Do you love alcohol as much as you do? You’ve been drinking too much and can’t stop? Repeatedly go to treatment for alcoholic liver because of drinking? Be careful, if you have these problems, you are probably suffering from a disease called “alcohol dependence”. There is a great need for society to know about this, because people who drink alcohol are generally not aware of ‘alcohol dependence’ and do not know that it is a disease that requires professional treatment.
From a sales executive to a “triple noob”
Mr. Wang, 42 years old, was transferred from the liver department of a general hospital to Hong Ning Hospital. He was unemployed, homeless and broke, but who would have thought that he was a college graduate from the 1980s and a sales executive for a company.
Mr. Wang’s drinking history can be described as “long”. He entered the sales industry after graduating from college and began to come into contact with the “wine culture” because of his job requirements. He said, “Most of my list is on the wine table to take, then young, as long as you can get a single, drink as much wine is no problem.” After becoming a sales executive, it is reasonable to say that you can no longer have to drink a lot, but Mr. Wang found that he could not stop this wine.
Because of drinking, Mr. Wang suffered from gastric ulcers, alcoholic liver, every time the doctor warned him that he must stop drinking, or life will soon be lost. Mr. Wang is also well aware of the hazards, but the problem is that he simply can not quit, a day without alcohol is uncomfortable, straight sweating, hand shaking even the word can not write, but as long as a sip of wine, the whole person will immediately be fine.
Drinking not only hurt the body, but also destroyed Mr. Wang’s family. He originally had a good life, his wife is a college classmate, the two have deep feelings, and a cute son, but because of Mr. Wang’s drinking, the couple can not stop fighting. Every time Mr. Wang promised to stop drinking, his words still ring true, but it lasted less than a week, he could not help himself and drank secretly behind his wife’s back. He took a lot of trouble to hide the wine in the office, under the bed at home, plus after drinking, his personality became very irritable, temperamental, his wife could not stand it, and finally divorced.
Health is deteriorating, the home is gone, and no wife around to restrain themselves, Mr. Wang became increasingly depressed, more alcohol to kill the sorrow, and finally even lost his job.
Two characteristics
Mr. Wang kept going to the general hospital for his liver disease. Of course, serious liver disease would indeed “kill him”, but in fact, the culprit behind it was actually “alcohol dependence”. Only when he stopped drinking could Mr. Wang’s liver disease be cured. Otherwise, as he has repeatedly experienced before, he can only be trapped in the vicious cycle of “treating liver disease – drinking – aggravating liver disease – treating liver disease again”, and the most serious consequence is the deterioration of liver disease and life-threatening.
Patients with alcohol dependence often have two distinctive features: one is to drink in the morning on an empty stomach, and the other is to steal alcohol.
Some people wake up early in the morning, do not do anything, first drink on an empty stomach. People who have this habit are likely to be alcohol dependent. Because for these people, after a good night’s sleep, the body’s alcohol concentration drops so much, and the body must maintain a certain level of alcohol concentration, so early in the morning to drink on an empty stomach.
People who steal alcohol and drink behind their family’s back often have family members who do not agree to drink, making the patient very stressed, and the patient himself feels that it is shameful to keep himself from stealing alcohol and drinking, so he hides the alcohol in a hidden place and drinks secretly hiding from his family. People who have the habit of stealing alcohol and drinking it show that their psychological dependence on alcohol is serious.
Why is it so hard for them to quit drinking
Because of the wine, Mr. Wang can be said to be a rebellion, family members do not understand: a big man, how even a wine can not quit? Mr. Wang himself also felt ashamed and depressed. Drinking lost family, relatives, work, since so miserable, quit drinking, do not drink on the line.
But for alcohol-dependent patients, is the word “quit” really as simple as we make it out to be? Mr. Wang is an example. For alcohol-dependent patients, quitting drinking is certainly not an easy task.
Why is it so hard for alcohol-dependent patients to quit drinking? What is so difficult about it? Why is this not something that can be done with perseverance?
There are two types of alcohol dependence, psychological dependence and physical dependence.
Psychological dependence is the craving for alcohol. Patients have a very strong desire to drink alcohol, and if they do not drink alcohol, they feel irritable, anxious or depressed, and after drinking alcohol, these uncomfortable feelings disappear immediately and produce a sense of psychological pleasure.
In somatic dependence, once patients stop drinking, they will experience general discomfort such as panic, sweating, weakness and hand trembling, and these discomfort will disappear after drinking.
Alcohol dependence is a kind of addictive behavior, and the above two manifestations are one of addiction for mental and one of addiction for physical reasons. Some people are simply physically addicted or mentally addicted, although both conditions often occur together in the same patient. Severe alcohol dependence may present with psychiatric abnormalities that may lead to alcoholic dementia or may threaten one’s own life or the lives of those around them.
It is because of these two symptoms of dependence that quitting drinking can be a difficult task. First of all, it is necessary to “stop drinking”. Many patients have the awareness to stop drinking, but often stop drinking for less than 3 or 4 days and resume drinking. For alcohol-dependent patients, if they drink one drop of alcohol, they must take the next drop, the next glass, or the next bottle to satisfy their “addiction” and “body addiction”. Secondly, patients with alcohol dependence will have very unpleasant symptoms after stopping their addiction, which can be life-threatening in serious cases, so they are often given corresponding medication to alleviate their discomfort and help them get through the difficult period. Some patients describe that “when they want to drink, their hearts are like cats scratching, they are sensible not to drink, but they just can’t control themselves”, and they are often accompanied by anxiety, depression or irritable and impulsive behaviors.
As you can see above, it is very difficult and unsafe for people suffering from alcohol dependence to stay away from alcohol, so they must use the help of professional organizations.
Alcohol dependence needs professional treatment
Why do some people drink a lot and have been drinking all their lives but never become dependent, while others become dependent and addicted as soon as they get a little bit of alcohol? Liang Jie explained that this is the difference of individual quality. Alcohol dependence is a disease that has its genetic and biological factors. People who suffer from this disease often have a special constitution that makes it easy to become dependent on alcohol and become addicted to it as soon as they drink. There are also psychosocial factors. “In short, genetics, family events, personal character, social environment, and personal events may induce this disease with the help of drinking this way, and once you are hooked, it is very difficult to quit.”
Alcohol dependence requires professional treatment. And, long-term alcohol consumption can lead to personality changes. For treatment, alternative medicine can be used to help patients get through the physical dependence phase, gradually relieving physical discomfort while slowly addressing psychological dependence. Alcohol dependence is more difficult to treat, and patients need to receive long-term psychological treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to seek professional help to stop drinking, and the joint efforts of many parties, especially the support of family members, are indispensable.
It is not these diseases that are life-threatening, but the failure to stop drinking that is fatal to the body
Statistics show that the prevalence of alcohol dependence in China is low. However, this does not mean that Chinese people really suffer from this disease rarely, but it has to do with our awareness of this disease, which many people do not consider as a disease. So the feeling we get in the clinic is that in Shenzhen, people who come to the clinic with alcohol dependence are usually already very sick, and most of them come only after drinking until they get divorced, lose their jobs, or are repeatedly hospitalized with a disease, and some of them even drink until they become mentally abnormal.
Therefore, these patients usually have a history of drinking for decades. Many people know that excessive drinking can be very damaging to the body, such as the development of gastrointestinal hemorrhage, alcoholic liver, cirrhosis of the liver, and induced strokes. Because individuals cannot stop drinking, alcohol becomes the trigger that allows these conditions to recur. It may appear that these diseases are life-threatening, but this is not the root cause; it is actually the inability to stop drinking that causes injury and death.
Mr. Wang cried when he learned that not being able to quit drinking is a disease: “I never knew there was such a disease before, I just blame myself for not being able to make it through the alcohol barrier, every time I resolve to quit, but how can I not quit. If I had known it was a disease, I would have come to the hospital for treatment, and maybe I would have been cured.”
After receiving a closed course of alcohol treatment, Mr. Wang then needed to go to the clinic regularly for psychotherapy. He used his former connections to find a job and regain confidence in his life. Most importantly, he strictly enforced his doctor’s admonition to “stop drinking”.