WHO warns! Alcohol is the biggest health risk!
- People who drink every day are at risk for alcohol dependence.
- Modern people are often tired, and the reason is alcohol.
- Alcohol and depression go hand in hand.
- The reason why people at high risk for alcohol avoid and hide
How to help someone in your family or friends who is a little strange
⇒ When you start abstinence, your brain learns in 90 days.

In Korea, an average of 14 people die every day due to alcohol, and the socioeconomic cost of drinking amounts to 10 trillion won (Statistics Korea [2020 Cause of Death Statistics]). The National Cancer Institute, an affiliate of the WHO, has designated alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen.
Alcohol is a major health risk factor that can cause various types of cancer as well as depression and dementia.
The idea that light drinking is good for your health has become an outdated idea.
Alcohol is a more dangerous addictive substance than illegal drugs.
Before alcohol consumes your life, read this book and quit drinking easily!

To be blunt, if you drink because you think, "Wouldn't it be good for your health to drink a little bit?", change that thought immediately.
As I will explain in more detail later, from a medical perspective, drinking alcohol may provide temporary psychological benefits, but it has no physical health benefits at all.
This is the truth about drinking that I want to convey first.
Even the more you drink, the more risks you take, including serious illnesses, accidents, and troubles at home and work.
As an alcohol addiction specialist, I see patients every day who have developed a variety of health problems, including health impairments, due to their persistent drinking.
Although he is a very ordinary office worker, many people who are alcoholics also come to him.
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6

1.
Opportunity to drink alcohol only when there is an event
2.
Drinking habit of drinking regularly even when there is no event
3.
An accompaniment to a drink customarily served with dinner
In case 1, if the frequency of events is low, the risk of problems occurring is not very high.
2 is professionally called capacity dependent.
Even if there is no noticeable damage while the amount does not increase, if you feel lonely, bored, or empty without drinking, as mentioned before, it is a sign that the chronic side effect of dependence has progressed one step further.
For reference, pattern 3 is the most common pattern among habitual drinking types.
You might think, 'No way,' but strictly speaking, 2 and 3 are potential alcohol dependence symptoms.
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34~35

Alcohol also has a sedative effect, similar to an anesthetic, so when the alcohol wears off, the brain becomes excited.
Withdrawal symptoms are most evident in the morning.
If you drink alcohol as an accompaniment to dinner, your blood alcohol level will gradually decrease while you sleep, so you will experience physical and mental symptoms when you wake up.
Let's say you can't stand the discomfort in your body, so you drink again.
If the symptoms stop and you feel better at that time, it can be considered that you have already progressed to full-blown alcohol dependence.
Whether or not the symptoms subside when drinking alcohol in the morning is an important point in determining dependence. If drinking alcohol in the morning becomes a habit, you will not be able to stop drinking all day.
--- pp.
65~66

If you were asked, "Which is more harmful, stimulants or alcohol?" What would you say? You might unhesitatingly answer, "stimulants." However, from the perspective of "high dependence," that's not necessarily the case.
Alcohol is a legal drug, so there is a perception that it is safer and less harmful than illegal drugs such as amphetamines (stimulants) or cocaine. However, just because it is legal does not mean that it can be used with confidence.
As the use of illegal drugs by celebrities became a social issue in the media, it became known how bad and scary drugs like cocaine are, but alcohol can be said to be even more dangerous because it is highly addictive and legal.
Alcohol is also called a 'terminal drug'.
As the saying goes, 'terminal = final destination', there are many cases where people who have used various drugs in the past end up becoming alcoholics.
--- pp.
107~109

Drinking usually begins when college students or working adults have more opportunities to drink at social gatherings. Regardless of whether they like it or not, they start to feel better and enjoy themselves while drinking, and they gradually become more addicted to it.
The process of progressing to a state of inability to quit varies for each person, but it is common for alcohol consumption to increase as it is cost-effective to relieve intense work-related stress.
In women, alcohol often becomes addictive when used to manage mental health issues such as depression or eating disorders.
People with severe alcohol dependence often have psychological problems as well.
To soothe anxiety and pain, we continue to anesthetize our brains with alcohol.
In the meantime, tolerance develops, the amount of alcohol consumed increases, and physical dependence also becomes stronger.
Tolerance means that alcohol's effect on the brain has diminished, so you don't get the same effects as before unless you drink more alcohol.
--- pp.
114~115

There is another interesting topic in understanding the relationship between alcohol dependence and the environment.
Rat Park is a famous animal experiment in the United States.
It was previously known that the brain has plasticity and that once alcohol addiction occurs, it degenerates and does not return to its original state.
However, some researchers questioned this theory and tried to change the environment so that people would not want to take the drug.
What would happen if rats, confined in cramped cages, were placed in a natural, comfortable environment? Researchers created a rat park and tested it.
What were the results? Mice that had been fed only the drug morphine while in our facility lost interest in morphine when they arrived at the Rat Park.
Animals at Rat Park, which has cozy homes and social spaces, showed little desire for drugs.
These results demonstrate that a change in environment can lead to recovery from drug addiction.
--- pp.
234~235

While medical institutions specializing in the treatment of alcohol dependence and outpatient clinics for reducing drinking are increasing nationwide, they are far from meeting the potential need.
We still have a long way to go before we can have an environment where we can easily receive advice from our doctors about abstinence.
Until then, I wrote this book with the hope of quickly providing accurate information to those in need of treatment so that they can put it into practice.
There have already been many published guides written by experts on reducing alcohol consumption, but we are proud to say that this is the first book to go all the way to abstinence.
Abstaining from alcohol (=drugs) due to its side effects is the basis of health management.
I sincerely hope that people will pay attention to the side effects of alcohol as a drug and learn proper methods of abstinence.

--- pp.
245~246