Alcoholis a depressant, that is, a substance that slows down all processes in the body. Small doses of alcohol give a feeling of relaxation and self-confidence. In large doses, it slows down the reaction and negatively affects, for example, the eye and coordination. Driving while sober is extremely dangerous. A person in a state of severe intoxication feels nauseous, dizzy, may lose consciousness, and above all there is a danger of choking on his own vomit.
The level of alcohol concentration in the blood depends on a number of factors.
- If you eat fatty food, then intoxication will not be so fast.
- The high content of animal and vegetable fats slows down the absorption of alcohol and the digestion of the food itself.
- The fuller the stomach, the longer it will take for alcohol to reach the circulatory system.
- The denser your body fat, the slower alcohol is digested and absorbed into the blood.
- Body weight: the heavier you are, the less the effects of alcohol on you.
- Your reaction to 80 mg of alcohol may be completely different from someone else's. Typically, young people and women are more susceptible to alcohol.
The ability to consume alcohol and the effect it has on different people varies, however, a safe dose (from a health point of view) is believed to be somewhere around 5 liters of medium-strength BEER or 10 large glasses of wine per week. for men and 2/3 of this dose for women, provided of course that this amount is lost evenly over the course of a week, and not 1-2 times. If you can, try not to drink on an empty stomach.
Alcoholism - what is it?
Alcoholism- regular, compulsive consumption of large amounts of alcohol over a long period of time. It is the most serious form of drug addiction in modern times, affecting between 1 and 5% of the population in most countries. An alcoholic drinks compulsively in response to a psychological or physical dependence on alcohol.
Anyone can become an alcoholic. However, studies have shown that for children of alcoholics, the risk of becoming addicted to alcohol is 4-6 times higher than for children of non-alcoholics.
The study of alcohol consumption among young people in our country is largely based on the experience of similar research abroad, which at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries was largely carried out in Western Europe and North America and was conducted in different directions:
- The prevalence and patterns of alcohol consumption among students were studied.
- The effect of alcohol on the body of children and adolescents was studied.
- A relationship between academic success and alcohol consumption was established.
- Anti-alcohol education programs have been developed and tested.
A significant place among the studies of this period is occupied by works that illustrate the prevalence and nature of drinking habits, when children were given alcoholic beverages for:
- "health promotion"
- "appetite"
- "enhanced growth"
- "to relieve teething"
- "warming up"
- "deny hunger"
- "calm"
Six stages of alcoholism
Accidental drunkenness can lead to alcoholism: because the drinker turns to alcohol to relieve stress, or because it is so strong that the initial stages of addiction go unnoticed.
Early alcoholism is characterized by memory lapses. Alcoholism of the younger generation is considered by most researchers to be a significant indicator of the dysfunction of the microsocial environment. This determines the constant interest in studying the problem of prevalence and nature of early alcoholism.
Boys drink the main types of alcoholic beverages more often than girls, and as their strength increases, this difference becomes significant. Among city schoolchildren, the consumption of mostly weak alcoholic beverages - beer, wine - is common, while students in rural schools are more familiar with the tastes of strong alcoholic beverages. During the 1920s and 1920s, a fairly widespread use of moonshine could be found among schoolchildren: 1. 0–32. 0% among boys and 0. 9–12% among girls. The frequency of vodka consumption increased with age.
Almost all socio-hygienic and clinical-social studies of youth alcoholism used the survey method in various modifications - from correspondence questionnaires to telephone interviews and clinical interviews.
Basic alcoholism- a person who drinks cannot stop until he reaches the stage of intoxication. He encourages himself with self-justifications and pompous promises, but all his promises and intentions remain unfulfilled. He begins to avoid family and friends and neglects food, past interests, work and money. There is a physical deterioration of health. Resistance to alcohol decreases.
Chronic alcoholism is characterized by further moral decline, irrational thinking, vague fears, fantasies and psychopathic behavior. Physical damage increases. The marketer no longer has an alibi and can no longer take steps to get out of the current situation. A person can reach this stage in 5-25 years.
Treatment is usually carried out through special programs for alcoholics. Psychologically, an alcoholic's desire to get help is revived and he begins to think more rationally. Ideally, it also develops hope, moral responsibility, external interests, self-esteem and satisfaction with abstinence from alcohol.
The final stage of alcoholism occurs if the alcoholic refuses treatment or breaks down again after treatment. Irreversible mental and physical damage usually ends in death.
If you write all this in a nutshell, here's what you get:
- Home drunkenness
- Early alcoholism
- Basic alcoholism
- Chronic alcoholism
- Medicine
- The final stage of alcoholism
What determines the degree of intoxication of a person?
The effect of alcohol on behavior depends on the amount of alcohol that reaches the brain through the blood. This "blood alcohol level" is determined by several factors other than the amount you drink.
The size of the liver determines the rate of oxidation and elimination of alcohol.
The weight of the person itself determines the amount of blood in the body, because the volume of blood is proportional to it. The bigger the person, the more diluted the blood is with the alcohol consumed and the more it takes to achieve the same effect.
The speed and manner of alcohol consumption are also important. The slower a person drinks a certain amount of alcohol, the weaker its effects.
Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach has a stronger and faster effect than drinking alcohol during or after a meal. Food acts as a buffer during absorption.
The process of intoxication.
When consuming alcohol, the transmission of impulses in the nervous system slows down. The highest levels of the brain are the first to be affected - inhibitions, excitement and anxiety disappear, giving way to feelings of pleasure and euphoria. As the lower levels of the brain are affected, coordination, vision and speech deteriorate. Small blood vessels in the skin dilate. Heat is radiated and the person becomes hot. This means that the blood has separated from the internal organs of the body, where the blood vessels have already narrowed due to the effects of alcohol on the nervous system. Therefore, the temperature of the internal organs decreases at the same time. A possible increase in sexual desire is associated with the suppression of ordinary inhibitions. As the level of alcohol in the blood increases, the physical sexual performance becomes weaker. Ultimately, the toxic effects of alcohol cause nausea and eventually vomiting.
A hangover
A hangover is bad. . . And now in more detail:
A hangoveris physical discomfort after consuming excessive amounts of alcohol. Symptoms may include headache, upset stomach, thirst, dizziness and irritability. A hangover occurs as a result of three processes. First, the gastric mucosa is irritated by excess alcohol, and the functioning of the stomach is impaired. Second, cell dehydration occurs if the amount of alcohol consumed exceeds the capacity of the liver, resulting in long-term retention of alcohol in the blood. Third, the level of alcohol has a "shock" effect on the nervous system, from which it needs time to recover.
The best way to avoid a hangover is to not drink too much (or better yet, not drink at all). But the probability of a hangover is reduced if alcohol is mixed with a snack (Havka): the intake and absorption of alcohol is prolonged for a longer period of time, and food serves as a barrier. Soft drinks taken at the same time or later dilute the alcohol. Bad effects are also usually reduced if alcohol is consumed in a relaxed environment and smoking is kept to a minimum.
The effect of alcohol on the body
A characteristic manifestation of alcohol poisoning is repeated vomiting. Even one-time consumption of small doses of alcoholic beverages in adolescents is accompanied by pronounced manifestations of intoxication, especially in the nervous system. The most severe poisonings were observed in people with complicated anamnesis, against the background of organic cerebral insufficiency or accompanying somatic pathology.
It is much less clear to describe the nature of the influence of alcohol on the psyche of teenagers. In general, the clinical picture of severe intoxication of teenagers in most cases looks like this: short-term excitement is then replaced by general depression, stupor, increasing drowsiness, lethargy, slow incoherent speech and loss of orientation.
When they drank alcohol for the first time, 53% of teenagers felt disgusted. Over time, with increasing "experience" of drinking alcohol, the objective picture, however, changes dramatically. More than 90% of the examined adolescents with two years or more of "experience" of drinking believe that intoxication is accompanied by a feeling of a rush of energy, a feeling of satisfaction, comfort and an increase in mood, that is, those attributes of the mental state that ordinary consciousness often attributes to the action begin to appear in theirstatements. alcohol.
Diseases or simply PSYCHOSIS
Delirium tremens usually occurs against the background of a hangover, with a sudden cessation of drinking or during a period of abstinence, in cases of addition of somatic diseases, injuries (especially fractures). The initial symptoms of psychosis are the deterioration of night sleep, the appearance of vegetative symptoms and tremors, as well as the general liveliness of the patient, which can be seen in his movements, speech, facial expressions and especially his mood. In a short period of time, different shades of mood can be observed, while during the hangover period the mood is monotonous, characterized by depression and anxiety. Unusual changes in mood and general vitality intensify in the evening and at night, while during the day these disturbances decrease sharply and may even disappear completely, which allows the patient to perform his professional duties. As the symptoms of psychosis intensify, complete insomnia occurs, against which visual illusions first arise, and then various hallucinations and delusions.
Delirium tremens is characterized by a predominance of true visual hallucinations. They are characterized by a multitude of images and mobility. Most often these are insects (beetles, cockroaches, beetles, flies) and small animals (cats, rats, mice). Less often, patients see large animals and people, in some cases of fantastic appearance. Visions of snakes, devils, as well as deceased relatives, the so-called walking dead, are very typical. In some cases, visual illusions and hallucinations are individual, in others they are multiple and scenic, i. e. the patient sees complex images. Auditory, tactile, olfactory hallucinations, feelings of disturbance of the position of the body in space often occur. The mood of patients is extremely changeable. Fear, complacency, confusion, surprise and despair can be observed in him for a short time. Patients usually move continuously, their expressions are expressive. Motor reactions correspond to currently present hallucinations and affects - with fear and terrifying visions, the patient hides, defends, is excited; during the period of complacency - passively.
Patients are characterized by exceptional distractibility to external events, everything around them attracts their attention. Delirium in alcoholic delirium is fragmentary and reflects hallucinatory disorders. In terms of content, it is most often about the delirium of persecution. Patients are most often falsely oriented to the place (while in the hospital they say they are at home, in a restaurant, at work), but they are oriented to their personality. Alcoholic delirium is characterized by the periodic temporary disappearance of a significant part of mental disorders, the so-called lucid - light - intervals, as well as a naturally pronounced intensification of psychotic symptoms in the evening and at night.
Delirium tremens is constantly accompanied by various somatic disorders - tremors, sudden sweating, hyperemia of the skin, especially of the face. The temperature is usually low. The pulse is increased. Proteins often appear in the urine; in blood - increased content of bilirubin, shift of leukocyte formula to the left, acceleration of ROE. The course of the disease is usually short-lived. Even without treatment, the symptoms of psychosis disappear within 3-5 days. Less often, the disease lasts 1-1. 5 weeks. Recovery is more often observed in the form of a crisis - after a deep sleep. Sometimes recovery is gradual, worse in the evening and at night, and better during the day. Signs that indicate an unfavorable prognosis for delirium tremens are the development of symptoms of occupational and delirium delirium, high temperature and collapsed states.
Alcoholic hallucination develops either during a hangover or at the peak of drinking. The main disorder is profuse auditory hallucinations combined with persecutory delusions. Verbal auditory hallucinations predominate, and the patient usually hears words "spoken" by a large number of people - a "chorus of voices", as patients often define it. Most often, the "voices" talk to each other about the patient, less often they are addressed to the patient himself. The content of verbal hallucinations are threats, accusatory conversations about the patient's past actions, cynical abuse, insults. Hallucinations are often mocking and teasing in nature. Voices either rise to a scream or fade to a whisper. Delusional ideas in content are closely related to auditory hallucinations - the so-called. hallucinatory delusion. They are fragmentary and unsystematic. The predominant affect is intense anxiety and fear. At the beginning of psychosis, patients are motorically excited, but soon retardation appears or a very orderly behavior is observed that masks the psychosis. The latter creates a false and dangerous idea of improvement. As a rule, symptoms of psychosis intensify in the evening and at night. Somatic disturbances, common to hangover syndrome, are permanent. The duration of alcoholic hallucinosis is from 2-3 days to several weeks, and in rare cases the disease lasts up to several months.
Alcoholic depression always appears on the background of hangover syndrome. It is characterized by a depressed-anxious mood, ideas of self-deprecation, tearfulness, as well as individual ideas of relationships and persecution. Duration – from several days to 1-2 weeks. It is precisely in the state of alcoholic depression that alcoholics most often commit suicide.
Alcoholic epilepsy is symptomatic and associated with toxicosis. Attacks most often occur at the peak of intoxication during a hangover or during alcoholic delirium. As a rule, epileptiform attacks are observed. Minor seizures, twilight stupor, and auras do not occur in alcoholic epilepsy. With the cessation of alcohol abuse, seizures disappear.
Alcoholic paranoia is an alcoholic psychosis whose main symptom is delusion. It occurs in the state of hangover syndrome and at the peak of drinking. The content of delusional ideas is limited to persecution or jealousy (ideas of adultery). In the first case, patients believe that there is a group of people who want to rob or kill them. They see the confirmation of their thoughts in the gestures, actions and words of others. It is characterized by confusion, intense anxiety, which often gives way to fear. Patients' actions are impulsive - they jump from vehicles while moving, run away suddenly, turn to government authorities for help, and sometimes attack imaginary enemies. In some cases, delirium is accompanied by mild verbal illusions and hallucinations, and individual symptoms of delirium that occur in the evening and at night. The course of this form of paranoia is usually short-lived - from a few days to a few weeks. Sometimes psychosis lasts for months.
Alcoholic encephalopathies- alcoholic psychoses, which develop in connection with metabolic disorders and, above all, vitamins B and PP. Alcoholic encephalopathy occurs as a result of years of alcoholism, followed by chronic gastritis or enteritis and, as a consequence of the latter, impaired absorption in the intestines. Alcoholic encephalopathies mostly develop in those people who drink a lot and eat very little. Most often, alcoholic encephalopathies occur in the spring and early summer months. Autonomic symptoms usually include heart rhythm disturbances, fever of central origin, respiratory problems, and sphincter weakness. You can constantly notice an increase in muscle tone. The general physical condition of patients is characterized by progressive weight loss up to severe cachexia. The skin is pale or dark brown.
Chronic forms of alcoholic encephalopathy include Korsakoff's psychosis and alcoholic pseudoparalysis. In some cases, they develop gradually, over several months, and then the nature of the onset corresponds to Gaye-Vorik encephalopathy, in others - acutely, after alcoholic psychoses, usually after delirium tremens.
Treatment of alcoholic psychoses. Patients with alcoholic psychosis must be placed in a special hospital immediately. Some patients with hangover syndrome are also susceptible to hospitalization in cases where mental disturbances, especially mood swings, are intense. Treatment of alcoholic psychosis in the hospital should be comprehensive - using multivitamins (B1, C, PP), cardiological and hypnotics with hypoglycemic and comatose doses of insulin or psychotronics. The only effective treatment of alcoholic, especially acute, encephalonitis is therapy with large doses of vitamins: B1 - up to 600 mg, C - up to 1000 mg, PP - up to 300-400 mg per day for 2-4 weeks.
Alcohol poisoning.
People who abuse alcohol sometimes fall into a stupor, which leads to a coma. In extremely severe cases, breathing may stop.
However, don't assume that a person who appears drunk has necessarily consumed alcohol. Similar symptoms occur in other conditions (head injuries, stroke and diabetes, as well as overdose of certain drugs).
First aid.
If the victim is unconscious but still breathing, use your finger to remove anything obstructing breathing (bits of snacks, breakfast) from the mouth and throat, do not try to induce vomiting. Place the victim in the CPR position, free the neck and waist from tight clothing, and ensure that the airway remains open.
If the victim is unconscious, call 911.
Conclusion
Alcoholism is a serious disease that in some cases develops over years. That's why it's better not to drink a lot and often! And if you drink, then drink BEER! ! ! : )