Introduction
We offer some guidelines to the above queries,
with questions to help assess a person's drinking
behaviour, and its consequences for their health
and personal balance.
This does not try to replace the professional
work of a qualified person.
If any further information is needed, or personal
consultation with us, this can be given without
commitment.Make
your consultation!
When can a person
be considered an "alcoholic"?
We say a person
has "problems with alcohol" when they continue
drinking although the alcohol consumpton is interfering
in a negative way with their personal, health,
psychological balance, work, family or social
life.
Is Alcoholism a disease?
The dependency on alcohol is, of course, a
serious problem that affects the health of the
person who suffers it in the fullest sense of
the word.
Furthermore, it is a problem that affects one
of the essential elements of the human being
- freedom.
The person who develops a dependency on alcohol
is losing their capacity to decide whether they
will drink or not in certain situations, and
is little by little losing the automatic control
of her own conduct. They are losing their freedom.
We can therefore consider it a disease, because
it affects the personal balance of those who
suffer from it and those who surround them,
and because a suitable treatment process is
necessary to recover from this.
However it is not a disease that can currently
"be cured" by taking certain medicines,
by having a surgical operation or some by other
medical procedure.
Are people born with
a predisposition towards alcoholism?
There is data to indicate that all people do
not react towards alcohol consumption in the
same way. Nevertheless , this does not mean
that dependency on alcohol is determined by
genetics.
Like when several people take the sun their
skin reacts in different ways, giving to some
a pleasant golden colour, whilst burning others.
At the same time individual differences exist
which to some people more sensitive to alcohol,
makes it more likely that they will develop
a dependency.
Anyway, any person who drinks in excess can
become an addicted more or less to alcohol in
time.
What is it to drink
"moderately"?
Let us consider a "unit" of consumption
of alcohol as being the amount contained in
a wineglass, a beer, a sherry (approximately
twelve grams of pure alcohol).
Glasses of Liquor: anise, whiskey, cognac,
gin, etc. or the combined ones of these drinks
are the equivalent to two "units".
Several scientific studies establish as maximum
limits of alcohol consumpton the following ones:
Sex |
Daily
Limit |
Weekly
Limit |
Male |
4 |
20
|
Female |
3 |
15 |
This data always talks about healthy people
who have not had problems with alcohol previously.
And they do not represent an absolute certainty
that they are not going to have problems with
their health or in developing alcohol dependency.
Whenever a person passes these limits they
are damaging their body that alters its functioning,
and can lead them to develop dependency on alcohol,
or other health related problems from the toxic
effect of alcohol on the human body.
Can a person "cure"
their dependency on alcohol?¿Se puede curar la dependencia
del alcohol?
Yes and No.
If we understand "cure" as the return
to the pre-alcoholic stage for a person, the
answer is no. Once one has abused alcohol the
dependency that has been developed will always
be physiological and behavioural alterations
will always remain more or less latent in the
individual.
Nevertheless with a suitable therapy, people
can learn to live without alcohol for a totally
healthy and balanced life. That is to say it
is possible to overcome the dependency and for
the person to recover their freedom.
When the habit of drinking has become a dependency,
it is necessary a psychological treatment that
reinstitutes the person's ability of self control
when facing with situations of social, emotional
or other pressures, which formerly activated
their drinking behavior.
The Victoria Program since 1984 has developed a programme
of Learning to Live Without Alcohol that offers
excellent therapeutic results.
Are all treatments
of equal value?
No.
Throughout the last years different ways have
been developed to approach the problem whose
characteristics differ very much from each other.
It is one thing to enter a Psaychiatric Hospital
and another to go to one of the Alcoholics Anonymous
meetings.
Nor is it the same to take "Antabuse" or sedatives,
or naltrexone . It is not the same as to undergo
psychoanalysis or to have acupuncture treatment.
All these processes are very different from
The Victoria Program The Victoria Program of Learning to Live Without Alcohol.
Before putting oneself in any particular
treatment process, or recommending any specific
treatment, a person should inform themselves
as fully as possible of the characteristics
of the method of treatment that each organisation
follows.
Is it necessary
to drink every day to be an alcoholic?
No.
Many people develop a dependency form that
manifests itself in intermittent form.
Sometimes the subject is able to go without
drinking anything. Perhaps for days or weeks.
Or even drinking moderately. But this cannot
avoid the fact that sometimes they drink in
an uncontrolled form and that it brings
negative consequences to all they hold dear.
What
symptoms can indicate that a person abuses alcohol?
These are the main symptoms
displayed by people with alcohol problem.
The presence of any one
of these symptoms indicate that consultation
be recommended with a specialized professional.
Physical
symptoms
- Drinking great amounts without
getting drunk
- Nausea and vomiting when waking
- Loss of appetite
- Memory loss (to forget
details of what has been said or done)
- Slight tremor in the hands
that ceases when drinking alcohol (withdrawals)
- Evaluation of elevated enzyme
Gamma GT or the Mean Corpuscular Volume in
a blood analysis.
Psychological
symptoms
-
- Feelings of guilt, mainly
the following morning.
- Justifications of the type
of "I know when to stop", "Everybody
drinks", "I can contol myself", etc.
- To feel annoyed if anyone
suggest to drink less
- Attempts and promises of
not drinking, or drinking less.
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