With a large increase in the number of people suffering from alcohol abuse, it is only understandable that a significant number of alcohol rehabs have opened across the world. These centers work towards helping the patients stay away from liquor and stay sober for a larger period of the day. Some centers are deemed more successful than the others majorly because of advanced technology placed in use in combination to the experts who are employed to look after the patients. In some places, they are also known as rehabilitation centers which is nothing but a synonym.

Alcohol treatment centers provide the right kind of therapies, medicines to the admitted patients which of course are done after intensive diagnosis of the problem. Every step is taken keeping the end result in mind. Once a patient starts to show positive results, he may get discharged after the doctors are convinced. It is very important to conduct the treatment properly as addictions, if not treated properly can be very destructive and can play havoc with the life of the one under question. Fortunately, the doctors in such institutes realize this fact.

Apart from the regular treatment programs which are available in almost all alcohol treatment centers, there are some specialized treatments which are available only in more prominent centers. These centers specialize in one or more types of addiction cases and hence can also be called exclusive. While the core initiative in all the treatments known is to inculcate a thought of positivity such that the patient regains confidence and is able to make decisions with courage. This creates a path for a better lifestyle which is away from alcohol abuse. In all this, the biggest problem is resisting the urge of indulging again.

To combat this problem, most treatments are made patient specific i.e. they are unique to each patient. The experts or the doctors are sufficiently experienced and hence know how to tackle demanding situations. In a majority of the cases, they are able to take all required and possible steps to be of help to the one in need, even if it means spending extra hours with them. However, they alone are not the only ones that are responsible for bringing about the change. The environment of alcohol treatment centers is such that it provides a feeling of peace and relaxation. Such environments are known to create a sense of spiritualism which helps in speed recovery.

Also included in the list of activities is visiting locations of interest. These include places of social gathering or a simple picnic. Logic behind this lies in the thought that patients cannot be permanently confined inside the center’s walls at all times. An outing not only gives them a break from their regular day to day activities but also allows them to look at the world around them from a new angle.

The dedication with which these centers work is very high and as a result, almost everyone who comes here gets cured. In most cases, the cure is permanent and the patient is able to shed alcohol once and for all.

Lowdown On The Effects Of Alcohol On The Brain

How does alcohol affect the brain? Almost everyone has seen someone that has had too much to drink, the effects of the alcohol are easily detected. Slurred speech, trouble walking, behavioral changes and so forth go with drinking too much at one sitting. These are the signs of someone who has had too much to drink.

You may be wondering how alcohol causes these short term effects. The direct action of alcohol on your brain is that it is a depressant. It affects your nervous system by decreasing its activity. This may be difficult to understand because most often people who are drinking don’t seem to be all that depressed, unless they are on a crying jag, that is.

Quite often an alcoholic drink will help people relax and become more comfortable socially. They may become more talkative and outgoing. Why is this? It is because alcohol can cause disinhibition, which is defined as a temporary loss of inhibition caused by an outside stimulus.

A more complicated discussion of how alcohol affects the brain involves discussing the different parts of the brain, such as the cerebellum, the cortex, and so forth. The way the parts of the brain communicate with each other is through nerve cells connecting them together called neurons.

Nerve cells send messages to each other using electrical and chemical signals. So when you are stimulated from the outside, like with light, noise, smells, tastes and so forth, this is external stimuli being converted to electrical and chemical signals within your brain and body.

Neurotransmitters are the electrical signals generated by neurons. A neuron picks up signals from its neighboring cell using receptors. There are many types of receptors for each neurotransmitter.

There are 3 neurotransmitters that seem to be affected by alcohol consumption, the NMDA and GABA receptors play a role din the development of tolerance and dependence on alcohol. The third neurotransmitter is dopamine, which plays a role in our brain’s reward system. Dopamine is not only released by alcohol, food, sex, and other drugs will result in the release of dopamine.

A fourth neurotransmitter called serotonin also may play a role in the reward processes of alcohol in the brain. Serotonin plays a role in our moods, compulsive disorders, aggression and the effects of some other drugs.

The behavioral effects of alcohol on the brain depends on the amount of alcohol consumed, the time period over which the alcohol was drunk, if other drugs were consumed, the individuals previous drinking history, the individuals physical state, the genetic makeup of the individual, the individuals mood, and the environment where the drinking is taking place.

Research supports the idea that alcohol activates the reward pathways in your brain, which are coded there as experience and possibly memory. Once these pathways are coded, these experiences and memories can influence future behavior.

This explains why drinking is thought of as a pleasurable experience when in actuality the alcohol is poison to our bodies and it isn’t assimilated into our bodies well. This is sometimes why people will drink time and time again, they mostly remember the pleasure and not the pain (as experienced from a hangover).

My Personal Story

I only know what I have experienced myself about how alcohol affects the brain, and from watching my husband James drink alcoholically over the years. Of course I have been drunk, and have experienced the sometimes embarrassing behavior that results from loosing ones inhibitions.

My husbands brain certainly seemed to be worse for wear by the time he died. He was in full possession of his mental faculties until the end, except for when he was drunk. When he was drunk, he was rather hard to deal with as he could be a jolly drunk or a mean drunk, depending on his mood.

His memory was bad, he rarely remembered things in the same way I did. I am not sure what that was about, if the alcohol intake had something to do with his loss of memory or if he just had a poor memory. I did not notice these problems during the 3 years that we had together when he did not drink, but we were also much younger then.

Bottom line, the alcohol did affect his brain in the end when his liver disease progressed to the point of hepatic encephalopathy, when his brain was full of toxins because his liver had failed and was no longer removing them from his blood. This was a sad thing to see in someone I loved, there was absolutely no one home and the lights were out – he looked at me and it seemed he did not recognize me at all – this occurred just prior to his death.

If you are asking this question, whether for yourself or on behalf of a friend, then it is probably time to check in to an alcohol treatment center. First of all, you need to have a clear idea of what alcohol treatment or rehabilitation is in the first place. It is the process of bringing back the normal life of an individual that has been addicted to alcohol. The next question is, how can you tell if a person is addicted to alcohol or not? Addiction is something that is relative. But the common characteristic of people who are addicted to something is dependence. Alcoholics have developed a dependency to alcohol that’s why they cannot live a normal life without it.

What can rehabilitation do?

One of the things that make people hesitant toward checking in to a rehab center is that they don’t know what rehabilitation can actually do for them or for their addicted friend. One of the things that rehabilitation can do to a person is to help him reclaim his self-confidence or to develop it. When a person has confidence, he or she is always ready to accept any situation without the need to take any intoxicating or mind-altering substance. Rehabilitation is also for people who feel that they need external help in order to combat the urge to drink. Indeed, the most crucial factor in determining whether it is time to check in to an alcohol treatment center or not is lack of control.

Signs to look out for

Some people think that to be alcoholic means to drink everyday. The truth is, a person could be drinking once a week and can still be considered an alcoholic. Alcoholism is not determined by the frequency of the drinking session but on whether or not the person can resist drinking or not. It is all about control. But of course, someone who is drinking heavily on a daily basis is most probably an alcoholic already. There are also other symptoms that you should look out and they include headache, dizziness, stress, vomiting, acute stomach pain, hampered thinking and severe urge to drink. If these symptoms are present then it is time for check in to an alcohol treatment center already.

What to expect

Very few people know what to expect inside an alcohol treatment center. This is because the practices of the different centers vary greatly. Effective alcohol treatment consists of physical and mental exercises for patients. Of course, one of the most important components of alcohol rehabilitation is counseling by an expert. It is through counseling where the process of restoring the patients self-confidence and self-esteem starts. These alcohol treatment centers have trained professionals who know what kind of help is needed by persons addicted to alcohol.

Alcohol treatment is the best way to combat alcoholism. If you think you or a friend of yours need help, do not hesitate to call or visit an alcohol treatment center near you. Keep in mind that a problem can usually be solved by asking for help.