Alcohol consumption is a social activity. People drink with their family, friends and peers. This makes them feel happy, exuberant and lively. So, the answer is people booze to experience ‘high.’ This experience makes them feel at the top of the World. It’s not only the celebration that makes a person indulge into drinking habit, but it’s also forgetting about your problems for a while, or simply numbing any pain can drag a person towards addiction. And then, a vicious cycle begins. More a person consumes alcohol, the more addicted he/she becomes.
Firstly, let’s understand the meaning of Alcohol use disorder.
Alcohol use disorder is a long-term brain condition is which a person can’t control or stop drinking even when your personal, professional and social life starts getting hurt. When this happens, alcohol becomes the most important thing in your life. The life starts revolving around it. This makes it difficult for a person to fulfil his/her responsibilities on a daily basis.
What are the causes of alcohol addiction?
Experts have found that there is not exactly one cause of alcoholism. There are various factors which lead to alcohol addiction. Let’s talk about them one by one:
- Genetic reasons: Family history plays an important role in developing alcohol addiction. If a forefather of a person has ever been addicted to alcohol, chances are that a person may also develop dependency on alcohol.
- Stressful environment: Stress at home or at work can drive people to drink. Long working hours or daily arguments in relationships develop the habit of alcoholism. Whenever an emotional trigger happens, a person may end up drinking alcohol.
- Peer pressure: In some of the groups, heavy drinking is considered as swag. So, people who want to become part of such a group also indulge into alcohol. They feel that they are getting importance among peers. Also, media glorifies drinking and portrays that a person who drinks is cool. So this also leaves a huge impact on a person who is watching out something on social media or television.
- Mental disorder: Having bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and traumatic disorder can be frustrating and difficult. But, in order to ease down these mental disorders people tend to start drinking alcohol. But gradually, alcohol makes mental health symptoms even worse.
- Past trauma: Sexual abuse, childhood abuse or domestic abuse gives deep mental scar. When the past abuse in therapy is not properly addressed, then a person may turn to heavy drinking to feel better about the situation temporarily. But this long term practice leads towards a destructive health.
It’s really important that a person must try his/her best to get rid of alcohol disorder. However, it’s not an easy journey. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms can occur as early as two hours after your last drink. However, the symptoms will peak within first 24 to 48 hours upon cessation.
Let’s have a look at alcohol withdrawal symptoms in detail:
- Change in appetite: When a person stops drinking after a huge indulgence, major changes in diet are noticed. Some people start eating a lot, while some decrease their diet. Changes in food preference are also noticed.
- Changes in mood: It is common for people going through withdrawal to face rapid fluctuations in mood. One moment, you may feel exhausted thinking that you have no energy and life is not worth living. The next minute, you may feel like running away because you may have an intuition that something awful is about to happen.
- Depressing mood: People who go through withdrawal often have feelings of hopelessness, doom and low self – worth. They remain into depressing mood for a longer period of time. They cry frequently, have difficulty in concentrating and remain isolated from everyone.
- Severe anxiety: Anxiety is physically and mentally uncomfortable. Your heart rate and breathing starts increasing, sometimes to the extent that even you can’t catch a breath. Sometimes you also start feeling that you are having a heart attack, even when you are not.
- Sleeping difficulties: Restful sleep often gets reduced during alcohol withdrawal. A person suffers from insomnia and hallucinations. Their nights are spent with tossing and turning leaving a person tired.
- Poor decision making: It is one of the most common alcohol withdrawal symptoms. A person who suddenly stops drinking after heavy alcohol isn’t able to take decisions properly. They remain confused and aren’t able to understand the difference between what is right and what is wrong?
- Muscle cramp: Alcohol withdrawal comes with a lot of suffering. Muscle cramp is one of them. It is an involuntary or sudden contraction of your muscles. It doesn’t remain for a continuous period, but whenever it hurts, it hurts severely.
- Nausea and vomiting: When a person suddenly stops drinking, he/she feels uneasiness in their stomach which urges a person to vomit and feel dizziness. Your brain may also suffer from migraine headaches, dizziness and motion sickness.
- Hot and cold flushes: Alcohol withdrawal results into dysfunctioning of hypothalamus. A person suffers from chilled (cold flush) or hot flush. Your body gets overactive and releases chemicals which alert your body that it is overheating.
- Seizures: A seizure is a life threatening complication of alcohol withdrawal. It brings an uncontrollable electrical disturbance in the brain. Seizures can cause changes in movements, feelings and levels of consciousness. A seizure may last from 30 seconds to two minutes.
The key to successful withdrawal is to consult with an addiction treatment professional who is familiar with the detox strategies and provide specific medical treatments that will help reduce most of the withdrawal symptoms. During these problems, specially trained professionals monitor the withdrawal period closely and administer medications as needed.
Here at Anatta Humanversity, we provide the solution through a residential and alternative life therapy program which helps a person deal with alcohol withdrawal symptoms judiciously. We follow a client – specific one on one program through compassionate and comprehensive coaching.