"Drinking at home" doesn't stop today ...

"Drinking at home" doesn't stop today ... May 10th, 20:49

Be careful not to drink too much at home due to the corona.

When I heard this news, I decided to have one can of beer for the evening drink, but I also touched the canned chu-hi that was left in the refrigerator.

"And only one more"

Such feelings lead to the third, fourth, etc., and there is a risk of falling into "alcoholism" that can even destroy your life.

(Reporter, Network News Department, Risa Komiya, Soraya Sugimoto, Kenta Hayashida)

It doesn't stop

"I finished my work online and

drank

alcohol for 10 days in a row. I think it's abnormal, so I'm thinking of going to the hospital."

"

I have

n't had a job for about 3 weeks and drank at home from the morning. I'm worried that I'll become addicted if I keep doing this. ”This

is the content of the telephone consultation sent to the NPO" ASK ", which is engaged in educational activities to prevent alcohol dependence.

According to the representative, Tomomi Imanari, since the first state of emergency was declared last year, we have seen consultations from people who are worried about drinking too much alcohol by so-called "home drinking" and their families. It is said that it came to be attached.

Due to the increased time spent at home, people who originally drank a little more alcohol than they knew to drink more than the limit or refused to drink instead of drinking at a restaurant. We analyze that the background is that patients with illness are starting to drink again.

Tomomi Imanari, ASK representative

"In front of Corona, I'm conscious of not drinking too much because I meet people at work tomorrow, but when telework spreads and I run out of work and stay at home, that consciousness works. And when you drink at home, you don't have to worry about the eyes of the people around you or the last train. By not going outside, there is nothing to stop drinking. "

Your own will is the limit

“Even if you think you're going to get out of it, you can't do it just by your own will,”

says Yojiro Watanabe (45), who once suffered from severe alcoholism.

Mr. Watanabe was a minor, but when he was 18 years old, he started working at a host club and started drinking a lot of alcohol every day.

I can't honestly say that I don't like things that I don't like because I'm usually weak, but when I get drunk, I get upset and the people around me tend to relax.

Every night, I had the momentum to drink a bottle of brandy by myself.

Mr. Watanabe

"I thought that when I got drunk, I was my true self. But that feeling came from the loneliness and anxiety that people around me couldn't recognize."

After that, Mr. Watanabe was diagnosed with alcoholism at the age of 20.

It is said that he was admitted to the hospital nearly 50 times in 10 years for treatment because his body trembled and went wild.

It was so painful that I sometimes suffered self-harm.

I tried to quit drinking many times, but I still can't quit.

At work, he was fired after drinking a bottle for customers without permission, and eventually he started stealing whiskey at a convenience store.

He was arrested by the police for trouble while he was in a hurry and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Mr. Watanabe says that he felt the limit to trying to do something by himself in the days when he blamed himself and continued to regret it.

Mr. Watanabe

"I used to think that I would drink because I had a weak will, but I finally realized that this was not my intention anymore. It took me 10 years to really realize that I was ill. It took more than that. "

Connect and recover

It was a self-help group meeting where addicted patients talked with each other that gave Mr. Watanabe a chance to recover.

At first, I was skeptical about the effect, but when I saw the participants talking about past failures caused by alcohol, Mr. Watanabe said that he was able to expose his inner self obediently. ..

I was encouraged by the recovery of people with more severe symptoms than myself, and by sharing the suffering with my colleagues, I was able to get away from alcohol.

Since then, Mr. Watanabe hasn't been drinking for 12 years.

Mr. Watanabe

"Thanks to having a connection with my colleagues, I don't have to throw out my life afterwards. To" coexist "with addiction, I recognize my weaknesses and become able to rely on the power of my colleagues. Is important "

If you lose your place, there is a risk of life.

Watanabe is currently working as a staff member at a facility that assists alcoholics.

Based on my own experience, I asked the patients at the facility to participate in the meeting, advocating the importance of the meeting.

However, due to the influence of the new Corona, face-to-face meetings are now difficult to attend due to the inability to hold meetings and the limited number of people.

Some patients refused to drink but started drinking again, and Mr. Watanabe feels a sense of crisis that he will lose the place to talk face-to-face.

Mr. Watanabe

"It is very important in the process of recovery to feel something not only from words but also from each other's facial expressions and behaviors. For people with severe addiction, having no place to gather increases the risk of drinking and is life-threatening. It can also lead to problems. "

For this reason, self-help groups around the world are seeking to create a place for interaction between patients, such as holding online meetings.

Now that we can't meet in person, it's important to connect with people who are suffering from addiction as much as possible by all means, and even if they drink again, it is important to continue interacting with colleagues who encourage them again.

Mr. Watanabe

"Even if you decide not to drink, there are people who will return to normal when the connection decreases. Even people who are not addicted now unintentionally increase the amount of alcohol due to the uncertain anxiety of the corona. The risk is increasing. In a stressful and familiar society, anyone can become addicted, so it is important to increase the connections and whereabouts to replace drinking in society as a whole. "

Know the right amount

How can you prevent yourself from becoming alcoholic?

Many people don't know how much it will have a big impact on their health.

Although there are individual differences, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has set an average daily amount of about 20 grams of alcohol for "moderate and appropriate drinking."

For beer and chu-hi with 5% alcohol, it is equivalent to one 500ml can.

However, alcohol is indicated by "frequency" in the alcoholic beverages lined up in stores, so you cannot tell at a glance how much alcohol you should drink to reach 20 grams of alcohol.

Therefore, the NPO "ASK" publishes a "Meyasu Calculator" on its website that makes it easy to understand the amount of alcohol intake and the time it takes to decompose it.

By inputting the amount of alcohol you drank and the alcohol content, you can calculate the amount of alcohol intake and the time required for decomposition, and you can know your own appropriate amount.

Beer companies are also displayed

Major beer companies have also begun full-scale efforts to display alcohol intake in grams.

Asahi Breweries plans to introduce the notation in grams on cans such as beer and chu-hi sequentially from July, and to display it on all canned products containing alcohol by the end of 2023.

In addition, Kirin has announced that it will start displaying in grams by 2024, and Suntory and Sapporo will also publish it on their website by the end of the year.

Maybe you too are addicted "reserve forces"?

Is there anything else to watch out for other than the amount of alcohol?

Yoichi Kakibuchi, deputy director of the Narimasu Kosei Hospital in Tokyo, who specializes in the treatment of alcohol dependence, says that how to control drinking habits is essential to prevent addiction.

Deputy Director Yoichi Kakibuchi

"If you have a habit of drinking, such as drinking at a certain time or always drinking after work, your addiction is one step ahead. If you become a habit, your brain will change. , Increases the risk of addiction. "

According to Deputy Director Kakibuchi, as drinking becomes a habit, the brain tries to weaken the effects of alcohol, and the brain becomes tolerant and gradually becomes less likely to get sick. It is said that the risk of becoming

To prevent this from happening, it is important to find various ways to deal with stress, such as talking to someone or exercising, rather than relying solely on alcohol to relieve stress on a daily basis.

If you feel uneasy about how to drink, you can use the check sheet created by WHO (World Health Organization) to know the current situation by answering simple questions.

If you feel that you have a tendency to become addicted, I would like you to receive medical treatment at a specialized medical institution as soon as possible.

Deputy Director Kakibuchi

"There are a lot of people in the gray zone between people who are severely alcoholic and those who are drinking without problems. I have some drinking problems, so addiction or criteria We encourage you to work on solving each and every problem, whether or not you meet. "

Even if you know that you shouldn't drink too much, you'll just reach for alcohol.

Even if you think you can control it, the amount of liquor may be increasing steadily.

I will also review how to deal with alcohol.