From the author: People often attribute alcoholism to untreated depression. But this is not always the case. I often encounter the fact that people with alcohol addiction are ready to ask for help, but do not want to admit that they have an addiction. With the ease of an experienced psychiatrist, they diagnose themselves with a disorder as a result of stress, depression, neurosis. And they ask to be treated for this disorder. Most often they complain of depression. "I'm depressed, that's why I drink." The fact is that patients suffering from typical depressive disorder, such as depressive episode, recurrent depressive disorder, rarely resort to alcohol. They don't fight depression, they live with it. For them, depression is not a disease, for them it is a punishment, “heavenly punishment,” as religious people often call their condition. And they are doomed to carry it. A religious person may believe that suicide is a terrible sin. But sometimes he considers himself so sinful that suicide not only will not worsen the picture, but will even improve it. It will not improve for him, but for those around him, people close to him. An addicted person (no matter what kind of surfactant) practically cannot stand melancholy and boredom. He needs to drown it out. And he often asks for help after a long binge, when alcohol no longer acts as a remedy for melancholy, and physically, and most importantly psychologically, he feels so lousy that he wants to climb the wall. If such a person is helped, detoxification therapy with tranquilizers is carried out (in most countries the use of tranquilizers for withdrawal symptoms is prohibited), then thanks to them he can easily forget about his “depression” literally after 3 days. Alcohol addiction is a disease. And it is no less serious than depression. Considering that it is still chronic, it is worse in some ways. But the first, biggest reason why an alcoholic does not recognize this disease is the social stigma of alcoholism. I very often hear from people, some of whom are doctors, that alcoholism is stupidity, that it’s enough to pull yourself together. Although I hear this about depression and even schizophrenia, the level of attitude towards alcoholism as simply a human whim is not comparable to high. The second reason is anosognosia. Patients with alcoholism are not able to independently assess their health. This applies to all diseases. Toxic hepatitis, heart or liver failure, polyneuropathy. Not to mention the addiction itself. Therefore, in medicine we see severe conditions in AS, so only they can help themselves in case of illness. Their lives sometimes hang on threads. That is why, when a narcologist, trying to help a person, gives him a tranquilizer, he is often faced with the clinical death of the patient. And it is not uncommon for a person to not be saved. Secondary diseases in alcohol dependence are incredibly more severe than in other groups of patients. I would also like to say about the development of alcohol addiction. When a person first tried alcohol, he did not yet become addicted. But the fact that a person returns to consumption again and again (no matter on holidays or only with friends) can be called alcohol addiction of the first stage. Because you have already developed a tolerance to alcohol and a psychological dependence is already forming. Treat alcohol with caution, or better yet, don’t drink. With respect to you, psychotherapist, an alcoholic at the first stage, and, unfortunately, not at the beginning of it.