Female alcoholism: causes, stages, symptoms and signs, treatment at home and inpatient

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The desire for equal rights for men and women has swept Russia. Women tend to work and earn as many men, adopt male habits and want to be less dependent on the male sex. Unfortunately, women in many ways adopted and harmful habits inherent in men. Sadly, it can be stated that an increasing number of women are becoming addicted to alcoholism.

Female alcoholism

Female alcoholism, as well as the male, is a dependence on alcoholic beverages containing ethanol. Of course, the division of alcoholism into masculine and feminine is relatively arbitrary, alcoholism in the strong and the weaker sex is inherently a physiological and psychological addiction to strong drinks. And the consequences, and the mechanism of action of ethanol on a woman is no different from the same factors in relation to men. However, doctors still singled out female alcoholism as a separate disease. Why is this happening? The development of alcoholism in women has a specific specificity, completely different from that of men, causes, features of the course and therapy. Perhaps, it is worth starting with the factors that contribute to the development of alcoholism in the female sex.

Reasons for

Women, unlike the stronger sex, are more emotional and receptive and it is psychological reasons that often push women to relax with the help of alcohol.

The main psychological causes of alcohol dependence in women are:

• Depression. Factors contributing to the development of depression, can serve as loneliness, incomprehension of loved ones, dissatisfaction with life lived.
• Strong psychological trauma - care of a spouse, loss of loved ones, illness.
• Boredom. This reason as a start for the development of alcohol dependence is very characteristic of the wives of wealthy people. The husband is busy with business, but does not allow a woman to earn money herself. There is emptiness, a lot of unspent energy, a feeling that life is passing by. In this situation, alcohol comes to the rescue as salvation from melancholy and despondency. The dependence develops very quickly.
• Serious, responsible work. In this case, the target of alcoholism are serious business ladies who occupy high positions in the service. This requires a lot of stress, stress and fatigue accumulate. Alcohol is seen as a pleasant end to the day's work, a way to relax and fall asleep. Over time, relaxation and calm give way to habit. So the dependence develops.
• Active advertising of low-alcohol cocktails and beer. Such drinks are used between business, in the companies of girl-friends, teenage girls at discotheques. Weak alcohol is not perceived as something serious, although in reality one bottle of beer is nothing more than 60 milliliters of vodka. A year later the evening ends with a bottle of wine, and afterwards and vodka.
• Social dissatisfaction with the situation in the society, low incomes, inability to achieve a high status in the society.

Features

The development of dependence is very fast - in just five years, a woman from a successful well-groomed lady turns into a drunk alcoholic. This is partly due to the fact that women until the last conceal their addiction to alcohol, and partly because of the characteristics of physiology, thanks to which alcoholism in the weaker sex develops much faster.

Female alcoholism has the following characteristics:

• Low enzymatic activity with respect to ethanol. Alcohol is processed and withdrawn from the body of a woman more slowly than men. In this case, there is an increased sensitivity of the liver tissues to the toxic effect of ethanol. The liver is destroyed very quickly, and in a short period of time a deadly disease occurs - cirrhosis.
• The blood-brain barrier between blood cells and the cells of the fluid surrounding the brain in women is more permeable, and therefore ethanol is much faster penetrates this fragile membrane and affects neurons.
• Presence of the menstrual cycle. In the premenstrual period, many women exacerbate mental stress, which is easily removed with the help of alcohol. At this time, the absorption of alcohol into the blood increases, which increases the toxic effect of ethanol.
• No less important is the different content of water in the body of a man and a woman. So, in a female body, water is 10% less, which causes an increased ethanol content in the blood with an equally drunk dose. Increased concentration of ethanol exacerbates the intoxication of the body, and therefore irreversible negative changes in the internal organs are faster.
• Lower blood flow in organs responsible for blood accumulation - liver and spleen and a large number of venous vessels contribute to the rapid damage of these organs.
  Rapid absorption of alcohol in the small intestine, respectively, rapid intoxication due to increased penetration into the bloodstream.

Because of these features, the development of alcoholism in women is immeasurably faster in comparison with the male part of the population. A woman feels more and more craving for the constant acceptance of alcohol. In turn, frequent use of high doses of strong alcohol leads to a severe form of alcoholism with the defeat of internal organs in just a few years.
On the video about the characteristics of female alcoholism:

Signs and symptoms

It is often very difficult for relatives to diagnose the nascent alcoholism of their relative. This contributes to fear of condemnation of society and the related secrecy of women.

You can recognize the disease by the combination of some signs:

• Alcohol is used even for insignificant reasons, there is always a desire to drink.
• Rapid increase of doses of alcohol and its strength, development of immunity to large doses of alcohol. Refusal of snacks when drinking, loss of appetite.
• Changing the circle of communication with a woman, the appearance of actively drinking people in friends.
• Denial of problems with alcohol, sharply aggressive behavior in response to possible comments about cravings for alcohol.
• Changes in the mental and emotional state of women - episodes of memory loss after drinking, constantly depressed mood, apathy, rudeness.
• Physiological changes. There is a tremor of hands, puffiness and reddening of the face, there are traces from the bursting capillaries on the nose. The skin around the eyes sag and there are bags under the eyes.
• Non-observance of personal hygiene. The woman ceases to follow herself, becomes untidy, from it emits an unpleasant smell of unwashed body and non-washed clothes.

With the appearance of the first symptoms of alcoholism, the relatives of the woman should be alarmed, since the lady who drinks herself is unlikely to be able to assess how dangerous her condition is. And if at the first stage it is possible to counteract the development of the disease on their own, then on the subsequent without drug support one can not do.

Photo of women suffering from alcoholism

Stages of development of the disease

Specialists distinguish three stages of female alcoholism:

1. The first stage is characterized by an increased desire to take alcohol. This is due to the addiction of the body to the effects of alcohol and its effect on the opioid receptors of the brain. Psychic dependence is formed.
2. The second stage can be considered as a drunken one. There is irritation from the inability to use alcohol, psychological dependence is quite clearly expressed. Pathological changes from the internal organs and the brain have not yet been observed, but the appearance of the drinking woman is already undergoing negative changes.
3. This is the last stage of alcoholism, in which there are numerous pathological changes in the liver, kidneys, brain. This stage is characterized by high physical and mental dependence on alcohol. A woman drinks a lot and often.

Consequences of

Given the transience of the development of alcoholism in women, the consequences of libations occur very quickly. In a number of cases, the third stage of alcoholism a woman achieves in a year or two a constant use of alcoholic beverages.

Almost all internal organs are affected, which leads to the death of a woman, or the appearance of severe pathologies:

• alcoholic encephalopathy due to the constant poisoning of the body with ethanol;
• multiple peripheral nerve damage, characterized by weakness in the legs, convulsions and pain in the lower extremities;
• alcoholic cardiomyopathy;
• cirrhosis and progressive hepatic insufficiency;
• chronic alcoholic etiology pancreatitis;
• alcoholic delirium is a white fever caused by the constant toxic effect of ethanol on the nervous system;
• is a syndrome of Wernicke-Korsakov, caused by a lack of thiamine and leading to early dementia.

Treatment

There is an opinion that female alcoholism is incurable. On the one hand, this is a true statement, since alcoholism is a disease that, in principle, does not lend itself to complete cure. There are periods of remission, which last for years, sometimes the whole life of the patient. But to struggle with a temptation to drink a glass-another alcoholic will be for the rest of his life.

At the first stage of treatment it is desirable to find out the reason why a woman began to drink. Elimination of this psychological background, coupled with drug support, will undoubtedly give a positive result.

Treatment of female alcoholism is desirable to be carried out in a specialized department of the narcological clinic, where all the necessary procedures are performed:

• deducing from drinking-bout;
• detoxification and purification of the body from the products of the decomposition of ethanol;
• maintenance therapy with disulfiram or naltrexone-based drugs;
• psychotherapeutic help, conversations with a psychologist, group classes;
• restoration of internal organs with the help of drugs - nootropics, vitamin-mineral complexes, hepatoprotectors.

On the video about the treatment of female alcoholism:

At home

Recognizing her dependence on alcohol, a woman takes the first step to a cure. However, not all alcoholics decide to fight dependence in the hospital due to a sense of shame, intolerance to their appearance and reluctance to be in everyone's mind. If a woman categorically does not want to go to the clinic, you can try to help at home. It is important to create a favorable microclimate, an atmosphere of understanding and support.

In the first stage of alcoholism, when the internal organs are not yet affected by alcohol intoxication and the appearance of the woman has not undergone any drastic changes, enough psychotherapeutic help and medication support of a sober period by coding is enough. Such treatment can be combined with work and ordinary daily life.

In the second, and even more so the third stage, treatment of alcoholism at home is impossible.

As in any other disease, alcoholism is easier to prevent than treat. When there are first signs of depression or emotional torment, a woman needs to turn to a specialist as soon as possible, and not discuss her troubles behind a glass. In particular, one should be cautious of those ladies who had alcoholics in their family.

Documentary about female alcoholism: