Can I recover from alcoholic fatty liver disease if I abstain from alcohol for a year and eat properly and exercise properly?

Be kind to yourself

Long-term and severe alcoholism has caused great damage to our bodies. If we want to recover, it will definitely take months or even years.

Most people lack a correct knowledge and understanding of the nature of alcoholism (including ourselves in the past), which makes the stereotype of shame and shame deeply imprinted on alcoholics. We now know that drinking alcohol is not evil or immoral, and we also recognize that it is important to readjust your beliefs and attitudes.

We examine ourselves, have we restrained ourselves from picking up the first glass of wine in the past 24 hours? If this is the case, it is indeed worth patting yourself on the back. Are your three meals normal today? Have you fulfilled your obligations? In other words, are we doing our best to put our best foot forward today? If this is the case, then this is all our reasonable expectations.

Sometimes we do less than we originally expected, and even our ideas and actions may regress a bit. But we should be relieved - we are not perfect creatures. We should affirm that we have made progress, rather than just sighing that we cannot reach perfection.

Of course, there are many things in real life worth looking forward to: Are we enjoying life recently? Are we actively adjusting and improving ourselves? Have we ever missed admiring a beautiful sunset or a new moon? Would you like a nice dinner? Have you gone on vacation, joked around, or started a new relationship with the person you love? We do want to make ourselves happy, this is what we can do, why not do it.

If we cannot be kind to ourselves now, we certainly cannot expect ourselves to be kind, respectful or considerate to others.

"Priorities should be dealt with first"

"Priorities should be dealt with first" means that no matter when, where and under any circumstances, quitting drinking is important to us. Words are the most important, life-or-death matter - if we don't work hard to maintain good health and protect our lives, we won't have families, careers, and friends. We must first save our own lives before we can appreciate everything we have.

Staying sober every day means that we must take whatever actions are necessary to remain alcohol-free, and we must also try to avoid doing anything that may stimulate our desire to drink. Even if there is any inconvenience, we will not hesitate.

"Prioritize things first" also contains other very important meanings. In the early stages of sobriety, we are often hesitant and difficult to make decisions. As a newly sober alcoholic, we don’t know where to start when faced with a mountain of household chores; at work, we can’t decide whether to answer phone calls or write letters; in many aspects of real life, we hope to be able to fulfill all the responsibilities and duties that we have neglected in the past. obligation. But obviously we can't do it all at once.

So, the principle of "first things first" can help us prioritize things, whether it is related to alcoholism or not.

In addition, we can also apply this adage to the time we have when we wake up. When planning daily activities, you can arrange the order according to the order, priority and importance of things to avoid making the schedule too compact. We need to remember that good health is another priority. Because if we are overworked or hungry, it is very dangerous for us alcoholics.

When we are severely addicted to alcohol, our entire lives become very chaotic and disorderly, often making us feel unstable and on the verge of despair. Staying awake helps us get back on track with our daily lives, adjust our pace of life, and enable us to live a more organized life - that is, "first things first."

2 , stay away from the first glass of wine

"If you don't drink the first glass of wine, you won't get drunk." "One glass is too much, but twenty glasses are not enough."

When we develop from drinking too much to being addicted to alcohol, frequent drunkenness seriously interferes with our life and work, so we reduce the frequency of drinking, or try to control the amount of alcohol to one or two glasses, or switch from high alcohol to beer or wine , so that you don’t get too drunk. Maybe we can stay alcohol-free for a while, and then when the opportunity arises (some special occasion, personal confusion, or nothing special at all), we start drinking again. At first we think of just one drink, because one drink does not cause Regardless of the serious consequences, we feel it is safe to have another drink. But it turns out that's just a trap - when we've had two or three drinks, we feel good, and then we think one or two more drinks will be okay given our level of drinking. As a result, we drank too much uncontrollably and returned to our original drunken state.

Doctors who specialize in alcohol dependence tell us that it is the first drink that triggers the underlying desire to drink, which in turn makes us lose control. This repeated experience leads us to conclude that trying to control how much we drink and planning how not to get drunk is impossible, and that avoiding that crucial drink—“never the first drink”—is the key to long-term sobriety.

Alcohol dependence is an addiction to alcohol.

Alcohol is a soft drug like any other addictive substance, and the only way we can stay in recovery is to stay away from the first dose of the narcotic that caused our addiction.

3. Use the "24-hour" plan

In the days of alcoholism, we often solemnly swear "never drink again" when we are very uncomfortable. "I vowed not to drink for a year." From the bottom of our hearts, we really didn't want to get drunk again. Of course some people will have reservations: that the pledge is only for "hard liquor", not beer. In fact, beer and wine can also make us drunk, but we need to drink more to achieve the same effect as liquor. We suffer just as much damage from drunkenness with beer and wine as we do with hard liquor.

However, after a while, the vows and painful memories will be left behind. We started drinking again at some point. Our "forever" never lasts.

Of course, some of them did keep their promise and quit for a long time, for 2 months, half a year, or a year, until the time came and we felt that we should be able to drink freely and in a controlled manner... and we started drinking again. , and soon fell into the original troubles, along with new guilt and regret.

Alcohol dependence is a permanent, irreversible disease, and experience tells us all that we should not make a long-term commitment to staying sober. A more practical and effective way to say it is: "I'm just not drinking today."

Maybe we drank yesterday, but we can decide not to drink today. No matter what temptations and irritations we encounter, we try as hard as we can to avoid having that first drink of the day.

If the desire to drink is too strong, then break the 24 hours into smaller units - at least one hour - and we can tolerate the discomfort caused by this temporary suspension, then add one more hour ! One more hour! Keep going. If we succeed today, we have reason to believe we can do it tomorrow.

The "24-hour" plan is very casual. We can start over at any time, no matter where we are. At home, at work, in the hospital room, at 4:00 in the afternoon or 3:00 in the morning, we can decide at any time not to drink for the next 24 hours or 5 minutes.

We're just trying to live today (now) just to stay sane - and it works. Once this way of thinking becomes part of our thinking, we find that living in 24-hour blocks is equally effective and satisfying for dealing with other things.

4. Take action

The more we want to stay away from alcohol, the more lingering thoughts of drinking will linger. So simply staying away from alcohol (or not thinking about it) isn't enough.

Once you stop drinking, how do you spend the free time? Most of us have formal jobs to do, but there is still a lot of free time that must be filled. Therefore, we must develop new hobbies and arrange colorful activities to fill these times, and at the same time find appropriate outlets for the energy that was once addicted to alcohol.

There are many things we can do that are suitable and meaningful for us.

1． In the early stages of quitting drinking, you can take a walk or brisk walk. Especially going to new places you’ve never been before. Go for a leisurely stroll in a park or country lane, but not a tiring march.

2. read. Although some of us cannot make up our minds to read books, we should really read some books to broaden our horizons, increase our life experience, and be more attentive.

3. Visiting a museum or gallery, some people choose photography is also a good idea.

4. Swim, run, bike, yoga, or other exercise recommended by your doctor.

5． Tackle those long-neglected household chores. Organizing wardrobes and dressing tables, filing documents into categories, or dealing with things we have put off for a long time. But when we do these things, we should not be greedy for more and act within our capabilities. Instead of cleaning out the entire kitchen or organizing all the files at once, clean out one drawer or file folder at a time and do the rest another day.

6. Try taking up a new hobby. Choose activities that are not too expensive or demanding, that are purely recreational, that are refreshing and invigorating without the pressure of competition. For example, singing, writing, tropical fish, carpentry, basketball, cooking, bird watching, amateur performances, wood carving, gardening, guitar, movies, dance, stone carving, potted plants, collection, etc. Many people find that the activities they really enjoy now are hobbies they never considered trying.

7． Rediscover the fun of the past. A watercolor painting, billiards or Go game, reading notes, etc. that you have not polished for many years, to continue these hobbies. But if you feel it is no longer suitable for you, just give it up.

8. Go to class. Studying Japanese or English? Love history or math? Want to learn about archeology or anthropology? Or cooking, computer operation, then take correspondence courses, TV universities or adult education (just for interest, not necessarily with a credit certificate). There are also many places that offer classes that only take one day a week, why not give it a try? Taking classes can not only broaden your horizons, but also broaden your areas of life. If you get bored of the class content, don't hesitate to quit immediately. Only by learning to give up activities that are not beneficial to us or have no positive, positive, or healthy meaning can we muster the courage to face it again, and only then can we have the opportunity to experience a new dimension of life besides drinking.

9． Volunteer to do some useful service. Many hospitals, children's service agencies, and social welfare groups are in great need of volunteers to provide various services. We have many choices. When we can contribute to others, even if it is just a trivial service, we will feel particularly useful. We will even feel very interested when talking about the process of participating in these activities and related information. And particularly devoted.

10． Dress yourself up. Most of us know that there are many ways that a new haircut, new clothes, a new pair of glasses, or even new teeth can have unexpected and pleasing results.

11． Play with ease! Not everything we do in our daily lives must be proactive and innovative. We also need to do some activities that are purely for fun, such as kites, zoos, comedy movies, soul music, detective novels, etc. that you like; if you don’t like it, find other fun activities that have nothing to do with drinking, purely To reward yourself.

5. Change old habits

In the process of our alcoholism, we have fixed time periods, familiar places and accustomed activities. Especially when we are tired, hungry, lonely, angry, or particularly happy, these seemingly ordinary and recurring scenes are dangerous traps for our waking lives.

When we first start sobering up, it can be helpful to look back at our past drinking habits to find ways to overcome our addiction. The place where we often buy alcohol may be a supermarket on the way to work. Each of us always has our own favorite drinking place. Whether it's drinking with friends for fun or a habitual drink at a fixed time every day, we can find out from our past drinking patterns what time and days we are used to drinking.

We can adjust all the details of life that are related to the drinking problem.

6. Use sweets or drinks

Try not to let yourself go hungry - when you are hungry, the urge to drink is even stronger. Eating sweets, snacks, and nutritious foods at this time seems to reduce our desire for alcohol. Because sweetness can suppress the urge to drink, the eating process itself will also bring about a series of new body movements: chewing, swallowing, etc. when drinking drinks, milk, eating cookies, fruits, etc., which is also very helpful in changing the old drinking habits in the past. Helpful.

When some alcoholics are advised to eat more instead of drinking, they may worry about whether they will gain weight as they eat. In fact, after replacing the caloric supply of ethanol in alcohol with a healthy and balanced diet, some overweight people actually lost excess fat and lost weight. Of course some people may gain weight, but this is manageable - after all, losing weight is much easier than quitting drinking.

According to the conclusions of current medical research, eating more foods rich in vitamin B can not only make up for the vitamin deficiency caused by our long-term alcohol addiction, but also help reduce alcohol addiction. Therefore, daily supplementation of multivitamins is particularly important. It's the B vitamins that make sense.

So next time we face the urge to drink, try having something sweet or something to drink. At least you can put off the thought of drinking for an hour or two.

Get enough rest

Severe alcoholics generally don’t understand why their bodies are tired. In fact, there are at least three reasons stemming from the characteristics of alcohol: ① Alcohol is a high-calorie drink that can quickly provide energy; ② Alcohol paralyzes the central nervous system, making alcoholics unable to detect symptoms of physical discomfort; ③ When drunk and paralyzed After gradually disappearing, the anxiety that followed caused another feeling of tension.

Feelings of anxiety and uneasiness may continue for some time after we stop drinking, leading to bipolar disorder and insomnia. We also often feel very tired and drowsy, often alternating between the two conditions. As the process of stopping drinking continues, both of these problems will gradually improve, so there is no need to worry.

This reminds us that we must have adequate rest during the initial stage of stopping drinking. Because when we are tired, we often have the idea of ??picking up the first glass of wine again.

Many of us are eager to understand why we sometimes have the sudden urge to drink for no apparent reason. If we analyze the situation carefully, we will find that this often happens when we are feeling particularly tired, but we do not understand the correlation at the time. We often consume too much energy and don’t get enough rest. Generally speaking, we can recover immediately by eating fast food, snacks or taking a nap. At the same time, the thought of drinking will disappear; even if we don’t fall asleep immediately , but as long as you lie down for a while or take a nap on a chair, you can relax and eliminate fatigue. Of course, if we can arrange enough rest time for ourselves in our daily plan, we will have better results.

Insomnia often occurs after stopping drinking. And "insomnia" is often used as an excuse for us to have a drink or two, so we must take some measures to help ourselves avoid drinking again.

Sometimes instead of lying in bed tossing and turning and being unable to fall asleep, it is better to simply do something you like. Even at one or two o'clock in the morning, you might as well get up and read or write until your body needs rest.

Re-examine your daily habits to see if any bad habits are causing your sleep disorders.

For example, did you drink too much tea or coffee at night? Is the diet moderate? Is there a moderate amount of exercise? Is the digestive tract system functioning normally?

In addition, many traditional and old remedies are also very effective in solving the problem of insomnia. For example, drink a cup of hot milk, take a deep breath, take a hot bath, read a monotonous and boring book or listen to light music, etc.

If the situation does not improve or even worsens, we recommend seeking diagnosis and treatment from a more skilled physician who also understands alcohol addiction.

We must remember: sleeping pills do not solve the insomnia problem of us alcoholics. Experience shows that when you become dependent on drugs, you will inevitably end up relapsing! Moreover, using drugs to fall asleep requires taking great risks. Therefore, we would rather endure short-term discomfort than risk resorting to medication until our bodies can regain healthy sleep habits.

After getting rid of the shackles of alcohol, many of us have been horrified to find that we had a vivid nightmare about our return to drinking in the dead of night or at dawn. We feel so shocked and distressed by our return to drinking, but this phenomenon is not a bad thing. It means that we have really changed our past and realized that we can no longer continue to binge drink like this, so we are dreaming In the middle, I also subconsciously agree with my choice to stay awake.

When we can sleep peacefully without drinking, it feels so wonderful, a kind of pure physical and mental pleasure. From now on, we no longer have to suffer the painful torture of hangovers, nor do we need to worry about losing our temper and memory after drinking. A blank wait for the dilemma to arise.

This means that we can now welcome a new day with gratitude and hope!