Do you suffer from alcohol and are you looking for help for yourself or your loved ones? The Private Alcoholism Treatment Center Raft will enable you to effectively treat alcohol addiction. Located in the heart of the Silesian Beskids, our center guarantees comfortable conditions and professional therapy that will help you get back on your feet and enjoy your life. Find out what alcohol addiction is, how long it takes to treat alcoholism and what the process looks like, the causes, effects and symptoms of alcoholism, what are the treatments for alcoholism, what is the treatment for alcoholics. Check how to help an alcoholic and what help his family can count on.
Treatment of alcoholism – information about addiction
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The World Health Organization defines alcoholism as a progressive disease that slowly devastates the body and, if left untreated, can lead to death. Alcohol dependence slows down the functions of the nervous system, and causes physical and mental symptoms that force the alcoholic to consume more alcoholic beverages. Alcoholism has a number of negative social, social and psychological effects.
Treatment of alcoholism – when to go to therapy? – symptoms
Many drinkers tend to deny the problem and admit addiction only when alcohol is manifestly damaging their health, psyche, and relationships. In order to be able to destroy the alcoholic’s illusion of being in control of the situation, it is worth comparing his behavior with the objective symptoms of alcohol addiction.
The most common symptoms of alcoholism are:
- alcohol craving – constant and unrestrained craving for alcohol,
- growing tolerance to the effects of alcohol – addicts must reach for ever larger doses to be able to achieve the same effects as before,
- concentrating life around alcohol – for an addicted person, alcohol becomes the most important, he focuses all his energy on acquiring and consuming it.
- resignation from the current hobby,
- neglecting relationships,
- failure to fulfill obligations,
- disturbance of consciousness and memory – the alcoholic experiences “holes in the memory”, after alcohol he acts outside of consciousness,
- mood swings – addicted shows aggression, may be sad or depressed,
- reaching for alcohol despite the knowledge that it is harmful to health and has a negative impact on life (e.g. inability to quit drinking despite losing a driving license, problems with the police, dismissal from work, termination of contacts by family and friends),
- “Drinking on the wedge” – reaching for alcohol to alleviate the effects of previous drinking,
- symptoms of withdrawal syndrome.
Already 3 of the above symptoms may indicate that the patient is an alcoholic and requires professional alcoholism treatment.
How to cure an alcoholic?
Alcoholism is a disease that must be treated with the support of specialists. As treatment for alcoholism at home is ineffective and treatment in public facilities usually takes a long time to come, private specialist addiction treatment centers currently provide the best alternative. Treatment of alcohol dependence is an intensive stationary therapy for alcoholics or a short incentive stay.
A prerequisite for treating an alcoholic is abstinence. Before starting therapy, it is necessary to stop alcohol completely and detoxify the body (alcohol detox).
Alcohol therapy – effective treatment of alcoholism
Alcohol therapy consists of individual and group psychotherapy. It takes place in several steps and employs a variety of techniques and treatments for alcoholism. It often takes into account pharmacological support of patients, especially in the initial period. It should be emphasized that treatment of alcoholism during therapy consists in preparing the patient for further independent fight, and not in completely curing him of the addiction, as alcohol addiction lasts for the rest of his life.
Treatment of alcoholism – stages
Therapy for alcoholics is a process that develops gradually over a set framework. The most important steps in addiction therapy are:
the patient’s realization of the problem – the addicted person must admit to himself (and to the therapist) that he is an alcoholic and needs help;
diagnostics – the psychotherapist conducts an interview with the patient and applies psychological tests, and the doctor orders basic tests, including blood tests, ECG, ultrasound examinations of internal organs;
selection of the optimal method of therapy based on the data on the phase of the disease, physical condition and mental condition of the addicted person;
working with alcoholism under the supervision of a psychotherapist – learning to analyze and regulate one’s emotions. This stage includes individual and group psychotherapy and various workshops (e.g. abstinence assertiveness, relaxation techniques);
