TheLiverDoc™@theliverdoc
Today, few neighbors of my patient, a 33 year old man, came into my outpatient department to convey the message that he had died by suicide.
On the way to Kasargod town by train, he jumped on to the tracks from the moving train and was smashed to death.
He was sufferring from alcohol use disorder and barely survived a severe episode of severe alcohol-related hepatitis 4 months back. It took me and my department a whole lot of shouldering burdens to get him out of the ICU and discharge him home.
He went through a de-addiction protocol and was off alcohol for two months. But on that train, he was partly inebriated.
He left behind his wife, aged 29 and a cherub of a daughter, aged 3. People love to believe that there is an afterlife and the spirits of the deceased linger on out of love. These are consolation borne out of grief and loss. The young child's father died. The young wife's husband is no more. There is no afterlife. When some one dies, it is same as it was before birth. Nothingness. They become memories for the living to grow around and move on. And nothing more.
Value lies in living a life. Not in living to death.
Covid had destroyed his travel and photography business. He could never recover losses. It was as if, he decided he wanted to die, as he could hardly provide for his family and became dependent on his elderly parents. To die and to quit - alcohol use reinforces that decision very easily. Even if the best doctors work on it, the simplest of answers for the patient always lie at the bottom of a bottle - because temporarily, it takes you elsewhere, away from all worries and paints an inaccurate picture that eveything was going to be ok.
When people think about alcohol use, they always think about the liver. But there is more than meets the eye with alcohol use and the one I dread, because consequences are unpredicable, is alcohol's influence on the brain. It is terrifyingly close.
Alcohol use (sometimes even one drink a day)
➡️Can reduce brain volume and accelerate brain shrinkage
➡️Can reduce "gray matter," leading to brain degeneration
➡️Can make it difficult for consumers to make new memories
➡️Slows down how your brain processes information, making it harder to work out what you are really feeling and possible consequences of your actions
➡️Alcohol targets and feeds negative feelings inside your head - regardless of your mood
➡️Increases anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric disorders higher compared to non-drinkers
➡️Can increase risk of social anxiety disorder and panic disorder
➡️Alters sleep physiology, reduces rapid-eye movement stage of sleep, induces periodic limb movements during sleep and worsens sleep quality
You can never know what alcohol can really do to you - small or large. You can never be too sure either. Because if alcohol is your friend, trust me, you dont need any enemies.
I lost my patient. A family lost their son, husband and father. What can you do about it? Directly, nothing. But there is something we all can do. None of us can stop people from drinking or enjoying their drinks. We are all adults and the most intelligent ones take the right decision on alcohol use. To abstain from it.
But the other lesser intelligent ones, can still help. At least, STOP normalizing alcohol on social media - on Instagram, on Twitter (X), on Facebook, and on your Reels and Shorts. There is no style in it. There is no love in it. When you feel putting up photos of your alcohol escapades, try to deviate and put up another picture - of your dog, your flowers, your garden or a nice book collection or something that is useful for others. Do not give undeserving credit to this socially accepted poison.Take honor in not doing so, because this way, you can contribute towards your fellow humans well being.
