Alcohol abuse and alcoholism can harm a person’s life. It can impact their physical health, emotional well-being, occupation, and finances.
Alcohol addiction doesn’t happen in one sitting. Instead, it can gradually progress from mild to severe in a period of time. As alcohol use disorder worsens, so does its negative impact.
Knowing the recurring stages of alcohol addiction is essential to know what to expect and seek treatment as soon as possible. Here are the things that you should know.
What Is Alcoholism?
Alcoholism is a relapsing brain disorder that moves a person to use alcohol compulsively. It’s referred to as a disorder because alcoholism has something to do with how the brain is rewired due to chronic drinking. This rewiring can make it hard for the person to manage and cut down on their drinking. The inability to stop creates problems in a person’s health, occupation, and social life.
Problems with drinking habits run on a spectrum. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM V) has categorised alcohol use disorder into three severity, which is mild, moderate, and severe. Alcohol addiction or alcoholism resides on the moderate to severe spectrum.
How To Identify The Symptoms Of Alcohol Addiction
When it comes to identifying the symptoms of alcohol addiction correctly, it’s essential to look for several symptoms that can point to the possibility of alcohol use disorder. You don’t want to diagnose someone with alcoholism just because they manifest one or two symptoms.
Moreover, alcohol addiction runs on a spectrum. This means that people with alcohol addiction can manifest various sets of symptoms, depending on whether they have mild or severe cases.
Experts on alcohol addiction look for a designated number of signs and look for evidence that they might be wrong. This approach is intended to avoid misdiagnosis. Moreover, they also look for alternative diagnoses to better understand the individual’s case.
Recognising Signs And Symptoms
Identifying the symptoms of alcohol addiction is helpful as it can motivate the person to seek treatment. The earlier someone seeks alcohol addiction intervention, the easier the treatment and its process usually is.
Physical
People who abuse alcohol consistently tend to have issues with their skin. At first, they may get the Asian flush, where their metabolism cannot process alcohol, making them look red.
Moreover, alcohol consumption can impair someone’s immune system, leading to skin sores. Their skin might look dry, and they are at heightened risk for skin infections.
Psychological
When it comes to psychological symptoms, one of the best telltale signs of alcohol addiction is that the individual uses alcohol to evade complex emotions. The complicated feelings may be so much that they cannot execute their responsibilities at home or work.
Because of this, they might get preoccupied with where and when to get alcohol. They might also look for ways to consume more alcohol than usual.
The Stages Of Alcoholism
The development of alcohol addiction among people tends to have a recurring pattern. Understanding this imprint helps you know where you or someone you love is. This knowledge can also help you expect what will happen and seek treatment immediately.
Social Use
Most people who drink alcohol tend to have a group of people who encourage the behaviour. It could be their family members who drink occasionally or friends who drink every weekend at social gatherings.
Because of this exposure, they might be tempted to experiment with drinking and be part of the group.
Binge Drinking
After the experimentation, the individual might discover that alcohol holds benefits. It helps them calm down, numb difficult emotions, and have better social interactions. Because of this realisation, they might be more motivated to drink more often, which can lead to abusing alcohol.
Severe Alcohol Use
Even though there are pleasurable effects of alcohol, that effect only usually happens at the initial stage; there would come a point where the individual’s experience with alcohol starts to decline.
That’s because alcohol can imbalance the brain’s way of regulating emotions. When this becomes impaired, the person will start to have problems experiencing pleasure without the presence of alcohol.
So when the alcohol abuse gets prolonged, the more it imbalances the person’s brain, leading to alcohol addiction and dependence.
Alcohol Dependence
Being dependent on alcohol refers to the brain’s inability to regulate emotions without alcohol. In other words, the person has to consume alcohol to feel normal. Without it, they experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, depression, or, in severe cases, suicidal ideation.
Drinking alcohol started with trying to gain good emotions. However, in this stage, the individual is more motivated to avoid the withdrawal symptoms.
Addiction
In this stage, the person becomes increasingly more preoccupied with when or where to get alcohol to escape the negative emotions. This stage is usually when the individual starts to sacrifice a significant amount of their monthly income on alcohol, neglecting their responsibilities at home.
They might also find it hard to focus at work because their mind is preoccupied with alcohol consumption.
End-Stage Alcoholism
The end stage of alcoholism refers to the time when the individual has consumed too much alcohol that their organs start failing. Alcohol abuse can lead to liver failure, heart disease, brain disease, and cancer.
Job loss and loneliness are also common at this stage.
Recovering From The Addiction Cycle
Alcohol addiction is a treatable disease. Just because someone is experimenting with alcohol doesn’t necessarily mean they are destined for the end stage of alcoholism. It can take personal accountability to get themselves out of the addiction cycle.
Self-awareness is the most important thing when it comes to recovery from alcohol addiction. It’s often the case that people with alcohol addiction don’t realise – or deny – that they have an addiction. This situation can be detrimental to their health as the longer they are abusing alcohol, the more harm they’re exposed to.
Alcohol Treatment Options
When it comes to treatment options, several proven and tested interventions help.
The first, most important one, is detox. This approach specifically addresses the physical dependence of the person’s brain on alcohol. What medical experts do is aid the client in abstaining from alcohol and let them purposely go through the withdrawal phase.
The goal is to let them push through and help their brain stabilise again to its normal functioning to the point where they would no longer need alcohol to feel normal.
Withdrawal can be challenging, so medical experts and nurses must monitor the client 24/7. They will also be administering medication to lessen the impact of withdrawal. The medication will help with the individual’s headache, anxiety, depression, and other related symptoms.
It’s important to understand that detox should only be done under the guidance of medical experts. Doing it alone can do more harm than good, as the isolated individual usually doesn’t know how to manage the symptoms and is more prone to drinking larger amounts than usual when they finally give in to temptation, which can lead to overdose.
On top of detox, therapy, and counselling will also be conducted by rehab centres. In these approaches, the addiction experts target the mental health aspect of addiction explicitly.
It’s often the case that people with addiction also tend to have mood disorders, suicidal ideation, and a history of trauma. These emotional aspects are what may have specifically pushed the individual to abuse alcohol. Addressing these concerns in a treatment centre helps the clients stay away from alcohol or other forms of addiction in the future.
Lastly, it’s also common for rehab centres to take holistic approaches to their clients. This practice helps clients integrate their body, mind, and spirits. These aspects of a person may have been impaired because of the addiction. By combining these, the person can be more cohesive internally.
Find Help For Alcohol Use Disorder
Seeking alcohol addiction treatment is necessary to avoid its negative repercussions. Knowing what to look for in a rehab centre is essential to receive proper intervention and care.
The treatment centre must be housed with accredited or licensed professionals. Experience is also a good thing to have as they have the inner wisdom on how to treat the varying needs of their clients with addiction.
What We Can Provide At Our Alcohol Rehab Centre
We at Sivana Bali are located in Bali, Indonesia. There are several benefits of getting alcohol addiction treatment abroad.
The most important one is the environment. Although it’s not always the case, our friends or family members may hold a stigma around addiction and mental health treatment. Removing oneself from these surroundings can help the individual focus on their recovery.
Moreover, the daily environment may be full of stimuli that are already associated with alcohol use. These can trigger a person to desire alcohol, which can make recovery difficult.
In our centre, we provide on-site detox, residential treatment, and mental health therapy. We offer a 28-day program, but we can extend that to 60 to 90 days, depending on our clients’ specific needs.
FAQs
What Are the Stages of Alcohol Addiction
The stages of alcohol addiction are a progression from early, least harmful alcohol drinking to severe, health-damaging alcohol abuse.
It starts from social drinking towards early addiction and severe drinking problems to the end stage, where there are organ failures.
Why is it Important to Know the Stage of Addiction
Understanding the stage of addiction is helpful for the individual and their family members. It helps with better expectations and can aid in early treatment before it progresses further.
How to Understand Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a chronic, relapsing brain disease. Alcohol rewires and imbalances the brain in a way that makes a person preoccupied with drinking.