He doesn’t seem to drink more than the others. And then we notice that a friend or loved one is less and less sober. One day we realize that there is no trace left of the former person. How to recognize the warning signs of addiction at the very beginning, when we can still support a loved one in his struggle with this condition?
“Was it possible to recognize the danger at the very beginning?”
Zoya, 45 years old
“In their youth, many liked to hang out and take a walk. Everyone drank, had fun, could not sleep all night long, and in the morning they ran to take the session. Somehow it all seemed normal – and alcohol, and smoking, and parties.
However, gradually everyone grew up. They started relationships, pursued careers, got married, raised children, got divorced and remarried. Someone from the company, which was going to the holidays in our 20s, became a desperate follower of a healthy lifestyle. Most drink a little on holidays too. And some, alas, fell asleep.
Over the years, we saw each other less and less – and the more noticeable from time to time were the changes that occurred with Sasha. A person who once was attentive to how he looks has ceased to follow himself. He lost his job because he “scored” on his duties. His wife left him, taking the children.
It was rumored that he began to raise his hand to his mother. It was hard to believe in this: our eternal “pacifist” – on his sweet, intelligent mother ?! In the end, gradually everyone stopped talking to him. Or did he cut off the ends?
Offers to go to a specialist, “soul-saving” conversations and reasoning that he needs help, did not lead to anything – except that they accelerated the gap. A couple of years later, we learned that he had died: drunk, he was hit by an electric train. Such a sad ending. Was it ever possible, at the very beginning, to recognize the danger? Guess that Sasha is developing an addiction? Could the person be helped? These questions have been haunting me for three years now.”
Addiction: warning signs
The earlier the diagnosis is made, the better the prognosis – this usually applies to all diseases, and mental ones too. Addiction has its own progression, its own development, and if you notice it in the early stages, then a person, according to psychiatrists, is much more likely to return to normal life.
Is it possible to identify the first signs that signal that a person has problems with addiction? Professor of medicine and psychiatrist Dr. Anderson Spicard believes it is important to pay attention to the following manifestations.
1. Rationalization
People who develop addiction often tend to find good reasons for their desire for alcohol or drugs. “I have a stressful job, I need to relax”, “we broke up, I want to forget”, “this helps my creativity”, “without this I can’t sleep” – a person is sure that his needs can be satisfied in this way.
Gradually, addiction intensifies, and people build a life around it. It is important for them to provide access to alcohol and other psychoactive substances. Schedule changes that prevent cravings from being met are increasingly annoying for addicts, and family members are the first to feel it. Quite often they have to adapt in order not to annoy a loved one. The atmosphere in the house becomes more and more tense.
2. Mood swings and personality changes
The behavior of a dependent person becomes unpredictable, euphoria is replaced by bouts of angry suspicion. This is influenced by forced abstinence or reduction in use.
Relatives of those who drink or use drugs often suffer from the fact that at certain periods it is not a relative and a close person, but an unpredictable stranger. The psychiatrist mentions patients who, under the influence of substances, did strange, sometimes frightening acts – walked down the street without clothes and even attacked a partner and children.
Returning to a sober state, the addict usually did not remember what had happened, and if he did, he sometimes bitterly regretted what he had done and asked for forgiveness. And then everything repeated.
3. Deterioration of relations with others
Like Zoe’s friend’s story, most addictions start with innocent consumption among friends. Over time, the social environment changes. The circle of communication is shifting towards those who are always ready to “support the company”.
It should be noted that complex addiction therapy usually includes a change of environment. In order to be cured, the patient needs a change of scenery so that there is no temptation to go back to those with whom he used before.
Personality changes and other negative aspects affect relationships with those closest to you. At some stage, an addicted person may lose his family. According to 2016 data, alcoholism of one of the spouses was in 4th place among the causes of divorce* in Russia.
4. Reduced performance
Most addicted people usually try to keep their jobs to the last, because money is needed to buy alcohol and other substances. But as dependence deepens, it becomes more and more difficult for them to fulfill their official duties.
Dr. Spicard notes that outbursts and mood swings affect both the quality of work and relationships with colleagues and management. After weekends and holidays, people with alcohol and drug addiction are often late or cannot come to work at all. In general, the state of people is changing, physical and emotional resources are quickly depleted, and intellectual abilities are declining.
5. Changes in behavior
“I don’t recognize him! He couldn’t have done that.” Parents of drug addicts are often horrified to discover that their decent son or daughter is capable of stealing and selling their mother’s jewelry or withdrawing a pension from an elderly relative’s card in order to buy something they can no longer live without.
With the growth of dependence, the “shadow side of the personality” is becoming more and more active. Many of those who, when drunk or in withdrawal symptoms, are able to raise a hand against a child or partner, commit theft or other unethical and illegal acts, before addiction seemed incapable of such a thing.
“No matter how calm and self-confident they may appear, addicted people almost always experience shame and self-hatred,” writes Anderson Spicard. He cites data from a study in which two-thirds of all suicides in the US were related to substance abuse or alcohol addiction.
The addiction syndrome is a complex of physiological, behavioral and cognitive phenomena in which the use of psychoactive substances gradually takes on a more important place in a person’s value system than other subjects and activities that were important to him before.
Such a definition can be found in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10). Addiction syndrome is diagnosed by a doctor. And, unfortunately, it will not work to “save by force” anyone – the patient’s desire is necessary for therapy. But, perhaps, for someone, the described signs will become a signal that the problem needs to be addressed.
* https://mir24.tv/news/13253248/mir-napopolam-18-prichin-razvoda