Alcoholism never seems to stop creating chaos in our local families and societies. There’s an urgent need to deal with, if not prevent the problem from causing more deaths, conflicts, and other disgraceful happenings amongst us. If you’re here to learn more about it and how to escape the perilous disorder, stick right here.
What Is Alcoholism?
Alcoholism, also known as Alcohol Use Disorder, is the severest form of addiction to alcohol. Qualified alcoholism victims find it either too hard or impossible to control their frequent cravings for alcohol, despite its sundry negative effects on their social, health, and other aspects of life. If left uncontrolled, alcoholism can easily blow up its clients and people around them right in the face! No one wishes to get there.
Talking of the statistics, 5.1 percent of all the diseases and injuries on a global scale are blamed on alcohol, according to the World Health Organization. Likewise, alcohol is responsible for 5.3% of all global annual deaths. The good news, however, is that while alcoholics may feel completely helpless towards kicking the situation to the curb, they can still find surefire ways to help them out of the mud.
Alcoholism And The Mind
Alcohol has a huge influence on your mind’s cognitive processes like perception, reasoning, memory, and even more. This comes as an automatic result of its influence on the chemical signals that keep your brain active. A good example of such is when the drug causes an over-production of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. As long as the underlying individual continues taking alcohol, his/her brain activities shall dampen due to excessive inhibitory reactions caused by excess GABA levels. That’s why such individuals experience reduced anxiety.
However, prolonged intake of the drug shall drive the brain into reducing its GABA production (due to excessive levels in the brain). So when the individual stops taking alcohol immediately, the result is insufficient inhibition that can quickly lead to epileptic conditions like anxiety, anger, dysphoria, and agitation just to mention a few. Moreover, alcohol causes addiction, which itself is a problem associated with the mind. There’s even more.
Alcoholism And Your Relationships
Alcoholism can also impact your family, friendship, and romantic relationships. For instance, when it cripples your cognitive functions, you may start neglecting important family, work, and school duties. Such may cause disagreements that can easily break your relationship with the affected individuals. Likewise, the drug can affect your relationships with various people, especially family, as a result of financial mismanagement. A drunk individual is likely to spend more on the less important stuff, leaving him/her with little or nothing for essential family and or personal expenses.
Alcoholism can as well break various types of relationships via carelessness issues that can easily cause domestic violence, careless driving, unnecessary fights. Statistics have it right that close to 70 percent of individuals that attack their marriage partners do so under the influence of alcohol. Other relationship issues that a “basted” individual can run into are excess jealousy, stress, and unplanned pregnancies among others.
Why Is Alcoholism So Hard To Overcome?
Those who’ve tried quitting alcoholism understand how almost-impossible the process can be. In fact, you may have the willpower and still fail. But why? We hear you ask.
Well, stop hitting yourself thinking that you’re a failure. The problem isn’t ordinary; it’s mental! Alcohol alters your brain chemistry to make you think that you cannot survive without it. What’s worse, the more you take it, the more it impacts how your brain works, driving you deeper into dependence. It’s something like hunger; we can’t even think about overcoming it as possible, can we?
The good news? We can overcome alcoholism!
Signs And Symptoms Of Alcoholism
There exist pointers to an individual that qualifies as an alcoholism victim. The signs and symptoms are majorly behavioral.
1. Excess alcohol cravings are the number one indicator of AUD victims. The individuals never seem to have a bad appetite for alcohol at any time.
2. Shaking after drinking in the morning is another sure bet for identifying a victim of alcoholism.
3. Severe withdrawal symptoms like vomiting, shaking, nausea, headaches, and a little more others.
4. Poor appetite for food and drinks except for alcohol
5. Making unjustifiable excuses when going to drink
6. Blacking out after drinking at night
7. Neglecting essential duties and obligations, including occupational ones
8. Drinking more and more without an urge to stop
9. Various illnesses like Ketoacidosis
What Kind Of Rehab Program Should I Go To?
Since addiction is a deeply personal problem, there’s no one-size-fits-all rehab program for everyone. The right program for any victim shall depend on his/her level and reason of addiction, not to mention the disorder’s effects on him/her, and other attributes. Luckily, an ardent therapist can always recommend you the right program after assessing your condition. The following are the most popular rehab programs;
1. Long-term Residential Treatment
2. Short-Term Residential Treatment
3. Group Counselling
4. Individualized Counselling
5. Outpatient Treatment Program
The most prevalent indicator of the best program for a given addict is this/her level of addiction. For example, Long-term Residential Treatment is best suited to deeply addicted individuals with severe effects, while Individualized and Group Counselling arrangements are the mild addict’s best bet. An individual suffering in the hands of intermediate addiction is good to go with an Outpatient or Short-term Residential Treatment program.
How Much Does Rehab Cost?
Going to rehab is the best way to get out of alcoholism, but worries about how much it may cost can keep you back. Well, like any other facility or institution, they do not charge the same price for getting the “ghost” out of you. The prices rely on the period of recovery, infrastructure, past success, and other factors. Below are the different types of rehab programs and their most popular prices across the globe.
1. Outpatient Rehab (mostly between $5,000 and $10,000).
2. Inpatient Rehab: For a 30-day period, the costs may vary between $2,000 and $10,000. 60 to 90-day inpatient rehabs also vary in cost between $5,000 and $20,000.
3. Detox programs generally range between $1,000 and $2,000 in outpatient arrangements as separate payment plans. Most inpatient facilities include it as part of inpatient rehab costs.
It’s also worthy to note that most of these facilities accept insurance payment options.
What Are The Success Rates Of Rehab?
There has never been a precise answer to this question because of the lack of a conventional definition of “Rehab”. Look at it this way: many individuals that complete their terms at Rehab centers are always at risk of relapse, and indeed, a good number of them often get back to drug abuse because most of these Rehab facilities do not commit to following up an individual fully. So besides alluring marketing clauses from Rehab facilities that place their success rates in the ninetieth percentile, such statistics are only based on completion rates.
How Do I Overcome Alcoholism?
Let’s face it; the road to recovery from alcoholism is thorny and may seem impossible to trudge, but you can do it! However, it takes a bit of time and commitment that varies with the intensity and period of addiction. If your addiction is heavy, we advise you to resolve to Rehab centers because personal withdrawal attempts may turn out brutal.
1. Know Your Triggers: Know what makes you think about drinking and try as much to stay away from it. It’s one of the best ways to tell your mind that there’s no reason to drink today/now.
2. Set Goals: You are only going to quit alcoholism by cutting back on your drinking and not by sudden withdrawal. In so doing, you need to set goals on the amount you’ll cut back each day. Sticking to the goals is mandatory for unfailing results.
3. Keep Track Of Your Progress: One thing that makes you work harder on the goal is knowing that you’re making some progress. Log your progress and appreciate (even reward) yourself on the achievements.
4. Don’t Keep Alcohol At Home: You have no reason to keep alcohol at home despite trying to quit using it. You can easily quench your thirst with it if it’s nearer to you.
5. Keep Busy: Keeping your mind engaged in another activity can help you pass the day more successfully without thinking about alcohol more frequently.
6. Persistence Pays: The journey is long and what shall keep you going is persistence without ceasing. Keep going, pal!
