+7

The Balashov Narcological Clinic at the Saratov region is one of many clinics scattered all over the county. Its name is well known, but not many people are aware of what is inside. I hardly believe there is a single person among those I've photographed who would admit that he or she has experienced the same pleasure in drinking now as when they tasted alcohol for the first time. The impression of lightness, which alcohol gives in the beginning is a deadly trap ; the feeling of freedom is false. Insensibly true values are vanishing being sacrified to the booze. The alcohol awareness is neglected. Everyone thinks that the biggest misfortune falls on others and not on you.
There are different reasons why certain people become addicted to alcohol. Some people drink because they are lost or want to escape the realities of life. Many of them have already experienced the terrible tortures of delirium tremens attack but they just have no guts to stop drinking. Some of these people don't know any other kind of life as very often the entire families drink habitually, from generation to generation. In most cases all these people end up the same way.
The changes don't occur suddenly. They come day-by-day, year-by-year. But there is always a chance to stop, to look back and try to say "no" to this addiction. One thing is to hear about alcoholism but another is to witness what is on the bottom of every other glass and what high price has to be paid for it. I got scared when the man next to me who would tell me the story of his life and his hopes all of a sudden started squirming in convulsion of delirium tremens. As per statistics Russia tremens are unbearably high.
One of every sixteen people, who tasted alcohol once, ends up abusing it. One of every five people who takes alcohol more or less regularly will most probably become a chronic alcoholic. Figure indicate that more and more women and teenagers have started abusing alcohol these days. More than 2,000,000 people had been diagnosed with having alcoholism, 300, 000 women and more then 100,000 teenagers among them.

Tatiana Plotnikova for Russian Reporter Magazine.