<story><title>Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/health/alcohol-deaths-covid.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Epiphany21</author><text>Recently (within the last two years) I had to help someone suffering with alcoholism&amp;#x2F;DTS and I was horrified by the abysmal outpatient support the medical system here provides. If he didn&amp;#x27;t have health insurance and a ride I would not have been able to convince him to go, and he could have died.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s very hard to argue with his contempt for hospitals and doctors when all they do is give you an overpriced potassium IV (very painful) then push you out the door and tell you to find an AA group.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t even know what the solution is, but I do know the current way of doing things is inadequate and probably getting a ton of people killed. It&amp;#x27;s very sad.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ascar</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure what can be done here. Having had a very close relative (as close as it gets, but I don&amp;#x27;t wanna associate anything precise publicly) being an alcoholic for decades, watching them succumb, degenerate and eventually die over a long and horrifying period, I don&amp;#x27;t see how the medical system can be the solution to this problem.&lt;p&gt;The motivation to stop drinking and continue to stop drinking has to be mostly intrinsic. There can be additional extrinsic factors (like doing it for your family) strengthening the intrinsic motivation, but without a strong and constant inner will to stop nothing will.&lt;p&gt;My relative took the final bottle of Whiskey on a lonely Christmas day. It took 2 months of suffering before it finally ended for good. No medical system can prevent the loneliness and dark times. And relatives also have their own lifes.&lt;p&gt;Addiction is a terrible problem and it&amp;#x27;s great that there is help for the persons motivated to seek help, and AA is a good initiative for that. But not everyone can be helped.</text></comment>
<story><title>Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/health/alcohol-deaths-covid.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Epiphany21</author><text>Recently (within the last two years) I had to help someone suffering with alcoholism&amp;#x2F;DTS and I was horrified by the abysmal outpatient support the medical system here provides. If he didn&amp;#x27;t have health insurance and a ride I would not have been able to convince him to go, and he could have died.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s very hard to argue with his contempt for hospitals and doctors when all they do is give you an overpriced potassium IV (very painful) then push you out the door and tell you to find an AA group.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t even know what the solution is, but I do know the current way of doing things is inadequate and probably getting a ton of people killed. It&amp;#x27;s very sad.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dazc</author><text>I have a friend in the UK, similar situation. After years of receiving no help I took it upon myself to figure out what was causing his self-sabotaging behaviour. I can&amp;#x27;t say I made any great discoveries other than figuring out his trigger points and devising strategies to avoid them.&lt;p&gt;Obviously everyone is going to be different but my friend&amp;#x27;s issues stem from being lonely and isolated a lot of the time. Simply me being around for a couple of days a week has helped. He still drinks but in a much more controlled manner and, ironically, I found that ensuring he always has a supply at home has helped with this too. It&amp;#x27;s taken away the constant panic in his mind - for want of a better explanation.</text></comment>