Wineis an inhibitor, that is, a substance that slows down all processes in the body. Small amounts of alcohol give a feeling of relaxation and confidence. In large doses, it slows reactions and negatively affects the eyes and coordination. Driving while not alert is extremely dangerous. A person who is severely intoxicated will feel nauseous, dizzy and may lose consciousness, on top of the risk of choking on their own vomit.
The level of alcohol concentration in the blood depends on a number of factors.
- If you eat foods high in fat, the hangover will not happen quickly.
- High content of animal and vegetable fats slows down the absorption of alcohol and digestion of food.
- The fuller the stomach, the longer it takes for alcohol to reach the circulatory system.
- The thicker the fat in your body, the slower the alcohol is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream.
- Body weight: the heavier you are, the less effect alcohol has on you.
- Your reaction to drinking 80 mg of alcohol may be completely different from another person's reaction. Typically, young people and women are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol.
The likelihood of drinking alcohol and its effects on different people is different; However, it is believed that the safe dose (from a health standpoint) is about 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 courseThe condition is that this amount will be lost evenly over the course of a week, not 1-2 times. If possible, try not to drink on an empty stomach.
Alcoholism - what is it?
Alcoholism- Frequent, forced drinking of large amounts of alcohol over long periods of time. It is the most severe form of drug addiction in modern times, affecting between 1 and 5% of the population in most countries. Alcoholics drink alcohol compulsively in response to psychological or physical dependence on alcohol.
Anyone can become an alcoholic. However, studies have shown that, for children whose parents are alcoholics, the risk of alcoholism is 4-6 times higher than for children whose parents are not alcoholics.
Research on alcohol consumption among young people in our country is largely based on the experience of similar studies abroad, which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were widely carried out in Western Europe and North America. and is implemented in many different directions:
- Rates and patterns of alcohol consumption among students have been studied.
- The effects of alcohol on the body of children and adolescents have been studied.
- The relationship between academic performance and alcohol consumption was determined.
- Anti-alcohol education programs have been developed and tested.
An important place among the studies of this period are works that illustrate the prevalence and nature of drinking customs, when children were given alcoholic beverages because:
- "improve health"
- "appetite"
- "improved growth"
- "to reduce teething"
- "warm up"
- "satisfy hunger"
- "patience"
Six stages of alcoholism
Ordinary intoxication can lead to alcoholism: either because the drinker begins to turn to alcohol to relieve stress, or because it is so strong that the initial stages of addiction remain unnoticed.
Early alcoholism is marked by the appearance of dementia. Most researchers consider alcoholism in the younger generation to be an important sign of dysfunction of the social microenvironment. This determines the continuing interest in studying the problem of the 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. Urban students often consume light alcoholic beverages - beer, wine, while students in rural schools are accustomed to the taste of stronger alcoholic beverages. During the 1920s and 1920s, one can find a fairly widespread use of moonshine among students: 1. 0–32. 0% in boys and 0. 9–12% in girls. The frequency of vodka consumption increases with age.
Almost all socio-hygienic and socio-clinical studies of alcoholism in adolescents use survey methods with various modifications - from mail questionnaires to telephone interviewstelephone and clinical interviews.
Basic alcoholism– the drinker cannot stop until the poisoning stage is reached. He encouraged himself with excuses and pompous promises, but all his promises and intentions remained unfulfilled. He begins to withdraw from family and friends and neglects food, past hobbies, work, and money. Physical deterioration of health occurs. Reduced alcohol resistance.
Chronic alcoholism is characterized by further moral deterioration, irrational thinking, vague fears, fantasies and psychotic behavior. Material damage is increasing. The drinker no longer has an alibi, and he can no longer take steps to escape the current situation. A person can reach this stage after 5-25 years.
Treatment is often provided through special programs for alcoholics. Psychologically, the desire to help is aroused in the alcoholic and he begins to think more rationally. Ideally, he also develops hope, moral responsibility, external interests, self-esteem, and satisfaction with abstinence.
The final stages of alcoholism occur if the alcoholic refuses treatment or relapses after treatment. Irreparable mental and physical damage often ends in death.
If you write all of this concisely, this is what you get:
- Drunk in water
- Early alcoholism
- Basic alcoholism
- Chronic alcoholism
- Healing
- Final stage of alcoholism
What determines how drunk a person is?
The effect of alcohol on behavior depends on the amount of alcohol reaching the brain through the blood. This "blood alcohol concentration" is determined by a number of factors other than the amount of alcohol you drink.
The size of the liver determines the rate of oxidation and elimination of alcohol.
A person's weight determines the amount of blood in the body, because the amount of blood is directly proportional to it. The older a person is, the more their blood is diluted by the alcohol consumed and the more blood is needed to have the same effect.
The speed and manner in which the wine is consumed is also important. The slower a person drinks a certain amount of alcohol, the weaker its effects.
Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach has stronger and faster effects than drinking during or after a meal. Food acts as a buffer in the absorption process.
Poisoning process.
When drinking 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 satisfaction and euphoria. When lower levels of the brain are affected, coordination, vision, and speech become impaired. Small blood vessels in the skin dilate. Heat is released and the person becomes hot. This means that blood has been diverted away from the body's internal organs, where blood vessels have narrowed due to the effects of alcohol on the nervous system. So, the temperature of the internal organs simultaneously decreases. Sexual desire may increase in connection with the removal of usual prohibitions. As blood alcohol levels increase, physical sexual activity becomes increasingly impaired. Finally, the toxic effects of alcohol cause nausea and possibly vomiting.
Hangover
Hangovers are bad. . . And now in more detail:
Hangoveris the physical discomfort after drinking too much alcohol. Symptoms may include headache, stomach ache, thirst, dizziness and irritability. A hangover occurs due to three processes. First, the stomach lining is irritated by drinking too much alcohol, and stomach function is impaired. Second, cellular dehydration occurs if the amount of alcohol consumed exceeds the liver's capacity, leading to alcohol remaining in the blood for a long time. Third, alcohol concentration has a "shock" effect on the nervous system, requiring 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 likelihood of a hangover is reduced if alcohol is mixed with snacks (Havka): the absorption and absorption of alcohol is prolonged for a longer time, and food acts as a barrier. Non-alcoholic drinks taken at the same time or afterward will dilute the alcohol. Bad effects are also often reduced if alcohol is consumed in a comfortable environment and smoking is kept to a minimum.
Effects of alcohol on the body
Blood.Alcohol inhibits the production of platelets, as well as white and red blood cells. Result: anemia, infection, bleeding
Brain. Alcohol slows down blood circulation in the brain's vessels, leading to a constant lack of oxygen in the brain's cells, which leads to memory loss and slows down the process of mental deterioration (or simply sadness). boring). Sclerotic changes soon develop in the blood vessels and the risk of cerebral hemorrhage increases. Alcohol destroys the connections between nerve cells of the brain, developing in them the need to use alcohol and alcoholism. Brain cell destruction and nervous system degeneration sometimes lead to pneumonia, heart and kidney failure, or organic mental disorders. Delirium tremens is a condition accompanied by extreme agitation, mental insanity, restlessness, fever, tremors, rapid irregular pulse, and hallucinations, often occurring when drinking large amounts of alcohol after several days of abstinence.
Heart.Alcohol abuse increases blood cholesterol levels, persistent hypertension and myocardial dystrophy. Cardiovascular failure pushes the patient to the brink of the grave. Alcoholic myopathy: muscle degeneration caused by alcoholism. This is caused by underused muscles, poor diet, and alcohol damage to the nervous system. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy affects the heart muscle.
Intestine.The constant impact of alcohol on the walls of the small intestine leads to changes in the structure of cells, they lose the ability to fully absorb nutrients and mineral components, leading to exhaustion of the alcoholic's body.
Diseases related to poor nutrition and vitamin deficiency, such as scurvy, pellagra and beriberi, caused by not eating because of drinking alcohol. Persistent inflammation in the stomach and intestines later increases the risk of ulcers.
Liver.Considering that 95% of alcohol entering the body is neutralized in the liver, it is clear that this organ suffers the most from alcohol: an inflammatory process occurs (hepatitis), and then scarring (cirrhosis). The liver stops performing the function of disinfecting toxic metabolic products, producing blood proteins and other important functions, leading to the inevitable death of the patient. Cirrhosis is a dangerous disease: it slowly spreads to humans, then attacks and immediately leads to death. Ten percent of chronic alcoholics have cirrhosis, and 75% of people with cirrhosis are or have been alcoholics. Until cirrhosis has developed sufficiently, with almost no symptoms, alcoholics begin to complain of general deterioration of health, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and digestive problems. . The cause of the disease is due to the toxic effects of alcohol.
Pancreas.Alcoholic patients are 10 times more likely to develop diabetes than non-drinkers: alcohol destroys the pancreas, the organ that produces insulin, and seriously distorts metabolism.
Animal skin.A person who drinks alcohol almost always looks older than his age: his skin very soon loses elasticity and ages prematurely.
Stomach. Alcohol inhibits the production of mucus, which performs the function of protecting the gastric mucosa, leading to the appearance of duodenal ulcers.
A typical symptom of alcohol poisoning is repeated vomiting. Even the consumption of small amounts of alcoholic beverages can lead to adolescents with obvious manifestations of intoxication, especially in the nervous system. The most severe poisoning is observed in people with a complicated medical history, due to organic brain failure or concomitant physical pathology.
Describing the nature of alcohol's effects on the psychology of adolescents is much less clear. In general, the clinical picture of severe intoxication in adolescents in most cases looks like this: short-term excitement is later replaced by generalized depression, stupor, drowsinessincreased lethargy, slow, incoherent speech and disorientation.
When drinking alcohol for the first time, 53% of teenagers feel disgusted. However, over time, with increasing "experience" of drinking alcohol, the objective picture will change significantly. More than 90% of surveyed adolescents with two or more years of drinking "experience" believe that a hangover is accompanied by a feeling of energy, a feeling of satisfaction, comfort, and an increased mood, i. e. are those characteristics of mental states that normal consciousness usually attributes to actions that begin to appear in their statements about alcohol.
Illness or simply PSYCHOLOGY
Delirium tremens often occurs against the background of a hangover, when suddenly stopping drinking alcohol or during a period of abstinence, in case of additional diseases of the body, injuries (especially fractures). The initial symptoms of psychosis are worsening night sleep, the appearance of vegetative symptoms and tremors, as well as the general alertness of the patient, expressed in movements, speech, facial expressions and especially mood. During a short period of time, one can notice many different shades of mood, while during the hangover phase, the mood is very monotonous, characterized by depression and anxiety. Unusual changes in mood and vitality generally intensify in the evening and at night, while during the day these disorders decrease sharply and can even disappear completely, which allows the patient toperform their professional duties. As the symptoms of psychosis increase, complete insomnia appears, first visual hallucinations appear, then various hallucinations and delusions.
Delirium tremens is characterized by a predominance of true visual hallucinations. They are characterized by variety of images and mobility. Usually these are insects (bugs, cockroaches, beetles, flies) and small animals (cats, mice, rats). Less often, patients see large animals and people, in some cases of fantastic appearance. Images of snakes, ghosts as well as deceased relatives, also known as wandering corpses, are very typical. In some cases, visual illusions and hallucinations are single, in others they are multiple and resemble a scene, i. e. The patient sees complex images. There are often auditory, tactile, olfactory hallucinations, and a feeling of disturbance in body position in space. The patient's mood changes extremely. In it, for a short time, one can note fear, complacency, confusion, surprise and despair. Patients often move continuously and have expressive facial expressions. Motor reactions correspond to the hallucinations and affects common at the moment - with fear and scary images, the patient hides, defends himself, gets excited; in a period of complacency - passivity.
Patients are characterized by being easily distracted by external events, everything around them attracts their attention. Delirium during alcoholic delirium tremens is sporadic and reflects a delusional disorder. In terms of content, this is often the delirium of persecution. Patients often misorient themselves to the place (when entering the hospital, they say they are at home, at the restaurant, at work) but instead orient to their own personality. Alcoholic delirium is characterized by periodic temporary disappearance of a significant part of the mental disorders, the so-called lucid-relief intervals, as well as a marked increase in the symptoms of the disorder. psychosis in the evening and at night.
Continuous delirium is accompanied by many physical disorders - tremors, sudden sweating, redness of the skin, especially of the face. Temperatures are usually low. Pulse increases. Protein often appears in urine; in the blood - increased bilirubin content, a shift in the leukocyte formula to the left, an increase in ROE. The course of the disease is usually short-term. Even without treatment, psychosis symptoms disappear within 3–5 days. Less commonly, the illness lasts for 1–1. 5 weeks. Recovery is often observed in the form of a crisis - after a deep sleep. Sometimes recovery is gradual, worsening in the evening and night and improving during the day. Signs of an unfavorable prognosis for delirium are the development of symptoms of occupational and delirium tremens, high fever and a state of collapse.
Alcoholic hallucinations develop while drunk or drunk. The main disturbance is rich auditory hallucinations combined with persecutory delusions. Verbal auditory hallucinations predominate, and the patient often hears words "uttered" by a large number of people - a "chorus of voices", as the patient often defines it. Usually, the "voices" talk to each other about the patient, rarely are they directed at the patient himself. The content of verbal hallucinations is threats, accusations, discussions of the patient's past actions, insults, insults. Hallucinations are often taunting and teasing. The voice may intensify to a shout or weaken to a whisper. Delusional ideas in the content are closely related to auditory hallucinations - the so-called. delusional hallucinations. They are sporadic and unsystematic. The main effects are intense anxiety and fear. At the beginning of psychosis, the patient is motorally stimulated, but soon some signs of developmental delay appear or very orderly behavior is observed, masking 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. Physical disorders, common in hangover syndrome, occur continuously. The duration of hallucinations due to alcohol is from 2-3 days to several weeks, in some rare cases, the disease can last up to several months.
Alcoholic depression always appears against the background of hangover syndrome. Characterized by depressed-anxious mood, low self-esteem ideas, tearfulness, as well as personal ideas about the relationship and mistreatment. Duration - from a few days to 1-2 weeks. It is in a state of alcoholic depression that alcoholics most often commit suicide.
Alcoholic seizures are symptomatic and associated with intoxication. Seizures most commonly occur at the height of drunkenness or during alcoholic delirium tremens. As a rule, epileptic seizures may occur. Mild seizures, twilight stupor, and auras do not occur in alcoholic epilepsy. When you stop abusing alcohol, your seizures will disappear.
Alcoholic paranoia is a mental disorder caused by alcohol, the main symptom of which is delusions. Occurs during hangover syndrome and at the peak of binge drinking. The content of delusions is limited to terror or jealousy (ideas of adultery). In the first case, the patient believed that a group of people wanted to rob or kill them. They see confirmation of their thoughts through the gestures, actions, and words of others. Characterized by confusion, intense anxiety, often giving way to fear. Patients' actions are impulsive - they jump out of cars while moving, suddenly run away, ask for help from the authorities, and sometimes attack imaginary enemies. In some cases, delirium is accompanied by mild verbal delusions and hallucinations, and individual symptoms of delirium occur in the evening and at night. The course of this form of delusion is usually short-term - from a few days to a few weeks. Sometimes, psychosis lasts for months.
Alcoholic encephalopathy– alcoholic psychosis, which develops in connection with metabolic disorders and, first of all, vitamins B and PP. Alcoholic encephalopathy occurs as a result of years of alcohol abuse, accompanied by chronic gastritis or enteritis and consequent impaired intestinal absorption. Alcoholic encephalopathy develops mainly in people who drink a lot but eat very little. Typically, alcoholic encephalopathy occurs in the spring and early summer months. Autonomic symptoms typically include arrhythmia, fever of central origin, dyspnea, and sphincter weakness. You can constantly observe an increase in muscle tone. The patient's general physical condition was characterized by weight loss progressing to severe weakness. The skin is light or dark brown.
Chronic forms of alcoholic encephalopathy include Korsakoff psychosis and alcoholic pseudoparalysis. In some cases, they develop gradually, over a number of months, and then the nature of the onset corresponds to Gaye-Vorik encephalopathy, in others - acute, after psychosis due toalcohol, usually after delirium tremens.
Treatment of alcohol-induced mental disorders. Patients with alcohol-induced psychosis must be urgently admitted to a special hospital. Some patients with hangover syndrome are also hospitalized in case of mental disorders, especially severe mood changes. Treatment of alcoholic psychosis in the hospital must be comprehensive - use multivitamins (B1, C, PP), heart drugs and sleeping pills with doses of insulin or psychiatric drugs that lower blood sugar and coma. The only effective treatment for alcoholic encephalitis, especially acute, is treatment with large doses of vitamins: B1 - up to 600 mg, C - up to 1000 mg, PP - up to 300-400mg per day for 2-4 weeks.
Alcohol poisoning.
People who abuse alcohol sometimes fall into a coma, leading to coma. In extremely severe cases, breathing may stop.
However, don't assume that a person who appears drunk must have been drinking. Similar symptoms are also observed in other conditions (head trauma, stroke and diabetes, as well as overdose of certain drugs).
First aid.
If the victim is unconscious but still breathing, use your fingers to remove anything that interferes with breathing (pieces of snacks, breakfast) from the mouth and pharynx, do not try to induce vomiting. Place the victim in the recovery position, freeing the neck and waist from tight clothing and making sure that the airway remains open.
If the victim does not regain consciousness, call an ambulance.
Conclusion
Alcoholism is a serious disease, in some cases developing over many years. Therefore, it is better not to drink a lot and often! And if you drink, drink BEER! ! ! : )