Alcoholism is a disease that progressively worsens and is fatal. The disease is caused by the sensitivity of the organism to alcohol, combined with a psychologically compulsive desire to drink that is difficult to get rid of. Currently, there is no "cure" in medicine or psychotherapy -- we can't simply hospitalize ourselves or take pills to change our traits and go back to the normal, moderately social drinking that we did at the beginning of our drinking lives.
Thousands of alcoholics are unable to stop drinking, and not only do we see many of them drink themselves to death -- from delirium tremens "withdrawal" syndromes (D.T.'s) or spasms, from cirrhosis of the liver caused by drinking, and many more deaths that are not formally attributed to alcoholism but are indeed caused by drinking. And where car accidents, drowning, suicides, homicides, heart attacks, fires, pneumonia, or strokes are cited as direct contributors to death, the fact remains that it is the alcoholic's heavy drinking behavior that leads to the conditions and immediate causes of death.
Most of us are not yet on the verge of the dreaded final stages of alcoholism, and therefore drink now thinking we are far from that fate. But if we continue to drink, there is, no doubt, only death in store for us.
Many alcoholics who can't stop drinking blame their excessive drinking on their weak moral sense or believe it is due to an imbalance in their mind. However there is nothing morally wrong with alcoholism because it is a disease. At this stage, it is impossible to overcome it by one's own will power alone, because the excessive drinker has lost the ability to make free choices in the presence of alcohol.
So we need not be embarrassed by our disease, there is nothing dishonorable about it. It's not our fault, we don't want to be alcoholics, and we're not trying to get the disease any more than anyone wants to get pneumonia. Experience has shown that if you have a strong desire to stop drinking and are fully aware of the seriousness of the problem, and can take care of yourself in a way that is free from alcohol and full of happiness, then you can still be happy, healthy and worthy of living as a normal person.
We have summarized some of the common manifestations of the drinking pattern: 1. Drinking is seen as the most important or very important thing in life, and occupies a central place in the mind, which is never forgotten. 2. 2. The amount of alcohol consumed gradually increases from the initial drinking. 3. Drinking at a faster rate. 4. Often drink alone or secretly behind family members' backs. 5. Using alcohol as medicine to relieve emotional distress. 6. Have the behavior of hiding alcohol. 7. Often have forgetfulness after drinking. 8. Drinking alcohol without a plan, often with the phenomenon of drunkenness. 9. Drinking in the morning, commonly known as "open-eye drinking", and some people even drink after waking up at night. 10. Drinking before going to bed. 11. Drinking on an empty stomach, skipping the main meal and rarely eating vegetables. 12. Choose the brand of wine when the situation permits. 13. Argues with family members over alcohol consumption, which affects family harmony, or affects work because of alcohol consumption. 14. Once quit drinking, but the old disease returns within a short period of time and cannot be controlled. Generally speaking, if a person's drinking behavior shows more than 3 of the above manifestations, alcohol dependence is highly suspected. It is common to see that some alcohol-dependent people have a lot of adverse effects on their health, family harmony and work because of alcohol consumption, and even have some illegal behaviors after drinking. Despite their guilt and regret for causing these consequences, they are still unable to completely stop drinking, and they repeatedly quit drinking and drink again and again. Is it because they have no talent or perseverance? Neither. This is because alcohol dependence is a disease, and a worsening one at that. This disease, like diabetes, high blood pressure and other diseases, cannot be completely eradicated. But it can be contained. The reasons for relapse are related to the body's sensitivity to alcohol, coupled with a psychologically compulsive desire to drink that is difficult to get rid of, and which cannot be overcome by one's own perseverance alone, regardless of the negative consequences of relapse. Just like any other disease, there will be some characteristic clinical manifestations. Once dependence on alcohol is formed, many physical symptoms will occur when drinking suddenly stops or suddenly reduces the amount of alcohol consumed, which is called alcohol withdrawal syndrome. For convenience, some people classify alcohol withdrawal syndrome into three stages according to the time of appearance and severity: Phase I alcohol withdrawal syndrome: it usually appears 6 to 12 hours after drinking, manifested by tremor of both hands, and in severe cases, it can accumulate the whole upper limbs bilaterally, or even the torso, and in severe cases, it can also appear as tremor of the tongue, in addition to the common symptoms of anorexia, insomnia, and irritability, and so on. The second stage of alcohol withdrawal syndrome: the appearance of time for 24 to 72 hours after the withdrawal of alcohol, in addition to the above symptoms, there are often hallucinations, the content is often abusive or persecutory, can be followed by impulsive behavior, excitement is relatively mild. The third stage of alcohol withdrawal syndrome: delirium tremens, often occurring 72 hours after the last drink, at this time the patient is not conscious, tremors are obvious and accompanied by unsteady walking, there can be a variety of vivid hallucinations, such as seeing all kinds of small animals, the patient manifests nervousness, anxiety, fear. The patient's memory is significantly impaired, and some patients may experience epileptic-like convulsions. Even in developed countries, once the occurrence of delirium tremens, the total mortality rate of the treated can still reach 10% to 15%, and the untreated is even higher. This is why long-term drinkers should not stop drinking suddenly. If alcohol dependence is highly suspected, it should be treated in a specialized hospital as soon as possible. Alcohol-dependent people can not control their own drinking behavior, nor can they control the amount of alcohol they drink, so can they drink normally after quitting for a period of time? As far as we know, no one has ever been able to drink "normally" or only socially after months or years of abstinence. Once a person has progressed from heavy drinking to uncontrolled and reckless binge drinking, it is impossible to go back. No one with alcohol dependence drinks on purpose to get into trouble, but uncontrollable drinking is bound to get into trouble. Many alcohol-dependent people think they have no problem drinking a few cans of beer or glasses of light wine after a period of abstinence. Not many people get drunk after one or two beers. So too, they mistakenly believe that they can manage to stop drinking after only two or three beers a day. They do occasionally manage to do so for a few days or weeks. They conclude that they can "get by" even with drinking. However, they will drink more and more beer or wine each time, and it won't be long before they're drinking like they used to. Another misconception is to replace high alcohol with low alcohol. For alcohol-dependent people, alcohol is alcohol, and it doesn't matter if it contains alcohol in the form of martinis, whiskey and soda, champagne, or a small glass of beer; for them, no matter what kind of drink they have, it will lead to overdrinking and lead to relapse. Therefore, it is dangerous for alcohol-dependent people to try to control the amount of alcohol they drink after a period of abstinence, or to drink only at lower strengths. However, in order to ensure complete abstinence from alcohol, the only way is to abstain from alcohol. How can this be done? In addition to completing alcohol detoxification treatment under the guidance of a doctor, there is also long-term rehabilitation treatment, which includes treatment for related psychological or mental illnesses, anti-drinking medication, psychotherapy, and membership in a number of self-help rehabilitation organizations. With a desire to stop drinking and relentless efforts, one will succeed.
We think we have become addicted to alcohol and are determined to quit no matter what it takes. But we go back and forth (even when hospitalization doesn't work) never being able to break free from the grip of alcohol, and we ache with pain... are we really just going to die, and what do we have to do to stay sober for the long haul.
Below we are going to describe some ways that, if practiced carefully, will help you avoid relapse into drinking.
1. Remember: Alcoholism is an incurable, progressive and fatal disease
Alcoholism is a progressive and fatal disease. This disease is caused by the body's sensitivity to alcohol, coupled with the psychological difficulty in getting rid of the mandatory desire to drink. Currently, there is no "cure" in medicine or psychotherapy -- we can't simply hospitalize ourselves or take pills to change our traits and go back to the normal, moderately social drinking that we did at the beginning of our drinking lives.
Thousands of alcoholics are unable to stop drinking, and not only do we see many of them drink themselves to death -- from delirium tremens "withdrawal" syndromes (D.T.'s) or spasms, from cirrhosis of the liver caused by drinking, and many more deaths that are not formally attributed to alcoholism but are indeed caused by drinking. And where car accidents, drowning, suicides, homicides, heart attacks, fires, pneumonia, or strokes are cited as direct contributors to death, the fact remains that it is the alcoholic's heavy drinking behavior that leads to the conditions and immediate causes of death.
Most of us are not yet on the verge of the dreaded final stages of alcoholism, and therefore drink now thinking we are far from that fate. But if we continue to drink, there is, no doubt, only death in store for us.
Many alcoholics who can't stop drinking blame their excessive drinking on their weak morals or believe it is due to an imbalance in their mind. However there is nothing morally wrong with alcoholism because it is a disease. At this stage, it is impossible to overcome it by one's own will power alone, because the excessive drinker has lost the ability to make free choices in the presence of alcohol.
So we need not be embarrassed by our disease, there is nothing dishonorable about it. It's not our fault, we don't want to be alcoholics, and we're not trying to get the disease any more than anyone wants to get pneumonia. Experience has shown that if you have a strong desire to stop drinking and fully recognize the seriousness of the problem, and are able to take care of yourself in a way that is free from alcohol and full of happiness, then you can still be happy, healthy, and worthy of living as a normal person.
2. Stay away from the first drink
"If you don't have your first drink, you won't get drunk." "One glass is too much, but twenty is not enough."
As we progress from drinking more in general to alcoholism, regular drunkenness seriously interferes with life and work, so we cut back on our drinking, or try to limit it to one or two drinks, or switch from heightened alcohol to beer or wine, so that we don't get too drunk. Maybe we can keep it down for a while, and then when the opportunity arises (some special celebration, personal confusion, or nothing special at all), we start drinking again, and at first we think it's only one drink, and since one drink didn't lead to anything serious, we think it's safe to have another one. But that turns out to be a trap - when we have two or three drinks, we feel good, and then we think that with the amount of alcohol we have another drink or two won't be a problem. As it turned out, we couldn't control how much we drank and went back to our original royally drunken state.
Doctors who specialize in alcohol dependence tell us -- it's that first drink that triggers the underlying desire to drink, which then sends us spiraling out of control. This repetitive experience leads us to conclude that trying to control our drinking and plan how not to get drunk is impossible, and that avoiding that one crucial drink -- "never take the first one" -- is what keeps us sober in the long run.
Alcohol dependence is a type of addictive behavior to alcohol. Alcohol is a soft drug like any other addictive substance, and we can only stay in recovery if we stay away from the first dose of the narcotic that led to our addiction.
3. Use the "24-hour" program
During the days of alcoholism, we often make very serious vows at very difficult times, "Never again. I vow to go a year without drinking." In our heart of hearts, we really don't want to get drunk again. Of course, some people have reservations: they say that this vow is only for "spirits" and not for beer. In fact, beer and wine can make us drunk, but we need to drink more to achieve the same effect as liquor. We can get just as drunk on beer and wine as we can on liquor.
After a while, however, the vows and the painful memories are put behind us. At some point we start drinking again. Our "forever" never lasts.
Of course some of us do keep our promises for a long time, 2 months, 6 months, or a year, until the time comes when we feel we should be able to drink freely and in a controlled manner ...... We go back to drinking, and soon fall back into our old troubles, with new guilt and remorse.
Alcohol dependence is a permanent, irreversible disease, and experience for all of us tells us not to make long-term vows about staying sober. A more practical and effective statement would be, "I'm just not drinking today."
Maybe we drank yesterday, but can decide not to drink today. No matter what temptation or anger we encounter, we do everything I can to try to avoid having our first drink today.
If the desire to drink is too strong, then break the 24 hours into smaller units - at least one hour - and we can tolerate the discomfort caused by this temporary cessation of drinking, then one more hour! One more hour! And on and on again. We succeeded today, and we have reason to believe we can do the same tomorrow.
The "24-hour" program is very casual. We can start over at any time, no matter where we are. At home, at work, in a hospital room, at 4:00 p.m. or 3:00 a.m., we can decide at any time not to drink for the next 24 hours or five minutes.
We just try to have a good day (right now) just to stay sober - and it does work. Once this way of thinking became part of our thinking, we found that living in 24-hour phases was just as effective and satisfying for dealing with some other things.
4. Take Action
The more we try to stay away from alcohol, the more the thought of drinking lingers. So simply staying away from alcohol (or not thinking about it) is not enough.
Once you've stopped drinking, what do you do with all that free time? Most of us have regular jobs to do, but there is still a lot of free time that must be spent. So we have to take up new hobbies and organize varied activities to fill that time, as well as find a proper outlet for the energy that was once spent indulging in alcohol.
There are many things we can do that are appropriate and meaningful to us.
1. In the early stages of sobriety, take a walk or go for a brisk walk. Especially to new places you've never been. Go for a leisurely stroll through a park or country lane, but not an exhausting brisk walk.
2. Read. Although some of us can't settle down to read, we really should read books to broaden our horizons, add to our life experience, and focus our attention.
3. Go to a museum or gallery, and some of us choose photography as well.
4. Swimming, running, biking, yoga, or any other exercise recommended by your doctor.
5. Take care of long-neglected household chores. Organize the closet, the dresser, sort and file papers, or take care of things we've been putting off for a long time. But when we do these things, don't overdo it, do what you can. Instead of cleaning out the entire kitchen or organizing all the papers at once, clean out one drawer or folder at a time and do the rest another day.
6. Try a new hobby. Choose activities that are not too expensive or demanding, that are purely recreational, and that are refreshing and invigorating without the pressure of competition. For example, singing, writing, tropical fish, carpentry, basketball, cooking, bird watching, amateur shows, wood carving, gardening, guitar, movies, dancing, stone carving, potting, collecting, etc.. Many people find that the activities they really enjoy now are surprisingly hobbies they never considered trying in the past.
7. Recapture the joys of the past. A watercolor you haven't touched up in years, pool or chess, reading journals, etc., continue these hobbies. But if it no longer suits you, just give it up.
8. Take a class. Studying Japanese or English? Love history or math? Want to learn about archaeology or anthropology? Or cooking or computer operation, then go to a correspondence course, TV university or adult education (just for interest, not necessarily a certificate of credit). There are also many places where you can take classes as little as one day a week, so why not give it a try? Taking classes not only broadens your horizons, but also broadens your life. In case you get bored with the content of the class, don't hesitate to quit. By learning to give up on activities that are not beneficial to us or that do not have a positive, positive, or healthy meaning, we will be able to find the courage to face it again, and we will have the opportunity to see new dimensions of our lives outside of drinking.
9. Volunteer for useful services. Many hospitals, children's services, and social welfare organizations are in great need of volunteers. There are many choices available to us, and when we can contribute to others, even if it is only a small service, we will feel very useful, and even when we talk about the process of participating in these activities and its related information, we will feel very interested and engaged.
10. Dress up. Most of us know many ways in which a new haircut, new clothes, new glasses, or even new teeth can have unexpected and pleasing results.
11. Relax and play! Not everything we do in our daily lives necessarily has to be aggressive and new. We also need to do activities that are purely for pleasure, such as your favorite kite flying, the zoo, comedy movies, soul music, detective novels, etc.; and if you don't like any of them, find something else that's fun and has nothing to do with drinking, and do it purely for the sake of treating yourself.
5. Changing old habits
In our drinking habits, there are fixed times, familiar places, and customary activities. Especially when we are tired, hungry, lonely, angry, or especially happy, these seemingly normal, recurring scenarios are dangerous traps for our sober lives.
When we first begin to stop drinking, it is helpful to look back at our past drinking habits to find ways to overcome our addiction. The place we often used to buy alcohol may have been one of the supermarkets we passed on our way to work, and each of us always had our favorite drinking spots. Whether it's a fun drink with friends or a habitual tipple at a regular time of day, we can look at the trajectory of our past drinking habits to find out when and what days we are used to drinking.
We can tweak all the details of our lives that have everything to do with the drinking problem.
Shedding the Stereotypes
There are some deep-rooted ideas that we accumulate from our lives during our past drinking episodes that can't disappear in a flash, even after we stop drinking, as if by magic.
The disease of addiction still lingers, even though we've moved on from the days of drunkenness. So we have found that it would help our recovery process if we could find ways to remove many of the old ideas that have begun to take root again.
And these old ideas do recur again and again. What we are trying to accomplish is to regain a sense of relaxation and freedom from the constraints of the old ways of thinking. Many of the habits and
concepts of our past ways of thinking limit our autonomy.
When we look at them with fresh eyes, they turn out to be nothing but crushing. We don't need to keep holding on to them unless they have been tested and proven to work, and they really do still work.
We can now use very specific criteria to measure the current usefulness and authenticity of an idea. We can say to ourselves "That's exactly the kind of thought I used to have when I was drinking, does that pattern of thinking help me stay sober now? Is that thought beneficial to me today?" Many of our old stereotypes-especially those about alcohol, drinking, drunkenness, and alcohol dependence (or alcoholism, if you prefer that term)-are either worthless or actually self-destructive to us. Getting rid of those thoughts would be a great relief.
Perhaps a few examples will suffice to illustrate the benefits of abandoning these old and useless ideas. When we were teenagers and young adults, for many of us, drinking was a form of oath-taking to show that we were no longer children, or that we were grown-ups and smart, sophisticated, worldly, or strong enough to defy our parents and other authorities.
Drinking has always been associated in many people's minds with romance, sex, music, achievement and a sense of superiority, luxury and enjoyment. If schools teach anything about drinking, it's usually just about the health hazards and the possibility of losing one's driver's license - not much else.
At the same time there are many people who are still fairly convinced that any drinking behavior is completely immoral and leads directly to crime, pain, shame and death. Whatever our feelings about drinking used to be, positive or negative, they were usually strong and emotional far more than rational. Perhaps our attitudes toward drinking are simply unconscious, unthinking wholesale acceptance of the opinions of others.
For many people, drinking is a necessary and harmless part of socializing, an enjoyable leisure activity that takes place in certain places and among friends at certain times.
Others may see drinking as a necessary accompaniment to a meal. But now we're asking ourselves: If we don't drink, are we not actually enjoying our friendships or our food? Does the way we drink alcohol
help improve our social relationships? Does it improve our ability to enjoy good food? The reactions derived from the idea of wanting to get drunk, whether in favor or against, are even more extreme. Being inept may be seen as just fun or just embarrassing.
For a variety of reasons, the idea of getting drunk is often offensive to many people. But for some of us, it's a state of longing, and getting drunk isn't just about meeting the expectations of others, it's also about enjoying the feeling ourselves. But there's also the added effect of being blatantly ignored by prominent members of society.
Some people are completely intolerant of people who have never been drunk, while others despise people who get too drunk. The findings of today's health care discovery are still quite limited in their impact on changing these attitudes. When we first hear the term "alcoholic," most of us think of it as referring exclusively to people who are old, ragged, shivering, or begging to be hated, or who get drunk in the slums.
Now anyone with a good understanding of the subject knows that this is all nonsense. Yet despite this, the vague notions of our past still linger in our minds as we begin to try to stay sober.
They clouded our vision, making it difficult for us to realize the truth of the matter. But until finally, we finally become willing to accept that shifting those perceptions from the past - just might - be partly or maybe a little bit wrong, or at least not entirely reflecting our own personal experience accurately anymore. When we can convince ourselves to look honestly at our past experiences and listen carefully to other ideas that are different from our own, we can be open to a long list of information that we have not examined in detail in the past.
We can look, for example, at the scientific profession's narrative that alcohol is not only a tasty thirst-quencher, but also an ideological agent. We learn that the agent can be found not only in beverages, but also in food and various medicines. And now, almost every day, we read or hear about the multiple dangers of specific drugs to the human body (including to the heart, blood vessels, stomach, lungs, mouth, brain, etc.) in ways we never suspected before. Pharmacologists and other addiction specialists now agree that alcohol cannot be considered safe for use as a beverage, stimulant, sedative, tonic, or tranquilizer. But in each individual case, it may not, by itself, lead directly to physical harm or mental exhaustion.
It is clear that most people are able to use them gracefully without harming themselves or others. We have found that drinking can be thought of as the medical equivalent of taking a drug, and that intoxication is akin to an overdose. Substance abuse can lead directly or indirectly to a variety of physical health, mental, family, social, financial, and work problems.
We are able to begin to see the consequences of alcohol for some people, rather than mostly just thinking about what drinking brings us. We have also realized that anyone who has had any kind of trouble with alcohol may be in what we call an "alcoholic" condition.
The disease strikes regardless of age, creed, race, sex, intelligence, background, mood, health, occupation, family status, physical fitness, diet, social or economic status, or other general personality. The question is not how much or how, when or why you drink, but how drinking affects your life - what has happened to you when you drink.
Before we can realize we have this disease, we have to get past an old and tired misconception: that it's a shameful, cowardly sign (if we ever were) to admit that we can no longer control our own drinking.
Weakness? The truth is that it takes a lot of courage to face this harsh reality head-on, unapologetically, without pretense, without excuses, and without having to lie to ourselves about it. (While it doesn't seem to be boasting, frankly many of us fantasize about being world champions) In our recovery from the disease of alcoholism, it can be similarly overshadowed by some misguided thinking. It's as if millions of other people, who have witnessed a person die as a result of drinking, would be very surprised as to why the alcoholic was unable to stop drinking by his or her own willpower.
This is another outdated notion that we keep in the back of our minds mainly because many of us have been exposed to some typical, super-willed cases in our early years, perhaps having had a family or neighborhood legend. Notorious after years of debauchery, but who suddenly changed his ways and gave up alcohol and women, and by the time he reached 50, washed his hands of the world, made a new man, and has never touched a drop of alcohol since then, becoming a model of good manners, honesty and integrity.
The childish idea that we can do the same when we are ready is a dangerous illusion. We are no one else. We are just us (and we are not the old grandfather who drank a big bottle every day and lived until he was 90.) Now we are pretty sure that the conclusion is that overcoming the problem of alcohol addiction by the individual's own willpower alone is about as effective as treating cancer. This has been confirmed over and over again from our own experience.
Most of us have tried to work it out on our own, whether we wanted to control our drinking or stop drinking, but no matter how hard we tried we just couldn't get lasting success. Even so, it's not easy to get us to admit that we need help. Because it also seems to be a sign of weakness.
Yes, we are in another kind of limbo. But we are finally asking ourselves: would it not be wiser to access and utilize a greater power than to fight in vain on our own, especially after we have proven over time that it does not work on our own? If flicking a switch turns on the lights, we don't think it's wise to continually try to grope around in the dark. We can't gain sobriety entirely on our own. It is not the way we have learned that we can stay awake.
At the same time enjoying sobriety to the fullest is not a job one can do alone. As long as we are able to consider a few perspectives that are different from our stereotypical ideas, even if they are temporary, we have made the right decision to move into a new, happy, healthy life.
We were convinced that this could never happen, but it is happening right now to thousands of our members.