Suicides. Part 2

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The autopsy showed …

LYING:it is necessary to drink with "ustatka", for appetite, for stomach pains, ulcers, etc.

TRUTH:when taken orally, the stomach is primarily affected. And the stronger the alcoholic beverages, the more severe the defeat is.

Under the influence of alcohol, profound changes occur in the entire glandular apparatus of the alimentary canal. The glands located in the wall of the stomach and producing gastric juice containing pepsin, hydrochloric acid, and various enzymes necessary for the digestion of food, under the influence of irritation, first secrete a lot of mucus, and then atrophy. Gastritis occurs, which, if the cause is not eliminated and treated, can turn into stomach cancer.

Not a single sip of wine goes by without harming a person. But the stronger it is, the more often it is used, the weaker the protective forces act and the more destruction alcoholic beverages bring.

With repeated intake of alcohol, the protective and compensatory mechanisms go out of order, and the person completely falls under alcohol dependence.

Passing through the hepatic barrier, ethyl alcohol adversely affects the liver cells, which die under the influence of the destructive action of this poisonous product. In their place, connective tissue is formed, or simply a scar that does not perform hepatic function. The liver gradually decreases in size, that is, it shrinks, the liver vessels are compressed, the blood stagnates in them, the pressure rises 3-4 times. And if there is a rupture of blood vessels, profuse bleeding begins, from which patients often die. According to the WHO, about 80% of patients die within a year after the first bleeding. The changes described above are called cirrhosis of the liver. The number of patients with cirrhosis determines the level of alcoholism in a particular country.

ALCOHOLIC cirrhosis of the liver is one of the most severe and hopeless in terms of treatment of human diseases.

Liver cirrhosis as a consequence of alcohol consumption, according to WHO data published in 1982, has become one of the leading causes of death.

Apart from the liver, sclerotic changes take place in the pancreas. An autopsy of persons aged 30-40 years who drank wine in large doses or for a long time showed profound changes in the pancreas, which explains the frequent complaints of drinking people about poor digestion, sharp abdominal pains, etc.

In these same patients, diabetes is often observed due to the death of special cells located in the pancreas and producing insulin. Alcohol-related pancreatitis and diabetes are usually irreversible phenomena, which is why people are doomed to constant pain and ailments. Moreover, pancreatitis exacerbates at the slightest violation of the diet.

When autopsy deaths from causes associated with alcohol consumption, changes are observed that are present in almost all vital organs, and sometimes it is difficult for a pathologist to say which organ damage was incompatible with life. The question often arises: how could this person still live if he did not have a single unaffected organ that could perform the intended function.

WHERE VINZO, THERE IS A POT

LYING:cognac and vodka dilate blood vessels; for pain in the heart, this is the best remedy.

TRUTH:damage to the cardiovascular system when drinking alcohol is observed in the form of alcoholic hypertension or myocardial damage.

Hypertension in drinkers occurs as a result of dysregulation of vascular tone caused by the toxic effect of ethyl alcohol on various parts of the nervous system.

Hypertension is observed quite often. According to scientists, more than 40% of drinkers have hypertension and, in addition, almost 30% of the blood pressure level is in the "danger zone", that is, approaching hypertension with an average age of 36 years.

At the heart of alcoholic damage to the heart muscle lies the direct toxic effect of alcohol on the myocardium in combination with changes in nervous regulation and microcirculation. The developing gross disturbances of interstitial metabolism lead to the development of focal and diffuse myocardial dystrophy, manifested by a violation of the heart rhythm and heart failure.

Studies have shown that with alcohol intoxication, profound disorders of mineral metabolism in the heart muscle are observed, which leads to a decrease in the contractile ability of the heart. And the main reason for these changes is the toxic effect of ethyl alcohol.

If a drinking person did not get into a car accident, did not come to the hospital with bleeding or stomach disease, did not die from a heart attack or hypertension, he often becomes disabled from some kind of domestic injury or because of a fight, since a drinking person is obligatory, as they say he will find a reason from which to become disabled or die prematurely. According to the WHO, the average life expectancy of a drinker is 15-17 years less than the average life expectancy, which, as you know, is calculated taking into account drinkers, but if you compare it with teetotalers, the difference will be even greater.

THERE WAS IVAN, BECAME A BOLVAN …

LYING: if you drink "culturally", then there is nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, the "cultural" wine drinking contains the key to the solution of the entire alcohol problem.

TRUTH: culture, intelligence, morality - all these are functions of the brain. And in order to explain the absurdity of the sentence "drinking culturally", it is necessary, at least briefly, to get acquainted with how alcohol affects the brain.

There is no disease that does not get worse from drinking alcohol. There is no such organ in a person who would not suffer from the intake of alcoholic beverages. However, the brain suffers the most and hardest of all.

If the concentration of alcohol in the blood is taken as a unit, then in the liver it will be 1.45, in the cerebrospinal fluid -1.50, and in the brain -1.75.

On autopsy, the biggest changes take place in the brain. The dura mater is tense, the soft membranes are edematous, full-blooded. The brain is sharply edematous, the vessels are dilated, there are many small cysts with a diameter of 1-2 mm. These small cysts are formed in places of hemorrhage and necrosis (necrosis) of areas of the brain.

A more subtle study of the brain of a person who died from acute alcoholic intoxication shows that changes in the protoplasm and nucleus occurred in the nerve cells, just as pronounced as in the case of poisoning with other strong poisons. In this case, the cells of the cerebral cortex are much more affected than the subcortical parts, that is, alcohol acts more strongly on the cells of the higher centers than the lower ones. In the brain, a strong overflow with blood was noted, often with rupture of blood vessels in the meninges and on the surface of the cerebral convolutions. In cases of acute alcohol poisoning, but not fatal, in the brain and in the nerve cells of the cortex there are the same changes as described above, leading to profound changes in the activity and psyche of a person.

The same changes in the brain take place in people who drink, whose death occurred from causes not related to alcohol consumption.

The described changes in the substance of the brain are irreversible. They leave behind an indelible mark in the form of loss of small and smallest structures of the brain, which inevitably affects its function.

But the greatest evil of alcohol is not in the atom. Streets, drinking alcoholic beverages, early adhesion of erythrocytes, red blood cells is revealed. The higher the alcohol concentration, the more pronounced the bonding process. In the brain, where gluing is stronger, since the concentration of alcohol is higher, it leads to serious consequences: in the smallest capillaries that conduct blood to individual brain cells, their diameter approaches the diameter of an erythrocyte. And if they stick together, they will close the lumen of the capillary. The supply of oxygen to the brain cell will stop. Such oxygen starvation, if it lasts 5 minutes, leads to necrosis, that is, to the irreversible loss of the brain cell. And the higher the concentration of alcohol in the blood, the stronger the gluing process and the more brain cells die.

Autopsies of "moderate" drinkers showed that whole "graveyards" of dead cortical cells were found in their brains.

Changes in the structure of the brain occur after several years of drinking. All subjects were found to have a decrease in brain volume, or, as they say, "shrunken brain". Moreover, the changes are most pronounced in those parts of the cerebral cortex where thought activity takes place, memory function is carried out, etc.

LYING: All evil caused by alcoholic products belongs to alcoholics. It is alcoholics who suffer, they have all the changes, and those who drink in moderation do not have these changes.

TRUTH: attempts to attribute the harmful effects of alcohol only to those who are recognized as alcoholics are fundamentally wrong. Changes in the brain under the influence of alcohol occur when alcohol is consumed in any dose. The degree of these changes depends on the amount of alcoholic drinks and on the frequency of their intake, regardless of whether this person is simply a so-called "drinker" or an alcoholic.

In addition, the terms themselves: alcoholic, drunkard, drinking a lot, moderately, drinking little, etc., have a quantitative rather than a fundamental difference. Their changes in the brain are not qualitative, but quantitative. Some try to classify as alcoholics only those who drink heavily, who get drunk until delirium tremens, etc. This is not true. Heavy drinking, delirium tremens, alcoholic hallucinosis, hallucinatory dementia of drunkards, alcoholic delirium of jealousy, Korsak's psychosis, alcoholic pseudo-paralysis, epilepsy and much more - all these are the consequences of alcoholism. Alcoholism itself is the consumption of alcoholic beverages, which has a harmful effect on health, life, work and the well-being of society.

The World Health Organization defines alcoholism as a person's dependence on alcohol. This means that the person is being held captive by the drug. He looks for any opportunity, any excuse to drink, and if there is no reason, he drinks for no reason.

And he insists that he drinks "in moderation."

It is also necessary to recognize the term "abuse" as inappropriate. If there is abuse, then there is use not for evil, but for good, that is, useful. But there is no such use. Moreover, there is no harmless use. Any dose of alcohol is harmful. It's about the degree of harm. The term "abuse" is incorrect in essence, and at the same time it is very insidious, because it makes it possible to cover up drunkenness with the excuse that, they say, I am not abusing. In fact, any use of alcoholic beverages is abuse.

Of course, if a person drinks a small dose of weak grape wine, the next time he drinks the same dose in two or three months or six months later, the harm will be relatively small. If a person drinks a large dose of strong drinks, and after a week or two repeats, then his brain will not have time to get rid of the narcotic poison and will be in a poisoned state all the time. In this case, the harm will be great. Likewise, if you drink dry wine in small doses, but consume it more often than once every two weeks, the brain will not bounce back from drug poisoning, and the harm will be undeniable.

In the experiments of Academician I. P. Pavlov, it was found that after taking small doses of alcohol, reflexes disappear and are restored only on the 8-12th day. But reflexes are the lowest forms of brain function. Alcohol, on the other hand, acts primarily on its higher forms. Experiments performed on educated people have shown that after taking so-called "moderate" doses, that is, 25-40 g of alcohol, the higher brain functions are restored only on the 12-20th day.

How does alcohol work?

First of all, it has narcotic properties: people get used to it very quickly, and there is a need for repeated doses, the more, the more often and in large doses alcohol is taken; as it is consumed, a larger dose is required to obtain the same effect each time.

How does this drug in various doses affect the mental and mental activity of the brain?

Specially conducted experiments and observations on a person who drank an average dose, that is, one and a half glasses of vodka, found that in all cases, without exception, alcohol acts in the same way, namely: it slows down and complicates mental processes, while motor acts at first accelerate, and then slows down. At the same time, the most complex mental processes suffer first of all, and the simplest mental functions, especially those associated with motor representations, persist longer.

As for the motor acts, they are accelerated, but this acceleration depends on the relaxation of the inhibitory impulses, and in them an inaccuracy of work is immediately noticed, namely, the phenomenon of a premature reaction.

With repeated intake of alcohol, the damage to the higher centers of brain activity lasts from 8 to 20 days. If alcohol is consumed for a long time, then the work of these centers will not be restored.

On the basis of scientific data, it has been proven that first of all, the latest, most recent achievements gained by mental exertion, say, in the last week, month, are lost, and after drinking alcohol, a person returns to the level of mental development that he had a week or a month ago.

If alcohol poisoning occurs frequently, then the subject remains mentally immobile, and thinking is ordinary and stereotyped. In the future, there is a weakening of older, stronger, stronger associations and a weakening of perceptions. As a result, mental processes are narrowed, deprived of freshness and originality.

It is widely believed that alcohol has a stimulant, reinforcing and revitalizing effect. This is based on the fact that drunk people have loud speech, talkativeness, gestures, acceleration of the pulse, blush and a feeling of warmth in the skin. All these phenomena, upon a more subtle study, turn out to be nothing more than a paralysis of certain parts of the brain. The paralysis in the mental sphere also includes the loss of subtle mindfulness, sound judgment and reflection.

The paralysis of the centers of mental departures primarily affects those processes that we call judgment and criticism. With their weakening, feelings begin to prevail, not moderated or restrained by criticism. Observations show that those who drink do not become smarter and more developed, and if they think differently, then this depends on the beginning weakening of the higher activity of their brain: as criticism weakens, self-confidence grows. Lively body movements, gestures and restless boasting of one's strength are also a consequence of the onset of paralysis of consciousness and will: correct, reasonable barriers have been removed that keep a sober person from useless movements and thoughtless, absurd waste of power.

In numerous experiments carried out by the largest specialists in this field, it was found that in all cases, without exception, under the influence of alcohol, the simplest mental functions (perceptions) are disturbed and slowed down not as much as more complex ones (associations). These latter suffer in a double direction: firstly, their formation is slowed down and weakened, and, secondly, their quality changes significantly: the lowest forms of associations, namely, motor or mechanically memorized associations most easily arise in the mind, often without the slightest attitude to business and, once appeared, stubbornly hold on, emerging again and again, but completely inopportune. In this respect, such persistent associations resemble a purely pathological phenomenon seen in neurasthenia and severe psychosis.

When performing more complex and more difficult tasks, the influence of "small * and" medium "doses of alcoholic beverages is stronger than when performing lungs. Moreover, they not only reduce efficiency, but also reduce the desire to work, that is, the impulse to work disappears, and drinkers become incapable of systematic work, they go down.

After taking even small doses of alcohol, there is a feeling of contentment, euphoria. The drunk becomes cheeky, inclined to joke, to make friends with just anyone. Later, he becomes uncritical, tactless, begins to shout loudly, sing, make noise, regardless of others. His actions are impulsive, thoughtless.

The psychological picture of a person in this state resembles manic excitement. Alcoholic euphoria arises as a result of disinhibition, weakening of criticism. One of the reasons for this euphoria is the excitation of the subcortex, the phylogenetically oldest part of the brain, while the younger and more sensitive parts of the brain, areas of the cortex are severely disturbed or paralyzed.

Alcohol, taken in large doses, causes more gross violations. The perception of external impressions becomes difficult and slows down, its accuracy decreases. Attention and memory are impaired even more than from low and medium doses. The ability to listen carefully to others, to monitor one's speech, to control behavior is lost; talkativeness, boasting appears. The person becomes carefree. The mood becomes now unrestrainedly cheerful, now whiny, now angry.

He sings, scolds, commits aggressive actions. Obscene remarks, simplistic jokes. Often there are erotic conversations. Insults are inflicted, acts that violate public safety are committed. The awakening of low inclinations and passions is sometimes noted.

When even higher doses are taken, a severe dysfunction of the entire central nervous system occurs with the involvement of the spinal cord and medulla oblongata. Deep anesthesia and coma develops. When taking a dose equal to 7, 8 g of alcohol per kilogram of weight, which is approximately equal to 1-1, 25 liters of vodka, death occurs for an adult. For children, the lethal dose is 4-5 times less, per kilogram of weight.

With prolonged intake of alcoholic beverages, chronic alcoholism develops, which has its own clinical picture, which varies in degree, but with a characteristic characteristic of all drinkers - they seek to find a reason for drinking, and if there is no reason, they drink without it.

The character of a person begins to deteriorate, he becomes egocentric, rude, excessive self-confidence often appears, a tendency to flat monotonous humor; reduced memory, attention, ability to systematic thinking, to creativity.

The personality changes, elements of degradation appear. If you do not stop drinking at this time, complete recovery of the personality will not occur.

Along with the defeat of the mental functions of the cerebral cortex, profound changes in morality take place. As the highest and most perfect feelings, as the crown in the development of brain functions, they suffer very early. And the first thing that we observe in drinking people is indifference to moral interests, which appear very early, at a time when mental and mental acts remain almost unchanged. It manifests itself in the form of partial moral anesthesia, in the form of a complete impossibility to experience a certain emotional state.

The more and longer a person drinks, the more his morality suffers. Alcoholics often accept this abnormality, but understand only rationally, logically, without experiencing the slightest subjective reaction. This kind of state is completely analogous to moral idiocy and differs from it only in the way of origin.

The decline in morality is reflected in the loss of shame. A number of scientific works prove the great protective power of shame and the great danger of such a poison as alcoholic beverages, which have the property of lowering the strength and subtlety of this feeling.

Among the inevitable consequences of a fall in morality is an increase in lies, or at least a decrease in sincerity and truth. The people tied the loss of shame and loss of truthfulness into an inextricable logical concept of "shameless lies." This is why the lie grows, that a person, having lost shame, has at the same time lost in his conscience the most important moral correction of truthfulness.

The documents covering the growth of drunkenness in our country during the period of excise sale of alcoholic beverages convincingly show that in parallel with the growth of drunkenness, crimes also grew, among which false oath, perjury and false denunciation grew faster.

The ability to feel shame is lost very early on in drinkers; the paralysis of this high human feeling lowers a person in a moral sense much more than any psychosis.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy understood this perfectly. In his article "Why do people get intoxicated" he writes: "… not in taste, not in pleasure, not in entertainment, not in fun lies the reason for the worldwide spread of hashish, opium, wine, tobacco, but only in the need to hide from oneself the instructions of conscience ".

A sober person is ashamed to steal, ashamed to kill. A drunkard is not ashamed of any of this, and therefore, if a person wants to do an act that his conscience forbids him, he becomes intoxicated.

People know this property of wine to drown out the voice of conscience and consciously use it for this purpose. Not only do people themselves become drugged in order to stifle their consciences, knowing how wine works, they, wanting to force other people to do an act contrary to their conscience, deliberately intoxicate them. Everyone can notice that people who live immorally are more prone to intoxicating substances than others.

Another feeling easily lost by drunkards is fear.

Reducing fear can, according to psychiatrists, have serious consequences. If we remember that fear in its high manifestations turns into a fear of evil and fear of the consequences of evil, then it becomes clear the high health value of this feeling in matters of morality. The feeling of fear and the feeling of shame deeply change in drunkards, losing their most essential components. Facial expressions change accordingly.

All feelings of drinking people change in such a way that the most sublime and subtle elements are lost from complex mental acts, and a person in all his mental manifestations coarsens. Higher feelings, their higher forms turn into lower ones.

With prolonged use of alcoholic beverages, not simple transient irregularities of character develop, but also deeper changes. A similar change in the character and behavior of people is produced only by insanity in the period of secondary dementia. Willpower weakens early, eventually leading to complete lack of will. Thoughts lose depth and avoid difficulties instead of solving them. The circle of interests narrows and only one desire remains - to get drunk. In advanced cases, it comes to complete dullness and insanity. The more people drink, the more dramatically the mental life of society itself changes.

Along with the emergence of a large number of idiots, as a result of conception in drunken parents and insane as a consequence of long-term alcohol consumption, there are a certain number of subjects in society who are still mentally healthy, but no longer free from character changes caused by alcohol. These are not simple, passing character irregularities, but deeper changes.

Alcohol, influencing the brain, does not produce abrupt transitions from perfectly healthy to complete idiocy. There are many transitions between these extreme forms of the mental and mental state, which in some cases approach debility, in others - to a bad character. There are more and more such people, with varying degrees of changes in mental state and character, among the drinkers, which leads to a change in the character of the people themselves. And if the character of an entire people is quite stable and undergoes changes only after centuries, then under the influence of alcohol, changes in character for the worse can occur much faster.

The number of gross mental disorders under the influence of alcohol should include an increase in suicides. According to the WHO, suicide among drinkers is 80 times more likely than among abstainers. This situation is not difficult to explain by the profound changes that occur in the brain under the influence of prolonged intake of alcoholic beverages. At the same time, both murders and suicides of drunkards sometimes take a terrible form.

All those changes that take place in the brain of a drinking person are observed not only and not so much among alcoholics and drunkards, but also among those who, in their opinion, are not, but drink "in moderation." However, most of these people actually, from a medical point of view, have long been alcoholics. The first thing that says about this is the attraction to alcoholic beverages.

These people do not consider themselves alcoholics and are outraged if they are called such. With a certain effort of will, they can still control themselves and stop taking alcoholic beverages. But their brain, and hence the control of themselves, is on the descent. A little more, and they quickly roll down. The brain will come to such a state that it will already be able to control the behavior of a person. Complete alcohol dependence will come and the path to degradation will open.

Scientists believe that alcohol disturbs the health of the population faster and takes more victims than the most severe epidemics. The latter appear periodically, while drunkenness has become an ongoing epidemic disease. These are the physical consequences of alcohol consumption. But much more important are the moral consequences that are found in relation to the neuropsychic health of the Population, which entails an increase in the number of crimes, a decrease in morality, an increase in nervous and mental illnesses, an increase in the number of people with a bad temper, a disorder of habits and the ability to work.

Weighing the grave consequences of alcohol consumption and comparing them with material losses, experts rightly believe that one should not regret expenses and material expenditures, one should be horrified at the thought of the harm inflicted on the state by the moral corruption of the population.

In addition to the destruction of certain aspects of the mental and mental side of the brain, alcohol is increasingly leading to a complete shutdown of normal brain function, to the emergence of a large percentage of the insane.

FG Uglov "Suicides", fragment.