Alcoholism is one of the most discussed topics. It threatens family relationships and society as a whole. It is not surprising that after a while the patient's relatives are wondering how to get the person to stop drinking.
Reasons for alcohol addiction
Before you can figure out how to help a person stop drinking, you need to understand why they drink. By isolating the root cause, you have a better chance of curing the person's persuasion. More often than not, the onset of alcoholism is a psychological addiction, so it is important to help the person understand that it is an addiction, not a habit. In most cases, there are four reasons why people start drinking:
- for company;
- relieve stress;
- boredom;
- out of habit.
A popular reason why a person begins to suffer from alcoholism is to drink for the company. Being the only teetotaler among friends, it's hard to keep an uncompromising attitude. For some, especially teenagers, it is a matter of honor to support the company in this endeavor.
When a person is not surrounded by a rainbow environment and constant problems at work, they start drinking alcohol to relieve this stressful pressure. When drinking strong feelings, negative emotions, it may seem for a second that the problem does not exist. In fact, it won't disappear anywhere if you don't make a decision about it. As a result, a possible exit in such a situation must be looped. As soon as drunkenness passes, the person goes back to immerse himself in negative emotions, concluding that in order to avoid them, one should not stop drinking.
Drinking out of boredom is a vague concept. This is not a short-term situation where a person has nothing to do. We are talking about a long period of time during which a person is faced with a situation that does not allow him to use force, to focus on something specific. More often, in this state, a mechanism is triggered that helps to reach reconciliation with oneself.
The most dangerous reason why it is difficult to answer the question of how to help an alcoholic stop drinking is habitual alcoholism. In this case, it is difficult for a person not to drink, as the habit has become everyday for him and it is already difficult to imagine his life without it. In this case, the motivation to stop drinking must be very serious, otherwise it is almost impossible to convince a person to stop drinking.
It is often very difficult to pinpoint a reason for the origin of the addiction. All of these are closely interlinked and work together. When alcoholism reaches its final stage, then we are talking about a physical craving for alcohol. In that case, help for alcoholism without medication is impossible. If the person himself wants to get rid of the disease, this will be of great help in further treatment.
Does persuasion work?
How to make an alcoholic heal? In fact, there are many ways to discourage a person from drinking. The most popular way is to persuade and persuade the person to stop drinking alcohol. This is a gentler way to help you.
You can get an alcoholic to quit in more radical ways - that's a nervous shock after drinking. This segment also includes patient intimidation. The third sector of assistance is the addition of various medicines or folk remedies to food. Before you understand how to help a person who drinks to stop drinking, it's worth figuring out what form of alcoholism they're going to go into, what exactly made the person addicted.
Since adding some medicinal or folk remedies to foods is a very radical method that requires caution and prior consultation with a doctor, it is worth starting with milder methods, in particular you need to help the alcoholic in conversations.
During these conversations, it is worth trying to get the person to stop drinking alcohol. The most effective ways to persuade an alcoholic to get treatment will be in the first phase of alcoholism, when the person has not yet lost the ability to critically perceive reality.
Before starting a conversation, think about the facts you will tell the alcoholic. If he sees how horrible it looks while he's drunk, maybe it will lead to radical decisions. Maybe he already wants to give up, but willpower doesn't allow it for lack of a "really important" reason.
How to convince an alcoholic of the harmfulness of his habit? It's better to gather family or friendly advice. In the circle of this conversation there should be only the closest people the person trusts. In the first stage, it is easy to wean a person from alcohol. Just tell him about your drunken behavior, show him a tape of a recent party. If a person has not yet lost the ability to think properly, he will be afraid and ashamed of his behavior, and will stop drinking.
It would be good to remind you of the hangover, especially when it doesn't allow you to be with the family or the way the sick person likes. It is important that every habit is maintained, which means spending money on it. Make calculations by expressing them in movie trips, children's outings, and other activities.
It's important to prepare in advance for the fact that your attempts to figure out how to stop drinking will be met with hostility, resentment, and fighting. In that case, it is very important to remember the answer to the question. Is it possible to start crying or, on the contrary, freely agree with the conditions presented by the patient? In no case. It's best to explain in a low voice that no one is going to force anyone else, but why not pay attention to the alternatives available.
If you've managed to get away from the theory of how to convince a person to be treated for specific outcomes, in no case don't leave them in that situation. Keep supporting, maybe he doesn't even know how to get rid of the addiction. Not everyone can stop drinking at home. Find a suitable clinic, make an appointment with a doctor, help the person get there. A person who stops drinking needs help more than ever.
Other options
One of the undesirable options to use is intimidation, if you're thinking about how to help, quitting drinking is so difficult and there's also additional stress. It must be understood that this working technique can lead to the opposite effect.
This method is only suitable for those patients who match a particular psychotype. Some may perceive this behavior with aggression, which is clearly not the best response.
Not always any persuasion, argument, intimidation work. Sometimes this is not enough if alcoholism has already moved to a deeper stage. In this case, you need to use special medications. It could be common medications or something from popular prescriptions.
With the help of industrial pharmacology drugs, it is possible to form a feeling of aversion to alcohol in a person who drinks. These methods are available even if the person does not know they accept them, although the desire to get rid of the addiction directly helps to achieve more.
Drugs are added to alcohol or food. This usually leads to a deterioration in well-being immediately after drinking alcohol. After some of these cases, the alcoholic begins to associate the bad condition with alcohol and to think about stopping drinking.
Medicines used for these purposes contain disulfiram or cyanamide. As a result, the body cannot process ethyl alcohol normally. There is an accumulation of decomposition products in the blood, which becomes the cause of persistent intoxication.
During this therapy, as soon as you notice the effect of the medication, it is a good idea to have another conversation, asking the alcoholic to take the treatment. It is important to describe the advantages of hospital treatment:
- relapse prevention;
- psychological help;
- constant monitoring of health status;
- restoration of internal damage.
The best way to get rid of the addiction is to be treated in a hospital, where the patient will be constantly monitored by a narcologist. The smallest number of relapses is seen with this treatment.
Stages of alcoholism
Alcoholism is generally divided into three stages, for each of which special symptoms and a series of health consequences are assumed. The first step is more difficult in terms of identifying the problem by the person's appearance. Without knowing themselves and those around them, the person gradually increases the dose of what they drink, as they acquire some experience, which does not allow them to reach the desired degree of intoxication with the same doses of alcohol.
Already in such a state, a person is not able to stop and stop drinking unless he is informed of the corresponding problem. After a person drinks, he starts feeling nausea and vomiting. Often the patient has memory lapses, he cannot remember what he did last night. Memory loss is partial.
As a result, after the first stage of alcoholism, the person is faced with a steady increase in alcohol consumption. At the same time, a drink can be repeated two or three times a week. The problem in this case is the lack of care for a loved one and, as a result, the worsening of the addiction.
When a person moves to the second stage of alcoholism, the outward signs become more noticeable. The first binges that appear, when a person drinks alcohol without rest for two or three days, speak of the formation of second-degree alcoholism. At that point, a physical form of addiction begins to form.
The person starts to get a hangover, as it is the only way to alleviate the condition. These symptoms are clear signs of the second stage of the disease. Also, the person suffers from constant weakness, headache, dizziness, nausea, sweating. An unpleasant tremor begins to permeate the entire body, first expressing itself in the hands. The second phase can last for years, up to two decades, but it can be limited to two years. In the final stage of the second phase, the person no longer has the opportunity to deal with the problem alone, only a doctor will help.
The last step is the third. When he graduates, everyone can see a person as an alcoholic. The appearance starts to change. A person has a constantly swollen face, from a mile away it smells of alcohol. At that moment, many chronic diseases form, psychoses in their severe form and other problems manifest themselves. In this state, people, as a rule, are already without family or surrounded by people in the same state. In the third stage of alcoholism, the person loses his social position, the ability to think critically. A return to normal life is unlikely in this case.