EDUCATION

Consequences of ALCOHOL abuse

How does alcohol influence your health?

EDUCATION: Special hospital for addiction treatment

PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES OF ALCOHOLISM

• Physical appearance

Visible changes: untidiness , messy facial hair, swollen face, cheeks, red eyes. As a type of camouflage, to hide his disease, an addict may become strikingly tidy.

EDUCATION: Special hospital for addiction treatment

• Esophagus - catarrhal esophagitis, esophaguscancer

• Stomach – alcohol directly damages mucous

membrane surface (gastritis,ulcer)

• Liver - alcohol induced hepatitis of the liver or “fat liver”, cirrhosis as the advanced stage of the disease with irreparable damages.

EDUCATION: Special hospital for addiction treatment

• Heart - weakening in contractions of the

heart muscle, which leads to higher heart rate thus exhausting of the heart muscle.

• Central nervous system extinction of nerve cells leads to brain atrophy

• Skin – dermatoses ( redness & rashes )

EDUCATION: Special hospital for addiction treatment

• Peripheral nervous system – nerve inflammation (Polyneuropathy)

Numbness, tingling, fatigue, loss of strength, leg cramps.

• General physical degradation- weakening of the ability of an

organism to resist infections – decrease of immunity.

• Bowels - inflammation of the colon and small intestine

• Pancreas - chronic inflammation of the pancreas leads to high blood sugar and respectively diabetes.

• Blood vessels - become less vital, with low elasticity and high brittleness. Increased risk of stroke and heart attack.

EDUCATION: Special hospital for addiction treatment

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF ALCOHOL USE

• Disruption of normal psychological functions

• Character and personality changes, “alcoholic behavior”

• Psychotic disorders (alcoholic insanities)

•Disruption of normal psychological functions

- weakened focus- memory lapses- disrupted thoughts- IQ deterioration- affective disorders – frequent mood swings- motivation and urges are reduced

EDUCATION: Special hospital for addiction treatment

• Character and personality changes, “alcoholic behavior”

- Minimizing means reducing importance of problems

- Negation means denying all problems caused by drinking

- Rationalization is constant justification

- Projection means different interpretation of real events

- Suppression means forgetting unpleasant events related to drinking

- Social comparison means comparing ones own drinking with drinking of others

Defensive tactics :

Usuall characteristics of “alcoholic behavior” :

- Social and emotional immaturity

- Lack of self discipline

- Selfishness and egocentricity

- Resinous and vacillating attitude towards authority

- Superficial relationships

- Limited interests

- Inability to express emotions

- Low resistance to obstacles

- Untruthfulness

EDUCATION: Special hospital for addiction treatment

• Psychotic disorders (alcoholic insanities)

- Pathological alcohol intoxication

- delirium tremens ( alcoholic insanity with body tremors) : hallucinations, loss of orientation, hands and body tremors, headaches, pains and muscle cramps.

- Alcoholic dementia

- Korsakoff's psychosis ( madness)

- Morbid jealousy syndrome

- Alcoholic hallucinations

EDUCATION: Special hospital for addiction treatment