Therapist: I had an alcoholic patient. She got promoted. She couldn’t get out of bed

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In the case of high functioning alcoholics (hfa) addiction can be hidden for years, even from immediate family. Such alcoholics are primarily people in managerial positions, well-regarded at work, earning well, with a seemingly orderly – not to say ideal – family situation. The American dream, which in practice turns out to be a Polish nightmare.

Businessmen, lawyers, doctors, journalists, celebrities. Many have alcohol problems. This is the image of “success in Polish”, Polish “drinking with style”.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of such cases. A high-functioning alcoholic is more the norm than the exception in Polish society. — This is hardly surprising, since alcohol is commonly sold in stores as a food, and we are dealing here with a highly toxic narcotic substance, because that is what alcohol actually is, says Michał Świerczek from the “Desiderata” addiction therapy center in Rabka-Zdrój to Onet.

Michał Świerczek has been dealing with alcohol problems for many years. He is a certified addiction therapy instructor, a graduate of the CARE Brok School of Psychotherapy Specialists and Addiction Therapy Instructors. As a young man, he himself struggled with alcohol addiction and has not drank for 38 years. And he has been trying to help others for so many years.

“The state benefits from the sale of a highly toxic substance”

— We had a patient, a lawyer, with excellent career prospects. He died of alcohol a few days before his 36th birthday, shortly after leaving another therapy, Mr. Michał tells Onet. – I’ll tell you straight. When asked where high-functioning alcoholics come from, there is only one answer. They are created by a society in which drinking is the norm, he emphasizes.

— Alcohol is common and acceptable. It is available everywhere, 24 hours a day. per day. It is considered a food product, and a first-need product, because even during the pandemic its sales were not limited. It hits us in the face in every grocery store, at every gas station. It’s everywhere, he points out.

— Meanwhile, alcohol is a psychoactive, narcotic, highly toxic substance, sanctioned by the state, which profits from its sale – says Świerczek.

— Yes, everyone knows that the state should do something about it, but the alcohol lobby is too strong and will not allow any changes. Anyway, at Wiejska Street, in the Sejm, he also drinks. Because why not? It’s so normal. Everyone says this to themselves until a crisis occurs, the therapist emphasizes.

There are no recent studies in Poland that would allow estimating the number of high-functioning alcoholics. In the United States, one in five people have an alcohol problem, i.e. 20%. among alcoholics (data from the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – ed.).

The last study of this type in Poland, regarding high-functioning alcoholics, dates back to 2011. At that time, the University of Social Rehabilitation Pedagogy in Warsaw checked the level of alcohol consumption among bankers and corporate employees in the capital and elsewhere. As it turned out, among those in the corporate world, 18% drank on a daily basis. of them. As much as 40 percent drank alcohol several times a week.

— To be honest, the entire achievements of the State Agency for Solving Alcohol-related Problems, which included excellent therapists who benefited from the experience and training of, among others, in the USA, was lost in 2022. Then PARPA was liquidated and merged with the National Bureau for Drug Addiction, creating in its place the National Center for Addiction Prevention. A little earlier, the director of PARPA was fired because he was against the proposed form of carrying out this merger and also spoke the truth about alcohol-related problems in Poland. This caused the then Minister of Health to “lose trust” in the director. In this way, one of the best systems for monitoring alcohol problems in Europe was dismantled. It was the only institution that the alcohol lobby took into account. Now alcohol problems are “diluted” among others dealt with by the KCPU. Attempts are being made to introduce various ad hoc actions, which, however, no longer have the characteristics of systemic actions. And creating such a system took over 30 years, says therapist Michał Świerczek.

“There is no training, mainly in schools. And children as young as 12 start drinking.”

— This is not a misleading statement: “high-functioning alcoholic.” Because for some time they function perfectly, brilliantly – says Onet’s interlocutor.

— I had an alcoholic patient under my care who had been using alcohol for many years to achieve promotions and climb the career ladder. With the help of alcohol she went to sleep, with the help of alcohol she did business. Until one day, after a long-awaited promotion, she simply couldn’t get out of bed, she says.

— Alcoholism is a chronic, fatal, progressive disease, often leading to depression and voluntary isolation. All this so that you can drink in peace. Our patients included doctors, university professors, and a girl working in Cambridge, whose husband spent two weeks looking for her in pubs, describes Świerczek.

He emphasizes that currently in Poland, real addiction prevention is insufficient, even in schools. — There used to be such programs, I participated in them myself. We talked to young people from junior high and high schools about truth, freedom and love in the context of alcohol. Well, the young people were well-versed in the subject, some of them, from the third grade of junior high school, wrote to us in anonymous surveys that they were already addicted and saw no chance for themselves. These programs and trainings were discontinued after 2015, because since then it was practically impossible to enter schools, says the therapist.

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— We tried to organize a training for one of the schools in Małopolska. The management replied that they didn’t need it because they had “no drug addiction or alcoholism problems.” Strange, in a situation where alcohol initiation occurs already among 12- and 13-year-olds! – emphasizes our interlocutor.

— This is life itself. And among these high-functioning alcoholics we have a lot of doctors. Besides, prof. Zbigniew Religa himself admitted that due to his alcohol problem he had to stop operating on patients for some time. The center’s patients include people running successful businesses who can take a week off just to, to put it bluntly, drink. We have highly paid specialists sent from abroad and paid for therapy by their bosses. Because they know that it is difficult to find similar specialists on the market, and if they recover, they will work for them for many years to come. There are many such people. And there must be a very deep crisis for them to realize that they have a serious problem. That they are seriously ill, the therapist points out.

— Because an addicted person, before he hits rock bottom, will try to keep drinking. He will develop a system of veils to justify himself to himself. That he drinks because he has a stressful job, he drinks because he needs to relax, he drinks because it’s nothing bad… There are many reasons. And then comes the big boom. The wife says that she is leaving and taking the children or he will cause an accident while drunk. And then you have to face the problem, which is simply alcoholism, says therapist Michał Świerczek.

“They are covering for the president who is wasted”

The therapist emphasizes that without this shock, a high-functioning alcoholic can drink himself to death without leaving home. —Of course, outside working hours, because work is sacred for a high-functioning alcoholic. She gives him his only sense of stability. A family can and usually does fall apart because these high-functioning alcoholics, even when they are at home, are not there because they drink. But you have to show up to work sober and ready for challenges and successes, our interlocutor emphasizes.

— It also happens that they have very well-trained co-workers who cover for the president and don’t let anyone in when he’s not in the right shape and when he’s drunk and sleeping in his office.

— All this until such a high-functioning alcoholic is no longer able to control either the amount or frequency of drinking alcohol, and what’s worse, he loses control over his life. Then he is no longer able to work, the therapist notes.

— It all looks quite grim, but we are fighting to save every human life. But first they have to accept their illness. Because without it, it works like a sick person who leaves the doctor’s office, tears up the prescription and then complains that he is not getting better – he points out.

“The state doesn’t see the problem. Because it doesn’t want to see it. And the existence of the nation is at risk.”

— More people with prospects and great jobs are dying. They die from alcohol addiction. This is what it looks like in a country that derives temporary and visible profits from the sale of alcohol, the therapist emphasizes.

— Unfortunately, it is not said that losses due to alcohol problems exceed the profits from its sale three or four times. We have ubiquitous permission to drink, and alcohol and its advertisements attack us basically everywhere – describes Michał Świerczek. Even children.

— There was recently a scandalous promotion of non-alcoholic drinks, which children can also buy, because they are supposedly zero percent. It’s not zero, but sellers have trouble refusing to sell. And if they refuse, there are “stealers” in front of every store who will buy supposedly safe alcohol for these children for a small “dollar”. And since it is so widely available, it is hardly surprising that the problem of alcoholism is becoming equally common. Including the “classy” one. However, you can get drunk on branded wine as well as on “jabola”. There is no difference, the therapist emphasizes.

— The situation is quite dramatic today. After the pandemic, the consumption of pure alcohol increased from 10 liters per person over 15 years of age to 12.5 liters per year.. Meanwhile, research shows that drinking more than 10 liters a year becomes a threat to the biological existence of the nation – points out Michał Świerczek. – And it’s like a relay race between generations. Drunk mothers give birth to addicted children with FAS, fetal alcohol syndrome, at birth – he emphasizes.

— To get treatment reimbursed by the National Health Fund, you have to wait up to two or three months. Well, an alcoholic who drinks can drink himself to death in three months. In addition, only “zeroed” people, i.e. without a gram of alcohol in the body, are admitted for detoxification in centers financed by the National Health Fund. Most heavy alcoholics I have met would not be able to bring themselves to “zero out,” says the therapist.

– The consequences are what they are. Day by day we see that the number of patients is growing exponentially, and no one is investigating the problem. The problem is addiction to a strong tissue poison, which is alcohol, which destroys the body, he argues.

The ubiquitous “monkey”. Colorful, seemingly harmless. It can kill

In Michał Świerczek’s opinion, the solution for Poland would be to immediately stop treating alcohol as a food product and ban its sale in grocery stores. And a ban on all advertising and promotion.

— We must follow the example of Norway and the Scandinavian countries. There, alcohol is available only in specialized stores, and not everywhere, as it is in Poland. For example, in the population of over 600 thousand There are only five alcohol shops in Oslo. What about us? How many shops, stations are there… – indicates the therapist. — It would also be necessary to set a minimum price for alcohol and limit sales hours and the number of sales points throughout the country, he says.

Let us emphasize that Synergion’s research conducted in 2019 shows that 3 million so-called monkeys – 1 million of them by noon. “Monkeys” are carried in women’s purses, in pockets, drank in the elevator or in the toilet, they litter the side of virtually every road, most likely thrown out of the car window. Most likely thrown away by the driver of the same car, who may have bought it at a gas station. Attempts have already been made to withdraw alcohol from gas stations, but the alcohol lobby turned out to be stronger.

— I wonder if the current government will be able to deal with the alcohol lobby? This problem affects several million people in Poland, including those close to addicts. The problem is so huge that it is invisible – sums up the therapist.