Which means reduces tolerance to alcohol. Alcohol tolerance. Chronic stage of alcoholism

Regular consumption of alcohol-containing products has an extremely detrimental effect on the condition of the entire body. Moreover, a person who drinks regularly may even be aware of the danger of his lifestyle, but is no longer able to stop drinking on his own. Alcoholism develops, that is, addiction to ethanol; in this situation, saving a person and returning him to a full life can only be done through the joint efforts of narcologists, psychiatrists and physiotherapists.

Addiction, that is, tolerance to alcohol, develops gradually and completely unnoticeably. This is the main danger of ethanol. It is not for nothing that doctors call it a “silent killer”, because an accustomed body over time requires an increase in dose, which only accelerates the onset of its death. But why does a drinker develop alcohol tolerance?

The presence of tolerance to alcohol indicates the development of the disease

In the medical field, this concept means the acquisition of addiction to alcoholic beverages in a specific individual, that is, the development of persistent addiction, alcoholism. If we consider the definition from a physiological point of view, then the reasons for tolerance can be found in the body’s ability to withstand the intake of toxic substances (including ethanol) to a certain level.

Many people become alcohol dependent due to their belief that moderate alcohol consumption has no effect on health.

Among narcologists, the definition that stands out is “initial tolerance.” That is, this is the amount of alcohol, when consumed, the human body does not yet encounter any fatal consequences. For example, a dose of 250 ml of vodka (150 ml of alcohol) is considered to be “initially stable”.

If this amount is exceeded, the drinker already faces a severe hangover. And with regular excess of alcohol and constant consumption of alcohol, tolerance develops (at the first stage of alcoholism). By the way, it’s worth knowing that the threshold of initial stability varies among people. It depends on several factors present:

1. Weight. This pattern (the appearance of tolerance) is monitored in direct proportion to the body weight of the drinker. The greater the weight, the slower the onset of intoxication and, accordingly, it takes longer to get used to it.
2. Floor. It has been established that males, due to their physiological characteristics, are more resistant to the effects of ethanol. But for women, addiction develops much faster.
3. Age. The development of addiction also depends on the person’s age. The older the body, the more alcohol it needs to get a pleasant drunkenness. But for a teenager, only 50–60 g of pure alcohol is enough to achieve a deep degree of intoxication. Moreover, a young person can develop tolerance even after drinking just a couple of glasses of vodka.

Definition of tolerance

Types of tolerance

When clarifying what alcohol tolerance is, it is worth dwelling on its types as a separate point. Medical experts distinguish three types of addiction:

1. Functional.
2. Spicy.
3. Under the influence of the surrounding environment.

Functional

It develops due to the addiction of the brain to alcohol. Over time, the brain begins to actively adapt, that is, to try to compensate for a number of inconveniences caused by the toxic effects of ethyl alcohol. This leads to a gradual increase in the required dose (the body ceases to respond adequately to the intake of alcohol) and the development of chronic alcoholism. Such patients may not show signs of intoxication for a long time, even with large amounts of alcohol consumption..

With developed functional tolerance (chronic alcoholism), the individual and the body can cope even with such a dose of ethanol, which in other people leads to death.

The functional development of tolerance occurs according to an individual scenario. How and when exactly alcoholism begins depends on a number of nuances and factors related to the personal characteristics of a particular organism. A feature of functional tolerance is the fact that its appearance and further development does not depend on the influence of environmental factors.

A change in tolerance confirms alcoholism in a drinker

Acute

Despite the fact that a decrease in tolerance to alcohol develops over a long period of time, after long binges, doctors also note the appearance of its acute form. It manifests itself as a growing deterioration in the drinker’s condition on the first day of binge drinking, while functional tolerance signals itself by a decline in condition closer to the end of the binge period.

It is worth understanding that acute tolerance is not formed to all the consequences of drinking ethanol, but only to the feeling of drunkenness. This type is the most dangerous because it encourages the drinker to consume even more alcohol in the hope of achieving a feeling of intoxication. Chronic alcoholism under such conditions develops quite quickly.

Under the influence of external factors

A decrease in tolerance to ethanol can also be formed under the influence of the environment. For example, if drinking has a certain ritual character, that is, it is accompanied by the same actions and gradually obeys certain signals. Alcoholism in such situations can develop even among light drinkers, if they are constantly in the same conditions conducive to drinking alcohol.

An analogy can be drawn with drinking alcohol in a work environment (in offices) and the testimony of the same people drinking in a bar/restaurant. In the latter case, drinkers showed more stable tolerance than when drinking in the workplace. Conditions conducive to relaxation, rest, the presence of drinking people in the neighborhood and leads to the appearance of certain signals associated with the desire to drink.

The emergence of tolerance leads to an increase in the dose of alcohol

Reasons for this phenomenon

It is believed that alcoholism is a social disease. This pathology is reflected not only on the physical, but also on the psychological state of the individual and directly affects all aspects of a person’s life. Experts examining the phenomenon of tolerance and the subsequent development of alcoholism have come to the conclusion that the main causes of alcohol addiction lie in such areas of life as:

• social;
• psychological;
• biological.

Social reasons

The reasons that lead to the development of alcoholism and related to social factors are fundamental in the emergence of this problem. These include:

• level of culture;
• habits of the environment where the person lives;
• features of religious education;
• social factors that have a direct impact on the development of personality.

Psychological nuances

It has been noted that alcoholism can develop in different ways and is sometimes clearly manifested in individuals who have certain specific character traits. For example, people who are at risk include:

• excessive timidity;
• self-doubt;
• having a pronounced egocentrism;
• characterized by increased levels of anxiety;
• impressionability;
• high degree of irritability.

Stages of development of alcoholism

Biological factors

Experts include various past or congenital diseases of a neuropsychic nature to this list of reasons. This includes genetic abnormalities and developmental defects. Intrafamily factors, habits and principles of a particular family, which can provoke the development of alcoholism, also play a huge role.

It has been established that children born to chronic alcoholics have a 4-5 times increased risk of developing alcoholism compared to others.

What does decreased alcohol tolerance indicate?

Doctors have found that with the development of a disease such as alcoholism, a change in tolerance to it has its own characteristics. In particular, during the first stage of the disease, the level of addiction increases by 3–4 times, which leads to an increase in the regular dose, an increase in the volume of which is required for a person to achieve a feeling of intoxication.

The peak of tolerance occurs mainly in severe degrees of alcoholism, when the patient’s body requires a tenfold increase in the dose. During this period, an alcoholic can take up to 1–1.5 liters of vodka at a time. By the way, after some time there may be an increase in tolerance, when the patient needs less alcohol to achieve a deep degree of intoxication.

These two factors: an increase and then a decrease in tolerance to alcohol are direct confirmation of the presence of alcoholism in a person.

In patients with alcoholism, at the first stages of development of the disease, there is a decline in the feeling of satiety, then there is a sharp decrease in aversion to drinking (this is confirmed by the absence of a gag reflex, as a manifestation of the body’s protective function against poisoning). The appearance of tolerance is a rather negative symptom, directly indicating the presence and development of alcoholism, against the background of which the patient is forced to take increasing amounts of ethanol to obtain pleasant sensations.

conclusions

Alcohol tolerance is a direct sign of developing alcoholism. Although, among ordinary people it is believed that resistance to alcohol is a sign of a strong and strong body, but practice says the opposite. Namely, that ethanol regularly entering the body has already led to the appearance of irreversible changes and a decrease in protective properties. This means that the person has already come very close to the line that separates a healthy existence from the systematic and inevitable destruction of all internal organs.

In contact with

The first stage (stage of mental dependence). Pathological craving for alcohol is the main one among the initial signs. Alcohol becomes a means that is constantly necessary to cheer up, feel confident and free, forget about troubles and adversities, facilitate contacts with others, and emotionally discharge.

Mental dependence on alcohol is based on this attraction. Its essence is that drinking is made the main interest in life: all thoughts are focused on it, reasons are invented, company is sought, every event is primarily considered as a reason for drinking. For the sake of this, other things, entertainment, hobbies that do not promise feasts, and acquaintances are abandoned. Money intended for essentials is spent on alcohol. Drinking becomes regular - 2-3 times a week or more often.

In addition to pathological attraction and mental dependence, other signs are less constant and therefore less reliable for diagnosing alcoholism.

Increasing tolerance to alcohol, its minimum dose capable of causing at least mild intoxication (or, conversely, the maximum dose that does not cause it), at the first stage reaches the point that intoxication requires a dose 2-3 times greater than before. However, after a long break from drinking, tolerance may decrease. In adolescence and adolescence, it can grow without alcoholism due to physical development and increase in body weight. The most accurate assessment of tolerance can be made by the minimum blood alcohol content when the first signs of intoxication are evident.

The loss of quantitative and situational control is manifested by the fact that, having started drinking, people cannot stop and get drunk to the point of severe intoxication (in intoxication, the pathological craving for alcohol intensifies even more), as well as by the fact that they cease to take into account the situation when appearing drunk threatens serious consequences. troubles. But sometimes control is lost only in the second stage of alcoholism. Occasionally, especially with epileptoid psychopathy and character accentuations, an initial lack of quantitative control occurs: from the first intoxication, an uncontrollable desire to get drunk “until blackout” arises. Teenagers and young adults sometimes neglect situations out of bravado.

The disappearance of the gag reflex, which is protective (part of the alcohol is removed from the stomach), indicates addiction to large doses. However, in 510% this reflex may initially be absent. Then a large dose of alcohol causes restless sleep, stupor, and coma.

Blackouts are the loss from memory of certain periods of intoxication, during which the ability to act and speak was retained and not even give the impression of being very intoxicated to others. This phenomenon appears in some cases at the first, in others at the second stage of alcoholism. In those who have suffered traumatic brain injury or have epilepsy, as well as with epileptoid psychopathy and accentuation of character, blackouts can appear from the first strong intoxication in their lives.

Second stage (stage of physical dependence). Physical dependence on alcohol is the main sign of this stage. Its essence is that regular intake of alcohol into the body becomes a necessary condition for maintaining altered homeostasis - the constancy of the internal environment. Many years of constant drinking lead to a restructuring of biochemical processes, and the enzyme system involved in the processing of alcohol is sharply activated. For example, in non-drinkers, about 80% of absorbed alcohol is destroyed by alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver, about 10% by catalase in other tissues, and another 10% is excreted in exhaled air, urine and feces. As alcoholism develops, the activity of catalase increases - in the second stage, up to 50% is already inactivated by it. The activity of aspartate and alanine aminotransferases and other enzymes also increases, and other changes occur regarding biologically active substances (catecholamines, etc.), which are intended for biochemical adaptation to the constant supply of large doses of alcohol.

Compulsive (secondary, irresistible) attraction is based on physical dependence. It is comparable to hunger and thirst. Alcohol becomes an urgent need, the absence of which causes painful disorders.

Withdrawal syndrome is a very painful condition that develops as a result of the cessation of the usual dose of alcohol. Its peculiarity is that all disorders are temporarily eliminated or mitigated by drinking alcoholic beverages. Abstinence is manifested by mental, neurological and somatic disorders. Asthenia, irritability, causeless anxiety are combined with insomnia or restless sleep and nightmares. Characterized by muscle tremors (especially large fingers), alternating chills and heavy sweating, thirst and loss of appetite. Patients complain of headache and palpitations. Blood pressure is often elevated, sometimes significantly. Depending on the type of character accentuation, dysphoria, hysterical behavior with demonstrative suicide attempts or depression with true suicidal intentions, paranoid ideas of jealousy, persecution, and relationships may appear. In severe cases, delirium tremens (“delirium tremens”) and seizures may develop.

During abstinence, the secondary pathological attraction to alcohol sharply worsens and becomes irresistible.

Withdrawal begins 12–24 hours after drinking. Its duration depends on the severity of the course - from 1–2 days to 1–2 weeks. With intensive treatment, it ends quickly and proceeds more easily.

At the second stage of alcoholism, other symptoms also occur. But their diagnostic value is less. Some of them are unstable, others may appear at the first stage.

Tolerance to alcohol can increase 5 or more times compared to the initial intoxicating dose. Loss of quantitative control usually occurs. Often a “critical” dose of alcohol may be noted, after which no control is possible. The loss of situational control becomes more obvious - they drink with just anyone and anywhere. In the absence of alcoholic beverages, they resort to surrogates - various alcohol-containing liquids. Blackouts become more frequent and pronounced.

A change in the picture of intoxication is more typical for the second stage. The euphoria becomes shorter and weaker. It is replaced by irritability, explosiveness, discontent, a tendency to scandals and aggression. Dysphoric and hysterical types of intoxication are more common.

The change in the form of alcohol abuse comes down to the fact that some patients drink constantly, and some drink periodically. An intermediate form is also found. With constant abuse, patients drink large doses of alcohol almost every evening, and small doses in the morning to avoid withdrawal symptoms. The periodic form is characterized by binges - true and false, and between them - moderate abuse or even complete abstinence.

True binge drinking is a special form of alcoholism that develops against the background of cycloid accentuation of character or cyclothymia. Binge drinking is preceded by an affective phase in the form of a “mixed state”: depression is combined with anxiety and an uncontrollable desire to suppress a painful state with the help of alcohol. The binge lasts several days, and in the first days a high tolerance to alcohol is revealed, in subsequent days it falls. Binge drinking often ends with aversion syndrome - a complete aversion to alcohol, one type of which causes nausea and vomiting. Then, for several weeks or months, patients completely abstain from drinking until the onset of the next affective phase.

False binges are characteristic of the second stage of alcoholism. They arise as a result of socio-psychological factors (end of the working week, receiving money, etc.). The frequency of drunkenness depends on these factors; they are not based on any affective phases. The duration of binges varies. They are interrupted due to active opposition from the environment or due to the lack of alcoholic beverages.

Personality changes become pronounced precisely at the second stage. Character accentuation features become sharper. Hyperthyms become more euphoric, promiscuous in making acquaintances, prone to breaking rules and laws, taking risks, and a careless lifestyle; schizoids become even more withdrawn, epileptoids become explosive and prone to dysphoria, and hysterics intensify their inherent demonstrativeness and theatricality. However, the sharpening of features such as accentuation in adolescents and young people can occur even at the first stage of alcoholism, and an unstable type of accentuation can even reach the level of psychopathy.

Somatic complications of alcoholism also often begin from the second stage. Alcoholic fatty degeneration of the liver is especially characteristic, which protrudes from under the costal arch, is painful on palpation, functional tests may be impaired, bromosulfophthalein is especially sensitive. Chronic alcoholic hepatitis may develop. Liver damage threatens alcoholic cirrhosis. Another common complication is alcoholic cardiomyopathy (tachycardia, dilatation of the heart, muffled heart sounds, shortness of breath during exercise). There are alcoholic pancreatitis, both acute and chronic, as well as alcoholic gastritis. Alcoholism contributes to the development of gastric and duodenal ulcers.

Sexual disorders after a frequent increase in sexual activity at the first stage due to neglect of ethical and moral restrictions at the second stage begin to manifest themselves as a weakening of sexual potency (in men, erections decrease, premature ejaculation appears), which can be combined with an increased feeling of jealousy towards spouses and cohabitants.

Third stage (stage of alcoholic degradation). Decreased tolerance to alcohol sometimes occurs after many years of high endurance and is the main symptom of the third stage. First, the single dose is reduced - intoxication occurs from a small glass. The daily dose is reduced later. They move from strong drinks to weak ones, usually to cheap wines. A break from alcoholism causes severe withdrawal symptoms with insomnia, anxiety, fear, and severe neurological and somatic disorders. Sometimes delirium or seizures develop during withdrawal.

“Pseudo-withdrawal” is a condition with many signs of withdrawal syndrome (muscle tremors, sweating and chills, insomnia, anxiety and depression) that occurs during remission - after long-term (weeks, months) abstinence from alcohol. During them, the attraction to alcohol again becomes irresistible. The impetus for the development of pseudo-abstinence can be acute somatic or infectious diseases, less often - emotional stress. Sometimes pseudo-withdrawal symptoms occur periodically for no apparent reason. These conditions most often occur in the third stage.

Alcohol degradation is manifested by monotonous personality changes - the former sharpened features of a certain type of accentuation are smoothed out. Emotional attachments are lost. Patients become indifferent to loved ones, neglect the most basic moral and ethical principles, and the rules of community life. They are uncritical of their behavior. Euphoricity is combined with crude cynicism, flat “alcoholic” humor, and alternates with dysphoria and aggressiveness. Psychoorganic disorders develop: memory deteriorates, it becomes difficult to switch attention, and intelligence decreases (alcoholic dementia). Passivity and lethargy are increasing. Patients become completely indifferent to everything except drinking.

Somatic consequences at the third stage are severe. Liver cirrhosis and severe cardiomyopathy are common.

Alcoholic polyneuropathy (“alcoholic polyneuritis”) is manifested by complaints of pain and discomfort in the extremities – numbness, paresthesia, convulsive sensations. Patients have impaired gait. There may be paresis, muscles atrophy. Destructive changes in peripheral nerve fibers are associated not only with the direct toxic effect of alcohol, but also with a deficiency of B vitamins, as well as with intoxication due to liver damage.

Alcoholic psychoses at the third stage become significantly more frequent. Delirium is recurrent. Acute and chronic auditory hallucinosis and encephalopathic psychoses occur.

Let's first talk about what tolerance is in general. In medicine, tolerance is understood as the degree of tolerance of the action of a particular factor on the human body. Everything in the world has its limits, has limits and human tolerance for certain overloads - physical or chemical, to which we can include the effect of food and drink in our body. Tolerance is not constant - under the influence of various factors it can decrease or increase.

So, for example, some famous weightlifter at the beginning of his sports activity can lift a barbell weighing one hundred kilograms, but gradually, as a result of training, his result can grow to two hundred kilograms. However, he will not be able to lift these two hundred kilograms forever - either due to age-related changes or due to microtraumas and injuries, which, in fact, are the result of his constant exorbitant exercises, the weightlifter’s result will either gradually but noticeably decrease, or the weightlifter will completely fail athletic shape and, quite possibly, he will not be able to overcome his initial hundred kilograms of weight on the bar. What about a hundred kilograms! It may well happen that, due to sports diseases, a former weightlifter will not be able to lift even a bucket of water - due to post-overload separation of the tendon from the tubercle of the bone, for example.

So, any tolerance to any factor of external and internal influence has a certain starting position in the human body. This position can be strengthened and developed for some time, but this cannot be done indefinitely - from a certain time, after a period of stabilization of indicators. the body will certainly begin to reduce these indicators, either due to advancing age-related weakness or due to depletion of adaptive capabilities.

All of the above fully applies to a person’s ability to drink alcohol.

What exactly is meant in drug addiction by tolerance to alcohol? This term usually refers to the amount of alcohol that a person is able to consume in a certain, relatively short period of time. Most often, such an interval is intuitively considered to be the time of some long episode, a long feast or drunken get-togethers, lasting from two to six hours. It is most convenient to measure tolerance in a certain drink that is standard for a given area. In Russia, of course, the easiest way to measure this indicator is in terms of vodka - beer, wine, moonshine have different degrees, which makes it difficult to assess the indicator.

At the first stage of systematic alcohol consumption, tolerance naturally increases, a person who barely drank three hundred to four hundred grams of a forty-degree drink, and felt very bad after that in the morning, begins to freely drink five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred grams of vodka, and then gets up in the morning with no a very healthy head, but without any special signs of a severe hangover - health, youth and the adaptive forces of the body work wonders. At this stage, narcologists usually diagnose their patients with domestic drunkenness and active alcohol dependence in its initial stage.

At the second stage - in the light of the tolerance characteristic of it, I would call this stage heroic - tolerance reaches its peak. It is during these times that alcoholics boast of their unlimited capabilities - and some of them can actually drink at this time in one more or less extended period of time episode up to a liter, and especially outstanding individuals - up to one and a half liters of vodka. Those who are not capable of such feats are considered weaklings by the heroes of the bottle and glass. In fact, unfortunately, the peak phase of tolerance to alcohol is at the same time the phase of the second degree of chronic alcoholism - if we talk about it in the slightly outdated terminology of the late Soviet period.

The second stage of development of tolerance to alcohol in a drinker is naturally replaced by the third period, a period of decreased tolerance to alcohol. The adaptive abilities of the body at this stage are already depleted, the liver is not the same, the centers of the brain also do not work as expected, and the person begins to get drunk from one hundred to fifty to two hundred grams of weak wine, that is, from the dose of alcohol that he is about five -Seven years ago I simply wouldn’t have noticed. It is precisely at this stage that everyone will talk about him, about this person, as if he were an alcoholic; it is at this stage that alcoholism with all its sad consequences will be visible to everyone. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to change anything for the better at this stage, but this is a topic for another discussion.

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Ethyl alcohol causes serious harm to human health. But, unfortunately, this does not stop everyone. It is believed that it is quite normal to take 100 grams in honor of a holiday, in the company of friends, on the occasion of a birthday or at a family celebration. For a long time in Rus', not a single feast was complete without glasses of wine. Rare drinking of alcohol is harmful, but does not lead to irreversible consequences, but systematic drinking radically changes the functioning of all organ systems. Often the changes lead to the development of tolerance to alcohol.

Concept of tolerance

From a medical point of view, this is the body’s ability to tolerate a certain dose of ethyl alcohol. If we talk about a healthy person who does not abuse alcohol and allows himself to drink quite rarely, then this amount is about 150 grams of strong drink. In this dosage, ethyl alcohol in a single use will not cause significant harm to the body.

As tolerance develops, the effect of ethyl alcohol on the body weakens, so each time you have to take more and more in order to achieve the desired intoxication.

Alcohol tolerance reduces not only susceptibility to alcohol, but also protective mechanisms that protect against poisoning by ethanol and its breakdown products.

Types of alcohol tolerance

Taking into account the conditions against which resistance to alcohol develops, tolerance is formed. There are several types of it:

1. Functional. When drinking alcohol, the brain tries to compensate for the damage caused by drinking ethyl alcohol. This can be expressed not only in changes in the alcoholic’s behavior, but also in the functioning of internal organ systems. A common occurrence is when a chronic alcoholic, while drinking a large amount of alcohol, has absolutely no symptoms of intoxication. The same amount of alcohol consumed by a non-drinker can cause serious problems, even death.
2. Acute tolerance. Develops after the first serious binge drinking. In the first days of drinking alcohol, sensitivity is high, and towards the end it decreases, which provokes the consumption of even more alcohol.
3. Metabolic type. It is formed against the background of accelerated metabolism, when ingested alcohol is quickly processed and eliminated. On the one hand, this type of tolerance prevents poisoning of the body, and on the other hand, the accelerated work of the liver quickly removes medicinal substances that are prescribed for the treatment of alcoholism, which can affect the effectiveness of treatment.
4. Resistance to alcohol under the influence of the environment. A person gets used to the negative effects of alcohol faster if it is taken in the same environment. This includes behavioral type. With it, a drunk gets used to performing certain actions in this state.

The development of tolerance is an alarming symptom that indicates impending alcoholism.

Factors influencing tolerance

A person is born with existing metabolic characteristics that affect susceptibility to alcohol. But tolerance also depends on other parameters:

• From age. The rule is this: the younger the body, the smaller the dose required for intoxication. For example, 40-60 g of alcohol is enough for a teenager, equivalent to 150 grams of vodka. After taking 300-400 grams of strong drink, vomiting occurs.
• Body mass. The lower the weight, the smaller the dose will provoke intoxication, this is due to the high concentration of alcohol in the blood.
• Affects tolerance and gender. As a rule, women are more difficult to tolerate the effects of alcoholic beverages on the body. To become intoxicated, they will need half as much alcohol as men.

Children of alcoholics often have an initially high tolerance to alcohol. This can be attributed to an unfavorable prognosis regarding the development of alcohol dependence in them.

What does a decrease and increase in tolerance indicate?

With the development of alcoholism, changes in alcohol tolerance have its own patterns. At the initial stage, tolerance increases approximately 4-5 times. This means that you need to increase the dose of alcoholic drinks to achieve intoxication. The peak of the disease is characterized by a 10-fold increase in alcohol tolerance, at which time the drinker can drink up to 1 liter of vodka.

• A decrease in tolerance after some time indicates that the disease is developing and the body is reducing its resistance to it. At this stage, an alcoholic needs much less alcohol; he is simply no longer able to drink more.
• An increase in tolerance and a subsequent decrease are two clear symptoms of the development of alcoholism. A non-drinker is simply not able to consume such an amount of alcohol, especially systematically.

The development of alcoholism is also determined by a decrease in the body’s ability to turn on defense mechanisms in the event of an overdose. For example, in a healthy person, an excessive amount of alcohol provokes intoxication, to which the body immediately reacts with vomiting and aversion to alcohol.

In alcoholics, at the first stage of the development of the disease, the feeling of satiety disappears, then the feeling of disgust disappears, and at the last stage, vomiting does not turn on as a protective mechanism.

Tolerance is an unfavorable symptom that indicates impending alcohol dependence. A person is forced to drink more and more alcohol, which ends with the body experiencing withdrawal symptoms when sober.

It is believed that resistance to the effects of alcohol is good, a certain sign of a healthy and strong organism that can “drink too much”, but it is also a symptom that under the influence of ethyl alcohol irreversible changes occur and the protective properties are weakened. A person must realize that this is already a line that should force him to give up alcoholic beverages and move to a sober lifestyle. Most often, it is no longer possible to do this on your own and you have to seek medical help.

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Alcohol tolerance is a way of getting used to alcohol. For example, a person with a high tolerance to alcohol can drink a lot and not get drunk, although his colleagues at the table will already be dead drunk. This property depends on various factors:

• Gender of the person - it is believed that women get drunk faster;
• Age;
• Body mass.

If you have tolerance to alcohol, you should contact a drug treatment center for addiction treatment. This is a special condition that changes the functioning of the liver, kidneys, brain, and heart. All human systems and organs begin to act differently, with disturbances. Moreover, tolerance is a state that cannot last forever. Sooner or later, it will start to act the other way around: from just 50 g of vodka a person will become completely drunk. And this is a direct path to starting treatment in an institution such as a drug rehabilitation center.

How is alcoholism treated?

How is drug addiction and alcoholism treated in such institutions?

1. First of all, the human body is cleansed of toxic substances that have accumulated there during the long journey to alcoholism;
2. An individual treatment program for the disease is drawn up, for which a full examination of the body is carried out;
3. A person is relieved of withdrawal symptoms, i.e., simply put, “withdrawal”;
4. Taking medications prescribed by your doctor;
5. Psychological assistance is provided to the person, including both group and individual trainings necessary for a person to take a new path - a path without alcohol;
6. Post-rehabilitation support – assistance in finding a job, etc.

Only these steps will help save a person from his worst enemy - the green serpent. They should be undertaken by experienced specialists in a specialized clinic. Unfortunately, treating alcoholism at home does not make sense, and sooner or later the person returns to where he started. This is especially true for people who are intolerant of alcohol. There is an increased risk for them to fall apart.

Only medical intervention and round-the-clock supervision by doctors will help you recover from an illness such as alcoholism. It should be noted that at first it is necessary to constantly be on duty next to the patient in order to avoid relapses. After 21 days, the likelihood of these relapses already decreases.