What and how to behave in order to treat an alcoholic

9 January 2021

Alcohol addiction is a serious disease that suppresses the will and disrupts the human psyche. Therefore, drunks should be treated as sick people and nothing else. It must not be forgotten that scandals, persuasions and tantrums cannot stop an alcoholic. This can only be achieved with great effort and self-control. While in action, the wife must be ready to fight hard, as it is not easy to get her husband to stop drinking

Women's alcoholism is even worse. Men, children, relatives of alcoholics need to understand that it is much harder to convince a woman than a man. As a general rule, the addict categorically denies having a problem, considers himself perfectly healthy, and does not want to change anything. The treatment seems pointless and he sees all the persuasions and advice of relatives as a personal insult.

Important! This article will talk about how to stop drinking without going to court or a mental hospital. If there are signs of intoxicated mental disorders or a danger to others, external help should be sought as soon as possible.

How to talk to an alcoholic

It is very difficult to force an alcoholic to turn to professionals, it is not possible to resolve ordinary conversations or ultimatum demands here. You need to choose a certain way of conversation, gain perseverance and patience. To do this, narcologists-psychotherapists recommend following certain recommendations.

Wait for the "X" clock. We talk in vain about treating a drunk person because in this state he is very happy with his life and sees no real problems. Also, after drinking in the morning, don’t start a similar conversation because in the hangover state, the alcoholic agrees with all the arguments and promises everything you want to hear from him.

It is also important the tone of the conversation. The key is to reject accusations and reproaches that only aggravate the situation and subconsciously turn the patient against you. Don’t raise your voice, it’s better to talk calmly because alcohol severely breaks down the structures of the nervous system, so the conversation can easily become another scandal and even worse, physically violent on the part of the drinker.

How to influence an alcoholic

It is not easy to convince a drunk that alcoholism is a problem not only for him but also for the environment. To do this, the relatives of the drunks need to be patient, persistent, and also need to find an approach to figure out how to treat the loved one for alcoholism.

It is impossible to convince an euphoric and lifestyle-savvy alcoholic to stop drinking quickly. It is not appropriate to have an educational conversation during a hangover syndrome. In this condition, the patient will not pay attention to persuasion, although he makes various promises in order to end the conversation as soon as possible and take a saving dose of alcohol.

It is better to start a conversation when a drunken person is facing the negative consequences of "intoxicating" drinks. Maybe:

impregnated payment;
wrecked car;
dismissal from work;
family problems.

You can't succeed with accusations and reproaches. Thus, putting the drinking person on the path to correction will not work, even if he really wants to. Here are some tips to help your drunk pay attention to persuasion:

Alcoholics should be discussed calmly, without raising the tone. It is not desirable to shout, as such actions of loved ones can provoke an unpleasant reaction in the drunk. This is explained by the fact that alcoholics have an unstable nervous system and this involves scandals or beatings;
When talking to an addict, you need to be confident and determined that you are right. This allows the opponent to understand the seriousness of the situation and the strength of the interlocutor’s opinion;
You don’t have to cry and feel sorry for a life that didn’t work out because of an alcoholic’s fault. These actions also do not produce positive results;
No need to apply pressure to the patient with an empty threat. If you promise to do something if the drunkenness continues, you should definitely meet the ultimatum.

If one of the spouses drinks?

The tense situation in the family due to the alcohol consumption of one of the spouses does not justify the forcible release of the addiction.

This is prohibited by law and can cause significant harm to the health of alcoholics, especially if you add medications based on toxic disulfiram to food without your consent and prior consultation with your doctor.

A drunk wife or mother should not repeat the most common mistakes women make:

First, you need to realize that a drunk can't be trusted. 100. promise to separate from alcohol, myth.
It is impossible to threaten empty-handed if your words are not supported by action, it is better not to pronounce them. They convince the alcoholic of impunity.
It is unacceptable to spoil your spouse, you should be able to awaken guilt at your next unreasonable trick (throwing money away, returning late).
Instead of unfeasible threats, you may fear the immediate death of the drunk, pointing to the health symptoms that characterize the possible development of cirrhosis or cancer.
The protection of the drunk against the distrust of others must be abolished, which will undoubtedly cause shame and regret.
Access to family money should be restricted to the drinker, not giving a penny for alcohol.
Find out the cause of drunkenness, especially if it's a woman. Without removing the root cause of the addiction, you cannot get rid of it.

Motivation for a sober lifestyle

Hopes of saving the family can persuade the alcoholic to stop drinking.

To encourage an alcoholic to fight the green snake, he must be given all the benefits of a sober life, what benefits await him after consuming alcohol. There are different motivations.

You can focus on the well-being of your family because drinking alcohol almost always leads to the destruction of your family. The hope of saving the family can persuade the alcoholic to stop drinking. Until alcohol dependence reaches neglected levels, an attempt should be made to convey to the patient the need for treatment.

You can try to talk about the health of the drinker. Explain to him that you are seriously worried that you have noticed how bad his health has become. Without reproaches and swearing, it must be explained that problems with the stomach and blood pressure, heart disorders - all as a result of the abuse of alcoholic beverages.

If a person has previously wanted and loved to work, they can try to put pressure on this factor. Drinkers always have problems with work, from simple dismissal to dismissal under the “alcoholic” article. If this happens, it is almost impossible for a person to find a normal job. Gently remind her of what her spouse had dreamed of when she didn’t drink, how she planned her career.

Without some motivation, it is almost impossible to treat an alcoholic. An addicted person needs to understand why he or she needs to separate from the addiction and what privileges he or she will give him or her. You need to consciously want to step down for something important and not do it as your family wants.

Health

When talking to an alcoholic husband, you should try to convey the opinion that you are worried about your health deteriorating. It is important to calmly explain that during the drunkenness, the alcoholic showed a negative appearance:

facial cyanosis,
swelling,
beer;
insomnia.

Alcoholics are also told about changes in character and behavior. You can compare the health status of a drunk at a healthy lifestyle to your current status. Try to evaluate the changes with the patient and convince them of the usefulness of treating the disease.

Alcoholism is a destructive tool in family relationships that often leads to divorce. As long as a drunk or alcoholic does not have an advanced stage of pathology, there is a chance to save the family. You should try to convince the drinker of the need for treatment if the drunk stops performing basic tasks:

is passive to the spouse;
children are not interested;
does not care about the financial well-being of the family;
is aggressive.

Try to convince the patient that he or she is kind to the family. The point in this matter is to convey the idea of the need for treatment calmly, without reproach.

It is not easy to find a new job in this situation. Even if it succeeds, the work will be low paid and unskilled. To help a drinking person in this case, you need to convince him or her to change his or her lifestyle, justifying how much his or her life has changed for the worse since alcohol abuse began. Without motivation, a drunk cannot be easily persuaded to seek treatment. It is important for the drinker to understand exactly what he needs.

Can one leave one's own consumption?

We want to warn you that self-medication for alcoholics is rarely effective. Sometimes, with the help of character and will, this is possible when alcohol dependence has not reached the physical stage. The basis for giving up addiction is to save the family, get a job, social status, or any other goal that will be rewarded for your efforts. As a help to yourself, it is worth starting to practice proper nutrition, jogging, weekly bathing procedures.
Folk and drug treatments are widely used to combat alcoholism. Both options have advantages and disadvantages. They are often practiced when it is impossible to convince the drinking guy, husband, or son of the harmfulness of the habit. There are pharmacological and folk remedies that cause extreme aversion to alcohol. They are harmless, do not cause addiction or rejection of the body. They contain substances that are completely incompatible with alcohol. It is added to the drink or food of the drinking person.

After drinking alcoholic beverages, they cause an unpleasant reaction in the body: vomiting, nausea, dizziness, etc. The most common folk remedies are:

thyme soup;
ram broth;
St. John's wort decoction.

In ancient times, there was an interesting method of covert persuasion to stop drinking - manure. The fungus contains a substance that stops the conversion of ethyl alcohol to acetaldehyde. If you eat a mushroom, drink alcohol, you will have symptoms of severe poisoning. In this way, our grandmothers unnoticed separated their husbands from alcohol. But in modern reality, it is better not to use such a method, especially because medicine has made great strides.

How to cure an alcoholic - the right motivation

In order to convince the alcoholic of what to treat, a communication tactic needs to be developed:

Do not regret and cover the drinker. The alcoholic should not be expected to stop drinking. Such an approach by the problem-solving nanny is beneficial to the alcoholic, as a result of which he does not stop drinking, but gets rid of everyday problems;
You can’t have a constant problem with the drunk lest you force it into a cheerful lifestyle. It should be understood that unnecessary discussions of hysteria and alcohol consumption will exacerbate the problem, as after the next scandal the drunk will seek even more for the glass;
Maintain calm and balance when interacting with a dependent. In moments of enlightenment, the alcoholic speaks of healing from a bad habit and rehabilitation. It is allowed to call a narcologist at home;
You have to support the drinking man's desire for sobriety, you have to show the joys of healing, you have to try to find him hobbies, new goals in life.

There are only a few exceptions in this order:

the patient is dangerous to himself and others;
the alcoholic has lost his ability to take care of himself;
The drunk's mental state is severe and he dies without medical intervention.

Many people are interested in the question of whether one can really save a loved one from addiction. After the patient is required to be hospitalized, measures are taken to block the fever attack, after which the patient is discharged from the hospital and sent home. Practice shows that the patient reintroduces the old one even after the severe consequences of drinking.

It is worth noting that it is impossible to secretly cure a sick alcoholic. Often, people close to the patient seek help from healers, psychiatrists, and other unconventional methods. The tools and measures needed to recover an alcoholic without his or her consent are not only useless but also deadly.

In addition, the doctor will perform an examination. Developing a comprehensive patient healing strategy allows you to move purposefully toward your goal. It is not possible to cure a drunk in a session or by medical manipulation. In this matter, it is first of all necessary to determine the reason that triggered the momentum of alcohol consumption.

How do I behave appropriately with an alcoholic in order to agree to therapy?

If someone denies their addiction to the "green snake, " they need to make sure the opposite. How can an alcoholic be persuaded to be treated to clearly understand the problem at hand? To do this, you need to talk to him seriously and continue the conversation with a sober person. What to look for:

People who drink often have memory problems. It’s worth remembering the unpleasant events in life that you forgot.
The urge to sip in an alcoholic often and without reason arises. It is necessary to explain to him that for ordinary people, problems at work or at home do not cause excessive extent.
It’s worth finding out how an alcoholic feels on a sober head. Frustration and emptiness are characteristics of addiction. You need to be clearly aware of this.
Alcohol addicts lose control and often do not know the norm. Because of this, one gets bored regularly.

The conversation should be held once. It is advisable to do this when the alcoholic is encouraged to have a conversation. For example, he had screwed something up the day before and was guilty. All arguments must be formulated with great confidence. You can’t speak in a raised voice, you can’t press pity, you can’t use threats.

An alcoholic often behaves inappropriately during a period of drunkenness. Moreover, such cases are completely forgotten and "thrown out" of memory. In order to see yourself from the side in these moments, video evidence can be filmed. The drinker will not like what he has seen, he must draw conclusions and agree to the treatment.

How to treat a drunk treatment:

Do not issue threats that you are unable to meet;
refers to how bad your loved one's behavior is when drunk;
always confident in being able to stop drinking;
understand to a loved one that in all things disease is to blame, which can and must be combated;
Don’t address the alcoholic’s alcohol consumption problem.

Describe how hard it is to see a drunk man, how unpleasant to listen to strangers about his alcoholic clowns. You have to see that people close to you are addicted.

Any problems caused by drunkenness should be remedied by the alcoholic himself. Paying out excessive debts, reconciling with the family, settling accounts with the boss - all this is decided by the perpetrator himself.

Any good reason to leave the dependency can be given. Family happiness is a strong argument for starting treatment.

Recently, many experts have concluded that alcoholism is a disease. How to substantiate this claim and persuade you to start treatment:

Diagnostics. He has symptoms of any disease, including alcoholism. It is expressed in a desire for an irresistible alcohol, a change in behavior, a refusal to crave a strong drink.
Chemical dependence. Because of it, one begins to abuse alcohol. Everyone has problems in the family and at work, but only dependents get drunk because of it.
Progression of the disease. The development of alcoholism follows a predictable scenario. In the end, a person eventually breaks down.
Alcoholism is a chronic disease. Therefore, a person who has not consumed alcohol for years decomposes from a glass of vodka.
This results in death. If treatment is not started on time, the patient will die before the scheduled time. The cause is usually concomitant diseases: cirrhosis, heart attack, cardiomyopathy and other diseases.

Treating alcoholism takes a long time. You must be patient and not give up under any circumstances. Some put up with coding, which helps a lot of addicts. The point is that one understands a simple truth - it is absolutely forbidden to consume alcohol. It is an addiction that returns even after a few grams of alcohol. Therefore, sobriety must become the norm for such people.

How to find the cause of alcoholism

Treating alcohol dependence will be meaningless in 2 cases: if one is happy with everything and wants to continue drinking, or if there is a good reason to be comforted in alcoholic beverages. Eliminating the provocative factor makes it much easier to cure an alcoholic. You may quit drinking without coding.

The causes of chronic drunkenness are often quite obvious and can therefore be identified without particular difficulty. As a general rule, the alcoholic himself calls them during a confidential conversation. If you can’t ask him alone, you can do so with the help of a psychologist. The professional will find out why the person is dissatisfied with their life and give the necessary advice.

The most common causes of alcoholism are:

uninteresting, boring work or excessive leisure time;
constant drinking with friends, relatives or colleagues, gradually develops into alcohol dependence;
disordered personal life, quarrels in the family, recent breakup of relationships, betrayal or loss of loved ones;
lack of work or housing, poverty, disorderly life, feeling hopeless;
presence of severe chronic or fatal illnesses, desire to relieve pain with alcohol;
burdened heredity, his propensity for alcoholism.

Ways to help an alcoholic lead a normal life

If you have succeeded in persuading an alcohol addict to treat, take the next steps in your planned plan immediately. Once the patient has agreed, he or she should go to an appointment with a narcologist to have the specialist prescribe the therapy needed for this situation. To exclude breakdowns, remove all alcohol from the house and also rule out possible encounters of drunks with former alcoholics.

It was smooth on paper, so don’t think that your negligent alcoholic husband could agree to the treatment on the first try. It’s a rather difficult task that requires a lot of patience and somewhere even a woman’s cunning and ingenuity. But when you achieve that, your life will change dramatically, which will be a worthy reward for your efforts.

Many clinics are able to forcibly hospitalize a patient by court order. The therapeutic process itself is divided into several stages:

Motivational conversation with a psychologist. In some cases, this measure helps the person to become aware of the addiction and agrees to voluntary treatment.
Involuntary hospital care in an inpatient ward.
Detoxification procedure.
Rehabilitation (includes drug coding, psychological support, hospitalization).
Social adaptation. Helping a former alcoholic to find a job, learn a new profession, psychological support.
Working with relatives. This includes explanatory conversations, participation in self-help groups, personal consultations with the psychologist.

The best solution is to transport the drunk to a paid specialist clinic where mandatory treatment services are provided. The disadvantage of this method is that keeping an alcoholic in a clinic for a long time requires a large financial investment. So one day in the hospital it will be expensive. The price depends on the region and the department of the hospital.

Another method is to place the patient in a psychiatric hospital. This measure is considered extreme. Access to a psychiatric clinic is only possible by court order or by a psychiatric team (on-site experts decide on the need for urgent hospital treatment). In the latter case, the presence of a police squad is mandatory - the presence of a real threat to the health of the patient or those around him is recorded.

Some people think they can be cured at home by an alcoholic. Various herbal decoctions are considered particularly effective - they reduce the craving for alcohol.

Here is one recipe. Take the following ingredients in equal proportions (10 g each):

Mother juice.
Horseshoe.
Dried burdock and sorrel roots.
Mint.

Put the herbs in an enamel bowl, pour a glass of boiling water and heat in a water bath for 15 minutes. The resulting broth is filtered and drunk in small portions during the day. It is not recommended to make a drink for future use - always cook fresh. If you secretly want to cure a person from drunkenness, you can add small doses of the infusion to alcoholic beverages.

You can also buy a ready-made herbal mixture. Famous for these features:

deters the urge to drink alcohol;
increases the body's defense functions;
stimulates the immune system;
helps remove toxins and cleanses the liver.

This drink is especially convenient because it is brewed and drunk all day like ordinary herbal tea.

If people close to you have succeeded in influencing the alcoholic to go through a drug and psychotherapy, it is important to decide on further action. The main task at the moment is to strengthen motivation for a healthy lifestyle. Most addicted people don’t make sense to be sober. The right lifestyle is scary because alcoholics don’t know what to do next and how to get joy out of life. To help such a person to close people:

make sure the alcoholic is a weak-willed egoistic, infantile person. Fulfilling your drunken desires just to prevent him from drinking again is the wrong way to go. The patient should be allowed to decide for himself, he can enjoy such action;
support the positives of a sober life, persuade the patient to describe them for daily motivational support;
save the patient from the usual social circle for which it is better to move to a new place of residence;
keep your ex-alcoholic on a new hobby, don’t let them have free time to reflect on a boring being. To do this, change your workplace, take it with you as a hobby or sport.

Be consistent in your own campaigns and views.

Show examples of important people in alcoholic society who have given up this addiction.
Go to a consultation with a psychotherapist and a narcologist.
Adjust your personal situation in family life from victim or over-control to the opposite.

Remember that only a properly constructed motivation for an addicted patient to treat and lead a sober lifestyle will help convince the patient of mandatory treatment.