Alcoholism in the first stage, and sometimes at the beginning of the second, is not easy to recognize. Even communicating with a person for many years, one can not suspect that he is an alcoholic, if you do not know the signs that give out this disease.
It is believed that everyday drunkenness is an unpleasant but harmless habit. Fundamentally wrong opinion. This is the ground where alcoholism will arise if you do not take action. And here, too, there are stages of development:
- episodic drunkenness, i.e. when a person does not have a craving for alcohol, but occasionally drinks (with symptoms characteristic of poisoning);
- ritual drunkenness - a stage when a persistent association "event - alcohol" appears, and a person accompanies any change in life with drinking;
- systematic drunkenness, i.e. drinking is regular, at least 2 times a week. This is where the first stage of alcoholism occurs, and it happens quickly.
People cope with everyday drunkenness on their own, but at the first stage of alcoholism they will need the help of a narcologist. With motivation, a person can recover alone, but this is rare. The alcoholic does not admit to the last that he is sick.
The symptoms of the first stage of alcoholism look like this:
- the dose of alcohol increases, i.e. if a person, in order to get drunk, had to drink, for example, a glass of vodka, now he needs three such glasses;
- the person himself, of course, notices the change, but explains it for himself and others by external reasons: stress, pressure surges or changes in the weather;
- craving for alcohol increases, i.e. the alcoholic is deliberately looking for an excuse to drink, and even the most ridiculous is suitable, because for himself the person justified the drinking;
- the alcoholic becomes aggressive, the hangover begins to take off with alcohol. He may develop gastritis, VSD, sudden pressure drops.
At the second stage, alcoholism cannot be cured without a narcologist, and treatment will be much more difficult than at the first stage. The signs of the second stage are as follows:
- the hangover is removed only by alcohol and it proceeds much more severely: a person's hands tremble, he begins to sweat a lot, sleep is disturbed, his head hurts badly, attacks of thirst, shortness of breath, dizziness and weakness occur;
- the alcoholic's character changes greatly: he becomes very irritable, he becomes deaf to the words of his family and friends, he develops depression, if he cannot drink, he already lives for the sake of drinking and begins to degrade. At the same time, binges may occur.
At the third stage, the alcoholic is easy to recognize: he changes physically, drinks very often, loses his job and family, sinks to the bottom.
To help an alcoholic to become aware of his illness, it is necessary to stop patronizing him. You cannot give money, you cannot solve his problems, especially those that he created in a drunken state, you cannot cover up his drunkenness in front of family and friends, and you also don’t need to hide a drink from him (it’s better not to keep it at home at all). It is worth giving advice to an alcoholic, as well as talking to him about drunkenness, when he is sober.
It will take a lot of patience, because the alcoholic is sure that everything is fine with him, and he will not want to change this opinion until it is too late.
