It is not as difficult for a man to get rid of alcohol addiction as it is for an ordinary woman to stop drinking alcohol. In recent years, female alcoholism has become widespread. Younger women, who in the past could not be forced to get drunk, are increasingly drinking.
This is a vulnerable category of society, it is difficult for them to withstand an unstable situation, stress and everyday problems. But a woman is a mother, the foundation of the family and an educator of the younger generation, so it is necessary to stop this epidemic.
Formation of the problem of female alcoholism
Just 20 years ago, female alcoholics made up a small proportion of drinkers and avoided seeking treatment for alcoholism. They were ashamed of their illness and hid it. Gradually, more and more representatives of the fairer sex begin to seek help. Now their percentage in relation to male alcoholics has increased significantly. There is an increase in the number of female drinkers who want to recover. The difficulty is that giving up drinking is not that easy. It's not easy to force yourself to live sober.
Many women continue to drink alone and hide their alcohol addiction. Men and women are at a disadvantage when they become alcoholics. In society, men who drink are valued less than women. A woman supports her drinking husband. She hopes she can help him stop drinking. And a husband can leave his drinking wife who shames him and sets a bad example for his children. Local children will not want to see their mother when she is lying somewhere drunk and has forgotten about them.
The opinion that female alcoholism is incurable has strengthened. The roots of this myth are in the negative evaluation of female drunkenness by society and in the fact that the woman is silent about her problem for a long time and the disease is ignored. Condemning women's drunkenness prevents prompt initiation of treatment and makes it less effective. A woman's rapid involvement in addiction, which soon leads to personal degradation, also plays a role.
Many serious complications resulting from alcohol abuse make it difficult to make an informed decision to seek treatment. If someone can get their friend to stop drinking by wishing her well, the recovery rate will be higher. Unfortunately, this is not possible. She has to give up alcohol herself. And help should consist of making drinkers aware of their addiction.
Why do women start drinking?
Psychological or emotional reasons make a girl or woman drink. She is emotional, gets hurt more easily mentally, experiences life events more strongly. It doesn't have to be a dysfunctional marginalized woman to begin with. Even outwardly successful representatives of the fairer sex suffer from alcoholism from time to time and cannot stop drinking on their own. The main reasons for the occurrence of abuse are:
- Stress conditions due to an unsettled life, lack of finances, pressure from superiors and colleagues at work or the older generation of the family living nearby.
- Concerns about the relationship with the partner, lack of attention on his part, betrayal, rudeness, frequent absences from home.
- Inability to spend free time, feeling bored, lack of hobbies.
- Lack of family, immersion in work during the day and emptiness in the evening.
- Loneliness, especially sudden: death of a spouse, his departure or loss of other loved ones.
- Insomnia, desire to normalize sleep.
- Dieting, an attempt to suppress hunger with food restrictions.
- Heredity, alcoholism among ancestors.
- Menopause, increased physical and mental discomfort due to changes in the body.
Is female alcoholism different from male alcoholism?
A woman gets drunk faster, this is explained by the characteristics of her body. Body weight is less than that of a man, absorption of alcohol is faster. The enzyme that helps break down alcohol is less active; female sex hormones are incompatible with alcohol breakdown products.
Due to the peculiarities of physiology and the emotional sphere, a woman can become addicted to alcohol twice as fast. When a man is in the initial stages of alcoholism, just starts drinking, a woman already feels a noticeable need for alcohol.
Stages of alcoholism
They are the same for men and women. The division into stages helps to assess the severity of the disease and the complications that occur at this stage. Finding a patient with alcoholism at one stage or another requires different approaches to treatment.
- Stage I.A craving for alcohol arises and develops. A woman gets pleasant sensations from drinking and wants to repeat them. This is how mental addiction occurs. A woman has a desire to be in situations where she can drink more often. She is looking for a reason and a suitable company. Observing a woman, you can notice her atypical behavior and more frequent drinking. She explains this by the fact that she felt bad or wanted to relax, or was worried about problems - family or work.
She cannot objectively assess that the drinking has become more frequent and refuses to give it up. Reacts sharply to comments and refuses to analyze his behavior. Conflicts with those who want to force her to stay sober. To stop the pressure from the outside, the woman starts drinking secretly.
- Stage II.Mental dependence is already formed, the mood depends on whether the woman has been drinking or not. Physical dependence is formed, the alcoholic begins to have a hangover. He often drinks a little each day, less often goes on a multi-day binge, then has a break. But giving up drinking is already very difficult.
The female body quickly begins to fade. External signs of permanent alcoholism appear. A careless appearance, attempts to hide the gray complexion under decorative cosmetics, bags under the eyes and a swollen face reveal a woman who drinks. Her voice becomes rough and hoarse. The behavior shows aggressiveness, hysterics, tearfulness, reluctance to take responsibility and alienation from loved ones. She becomes promiscuous in her sexual life and has gynecological diseases. Memory weakens, lethargy and hand tremors appear.
- Stage III.Physical dependence develops, it is difficult for a woman to function without alcohol. Irreversible changes have occurred in the body. There are significant disorders in the mental sphere and internal organs.
Among the diseases characteristic of this stage: alcoholic encephalopathy, polyneuropathy, permanent decline in intelligence, delirium tremens, toxic hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, kidney failure, chronic pancreatitis, risk of heart attack and stroke. The risk of poisoning with alcohol substitutes is extremely high.
Returning to a sober life is almost impossible. Drinking has now become a way of life, it destroys the personality. She lost her job and nearly all of her loved ones, who were desperate to see her sober. She has no interests other than alcohol.
When to start treatment
In order to begin treatment, a woman must understand that she is addicted. Forced treatment will not help. The desire to give up drinking must be formed on its own with the support of loved ones. She should not be left alone or listen to accusations. Patience is required from relatives. The girl should be supported by her parents, especially her mother.
In the first two stages of the disease, she is able to realize that alcohol leads to problems and shameful actions. It is also necessary to understand that alcoholic beverages do not solve her problems, but only make them worse. We need to help a woman realize that she is harming both herself and her relationships. It must be shown that it is still possible to improve life, to explain that all is not lost, since she is able to reason and be aware of herself.
No need to waste time on folk healers and charlatans. They promise to get a person sober in one or more short treatments. Neither the price of such services nor advertising fame guarantees success.
When consent to treatment is obtained, the woman must go to a hospital where they provide assistance to patients treated with drugs. Getting rid of alcohol addiction is a complex and long process. It should be carried out only by a specialist doctor, using complex methods: medication and psychotherapy.
What is medical care?
The methods of treatment of female alcoholism are very diverse. Specialists at the drug addiction treatment hospital select an individual complex of treatment measures based on the characteristics of each woman admitted for treatment. During the treatment are used:
- Preparations for detoxification and rapid removal of alcohol breakdown products from the body.
- Medicines specializing in the formation of aversion to alcohol.
- Medicines for the correction of disorders caused by alcohol abuse (cardiological, neurological, endocrinological, psychiatric spectrum and other acquired pathologies).
- Complex psychotherapy, help from a psychologist, attending group and individual activities for solving personal problems and emotional relief.
- Maintenance blockade of opioid receptors. Supportive coding, hypnotherapy. These methods should only be used in combination with other medical and psychotherapeutic interventions. Isolated exposure has practically no effect, since the motivation for sobriety outside complex therapy quickly disappears.
What motivates a woman to be sober?
The most important factor that makes a woman return to a sober life is the acceptance of relatives. A person often recovers to offend someone, trying to prove that he is not completely lost. And women are trying to get sober again for some important purpose. It is important for them to see that people believe in them.
A drive for sobriety for a patient with alcoholism may be the desire to feel loved and wanted again.A woman wants to start a family and needs to show her best side. When she meets someone she likes, she wants to get married and become a mother. It also motivates you to give up alcohol.
Experts also note that female alcoholics fear serious illness or death as a result of alcoholism. In men who drink, this fear is less pronounced, for them this stimulus may not work.
A woman, in her desire to remain healthy and feminine, is able to overcome the difficulties of the recovery period. It is important to know that unlike monotonous soldering jobs, which ultimately end just as tragically, recovery will give you a full and varied life. The experience of hundreds of thousands of women who have already gotten rid of alcoholism proves this.