Battling Addiction

By Eddie Philips

The intake of alcohol is damaging to both your physical and mental health. It could end up ruining your personal relationships as well as your career. There are so many ways to assist you to stop drinking alcohol.

The first task that needs attention is to actually identify the main reasons why you have the desire to give up drinking. These reasons will general on the whole, but there will also be some more specific to you personally. You may require the assistance of a close friend or family member in order to complete the list.

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From Nursing In Practice:

Thursday 6th September 2007

Teenagers who binge-drink are more likely to use drugs or become alcoholics when they grow up, research claims.

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By Ian Henman

It might be you, a loved one, or a friend dealing with the problem. No matter who it is alcoholism could very well be one of the most difficult issues you’ll face over the course of your life. Similar to taking drugs or smoking alcoholism becomes a very big burden to carry around with you. Knowing it can lead to great disaster and even death of the person it directly effects. When ever you find yourself dealing with alcoholism you should prepare yourself for the worst, but hope the best will come of it all.

The initial step taken when dealing with alcoholism is the alcoholic, or yourself must admit that a problem exists. Like any addiction, until the person addicted realizes there is a problem to them there isn’t one. How can you decide if a person has a problem with alcohol? Is their drinking out of hand, is it having a negative impact on their life, work, and relationships with others. If this sounds like someone you know then there is a good chance they do have a problem. How ever you recognizing it doesn’t mean there is a solution close by, dealing with alcoholism is a two way street. Remember you can’t help someone with a problem, if they themselves haven’t realized it yet.

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By Rahul Nag

If you stop drinking for any length of time, your body is going through some changes, both physically and emotionally. Since alcohol is a powerfully addictive drug that is toxic, your body had to make some physical changes to keep you from being poisoned. Your body’s chemistry, especially that of your liver, had to change to keep you alive while you were drinking. However, once your body chemistry changed to accommodate the presence of alcohol, it cannot be un-changed. This is why you are experiencing physical cravings for alcohol; your body wants it back! These cravings are most intense in the first six months of abstinence from alcohol. Thus, this is when most relapses occur. Here’s how you can beat alcohol cravings today, right now:

Cravings occur on a Bell curve: they start out mild, grow in intensity until they peak, and then gradually they return to the “baseline” of no cravings. When you feel craving begin, now you know what’s going to happen - you’re ahead of the game right there! As your craving peaks in about 30 minutes, do something else. Anything; exercise, go to your recovery group’s web site and talk through your craving, call a friend, read your email, go to a movie, read a book, watch TV, just get your mind onto something else. The craving will begin to recede slowly, and soon it will be gone altogether. This process takes about an hour. Keep telling yourself “I won’t give in. This is going to pass.” And it will! Your self-confidence will be raised significantly as you enjoy this success.

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By Morgan Hamilton

Alcohol and drug treatment has evolved quite a bit of past few decades. The first forms of alcohol and drug treatment were actually quite primitive compared to what’s available today. In the dark ages it was thought that addictions were caused by demonic possession, which had many different prescribed ‘cures’ ranging from blood letting to being burned at the stake. In the 19th and early 20th century, alcohol and drug treatment had made some strides towards improvements as opposed to when addictions were then considered forms of insanity and the treatments of choice involved straight jackets, padded rooms, and electric shocks. Could you imagine? You have to wonder what they were thinking?

What we consider today as modern alcohol and drug treatment didn’t really start until the second half of the 20th century. This was no doubt one of the well-known and often repeated ’12 step’ program designed by Alcoholics Anonymous. Doctors and practitioners slowly came to realize that effective alcohol and drug treatment was in fact a possibility. Some of the first forms of alcohol and drug treatment centers formed in this time were not much more than centers where the 12 step program could be taught. The treatments were actually more psychological than anything else.

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By Paul Belleau

Even though alcohol consumption is legal for individuals in Dallas, Houston or anywhere in Texas who are 21 or over, it should be remembered that alcohol is still a harmful, dangerous drug. Sure, it seems like “everyone” drinks, and sometimes it even seems like everyone drinks a lot. But that’s not really the truth. There are a lot of people who don’t drink at all, and the vast majority of adults don’t drink at all heavily.

What Defines Binge Drinking?

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By Trevor Kugler

For the better part of ten years this is the exact question that I would ask myself every morning in the shower. I would stand there with the water washing over me and wonder if I drank too much. In hindsight, now that I don’t drink any more, I realize that if I was asking myself the question, “Do I drink too much” everyday, I quite obviously drank too much. But this begs the question, how much is too much?

The answer to this question would probably vary for each individual, but I know the bottom line was that I came to the conclusion that I drank too much. My average had to be a twelve pack of beer a day. Not a twelve pack every single day, some days on the four or five. But then I would have a “good run” a couple of times a week where I would polish off an 18-pack, or even give a case of beer a run for it’s money. So my average had to be around 12 beers a day.

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By Michael Russell

Learning that your life partner or a close friend or family member is an alcoholic can come as a severe shock. This is particularly true when you have failed to notice that anything was wrong with them over a long period. However, you shouldn’t blame yourself because the nature of an alcoholic is to be secretive and devious so as not to be caught out.

In some households, it is normal practice to have a couple of drinks after work, wine with dinner and maybe even a nightcap. If yours is one of those, then it is even less likely that you will notice if someone is an alcoholic. The same holds true for couples or families who socialise a lot in pubs or restaurants or other establishments, which serve alcoholic drinks. In these circumstances, if someone seems a little tipsy occasionally, the assembled company will probably pass it off as “one too many”, but what’s going on when “one too many” becomes a daily occurrence?

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By Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD

The American Psychiatric profession believes, “Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. Once a drug addict, always a drug addict. Alcoholism/drug addiction is a disease and ‘Relapse’ is part of recovery.”

“Not true” says, Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Holistic Healer. “Using a holistic approach – Body, Mind and Spirit—people can be healed of alcoholism and drug addiction without relapse and without cravings by healing the underlying causes which precipitate the need to use alcohol or drugs to cope. A holistic approach incorporates life coaching, massage therapy, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, yoga, physical fitness, spiritual awakening, as well as Chinese herbology.”

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By William L. Smith Ph. D.

Drugs and alcohol are the most common substances abused by teenagers. Alcoholism, also know as alcohol dependence, has symptoms such as craving, loss of control, loss of memory, physical dependence, and increasing tolerance. Approximately, 10 million current drinkers are under the age of 21, about 4 million are binge drinkers; including 2 million who are heavy drinkers all of them are between the ages of 16-21 years old.

One in three college students now drinks solely to get drunk. About 30% of women in college reported poor grades with the increased use of alcohol and drugs, and 60% of college women diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease contacted while they were drunk.

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