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Evgeny Bryun, main Russian narcologist
We think that compared to the previous New Year, to the previous January,
recourse for help connected to alcohol abuse grew by 10%.
This number for this January is higher than in an average month by about 15%.
It means that this fake tradition of extensive drinking and eating and getting poisoned
during celebrations continues.
And so far we cannot overcome it.
Also because these traditions didn't appear yesterday and not even the day before yesterday.
It is an old story of the post-war Soviet Union.
And to break it we need to teach people to have pleasure in a non-chemical way.
It is quite sad.
Possibly we can only break this tradition when the Biblical 40 years will pass
- when the last person born into slavery dies.
It works similarly for our drinking habits.
There is a good example of Scandinavian countries,
which for several generations were increasing the social pressure
on the drinking part of the population and as a result the consumption of alcohol decreased significantly
and the population started to revive instead of degrade.
We have a similar situation at the moment, although there are certain positive developments.
You know that on New Year's Eve the sale of alcohol was forbidden, there was a ban.
I was walking around Moscow that night and observed
how the people were celebrating and generally it seemed to be quite decent.
New Year's Eve itself in my opinion was quite decent, people were outside, setting off fireworks,
everybody was friendly, unknown people were talking to each other.
The next day I went for another drive around Moscow to understand it better
and checked the news about it and it seemed to be very calm.
There were many people on Red Square and in the center in general,
a lot of celebrations and it was quite decent.
This is natural.
On New Year's Eve itself people rarely ask for narcological help.
The problems come afterwards,
because unfortunately not all people can regulate their relations with alcohol,
not everyone can control the consumption so people get poisoned.
I talk about it quite frequently but it is worth saying once again,
this, excuse me, idiotic habit and pseudo-tradition of drinking the morning after.
Instead of abstaining from alcohol, the previous intoxication is covered with new alcohol
and thus the mechanism of addiction is started.
I want to stress that only people suffering from alcoholism have hangovers,
all the others have intoxication that will pass, even if you do not do anything by 3 p.m.,
in some particularly difficult cases by 6 p.m.
You should not really do anything against it and should absolutely avoid consuming alcohol.
We will soon have another New Year's Eve [Old New Year],
I assume that the scale of celebrations will be smaller at this New Year according to the Gregorian calendar,
but still there will be this extensive drinking and eating,
with the standard mistakes.
People are sitting in a crowded room, drinking, smoking and eating there, the scenarios are quite sad.
There is another standard mistake.
I often ask people why they drink and what they want from alcohol.
Funnily, I can never get an answer.
People do not understand why they do it.
There are no conscious aims in drinking.
For instance, if the person got cold on the freezing street,
came back home and drank a shot of *** to warm up.
Here we have an aim.
Or we have a tradition to raise a glass of champagne at New Year's Eve.
The aim is clear.
There is a tradition, there is a ritual.
But all the other things seem unclear.
The routine habit of constant alcohol consumption.
We are trying to overcome it.
I think that everyone should ask themselves a question before having a drink: why is he doing it?
And he has to remember that the first effect of any alcohol is intoxication,
because it contains poisonous products.
Getting drunk is in fact only a side-effect.
We should remember this and somehow reduce the toxic burden of alcohol.
I am listening to myself and thinking that I sound like a person crying in the desert.
But I will keep talking about it.
Maybe somebody will listen to me.
We calculate - although this is an expert estimate, so not the exact number
- that 2% of the population suffers from alcoholism together with psychotic disorders.
Another 9-10% suffer from alcoholism with somatic disorders.
And another 30% constantly abuse alcohol.
2, 10, 30 - so altogether around 40% of our population abuses alcohol.
Otherwise, how can we explain the average consumption of 15-18 liters per person?
So if you drank too much on New Year's Eve you should not drink new alcohol the next morning.
There are various medicines.
I do not really approve of taking aspirin and aspirin-consuming medicines
- although they definitely help as much as any acidic medicine.
Aspirin can provoke bleeding, so it should be treated carefully.
But there is succinic acid - one can buy it in the pharmacy,
there are Limantar pills containing lemon and succinic acid
and they are very good for removing the intoxication.
Because this morning states that what our population identifies as a hangover is not in fact a hangover,
I stress, but the continuing intoxication with the half-decay of alcohol.
How can one distinguish between a hangover and intoxication?
If you are registered as having an alcohol addiction,
then that it is a hangover and you need to call a doctor.