Will there be a rash of alcoholics after the pandemic? «Most liquor stores have to be closed»

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«If there is no audit, it is more difficult for us to deal with our own cracks. Who will audit the single? A dog that demands a bowl will bark at most “- we talk with the psychotherapist Robert Rutkowski about a” lawn “, which we must” indulge “.

1. According to the psychotherapist, singles can have the biggest problems with addiction
2. The expert predicts that the global pandemic could trigger another epidemic. This time, however, it will not be an infectious disease, but depression
3. In our country, there are 275 people per liquor store, and considering that we are talking about almost 40 million people, we are dealing with pure madness – the expert believes
4. Check your health. Just answer these questions
5. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

Zuzanna Opolska, Medonet: Experts convince, and research confirms that the last two years have been conducive to addiction. Have the “former” patients returned to your office, or have you acquired new ones?

Robert Rutkowski, psychotherapist: The simplest and most honest answer would be: I don’t know. I really have no idea. Mainly because my office is currently enrolled in October. There are no fluctuations with me – the patient who was signed in waits, comes and we talk to each other.

I will say more, there was no pandemic in my office. She didn’t exist – the past two years hadn’t had any effect on my patients. But please don’t get me wrong – I’m not unique at all, it’s just that everyone who has a problem with alcohol, in fact, during a pandemic, was given an additional tool to help maintain the direction of action.

1. Do you need psychological support? At Medonet Market, you can book a consultation with a specialist

It’s interesting… what?

One of the more serious triggers, i.e. contact with others, has disappeared. The parties have gone out, the house parties have gone out, even the house parties have gone out. All social life has been “frozen”. And given that most addicts cannot cope with their obsession in the social context, “spirit movens” is gone.

Of course, there are certainly those who started their adventure with psychoactive substances, including alcohol on the proverbial TV set, but they will find their way to the aid system in a year at the earliest. Please note that addiction is a very slow process. What I am talking about corresponds to the results of studies on the increase in alcohol consumption during the pandemic. It’s not like everyone was drinking, we can talk about subgroups.

Further part below the video.

So who “sailed”?

The singles are sure they are screwed up. It’s harder to grapple with your cracks if you don’t have an audit. Because who will audit them? A dog that demands a bowl will bark at most. Family, partner, mate, and especially children, unlike a cat, hamster or fish, will not leave space. It even got to the point that some people did not sail.

You know, I hesitate a bit when talking about alcohol addiction … Perhaps it’s worth specifying what addiction is. I have the impression that the term itself confuses us strongly.

We have an ICD.10 that defines addiction as a complex of somatic, behavioral and cognitive symptoms in which drinking alcohol becomes a priority over other previously more important behaviors …

Yes, we have diagnostic criteria in all Bibles for smarts like me. We also have books, such as ICD.10 or DSM-5, formerly DSM-IV, or modern classifications of alcoholism, which are of little interest to ordinary mortals. It is generally recognized that where there are losses in the social, family or professional area, we are talking about addiction. So, we assume that you only have a problem with alcohol when you become addicted …

Yes, earlier we have drinking with the letter r, euphemistically: “recreational”, and formally: “risky” …

And yet, if we wanted to be in line with the current science, and by nature I try to be precise, over the last few years, and more precisely on August 23, 2018, in the pages of “The Lancet”, the results of research difficult to accept for modern people appeared. On the other hand, it is difficult to argue with them: they lasted 26 years, covered the population of 195 countries. Unfortunately, they say straightforwardly: there is no safe amount of alcohol, no matter what type of alcohol it is. Each consumption: a can of beer, a glass of wine or a glass of peppercorns can cause duplication of DNA damage, i.e. cancer. When I read this, I thought we had a sweep: percentages would be gone from our lives.

1. See also: Here are some signs that you have an alcohol problem

They have not disappeared – as the rising consumption figures show, there are more of them. Anyway, the “magic of resveratrol continues”, some experts still argue that red wine is good for the heart …

The statistics are terrifying – in 1938 a static inhabitant of our country drank 1,5 liters of pure alcohol, in the 50s – 3,2 liters, in the 70s – 5,1 liters, during martial law – about 10 liters, and today we drink almost 12 liters.

Like any messenger of bad news, I expected my head to be cut off. It also happened – in social media I was considered crazy. Only in the last four years there have been many more studies supporting the meta-analysis from The Lancet. Unfortunately, we are not ready to face the truth about alcohol. Why am I even talking about this? Because it completely changes the perspective. We cannot treat alcohol as sanatorium spring water until losses occur in our lives. This approach is a thing of the past. This is history.

You surely know that the previous crises of the 11st century were associated with higher alcohol consumption – September 2002, the SARS epidemic at the turn of 2003-2007, the Great Recession, i.e. the global crisis of 2009-XNUMX. Hence, many countries, unlike Poland, fearing a repeat of the scenario, decided to introduce restrictions on sales. Have we made a mistake?

Maybe I will develop it – people feared not only the wave of addiction, but the most powerful and dramatic disease in the modern world – depression. Plague of the XNUMXst Century Given that alcohol is the most powerful depressant on Earth, forward-thinking governments imposed restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Please note that we in Poland laugh at the Swedes and their restrictive anti-alcohol policy, i.e. the entire Systembolaget, and it all makes sense. Midnight, short days, no sun, no vitamin D combined with alcohol is a recipe for mass depression, and no country’s economy can afford it. Therefore, in answering your question, let me say straight: the Polish government, by not deciding to introduce restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcohol during the pandemic, made a gigantic mistake for which we will be paying with an increased amount of depression and addictions in the coming years.

Then let’s talk about alcoholism “with class”, or HFA (High Functioning Alcoholics) – high functioning alcoholics. Was it harder for them during the pandemic? Several control brakes have fallen off: no need to get behind the wheel in the morning, meetings and presentations have gone safe online, and drip bars have closed …

If they were single, they couldn’t handle it: kick your soul, there’s no hell. On the other hand, if they had partners, they were more protected, above all by the presence of children.

So, however, relationships are the most important protective factor?

I would add the adjective “good”. Loved ones are a free audit, a safety cushion that allows us to land softly on the turns of life, and sometimes sharp turns. In any case, the family is not only useful for photos.

I will refer to the title of one of your books – “Pleasure traps”. A few things we like to escape to have been taken away from us – the borders were closed, restaurants, gyms, swimming pools, and at some point forests were closed. How does the human psyche react when what it loves is taken away from it?

I have always been and I am lege artis. I really believe that it is worth living in accordance with the law, not only in the legal context, but above all for mental health. It is worth paying taxes legally, being an honest employer and employee, respecting the letter of the law, but I must admit that my attitude was destroyed when the local gyms, parks and forests were closed. It was complete paranoia! Being a “runner” myself, I had exceptional comfort – a home treadmill with a “slogan”. How did the others fare? I don’t know, but I’m not surprised that gyms were opened illegally. In general, forbidding people to move is to condemn them to madness of various obsessions, addictions or mental disorders.

Could the Internet be one of these obsessions? Already, some studies show that in the last two years, Internet use has increased significantly among adults, adolescents and children, which has had a negative impact on our mental health. We felt anxiety and fear more often, we had depressive thoughts …

I think that the young generation is much more mentally resilient than we think. Of course, those who had a tendency to close themselves in the virtual world could dive deeper. On the other hand, the pandemic clearly audited family relations. It was bad in houses where there was never closeness, no conversation, no exchange of thoughts. Conversely, if the household members had a bond, they saved each other. This is evidenced by the increase in sales of board games, bicycles, home fitness equipment, potted plants and the boom for “pandemic puppies”. I had waited almost nine months for the golden retriever alone.

Let me tell you more, we were so desperate that we rented dogs from each other for money. Only so that I could go for walks with impunity. So we lived a bit like during the occupation: secret gyms, secret bars, underground party. Perhaps doctoral theses will be prepared in the near future.

And how did you work with the patients – can the phone or screen replace a normal visit?

I have been working online for over a decade, mainly due to overseas patients, but even during the “hard lockdown” I did not close the live mode. I was simply giving my patients a choice for a simple reason – if you work with people who have attempted suicide, who need human contact, such as oxygen, the specialist must not be afraid. He cannot show that he is afraid of his patient. Which does not mean that I did not take precautions: I threw all the items out of the office, I walked 4 m away and, unfortunately, I bought extremely expensive Swiss air purifiers. The atmosphere of an operating room.

Paradoxically, I remember the first wave very well: I am driving my car to meet my patients through a ghost town, there are no traffic jams, but lots of parking – something beautiful. Although, like most Poles, I still eat pasta, which we bought in advance. After all, none of us knew how it would all end …

Finally, it’s time for the “high-fledged” question: what do you think the post-pandemic mental health landscape might look like?

By moving a drone away a bit at a distance, as modern filmmakers like it, the long-range zoom will be better. I really believe the world will get better. Because there is a property that you should know about – a person under stress activates new proteins. Our body produces new genes that make us much better than we were before. And most of us will become more efficient in action, in managing ourselves, our own pleasures and weaknesses.

On the other hand, the reality is never as rosy as we would like and… the weakest units will fall away. All those who did not follow certain procedures to protect themselves from addictions, were not kind to themselves and did not treat their body like a temple, will feed a health system that becomes even more clogged. However, I think that, whatever the pandemic, we have a very important lesson to learn.

What?

We have to clean up the alcohol. I am not talking about prohibition, but about the necessary restrictions. Points of selling alcohol should be closed in Poland. I don’t know if you know, but there are more liquor stores in Bydgoszcz than in the whole of Norway! In our country, there are 275 people per liquor store, and considering that we are talking about a population of almost 40 million, we are dealing with pure madness!

We have become the pump room of Europe. Please note that Lithuania banned the sale of non-alcoholic champagne for children three years ago, and we are doing great. Alcohol promotes itself at every step – homelessness continues and progresses.

At the end, I would like to add that there is a lawn in front of the apartment building where my office is located. This is the center of Warsaw, not the outskirts. An elegant district, called “Polish Dubai”, not a suspicious district. And when I pass, I stumble over monkeys, a symbol of contemporary Poland. Unfortunately, to paraphrase Wacław Potocki, “Poland is facing monkey”.

We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we were wondering why switching our thinking and acting to slow life is a real challenge? Why is listening to your needs so important? What will it do for us? You will hear about it below.

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