Alcoholism, is nowadays been accepted as a sign of elegance and status symbol among different social groups. This habit may turn into an addiction which in turn affects one's health. Hence fighting against alcohol addiction is the need of the hour. Let’s see how.

Hazards of Alcohol Addiction:

• Alcohol has strong effects on brain and causes lack of coordination. Hence the person feels extremely relaxed and feels numbness all over the body.
• Alcoholism makes a person addicted both physically and psychologically. If the habit has been there for a very long time, then the person would feel that they are not normal at times when they don’t drink alcohol.
• The kidneys, heart and liver of an alcohol addict are very much prone to failure and they may lead to multiple organ failures too. In worse cases, the end of this condition could be fatal.
• Apart from these, alcohol addiction may cause economical, social and psychological damages to the ones who drink as well as their family members.

Fighting Alcohol Addiction:

• The first and the most important step is that, the person who is alcoholic must accept and admit his weakness and must be willing to get rid of it. Only to continue with the habit of drinking, alcoholics used to deny their consumption which is a main problem in treating alcoholics.
• Alcoholism is not a disease and hence can’t be cured. Treatment for alcohol addiction means, to make the person stay away from drinking and bring them out from the past ill-effects of their addiction.

This is possible by self- control measures as follows:

• Decide within yourselves that you need to quit alcohol for sure and get committed to it.
• Analyze the costs (financial,social,physical,psychological) of drinking and benefits of quitting it.(Both to you and your loved ones)
• Minimize the frequency and levels of alcohol consumption slowly and maintain a record of it.
• Withdrawal from alcohol may cause side-effects like headaches, restlessness etc. Prepare yourself to face it.
• Set goals in career, love and life and start moving towards it.
• Learn to manage drinking triggers like social pressures.
• Get support from family members and friends.
• Now start for treatment to get out of the health hazards of alcoholism.
• Usually, the first step in treating alcoholics, is to make them voluntarily join in a rehabilitation center.
• There, initial counseling will be given to them after which they will be subjected to detoxification treatment.
• Detoxification is the process of bringing down the alcohol levels of a person under strict medical supervision, which may take up to 7 days depending on the level of addiction. It has been proved that certain herbs and vitamins act good in fighting against alcoholism.
• Alcoholic anonymous is one such program, which actively helps people to fight against alcohol addiction.

Though there are a series of steps which may guide you to quit alcohol, the only strong force behind complete success of treatment is YOU.

Decide to quit it! Only then you are out of it!

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