Alcoholism is a disease that generates a craving for alcoholic beverages despite the knowledge that it creates problems. One of the first difficulties we have with patients in getting them into treatment is the lack of awareness of the disease. Sometimes people think that the alcoholic is a person who drinks every day, who cannot go without drinking any day or who gets drunk every day. The alcoholic is a person who tolerates alcohol but has many difficulties in his daily life. He has problems with his aggressiveness, with his relationship with his partner, with his working world, etc… From then on, when these difficulties appear, is when the patient has to undergo treatment with a specialist in Psychiatry.
Consequences of alcoholism
Alcoholism has consequences at the health level, such as liver damage with cirrhosis, it also causes damage to the nervous system, it can cause anxiety, depression, alcoholic dementia, it can also cause cardiovascular system problems with blood pressure or cardiac problems. But in addition to these health problems, it also causes social problems such as emotional and economic problems that affect both the patient and the family and society.
Who is usually affected by alcoholism?
Unfortunately alcohol is a drug that is very socially tolerated and therefore affects people of all ages. But we can say that it affects more men over 22 years old and women over 25 years old, although the most vulnerable to the injuries caused by alcohol are teenagers.
Alcoholism treatment in 2 phases
The treatment for alcoholism is carried out in 2 phases:
- A first phase which is a detoxification in which all kinds of pharmacological measures are performed to help the patient to pass the withdrawal syndrome. The difficulty of the situation is assessed. If the condition is very serious, a hospital detoxification can be performed. The most common is that the condition is mild or moderate, then a detoxification at home is sufficient.
- The second phase is that of detoxification. In this phase we try to modify the patient’s lifestyle. A whole series of techniques will be applied at family and community level to try to prevent the patient from relapsing.
How to overcome alcoholism
In order to overcome alcoholism, the most important thing, besides the treatment we have explained, is to have a good motivation and to have a good family support. We know that families that have a good structure have a better prognosis than families that do not have this structure. Therefore, it is important that we make movements so that this structure stabilizes again. The motivation of the patient also goes a little bit in phases. The first phase is a phase of ambivalence, but then the patient becomes more aware of the disease and it is in this process that we must carry out the treatment.