thinking good for me today? " Many of our old ideas-especially those about alcohol, drinking, drunkenness and alcohol dependence (or alcoholism, if you agree with this wording)-are either worthless or actually self-destructive, and it will be a great relief to get rid of those ideas.
Perhaps a few examples are enough to illustrate the benefits of abandoning these old and useless ideas. When we are teenagers, for many people, drinking is an oath, indicating that we are no longer children, or that we have grown up. We are smart, mature, experienced or strong enough to disobey our parents and other authorities.
In many people's minds, drinking is always inseparable from romance, sex, music, success, superiority and luxury. If the school teaches anything about drinking, it's usually just the danger to health and the possibility of losing your driver's license-not much else.
At the same time, many people are still quite convinced that any drinking behavior is completely immoral and directly leads to crime, pain, humiliation and death. No matter what we used to feel about drinking, positive or negative, it is usually strong, emotional and far more than rational. Maybe our attitude towards drinking is just an unconscious and unthinking acceptance of other people's opinions.
For many people, drinking is a necessary and harmless part of social occasions, and it is a pleasant leisure activity between friends at a certain time and place.
Others may think that drinking is necessary for eating. But now we ask ourselves: If we don't drink, can't we actually enjoy friendship or food? It's the way we drink
Help improve your social relations? Can this improve our ability to enjoy food? Whether for or against the idea of getting drunk, the resulting reaction is even more extreme. A heavy drinker may be regarded as just having fun or just losing face.
For various reasons, the idea of getting drunk often makes many people feel disgusted. But for some of us, this is a state of longing. Getting drunk is not only to meet other people's expectations, but we also like this feeling. But at the same time, there is another influencing factor, which is the public's neglect of social celebrities.
Some people can't tolerate people who have never been drunk, and some people look down on people who are too drunk. As far as the conclusions found in health care today are concerned, the impact of changing these attitudes is still quite limited. When we first hear the word "alcoholic", most of us associate it with people who are old, ragged, shivering or begging, or people who get drunk in slums.
Anyone who has a full understanding of this problem now knows that this is all nonsense. However, despite this, when we first tried to stay awake, the vague concepts left over from our past still bothered us.
It blinds our eyes and makes it difficult for us to perceive the truth. But in the end, we finally become willing to accept that changing our past ideas-only possible-may be a bit wrong, or at least it can't fully reflect our personal experience. When we can convince ourselves to look at the past experience honestly and listen to other ideas different from ourselves carefully, we can face a long list of information that has not been examined in detail in the past with an open mind.
For example, we can look at the narrative of science majors: alcohol is not only a delicious drink to quench thirst, but also a drug that can change ideology. We know that drugs exist not only in drinks, but also in food and various drugs. And now almost every day, I can read or hear the multiple harms caused by some specific drugs to the human body.
Harm (including heart, blood vessels, stomach, lungs, mouth, brain, etc.). This is a situation that we have never doubted before. Pharmacologists and other addiction treatment experts now believe that alcohol, whether used as a drink, stimulant, sedative, tonic or sedative, can not be completely regarded as safe. But in each case, it may not directly lead to physical injury or mental fatigue.
Obviously, most people can use it gracefully, without causing harm to themselves or others. We found that drinking can be regarded as taking medicine in medicine, and getting drunk is like taking too much medicine. Drug abuse can directly or indirectly lead to various health, mental, family, social, economic and work problems.
We can start to see the consequences of alcohol for some people, instead of most people just thinking about what drinking brings us. We also found that anyone who has a drinking problem may be in what we call a "drinking" state.
The target of this disease is regardless of age, belief, race, sex, intelligence, background, mood, health, occupation, family status, physical fitness, eating habits, social or economic status or other general personality. The question is not how much or how you drink, when and why you drink, but how drinking affects your life-what happens when you drink.
Before we realize that we have this disease, we must first walk out of an old and boring misunderstanding: it is shameful and cowardly to admit that we can't control our drinking capacity (if we ever control it).
Weak? In fact, we need considerable courage to face up to this cruel reality. There is no reservation, no cover-up, no excuse, and we don't have to deceive ourselves. Although it doesn't seem like boasting, frankly speaking, many of us fantasize about being world champions. In the process of recovering from alcohol addiction, we will also be covered by some wrong ideas. Just like millions of other people, seeing a person die because of drinking with their own eyes, they will be very surprised why this alcoholic can't stop drinking with his own willpower.
This is another outdated concept, and we will always remember this concept, mainly because many of us have been exposed to some typical cases of super willpower in our early years, perhaps because our family or neighborhood has had legends. After years of bohemian life, he became notorious, but suddenly he changed his lifestyle and gave up alcohol and women. At the age of 50, he turned over a new leaf and became a model of decent behavior and honesty.
This naive idea that we can follow suit when we are ready is a dangerous illusion. We are not anyone else. We are just ourselves (we are not grandfathers who drink a big bottle every day and live to be 90 years old). ) Now we are very sure that overcoming the problem of alcohol addiction by our own willpower is as effective as treating cancer. We have repeatedly confirmed this from our own experience.
Most of us try to solve it alone, whether we want to control our drinking or give up drinking, but no matter how hard we try, we can't achieve lasting success. Even so, it is not easy for us to frankly admit that we need help. Because this seems to be a sign of cowardice.
Yes, we are deeply lost in another. But in the end, we ask ourselves: if we can gain and use more powerful power, will we be wiser than working in vain alone, especially after we have repeatedly proved that it doesn't work? If you press the switch, you can turn on the light. We think it unwise to continue trying to grope in the dark. We can't be fully awake ourselves. This is not the way we learned to stay awake.
At the same time, fully enjoying a sober life is not a job that one can complete alone. As long as we can consider a few ideas different from the old ideas, even temporarily, we have made the right decision and entered a happy and healthy new life.
Originally, we were convinced that this would never happen, but now this change is happening among our thousands of members.
Step 2 stay away from the first glass of wine
"If you don't drink the first glass of wine, you won't get drunk." "More than one cup is not enough."
When we change from ordinary drinking to drinking, frequent drunkenness seriously interferes with our life and work, so we reduce the number of drinking, or try to control the amount of alcohol to one or two glasses, or switch from high drinking to beer or wine to avoid getting too drunk. Maybe we can stay awake for a while, and then we will start drinking again when there is an opportunity (some special celebration, personal confusion or nothing special at all). At first, we just wanted a drink. As one glass of wine has not caused any serious consequences, we think it is safe to drink another glass. But it turns out that this is just a trap-when we drink two or three cups, we feel good, and then we feel that it will be okay to drink one or two cups according to our ability. As a result, we couldn't help drinking too much and returned to the original drunken state.
Doctors who specialize in alcohol dependence told us that it was the first glass of wine that triggered the potential desire to drink, which made us out of control. This repeated experience leads us to the conclusion that it is impossible to try to control the drinking plan without getting drunk, and avoiding the key glass of wine-"Never do anything wrong with the first glass" can keep us awake for a long time.
Alcohol dependence is an addiction to alcohol. As a soft drug, alcohol is just like any other addictive substance. If we want to stay in a state of recovery, we must stay away from the first anesthetic that causes our addiction.
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.
Step 5 change old habits
In the process of drinking, we have fixed time periods, familiar places and habitual activities. Especially when we are tired, hungry, lonely, angry or particularly happy, these seemingly ordinary and repetitive scenes are dangerous traps for our sober life.
When we first quit drinking, it is very helpful to look back on our past drinking habits to find ways to overcome our addiction. The place where we are often used to buying wine may be the supermarket we pass by when we go to work. Each of us always has our own favorite place to drink. Whether drinking with friends or drinking at a fixed time every day, we can find out when and which days we are used to drinking from the past drinking trajectory.
We can adjust all the details of life related to drinking problems.