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“I Drank to Survive, Not for Pleasure”: 46-Year-Old Woman’s Battle with Alcohol Addiction
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
A 46-year-old former government finance worker, Emma Ward, fell into severe alcohol addiction after quitting her job to care for her sick father and then losing both parents. What began as drinking to numb grief escalated into daytime drinking, vomiting but continuing to drink, and repeated physical harm including bleeding, liver damage, hair loss, skin changes, and near-death episodes. Emma says she drank to survive—without alcohol her hands trembled and she couldn’t face reality. Now three years sober, she works as a recovery coach in self-help groups and emphasizes that recovery is possible. The report explains alcohol use disorder (alcohol addiction) as long-term dependence causing mental, physical, and social dysfunction. Risk factors include genetics (family history raises risk 3–4 times), developmental and psychosocial issues. Early signs include drinking alone, anxiety when not drinking, memory gaps, guiltlessness after drinking, impaired work or relationships, and loss of control. Alcohol worsens sleep despite inducing drowsiness, can both cause and result from depression and anxiety, and doubles suicide risk. Heavy use can cause blackouts (an early sign of alcohol-related dementia) and medical issues like alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis, cardiovascular and pancreatic diseases, diabetes, and gastrointestinal ulcers. Treatment is more than willpower—recognizing the problem and seeking professional help, medical detox during severe withdrawal, outpatient therapy, medications that create aversive reactions, and cognitive behavioral therapy can all aid recovery.
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