At least some feeling

How the war leads Russian emigrants to drugs and alcohol - and how they are fighting dependencies

Due to the war and the forced relocation, many Russian emigrants have aggravated dependencies. Alcohol and tranquilizers and drugs helped to cope with stress, longing for their loved ones, which in one of the most popular countries for emigration - Georgia - it turned out to be not so difficult. Now many are trying to fight addiction - but it does not always work out.

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“My brother fought in Mariupol, defended“ Azovstal ”to the end, and then was captured by the Russian military in Elena. At each stage, I thought that he would not survive, and his daughter would grow without a father. This is fucked by me, like a trigger, ”says a former political activist, and now the IT -School Peter Krupnov ( name changed ), who moved to Tbilisi last summer. - Then I realized that all the activities in Russia were meaningless. My work did not help anyone - the war still began. "

First, alcohol helped to cope with stress Peter - when a relative was captured, Peter went into a binge for almost a week. Then in the bar he was offered clonazepam - a drug tranquilizer, which is often prescribed in the treatment of epilepsy. Soon, Peter began to drink him in packs.

“I don’t remember three weeks of my life at all. It seems that I behaved harmlessly, although my wife suffered with me, ”Peter recalls. The drugs helped him calm down: "I wanted to eat clonazepam again and again."

Peter is one of the thousands of Russians whose problems with anxiety were aggravated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Many of them tried to cope with the help of potent psychoactive substances: alcohol, drugs, psychotropic drugs. For some, the dependence on them quickly turned into another problem.

The shortest way to comfort

“I haven’t given such recommendations for a psychiatrist as over the past six months,” says Svetlana Gavrilova, a psychologist who is working with the Andrei Shkolov Moscow Fund, where they help people with drug dependence. Now Gavrilov also helps the "community center", the space in Tbilisi, which provides free psychological assistance to Russian-speaking emigrants. The center was opened by employees of the Rilkov Foundation.

Since February, in Russian -language services for the selection of the psychotherapist “clear”, Zigmund.online and YouTalk also began to apply more more complaints about increased anxiety and panic attacks. From February 26 to March 4, Russians were one and a half times more likely to google information about psychological assistance, said the co -founder of YouTalk Anna Krymskaya. According to the Center for Development of Promising Technologies, the demand for antidepressants in Russia in the first half of the 2022th increased by 66% compared to what was a year ago.

The psychiatrist-narcologist Nikolai Unguryan, who works in the city narcological hospital of St. Petersburg and the Humanitarian Equipment charitable foundation, says that after the start of the war he had much more customers. Every second has depression and anxiety. Many come with addictions and began to be used more often.

Before moving to Georgia from Moscow, a 26-year-old copywriter and barten Misha did not drink for six months. After emigration, she went into a binge and began to use a lot of marijuana. “They gave me about five grams for my birthday, and I wrapped them in one in three days,” Misha recalls. - Over the past six months, I have become much more unstable. Because there is a fucking war, people are dying. Every day I encounter this in the news, social networks-everywhere-VESSK. It is impossible to escape from this even with a strong desire, and the grass gives me at least some feeling of fuck. ”

25-year-old director Dasha Anisimova ( the name changed ) moved to Tbilisi due to the threat of political persecution more than a year ago. Thanks to the groups of “anonymous alcoholics”, she did not drink for three months, but after the start of the war she broke and now drinks alcohol daily. “I tried to quit several times - I went in for sports, read books about addictions, went to meetings, but all to no avail,” says Anisimova.

PRAR Andrei Sokolovsky ( name changed ) from Moscow also began to be used more often after moving to Yerevan. He explains this by a deterioration in the mental state: "There were thoughts about suicide, which I wanted to drown out something." In a new city, he managed to get only methamphetamine from drugs. Because of him, there was only more suicidal thoughts, and Andrei switched to tranquilizers purchased in neighboring Georgia. But he soon realized that when they cease to act, emotions fall over with renewed vigor.

The last 17 years, from adolescence, Anatoly Katkov ( the name changed ), a journalist and curator from St. Petersburg, used opioids, stimulants and euphorics - in particular, heroin and Mephedron. The culmination of his drug usage occurred during the pandemic of coronavirus - after that he began to be treated with addiction. Despite the fact that he was lying in a narcological hospital, went to groups of mutual assistance of people with addictions and studied with a psychotherapist, he could not go to remission for several months. Drugs helped Anatoly for a while to get rid of suffering, but then it became bad again and it was necessary to either continue to use, or look for other options.

“I break down when I feel at a dead end and cannot find the strength to develop another answer to difficult circumstances,” says Anatoly. One of his breakdowns came at the end of February: “From the war I was very good. He began to thump hard. On the one hand, he hung out in activism, on the other hand, in alcoholism. Well, I used it too. "

“Almost any dependence arises as anesthesia on the feelings that cause a person pain: unnecessary injuries, experienced violence, severe stress, loss, low self -esteem. Anesthesia in such a situation is a logical desire, ”explains the psychologist Svetlana Gavrilova. “A person under substances feels good, and dependence develops by itself, because the psyche is arranged in such a way as to find the shortest path to comfort.”

According to Gavrilova, that people begin to use more psychoactive substances against the background of global disasters, there is nothing surprising. Firstly, often dependences go hand in hand with mental disorders, the symptoms of which are aggravated in severe periods. Secondly, people want to run away from negative emotions.

“A surge of drug use in society is now very high, because people do not understand where to get on from stress,” agrees narcologist Nikolai Unguryan. - Many even before that it was difficult from life in big cities, a bad environmental situation, processing - all this negatively affects mental health. Global cataclysms are only exacerbated. The mental problems that anyone else has, get out. People cope with stress as they can, and the first thing they come to is the use of psychoactive substances in such quantities until it becomes easier. But it will not become easier. Physically it will help for some time, but the problem will not solve. ”

The hands shook, anxiety began

During the war, many who left Russians began to volunteer in charitable organizations. According to Sasha Feldstein, an employee of the Community Center, activists, especially without experience, often emotionally burn out and compensate for these emotions with psychoactive substances.

This happened with the 28-year-old Lena Grechka, who moved to Tbilisi from St. Petersburg a year and a half ago for security reasons: her husband worked as a journalist, and she often went to protests. Before emigration, the girl did not drink for three and a half years and did not use drugs for seven years. Soon after the move, Lena and her husband divorced.

“I felt that I was no longer responsible for the two of us and is now left only to myself. And then Ostapa suffered, arrived, girlfriend, ”Lena recalls.

She began to smoke marijuana, there are psychoactive mushrooms and drink alcohol. At the same time, Lena continued to drink tablets prescribed by a psychiatrist - she has a bipolar disorder. True, only three of the five necessary drugs managed to buy - the rest were not registered in Georgia. Because of this, the girl began the abolition syndrome, which she “drowned” illegally purchased tranquilizers.

When Lena combined the work with a fandraiser in a charity fund with volunteering in a project helping Ukrainians, only alcohol and tranquilizers helped her anxiety, she recalls.

“Morning began with a hangover. I drank a couple of cups of coffee to wake up - the hands shook, anxiety began; Then she worked, read the news - a panic attack began - threw phenazepam under the tongue to calm down; I survived the working day and in the evening immediately to the store for beer, ”she describes her usual day at that time.

Volunteering had to be abandoned, because Lena began to dream of nightmares, and she realized that she could no longer. Remembering that time, the girl says that she “lost herself” in activism, stopped taking care of herself and therefore emotionally burned out.

The same story happened with Dasha, who combined volunteering with work - in the end, this led her to nervous breakdowns. Volunteering also had to be abandoned.

“Emotional burnout is a state of growing fatigue and emotional exhaustion, which occurs due to irresistible stress. This, of course, is bad, because, firstly, due to burnout, activists cease to do an important thing, secondly, it can greatly harm a person: for example, if it develops into depression, ”says the psychotherapist Roman Matafonov, who often works with activists. - People without the experience of activism are more prone to burnout, because they do not yet understand how to overcome stress and often cannot decide on vacation, because they try to help as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Almost all my clients pass through disappointment, when they understand that they invested a lot of effort, they did not receive anything in return, and the problem did not solve. This can knock out the soil from under the feet. "

According to Matafonov, there is a direct connection between burnout and the tendency to use psychoactive substances, because dependencies perform the function of regulation, that is, overcoming stress, which is just not enough for burnt people. The psychotherapist emphasizes that he himself does not recommend customers to turn to psychoactive substances, because they will help to cope only for a short time and will not solve the problem, but, perhaps, will even aggravate.

Tbilisi Legend, Torch Apteki and Alcohol 24/7

Dependence could also affect the availability of psychoactive substances. For example, in Tbilisi, some potent drugs are sold without a prescription.
“There are round-the-clock“ Torch apects ”in which you can buy benzodiazepins-clonazepam, Zolomax, Xanax, Valium,” says 32-year-old grass seller Boris Ivanov ( name changed ), who moved to Tbilisi from St. Petersburg more than a year ago and uses tranquilizers himself.

Psychiatrists prescribe benzodiazepines as a sedative and sleeping pill. Moreover, they quickly cause physical and psychological addiction. When people stop drinking benzodiazepines, they begin to cancel the abolition syndrome: this manifests itself in increased anxiety, a lump of body, and mental excitability. The psychiatrist Nikolai Unguryan explains: the nervous system gets used to the inhibitory effects of the drugs and ceases to develop neurotransmitters responsible for reassurance - "After all, everything that is needed comes from the outside." As a result, a person does not cope himself and continues to use substances to calm down.

Unguryan adds that when the brain gets used to the effect of a substance, it ceases to act, so the dosage has to be increased - this is called “tolerance”. If the dosage increases to critical, this can lead to a blocking of brain centers responsible for breathing and heartbeat, a person may die. For benzodiazepines, tolerance is developed quickly-the dosage must be increased every one and a half to two months. In addition, chronic asthenic syndrome can form from them (characterized by chronic fatigue and insomnia). Therefore, drinking benzodiazepines without a doctor’s prescription is very dangerous.

According to Boris, “Zoliki” (Zolomax) and “Clonics” (clonazepam) in his environment are the most popular drugs. Typically, benzodiazepines cost about 1.5 Lary per tablet - this is about 30 rubles. For comparison, in stores in the Russian darknet the price for Xanax and Zolomax (various trading names of the alprazolam) varies from 186 to 799 rubles per tablet. Clonazepam - from 115 to 336 rubles apiece.

“If you mix benzodiazepines with alcohol, rushing mercilessly,” says Boris. At the same time, alcohol in Tbilisi is cheaper than in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and you can buy it around the clock and with delivery.

“Benzodiazepines themselves do not cause problems with behavior, but when mixing them with alcohol, people often have blackouts, coordination is lost, they can behave expressively and risky,” continues Boris, who knows about this from his own experience. “In the morning you remember what you did, covering a feeling of shame, you remember again about your problems, and from this you want to drink and throw yourself again.”

Benzodiazepines are dangerous to interfere with alcohol: both tablets and alcohol slow down the central nervous system, there is a risk of heart or breathing. For two years of work in emergency narcology, Nikolai Unguryan ran into four deaths as a result of mixing these substances. Moreover, according to Unguryan, this can happen even with small doses of alcohol.

“Once, when we bored with tranches, my friend and I got out of the institution and got into the car that arrived, being sure that it was a taxi, and immediately fell asleep in the back seat. But it turned out to be a cop car, ”recalls an emigrant from Russia Sergey Pevtsov ( name changed ). - The cops laughed. It was lucky that they are not the same as in Russia. It is usually cops, if they see that a person is sleeping on the street, waking you up, ask where you live, and take it to the house. I had this three times. "

Sergei arrived in Tbilisi two years ago and then met tranquilizers. Sergei became the “Tbilisi legend” because, mixing drugs with alcohol in large quantities, he got drunk to “hellish” states.

According to him, after the outbreak of war, he began to read the news non -stop. “And there is one story, another story, raped a woman, killed the child, exploded a bomb - it is difficult for me to understand and accept it,” says Sergey. He began to drink more to cope with a sense of helplessness and anxiety.

“My roots-Expresses can eat five to seven tablets each, buy a bottle of vodka and go to thump,” says Sergey. “There are a lot of such tranquers in Georgia.”

You can't do that all your life

The employee of the Tbilisi Community Center Sasha Feldstein says that due to the fact that benzodiazepines in Russia are unpopular, for emigrants these are new substances and they know little about their properties. Some find dependence when it has already formed.

Lena, who was engaged in charity, realized that she had dependence only when she was fired from her favorite work because of absenteeism, and after a heavy hangover she had to call an ambulance.

“I chose an easy way. Just eat traces, and everything becomes good. But they do not treat, but only eliminate the symptoms, ”she says. - If you dealt with a panic attack today, this does not mean that it will not be tomorrow. You cannot do this all your life. ”

It is difficult to get rid of benzodiazepine dependence - for this you need an average of six months to a year of treatment with a psychiatrist, says Unguryan. At the same time, the traction will have to fight all your life-psychotherapy helps, especially cognitive-behavioral.

The psychologist Svetlana Gavrilova recommends seeking professional help and seek support from loved ones, but, according to Feldstein, many are ashamed to do this because the problem of addiction is very stigmatized. In addition, in the new country, not everyone has the opportunity to get help. If in Russia you can contact a narcological dispensary for compulsory medical insurance for free, and in St. Petersburg - also in a humanitarian clinic , then in Georgia and other emigration countries, Russians can see a doctor only for money.

Those who do not have money can seek psychological assistance in the "Community Center" in Tbilisi (you can get it online) or use free Internet services in which you can get a doctor’s consultation: for example, a bot that you can find out what to do with an overdose or cancellation syndrome-it consults in it, including Nikolai Uguryan.

There are also mutual assistance groups (sometimes paid), most known as “anonymous drug addicts” or “anonymous alcoholics” - there are such for emigrants .

***

Now Lena does not work and is trying to understand what to do next. She recently started a dog, and, according to her, the responsibility for the animal helps her not give up. Необходимость заботы о животных поддерживает и Бориса. Сейчас он старается не есть транквилизаторы, потому что боится, что будет хуже справляться со своей жизнью.

Летом Анатолий ненадолго вернулся в Россию, и, чтобы «справиться с реальностью», снова начал активно употреблять. После нескольких недель ему пришлось «тормознуть, когда словил передозировку героином». Около месяца он не употреблял наркотики — помогала психотерапия и стремление наладить отношения с женой. Но в конце сентября после объявленной Путиным мобилизации Анатолий «сорвался разок», а затем покинул Россию и переехал в Ташкент. «Алкоголь мой верный спутник, без него не вывожу — но в небольших количествах», — рассказывает Анатолий. К наркотикам он пока не вернулся, но такую вероятность не исключает.

Даша продолжает пить. Она понимает, что у нее алкозависимость, но чувствует, что ей от него лучше и бросить пока не может.

Андрей отказался от транквилизаторов, и это далось ему легко — тяги он не ощутил. Петр тоже слез с клоназепама. Ему помогла поддержка жены и ежедневные физические нагрузки. «Мой психолог сказал, что они вернули мое сознание в тело», — поясняет он. Сказалось и то, что аптека, в которой он покупал таблетки, закрылась.

По словам Николая Угруняна, та часть общества, которую эмоционально затронула война, будет в стрессе еще около двух лет. «А разбираться с последствиями этого мы будем еще долго», — заключает психиатр-нарколог.