What is domestic drunkenness? Domestic drunkenness and alcoholism: symptoms, stages and treatment

Domestic drunkenness (domestic alcoholism) is usually called a way of life of people, the basis of which is incorrect attitudes and habits associated with alcohol. This is not a disease, but a bad habit. Household alcoholism is based on traditions existing in society, as well as attitudes adopted in a group close to the individual (colleagues, relatives, friends).

Alcohol can accompany a person throughout his life, while the permissible amount will remain at the same level. However, in some cases, it is possible for everyday drunkenness to turn into alcoholism.

The occurrence of domestic drunkenness can be due to various reasons:

Classification of domestic drunkenness

Depending on the amount and frequency of alcohol intake, scientists divide all people who drink alcohol into several groups:

Moderate drinkers. This group includes people who drink alcohol no more than once a month on special occasions and in small quantities.
Occasional drinkers. Such people drink 1-3 times a month.
Regular drinkers. These are individuals who drink 200-300 milliliters of vodka 1-2 times a week.
Habitual drinkers. This group includes those who drink 300-500 milliliters of vodka 2-3 times a week.

All of the above groups relate to domestic drunkenness. The next group is chronic alcoholics, who drink at least a glass of vodka or other strong drinks every day.

Household alcoholism is characterized by the presence of a number of signs:

The difference between everyday drunkenness and chronic alcoholism

Domestic drunkenness and are not the same thing. There are several significant differences between these two conditions:

As already mentioned, everyday drunkenness is not a disease, unlike alcoholism, which requires mandatory treatment.
An alcoholic is not able to stop drinking or reduce the amount of alcohol on his own. A person prone to everyday drunkenness can easily give up alcohol, guided by his personal desire.
With alcoholism, a number of changes occur in the patient’s body, as a result of which he becomes ill without the usual dose of alcohol. Domestic drunkenness does not entail such problems.
After drinking, an alcoholic in most cases does not remember anything, but a person susceptible to domestic alcoholism is aware of the events that occurred.
Alcoholism is a progressive disease; it will certainly develop, leading the patient to a constant outcome - complete personality degradation. Household drunkenness remains at the same level for many years. A person drinks alcohol, but does not exceed a certain amount.

It is very difficult for a person to notice the difference between everyday drunkenness and alcoholism, especially if he does not know the signs of alcoholism. He may think of himself as a drinker, but at the same time be already in the first stage of alcoholism.

Alcohol has properties similar to drugs in that it produces a feeling of pleasure and well-being when taken. Accordingly, addiction to it may develop, which will entail the need to consume more and more of it.

This is already becoming the first stage of alcoholism. A person is still able to keep the desire to drink under control, but cannot imagine free time without drinking alcohol. For him, the only worthy pleasure is achieving a state of intoxication.

As already mentioned, only a qualified doctor can distinguish the initial stage of alcoholism from everyday drunkenness. If you notice that the need for alcohol has begun to increase, you should immediately seek help., because in the early stages, alcoholism, like any other disease, can be treated quickly enough.

How to avoid the transition of everyday drunkenness into alcoholism

To prevent everyday drunkenness from turning into alcoholism, you need to give up alcohol or reduce the amount of alcohol you take. To achieve this goal, the following steps should be taken:

Consultation with a psychotherapist and narcologist, as well as following their recommendations.
Combining traditional medicine with folk methods.
Getting rid of excess free time that was spent drinking alcohol.

To achieve this goal, you can act in several directions:

Maintaining an active social and family life.
New interests, hobbies.
Sports activities.

Getting physical and mental relaxation without drinking alcohol will make your life bright and rich, and also avoid such a serious illness as alcoholism.

Casual drunkenness is fraught with many pitfalls; it is dangerous and insidious. To avoid the sad prospects associated with it, it is best to try to stop on time, filling your life with worthy and interesting activities.

In a variety of works and official publications devoted to the problem of alcoholism, two terms are usually used - “drunkenness” and “alcoholism”. Drunkenness and alcoholism are not a simple combination of words and not the same thing in essence.

By drunkenness we mean excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, which leads the drinker to lose his human dignity. Drunkenness is the moral and ethical depravity of a person when he loses control over his behavior and actions. However, such a person does not yet have a painful craving for alcohol, as well as physical and mental disorders characteristic of a patient with alcoholism. Therefore, a simple drinker at any time, having made a decision on his own or under the influence of others, can still stop drinking alcoholic beverages.

When we talk about alcoholism (or chronic alcoholism) as a disease, we mean, first of all, a whole complex of signs characteristic of this disease: pathological (painful) attraction, a person’s craving for alcohol; loss of control over the amount of alcohol consumed, the patient’s desire to become intoxicated as quickly as possible; physical and mental disorders, etc.

The disease can occur in any person who abuses alcohol, but it occurs more quickly in people who have suffered a brain injury, various infections, who suffer from neuroses, psychopathy, who have a family history of alcoholism, as well as those who have suffered severe diseases of internal organs, and in mentally ill people.

Chronic alcoholism develops gradually, gradually, in stages.

The initial stage of chronic alcoholism (neurasthenic) is characterized by such signs as loss of a sense of proportion, control over the amount of alcohol consumed, and the manifestation of impatience to drink it. Already at this stage, a painful craving for alcohol arises, various disturbances appear in the activity of the neuropsychic sphere and internal organs. The protective gag reflex disappears when drinking large doses of alcohol, and tolerance (tolerance) to alcohol gradually increases.

The second stage of chronic alcoholism (drug addiction) is characterized by an increase in craving for alcohol and the occurrence of withdrawal symptoms (short-term nervous system disorder) when alcohol intake is stopped (hangover syndrome). The amount of alcohol consumed and tolerance to it are increasing more and more. Already at this second stage of the disease, the body’s reactivity changes, and a physical need for alcohol appears. There are more pronounced disturbances in various internal organs and the neuropsychic sphere, changes in character: weakening of willpower, deceit. Binges and alcoholic psychoses occur. Social degradation of the individual also occurs. Hence, divorces in families, absenteeism at work.

The third, severe stage of chronic alcoholism (encephalopathic) is characterized by a decrease in alcohol tolerance. There is already a change in the quality of intoxication, memory impairment (patients forget what they are doing when drunk), drinking bouts become more severe, more severe neuropsychic disorders and diseases of internal organs are observed. Alcoholic psychoses often occur. The central nervous system undergoes organic changes. Moral decay, social degradation of the individual are clearly expressed, periods of complete idleness, lack of arguments to justify drunkenness, and family breakdown are noted.

However, it should be kept in mind and taken into account that over the past decades there have been characteristic shifts in the structure of diseases in the population. Many serious infectious diseases and their epidemics have disappeared. Chronic diseases of the cardiovascular system, malignant neoplasms, some neuropsychiatric disorders, including alcoholism, hereditary and chromosomal diseases (diseases that occur when the structure and number of chromosomes are disrupted), as well as diseases with a hereditary predisposition (diabetes, etc.) have come to the fore. ). According to WHO, 4-6 percent of the population suffers from hereditary diseases, which often lead to hospitalization, disability and death. It should also be taken into account that chemicals and some other environmental factors can have a damaging effect on the human hereditary apparatus, causing in some cases undesirable consequences.

It must also be borne in mind that not only the structure of the pathology of the population has changed, but also the clinical manifestations of diseases and their course, which have become more diverse, complex, often not pronounced, and often with all sorts of complications. Against this background, alcoholic disease also changes, affecting its clinical course and outcome. Alcoholism today is not the same alcoholism that it was, say, 40-50 years ago. It has become different in the nature of its occurrence, manifestation, course and consequences.

First of all, it is noteworthy that today the disease of alcoholism itself is developing faster, the clinical picture of the disease has become more diverse, and new forms of its course have appeared. In particular, a slight increase in alcoholism in women has led to the formation of severe, so-called familial forms of alcoholism.

Another important change is associated with an increase in a wide variety of morbidity in the offspring of patients with alcoholism, including diseases in the embryo due to parental alcoholism (alcoholic embryopathies - AE). According to German sources, 40 percent of children from women suffering from alcoholism have some form of alcoholic embryopathy.

There is an increase in diseases of internal organs in patients with alcoholism, especially with delirium tremens. In women, in many cases, generative (childbearing) functions are disrupted; in men, impotence (sexual weakness) and impaired formation of germ cells are observed. In both cases, changes in the chromosomal apparatus also occur.

Over the past decades, the number of cases of alcoholism in adolescents and young men has increased. This is explained, in our opinion, primarily by the fact that subsequent generations in alcoholic families have, to one degree or another, a weakened biological basis or a predisposition to alcoholism. This is also facilitated by young men's early exposure to alcoholic beverages. Thus, Soviet researchers of the social aspects of alcoholism B. and M. Levin, who surveyed several thousand high school students and students, found that almost all young people surveyed (93.9 percent of boys and 86.6 percent of girls) already knew the taste of wine by the time they graduated from school . And some of them even managed to become more intimately acquainted with alcoholic beverages.

If young men from alcoholic families embark on the path of alcoholism, then, other things being equal, they develop the disease faster than their peers who do not have a family history of this disease or the surrounding alcohol situation. As you can see, social and biological factors interact closely here.

There have also been changes in the organizational structure of narcology (the science of alcoholism). If 10 years ago the problem of alcoholism in its medical aspect was dealt with mainly by psychiatrists, narcologists and some other specialists, today the circle of doctors studying this problem has expanded: neurologists began to work more actively on the problem of alcohol pathology. They identified two groups of peripheral nerve disorders: those with damage to the nerve sheath and those with damage to the trunk. They also described syndromes (a set of symptoms) of acute vascular disorders in patients with chronic alcoholism: hemorrhage into the brain and general impairment of cerebral circulation. Therapists, in particular cardiologists, have described so-called alcohol-related disorders of the heart muscle. Pediatricians, obstetricians and gynecologists were involved in the study of this pathology in connection with various alcoholic pathologies in women and children. Medical geneticists have also begun to study the role of heredity in chronic alcoholism. Family forms of alcoholism, their clinical picture and course characteristics have already been described.

In large cities and regions, independent drug treatment services have been organized, treating patients directly at enterprises, which is also due to the peculiarities of today's alcoholism.

Chronic alcoholism is, in fact, the basis for the occurrence of alcoholic psychoses, which are quite dangerous both for the alcoholic himself and for the people around him. As a rule, alcoholic psychoses, as noted above, occur at the third stage of chronic alcoholism.

Let us briefly describe the most common alcoholic psychoses. These include, first of all, delirium tremens, commonly referred to as delirium tremens. This is an acute alcoholic psychosis, which in some cases can occur at the height of binge drinking when drinking very large doses of alcohol, in others it develops with a sudden cessation of alcohol consumption, and sometimes three to four days after binge drinking.

Alcoholic delirium, or delirium tremens, is characterized, first of all, by deceptions of perception and delusional interpretations of the surrounding reality. Among the deceptions of perception, it is worth noting visual hallucinations, which are distinguished by their exceptional brightness, mobility and diversity. Hallucinatory images of various animals (mice, rats, snakes, insects, dogs, as well as devils, etc.) are very typical for delirium tremens. Along with visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations are also observed. The patient “hears” various voices that scold him, call him a quitter, a cheater, a drunkard, a bad person, and sometimes, on the contrary, the voices defend him and praise him as a person with golden hands. But still, more often the patient sees threats, it seems to him that there is some kind of gang around him, that they are going to kill him, stab him, and he often “sees” a bloody knife with which they are going to kill him. All this causes the patient extreme fear, anxiety, and horror. His body is trembling, he screams, calls for help, tries to escape. At the height of delirium, high temperature, coated tongue, bluish-purple face, rapid pulse are noted, and high blood pressure is often observed.

Patients with alcoholic delirium must be urgently admitted to hospital for treatment. With a favorable outcome, psychosis ends in deep sleep, followed by pronounced physical and mental weakness.

Another acute alcoholic psychosis is alcoholic hallucinosis. In contrast to delirium tremens, with alcoholic hallucinosis, auditory hallucinations come first, intensifying in the evening. Due to the influx of auditory hallucinations, delusional experiences appear; the patient feels that the people around him treat him poorly, are unkind and even hostile.

Patients with alcoholic hallucinosis are also subject to immediate placement in hospital treatment.

People who abuse alcoholic beverages for a long time may experience so-called alcoholic delirium. The most important symptom of this psychosis is delusions of persecution. Patients are very suspicious, distrustful, tense, anxious, and suspicious. It seems to them that those around them are looking askance at them, winking at each other, giving some kind of conventional signs, and intending to do something against them. Even when placed in a hospital, these people suspect that, under the guise of being sick, they are surrounded by ill-wishers and bandits; they experience fear, seek protection, and may jump out of a window or run away from the hospital. If the course is unfavorable and without treatment, alcoholic delirium can continue for a long time and become chronic.

Alcoholic paranoid (delusion) quite often occurs in the form of delusions of jealousy. This is a serious and quite dangerous disease. Initially, ideas of jealousy manifest themselves in the form of obsession. But as the disease deepens, the delusion of jealousy takes on a persistent character. Patients groundlessly accuse their wives of infidelity, finding “evidence” in all their behavior, and persecute them. It comes to the point that such “jealous” people accompany their wives to work and meet them after it, spying on what environment they are in. Even the closest relatives and acquaintances are suspected of having intimate relationships with his wife. Patients often even become aggressive, dangerous not only for their wives, but also for other people, especially men.

The severity of this psychosis is further aggravated by the fact that jealousy in such patients is accompanied by a mania of persecution; it seems to them that their wives, together with their “lovers,” are trying to deal with them, poison them by adding some kind of poison to their food, etc.

In some cases, delusions of jealousy are supported by auditory and visual hallucinations.

Patients with delusions of jealousy are subject to mandatory hospitalization. Wives whose husbands abuse alcohol and groundlessly accuse them of infidelity should be especially aware of this. In such a situation, it is necessary to consult a psychiatrist.

I will cite a case from my clinical practice when chronic alcoholism caused mental disorders in my patient, which manifested themselves in the form of jealousy. At first, his jealousy bore traces of inconstancy; in a sober state, he could still be self-critical of his own statements, but then it took on a rather persistent character, stimulating the patient’s incorrect behavior.

My patient P., 39 years old, office worker. He grew up and developed normally, and was no different from his peers. I went to school on time, successfully completed 10 classes, and then graduated from college, receiving a degree in engineering. At first he worked as an engineer in a workshop, then as a site manager. Later he moved to the management of his own association as a safety engineer. His work was interesting and exciting.

I started drinking alcohol during my school years: I once drank some red wine with my classmates on my birthday. Liked. In connection with the successful completion of school, the parents, having decided to celebrate such an event in the life of their son, threw a party with the invitation of boys and girls. We drank fortified red wine and champagne. It was fun and we danced. While studying at the institute, I also drank, although rarely, mainly after passing exams, on birthdays, and on major holidays. There was no craving for alcohol then, since wine was consumed only occasionally. N. was always sociable, loved friends and company. After graduating from college, drinking became more frequent and systematic. N. was already drinking large doses of alcohol, sometimes up to 500-800 grams per day: tolerance was good. In the mornings there was a need to recover from a hangover. And now N. was already coming to work in a state of intoxication. Trouble started. He received reprimands and promised to improve, but continued to abuse alcohol for several years.

At the age of 28, N. got married. He was his wife's second husband. Soon after his marriage he began to show jealousy towards his wife. However, he did not consider this a painful phenomenon. To prove the validity of his suspicions, he cited a number of examples of his wife’s “indecent” behavior. One day N. found out that his wife was being visited by a friend of her ex-husband, and several times sent her invitation tickets to the stadium. Then he warned his wife that he would not tolerate her behavior. Another time, the wife participated in a family evening, where a neighbor and his wife and a stranger were present. This seemed suspicious to N., but this time he limited himself to talking with his wife and asking him not to give any reason for jealousy in the future.

By the way, at first the wife even liked that her second husband showed such jealousy. “That means she loves him very much,” she reasoned. One day, while on a business trip, N. receives a letter from his wife, in which she writes that her ex-husband came to see her, but she did not accept him. This message greatly excited N. He was constantly “sharpened” by the thought: “It cannot be that she did not accept her first husband.” I decided to check it out. To do this, I suddenly came home twice. Each visit, he said, “confirmed” assumptions about his wife’s infidelity. So one day, unexpectedly arriving home, N. saw vodka and a snack prepared on the table. In front of him, his wife made a phone call, supposedly to a friend, who was informed that there would be no evening because her husband had arrived. This increased suspicion. N. continued to drink, at the same time he had to work hard, often at night. I was very tired and also had the flu. Having received another vacation, I went to a sanatorium with my wife. The first week they lived well in the sanatorium, but N. abused alcohol here too.

Somehow he heard rumors that his wife was cheating on him. I felt an acute feeling of jealousy. I tried to fight her, but to no avail. He began to monitor his wife’s behavior in order to convict her of cheating. He interrogated both her and her imaginary lovers. He was surprised at the persistence of his wife, who denied all his accusations of infidelity, and this further strengthened his suspicions. He saw their “confirmation” in the most insignificant details. For several nights I did not sleep at all or slept no more than 2-3 hours, since all the time was spent watching my wife. I stood for hours at the window, at the door of her room. Repeatedly at night he burst into the ward where his wife lived with other women. He explained his nightly “adventures” by the fact that, standing near the door of the room, he clearly heard the sounds of kisses, suspicious sighs, and through the keyhole he saw the silhouettes of men who were supposedly there. He made the most incredible assumptions about his wife’s lovers. He bribed the sanatorium staff so that they would watch his wife day and night and report to him about everything they noticed...

This behavior of the patient was the reason for his placement in a psychiatric hospital, where he remained for a month. And all this time he remained completely convinced that his wife had cheated on him at the sanatorium. However, the relationship with her on dates was friendly. No perceptual disturbances were noted. Intelligence is not reduced. Memory and attention were satisfactory, no focal symptoms of organic damage to the nervous system were observed. By the end of his stay in the hospital, N. became physically stronger. He denied cravings for vodka and slept well. Due to an improvement in his general health, he was discharged from the hospital under the supervision of a narcologist at his place of residence.

Soon after being discharged from the hospital, N. went on a business trip. However, thoughts of his wife’s betrayal haunted him, and he returned home several days ahead of schedule, and arrived on a different train than he had promised. And again everything seemed suspicious to him: for some reason the door was open, his wife was already dressed at a fairly early hour...

Every day N. became “convinced” of the “justification” of his suspicions. He began to think that the “gentlemen” were supplied to his wife by a neighbor under the guise of being acquaintances of her adult daughter.

Jealousy intensified every day. He began to suspect other neighbors of pimping and helping his wife meet “lovers.” Therefore, he often insulted neighbors and their guests. Several times at night he broke into their apartments to check if they had any “lovers” of their wife. He often did not go to work. To make it more convenient to keep track of everyone who enters the apartment, I drilled a hole in the wall. I stood next to her for hours. He followed his wife from room to room, to the kitchen, to the street. Several times a day he searched her and sniffed her. If the wife laughed and sang, he concluded that “probably everything is fine with his lover,” if she was sad, he concluded: “Everything is not fine with his lover.” I stopped letting my wife out of the apartment. Family conflicts often arose. Finally, N. decided that his wife’s lovers were two directors of grocery stores located opposite their house. However, it turned out that one of the directors was a woman. N. immediately built a new hypothesis...

At the insistence of his wife and the advice of doctors, N. was admitted to the hospital for the second time. Upon admission, he complained of poor sleep, headaches, and increased irritability. And soon he included the attending physician in his alcoholic delirium, becoming jealous of his wife. He claimed that from the window of his room he saw the silhouette of a woman in the doctor’s office—his wife.

He was in the hospital for about three months. As a result of general strengthening procedures and anti-alcohol treatment, the condition improved significantly. By the end of the treatment, the patient became calmer, he developed a critical attitude towards his statements and behavior, when meeting with his wife, he talked kindly and calmly with her, apologized for his behavior, assured that he had no desire to drink and that he would drink alcohol more will not be. He was discharged from the hospital in a state of significant improvement.

According to his wife, N. does not drink vodka, does not show jealousy, works a lot, takes care of the children.

At the second and especially at the third stages of alcoholism, some patients begin to experience alcoholic epilepsy: convulsive seizures with loss of consciousness are noted. The seizures themselves are not much different from convulsive seizures in so-called ordinary epilepsy. Often in a hangover, and sometimes in a state of alcoholic intoxication, the patient suddenly loses consciousness and falls, wherever he is at that moment. Immediately, sharp tonic convulsions of the muscles of the limbs and the whole body begin, and after a few seconds - clinical convulsions, which are soon replaced by deep sleep. Since the patient loses consciousness, he learns about the seizure from other people or from pain in the bitten tongue. To avoid accidents, persons suffering from alcoholism with convulsive syndrome should not work near moving mechanisms, in transport, on water, or at heights.

With prolonged alcohol intoxication, usually in the third stage of alcoholism, the so-called Korsakoff psychosis occurs. It is characterized mainly by two syndromes. First of all, the patient experiences memory impairment. He has difficulty remembering new, current things. He can recall events from the distant past, but cannot tell what happened today or yesterday; he cannot even remember the name and appearance of his doctor or nurse. Due to memory impairment, the patient is unable to correctly navigate in time and space and in the surrounding environment, and becomes completely helpless. In Korsakov's psychosis, memory impairment is also expressed in the appearance of false memories and confabulations (fictions) that fill gaps in memory.

Another sign of this disease is alcoholic polyneuritis, characterized by pain along the nerve trunks, impaired sensitivity, and weakness of the muscles of the limbs. Korsakov's psychosis is one of the most severe among alcoholic diseases. Its course is protracted, long-term, recovery is very slow - within one to two years.

Alcoholic drinks, when consumed for a long time, do not leave the cerebellum alone, although it is located quite deep in the skull, under the occipital lobes of the cerebral hemispheres. The cerebellum is an important organ of balance and coordination of human movements. When the cerebellum is damaged by alcohol, various types of movement disorders occur, the ability to balance them is lost, normal functional relationships between muscles are disrupted, and their tone decreases; patients have difficulty standing on their feet, stagger from side to side when walking, they have a clearly defined so-called “drunk gait” syndrome, and in some cases they cannot walk at all. Along with this, dizziness, severe headaches, head trembling, nausea and vomiting are noted. Patients cannot pronounce words clearly and clearly, express thoughts, their speech is illegible and slurred. Who does not know such characteristic signs of alcoholism as trembling of the fingers of outstretched arms, eyelids, and the tip of the tongue, especially pronounced in the morning, before a hangover? This condition also results from damage to the cerebellum and autonomic centers of a person.

Timely treatment of this disease, subject to complete abstinence from alcohol consumption, usually gives positive results. In some cases of the deepest alcohol intoxication, the disease can develop into Korsakoff psychosis.

In people who drink for a long time, cranial disturbances are also observed. The picture of the fundus changes: redness of the optic nerve nipple, blanching of the temporal half of the fundus, weakened vision and pupillary reactions to light are observed. In some cases, hearing is reduced, the sense of smell is somewhat dulled, and sometimes even distorted, up to olfactory illusions and hallucinations. Among the diverse manifestations of chronic alcoholism, disorders of the peripheral nervous system occupy far from the last place. Thus, based on an examination of a large working population of patients with alcoholism, neurologists G. Ya. Lukacher and V. V. Posokhov discovered multiple neuritis in 20.3 percent of cases, mononeuritis in 5.3 percent, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system in 16 percent of cases . 10. M. Savelyev, out of 1673 patients in the narcological department, discovered polyneuritis in 30.9 percent of patients, and according to other data, this disease occurs in 46.3 percent of cases.

The most painful course is multiple neuritis, or so-called alcoholic polyneuropathies. At the beginning of the disease, patients experience a burning sensation, crawling on the skin, discomfort, pain in the arms, legs and throughout the body. The most painful areas are located along the nerve trunks of the lower extremities. Following this, motor functions are disrupted, tendon reflexes disappear, weakening and sometimes paralysis of the muscles of the arms and legs occurs, their lethargy, flabbiness and atrophy (death).

Despite the severity of the disease, alcoholic polyneuropathies with timely treatment and complete abstinence from drinking alcohol usually proceed well.

Named after the outstanding Russian psychiatrist S.S. Korsakov, who first described it.— And in t.

Household drunkenness is widespread not only in Russia, but throughout the world. It is characterized by “moderate” consumption of alcohol-containing drinks. This so-called everyday “alcoholism” that occurs is not yet a disease, but a bad habit. But when drunkenness in everyday life becomes systematic, then there is always the danger of its imperceptible transition into chronic alcoholism with the formation of a dependence syndrome. This is precisely what is the main sign and difference between alcoholism and simple drunkenness in everyday life.

Unlike alcoholism, drunkenness at home is a tribute to dubious traditions and unhealthy entertainment. Whereas in itself, the already formed physiological attraction to a psychoactive substance - alcohol, inherent in alcoholism - is already a formidable disease with loss of somatic health, mental disorders, loss of former social status and the onset of a crisis state of the individual.

In terms of developing addiction to alcohol, men are more resistant than women. In home drunkenness, alcohol intake is sporadic; the day after the binge, it is associated with headache, nausea, vomiting, aversion to alcohol, and a corrosive feeling of guilt and inferiority from within. With alcoholism, the above goes into the background, is devalued and takes the main position in the alcoholic’s motivation – a compulsive craving for alcohol.

They lie in national and family traditions, life problems, unsolvable issues, discomfort and poor health, low mood, stressful conditions, the desire to be like “everyone” and so on.

“To live with wolves, howl like a wolf!”

"White crow?!"

Gradually, a frequent drinker may come to the conclusion that without alcohol he cannot relax, be distracted, or rest. Gradually, the body’s protective reserves are weakened, immunity decreases, and psychological dependence is still formed. Thoughts from the upcoming drinking of alcohol increase enthusiasm, mood, and stimulate activity. And a person cannot or does not want to admit honestly to himself the fact that you are beginning to depend on alcohol.

In case of domestic alcoholism in women, regular drinking is carried out first only in the circle of friends, and then more often, but already alone. At the same time, they try to hide from everyone the fact that they feel an irresistible desire to drink, first some kind of alcoholic beverage, and then what is available, but with alcoholism, people already drink whatever they can get, in advanced stages - technical alcohols and liquids.

It is much more difficult to recognize female drunkenness, since it is secretive.

Classification

Drunkards, based on the frequency of drinking alcohol, can be classified as drinkers: moderately (on holidays); occasionally (up to three times a month); systematic (up to two times a week); habitually (up to three times a week).

Against the background of everyday drunkenness, alcohol dependence takes longer to form in men, unlike women. Representatives of the fair sex undergo characteristic changes in appearance. Swelling of the face appears, blood vessels dilate persistently and appear in the form of a capillary network on the skin and nose, the voice becomes rougher, behavior is vulgar and appearance is careless. The mood is unstable, in a sober state - depressive. Both men and women deny the formed morbid addiction to alcohol.

Drinking alcohol on occasion.
Controlling the amount of alcohol consumed.
A hangover, expressed in poor health.
Aversion to alcohol.
After sobering up, a feeling of guilt.

Unlike an alcoholic, a drunkard drinks on occasion at home. But often artificially created reasons for fun are a sign of the beginning of the formation of physiological alcohol dependence. At the stage of home alcoholism, people do not overdrink and relatively control the amount of alcohol.

Stages of development

A person who drinks does not get used to alcohol immediately, but goes through some stages of the development of the disease, which correlates with the frequency of drinking alcohol, we have already talked about this: episodic, systematic, use that has become a bad painful and bad habit and chronic alcoholism itself as such in the first stage, with completed formation of psychological dependence. That is, as we see, drunkenness at home is not yet a disease. At first it was drunk on holidays and in honor of special occasions.

Systematic drunkenness is often observed among young people from 18 to 35 years old, who drink up to one liter of alcohol per week. Drinking at home as a habit brings satisfaction, pleasure and euphoria. The weekly dose of an alcoholic drink is increased to one and a half liters.

The difference between everyday drunkenness and alcoholism

Illness and bad habit are different conditions. And although everyday drunkenness is sometimes confused with chronic alcoholism, this is not true, but there is something in common between these concepts. They are united by an interest in taking ethanol in different forms with different motivations: at the level of only the psyche or, what is much worse, physiology. If you can somehow cope with a bad habit, this is not the case with a disease that requires immediate and serious treatment. The everyday drunk takes breaks from systematic alcohol abuse, while the chronic alcoholic endures periods of sobriety with severe withdrawal symptoms.

It is difficult to feel the line separating domestic alcoholism from chronic alcoholism. You need to be alert.

How to avoid transition to alcoholism?

The danger of a bad habit becoming a chronic process is constant. Stopping alcohol abuse is the best prevention of alcoholism. You need to understand that alcohol-containing drinks cannot solve life’s conflicts and cannot be sedatives and relaxers. The illusion of well-being will not answer our life questions or resolve everyday problem situations.

In cases where there is a psychological, and even more so a physiological need for ethanol, people, as a rule, will not be able to independently give up the painful addiction.

The video shows the causes and symptoms of domestic alcoholism

Treatment of household drunkenness

Based on the above, we can summarize the prevention and treatment of drunkenness in everyday life:

Switch the gradually developing thirst for drinking alcohol to useful income-generating activities: discovering creative abilities, knowing yourself, reading useful literature of interest, finding yourself in creativity, striving to improve your personality, getting to know yourself, engaging in physical self-improvement.
Show an active interest in family life, live by caring not only about yourself, but also about the people around you, raising children, caring for the older generation.
If the craving for alcohol is very strong, consult a narcologist or psychologist.
Prevention of complications of drunkenness in everyday life can be a creative hobby, active participation in the public life of your village, city, region.

Drunkenness is usually called excessive uncontrolled consumption of alcohol, which negatively affects work, family life, people's health and the position of the entire society. Individual cases of intoxication are usually considered episodic drinking m.

It also happens systematic drunkenness, which is characterized by frequent (2-4 times a month or more often) cases of intoxication and constant (2-3 times a week or more often) consumption of small doses of alcohol that do not cause pronounced intoxication.

Drunkenness, both episodic and constant, can lead to quite serious consequences - the development of pathological cravings for alcohol, neurological and psychosomatic disorders, and complete personality degradation.

Drunkenness should be distinguished from alcoholism. Their main difference is that alcoholism is a disease, which is chronic in nature, and drunkenness is not yet a disease, but a bad habit, part of a lifestyle.

A person who is sick with alcoholism is completely dependent on alcohol (that is, he drinks when he wants to drink, and drinks even if he does not want to). As for drunkenness, there is already a person may or may not drink; he is still quite capable of giving up drinking alcohol.

Also, the concept of drunkenness should be distinguished from the concept of drinking. Drinking most often occurs in chosen good company, it is a kind of state of mind, and it does not happen often. Drunkenness is a completely different matter: a person drinks, no matter where, when, what or with whom. In this case, alcohol becomes the basis for everything else - both for friendship and for love, and the company becomes good and sincere after the second bottle.

Classification of people who drink alcohol

Eat classification of people who drink alcohol, it is designed depending on how often and what doses of alcohol a person takes.

Withdrawals- these are people who do not like alcohol and do not drink it, or they drink it, but very rarely, as they say, on very major holidays and in tiny quantities (up to 100 ml of wine 2-3 times a year). They, as a rule, do not drink, and if they do, it is only under pressure from others. For them, this is not pleasure, but just a tribute to established alcoholic traditions.
Casual drinkers– people who drink about 50-150 ml of vodka (or a maximum of 250 ml) from several times a year to several times a month. These people also do not experience pleasure when they are drunk, and therefore do not want to drink alcohol often. Their state of intoxication is insignificant; even after drinking, they are able to control themselves, the amount they drink, and retain common sense.
Moderate drinkers– people who drink about 100-250 ml of vodka (maximum up to 400 ml) 1-4 times a month. Such people already experience some pleasure from the state of intoxication, but they have a voluntary desire to drink extremely rarely, and the signs of intoxication are weakly expressed. Even if they show interest in a possible drinking session, they will still rarely arrange it themselves.
Regular drinkers– people who drink 200-300 ml (maximum about 500 ml) of vodka 1-2 times a week. Frequent drinking and increasing doses are typical for them. Having become drunk, they somehow lose control of themselves, they develop behavior disorders, and a completely specific style and way of life is formed. Gradually, their drunkenness takes on more and more severe forms, doses increase and negative results often occur.
Habitual drinkers– people who drink about 500 ml of vodka more than 2-3 times a week, but do not have any clinically significant disorders (let’s make a reservation – they don’t have any yet). Alcohol in their lives takes an increasingly important place every year, becoming the main source of pleasure, pushing aside all others. Ultimately, alcohol abuse among habitual drinkers affects their professional level, personal life, and social status, ultimately leading to alcohol addiction, and we already know what alcohol addiction is fraught with. Thus, although drunkenness is not alcoholism yet, it can lead to it.

Read about other classifications in the article

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Many people drink alcohol from time to time, in varying quantities. In modern society there are many traditions associated with drinking alcohol. Rare holidays and important events go without drinking alcohol, and this is considered normal.

However, being a potent drug and poison, ethyl alcohol has a detrimental effect on the lives of those people who, losing control over what is happening, move from moderate use to the later stages of hopeless degradation.

What is the difference between drunkenness and alcoholism, and how to recognize the dangerous edges of drinking alcohol and signs of alcohol dependence?

What is drunkenness

Regular consumption of alcoholic beverages in significant quantities is considered drunkenness. This stage of alcohol consumption is not yet a disease and is not accompanied by acute physical dependence. It can be characterized as an excessive passion for alcoholic beverages, a bad habit, and a manifestation of an incorrect alignment of life priorities.

Drunkenness is when a person likes to drink and does it with fair frequency, without being an alcohol dependent person. Drunkenness and alcoholism are two dangerous facets of ethyl alcohol use, which, although they are at different levels of severity, are at the same time very close to each other.

Everyday drunks, those who like to drink beer in the evenings and regulars of bars have a very high chance of turning into chronic alcoholics. Ethanol is a very insidious drug that slowly drags a person into a web from which one may never get out. With every glass drunk, any drinker gradually approaches the stage of alcoholism.

Signs and symptoms of drunkenness

There are a number of signs by which you can identify a drunkard from the general population of people who drink:

A drunkard doesn't need a reason to drink. Wherever he appears, there will be a glass or bottle in his hand.
For a drunkard, no event can be complete without alcohol.
People who are prone to drunkenness tend to drink in groups, but may refuse to drink if absolutely necessary.
A person gets very drunk at times, but is able to control himself and what is happening.
After heavy drinking, the drunkard abstains from drinking ethanol for some time.

The concept of “alcoholism”

Alcohol dependence is a serious mental and physiological disorder characterized by a pathological craving for ethyl alcohol. Alcoholism is the next stage of a destructive addiction to alcohol. At the same time, drunkenness and alcoholism have much in common, as well as many differences.

In what cases can a person be considered an alcoholic?

The main difference between an alcoholic and other drinkers is that the alcoholic no longer gets much pleasure from alcohol, but drinks because he has developed an acute form of physical and psychological dependence.

The dangerous side of the hangover

An alcoholic drinks not because he wants to, but because he can no longer stop drinking. Such people regularly get hangovers (a sure sign of alcoholism) because they feel very unwell when the effect of ethanol wears off. This malaise and painful condition goes away if you take more alcohol. The habit of hangover tends to result in long-term binges, leading to complete physical exhaustion and mental inadequacy.

Getting used to the poison

The body adapts to the regular toxic effect of alcohol, as a result of which the natural feeling of disgust for alcohol and the reflexive rejection of ethanol, which is poisonous to the body, gradually disappears.

If a person no longer experiences a gag reflex after a binge, this means that the body at a physiological level is already accustomed to ethanol intoxication.

Regularity and dosage

Another sure sign of alcohol addiction is regularity. An alcoholic drinks every day if the situation allows it, and experiences discomfort and torment if he cannot drink.

At home, an alcoholic never has alcohol (a minibar, gift and collectible bottles in the sideboard, etc.), except for the one he is drinking at the moment. And if such alcohol appears, then it is drunk almost immediately due to the feverish “thirst” of the alcoholic and the desire to drink everything that is available at the moment.

If a person has a minibar, and there are several different bottles in it, open and corked, then such a drinker of alcoholic beverages most likely is not an alcoholic.

Requirements for alcoholic beverages

Most alcohol-dependent people have fairly low requirements for drinks. They are ready to drink almost anything, as long as it contains alcohol. If their favorite drink is not at the table, they still will not refuse any other alternative and will drink until the alcohol runs out. At the same time, they can calmly finish their drink after everyone who hasn’t finished their drink.

Drunkenness and alcoholism: similarities and differences in the table

Not every drinker can realize in time the difference between alcoholism and drunkenness and prevent himself from falling into the ethanol trap.

The main similarities and differences between the different stages of use are summarized in the table for clarity:

	Drunkard	Alcoholic
Similarities	Alcohol plays an important part in his life Regularly drinks alcohol in large doses Doesn't acknowledge there is a problem
Differences	Able to control cravings for alcohol	Doesn't control the situation, alcohol is stronger than him
	Knows his dose and does not exceed it	Drinks excessively
	Can refuse drinking if the situation requires it	Unable to refuse
	Drinks in company or on occasion	Doesn't need drinking buddies or a good reason to drink
	Enjoys your favorite drinks	Drinks everything

conclusions

To summarize, we can say that drunkenness and alcoholism are very close to each other in essence, while one phenomenon quite predictably flows into the other.

Despite the enormous popularization of alcoholic beverages and their deep penetration into everyday life, it is recommended to abstain from alcohol as much as possible, not exceed moderate dosages and drink no more than 2-3 times a month.