December 5, 2009
Alcohol effects - How Might Alcohol Affect Your Health
Alcohol affects us in various ways and our social skills; After one or two drinks you begin to become more your self and more talkative as the alcohol reaches the brain and affects your cognitive abilities.
Alcohol causes your heart rate to speed up and you may feel a warm glow. This is caused by alcohol making the little blood vessels in the skin widen, allowing blood to flow closer to the surface and lowers blood pressure.
How Alcohol Affects Our Health
The results of drinking extreme amounts of alcohol can be terrible. Alcohol health implications include anxiety, impaired judgment leading to accidents and injuries, loss of consciousness, slowed breathing and heartbeat, suffocation through choking on your own vomit and potentially fatal alcohol poisoning. Drinking too much alcohol can also effect you mentally (generally temporarily), inducing guilt, anger and even paranoia, for no real reason. You slurr your words, often don’t recognise your surroundings and drinking too much alcohol can result in memory loss.
Drinking heavily also increases your calorie intake, resulting in it being partly responsible for adult obesity. In a medium-sized (175ml) glass of wine there are 125 calories and in a bottle there are over 500 calories. So thats about one quarter of your guidline daily calorie allowance!
The morning after - hangover unpleasantries
Alcohol causes you to get a hangover the next day, often being undesirable to experience. You may feel stomach ache, sickness, nausea and sometimes diarrhea, Alcohol misuse also has a dehydrating effect. Alcohol can also make you feel depressed, guilty
.
Drinking more than the recommmended daily amounts regularly you are putting your health at risk. Alcohol abuse in large quantities increases blood pressure.
Alcohol misuse is often connected with mental health problems. A recent British survey found that people with anxiety or depression were twice as likely to be heavy drinkers.
Large quantities of drinking may occasionally cause ‘psychosis’, a harsh mental illness where the person beleives others are plotting against them. Consuming large amounts of alcohol can lead to isolation and depression.
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November 14, 2009
A Young Man’s Abusive and Excessive Drinking Leads To a DWI, the Need For Alcohol Detox, and Time In The Municipal Jail
Jesse had a very difficult time maintaining a job. As a matter of fact, due to his indolence and lack of drive, he was out of work far more often than he was gainfully employed. And when he did get a job, he had an exceptionally difficult time getting to work when his shift began, he usually received less than optimal performance reviews, and he called off sick so frequently that he regularly got fired just a few weeks after he began working. To no one’s surprise, one of the outcomes of Jesse’s deplorable work record was the fact that he was just about flat broke from day-to-day.
Regardless of Jesse’s shameful work record and financial disregard, conversely, somehow he made it a point to drink in an excessive and irresponsible manner on a daily basis.
So it came as no big shock when Jesse received a fourth DUI. When he went before the court, the judge told Jesse that his alcohol-related behavior was irresponsible and, as a consequence, he was going to sentence Jesse to spend eight months locked up in jail.
Time In The City Jail To Think About The Injurious Effects of Abusive and Excessive Drinking
During his time in jail, Jesse was required to learn more about alcohol facts, about the damaging results of irresponsible and excessive drinking, and he was required to get alcohol rehab. The magistrate stressed the fact that unless Jesse gets professional alcohol rehab and learns how to live an alcohol-free life, he will more likely than not be spending more than a short amount of time in the city jail.
Jesse articulated that he comprehended what the magistrate was declaring but he still stated that placement in the municipal jail was not the right decision. The magistrate saw things in an entirely different way and asserted that it was his professional job to keep alcohol dependent people off the streets who drive and drink and who receive a DUI. To validate this perspective, the magistrate outlined some honored, comprehensively researched alcohol statistics that underlined some of the negative outcomes that are related to abusive and excessive drinking.
Although Jesse understood that he drank in an excessive and hazardous manner, he never thought that he was an alcohol dependent person. So it was a real bombshell when Jesse began experiencing symptoms of alcohol withdrawal approximately seven-and-a-half after getting locked up in jail.
To monitor his alcohol withdrawal symptoms in a harm free manner, Jesse was taken by ambulance to a drug and alcohol treatment center for alcohol detoxification and then returned to the city jail. While locked up in the local jail Jesse undertook alcohol rehabilitation but because he received this treatment as something that was forced upon him, he was unsuccessful in taking ownership of his hazardous and abusive drinking.
When his time behind bars was over, the magistrate told Jesse that he would be under strict scrutiny and would be mandated to take random alcohol tests.
Jessie’s Hazardous and Abusive Drinking Prevents Him From Living in an Adult Manner
After hearing how Jesse neglected to take ownership of his drinking situation and how he reluctantly followed the rehab code of behavior while in the municipal jail, the judge knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be seeing Jesse once again in court about his abusive drinking behavior. As the judge reflected on Jesse’s situation, he couldn’t help but think about how some individuals never “connect the dots” and discover how to live in a mature and productive manner.
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November 7, 2009
A Moody High School Student Manifests A Number of Alcohol-Related Issues, Gets Kicked Out of School, and Has to See the School Counselor
Dante was a seventeen year old high school senior who was manifesting more than a few alcohol-related issues at school. Therefore, the principal told him that he had to see Miss Johnson, the school counselor, before he would be permitted to return to class.
Later that day when Dante went home after school, he had to explain his school discharge to his parents. His Mom and Dad were “fairly conventional” and explained to Dante that getting discharged from school was not a satisfactory educational plan of action. They told Dante that failing to graduate from high school would most probably be like a lead weight around his feet that may hurt his educational attainment for the rest of his life. Furthermore, Dante’s Mother and Father were quite unhappy that he was drinking in the first place and drinking with his buddies in the second.
They informed Dante that although he may be young, he has to realize fairly rapidly that drinking is the path to failure, financial problems, pain, and ill health.
It was clear that his Mother and Father were completely in accord with Dante’s principal and explained to Dante that he had better make plans to see Miss Johnson, the school therapist. After his dialogue with his Mother and Father, Dante at last agreed to see Miss Johnson the next school day. So Dante called the school and made an appointment to see Miss Johnson the next afternoon after school.
The Psychologist Asks Dante if He Understands Why His Recent Alcohol-Related Actions Were Such a Cause For Concern By the School Administrators
When Dante got to his scheduled appointment with Miss Johnson, she immediately looked at all of the alcohol-related problems Dante had experienced and asked him if he understood why his recent alcohol-related activities gave the school administrators room for alarm.
Quite sincerely, Dante questioned why the principal informed him that he had to see a school therapist. As he stated to Miss Johnson, why should he see a professional counselor about his drinking activities? Due to the fact that almost all of his classmates drink as much if not more than he does, drinking really is no big thing. Stated differently, if almost everyone is drinking, why is this such a major problem?
Miss Johnson asked Dante when he started to drink alcoholic beverages. He said that some of his older classmates introduced him to drinking wine coolers when he was twelve or thirteen years old and between the sixth and seventh grades.
Miss Johnson explained to Dante that while his pals may in fact drink more than he does and that they may be a bad influence on him, the facts are that he is the one who is getting expelled from school due to alcohol-related delinquency, absenteeism, and fighting, not his buddies. Furthermore, Miss Johnson also underscored the fact that Dante, and not his classmates, is the one who is failing and who is missing almost two days of school per week due to his alcohol related problems. Lastly, Miss Johnson stressed the fact that because of his drinking situation, Dante is getting into a destructive cycle of abusive drinking that can in time destroy his life.
In short, Dante’s involvement with youth alcohol abuse was beginning to short-circuit his ability to function as an accountable young man. As put into words by Miss Johnson, “Just because most of your classmates drink wine, hard liquor, wine coolers, or beer does not mean that it is the correct behavior for you.”
Dante Learns That Eventually He Must Be Accountable For Himself In Order to Steer Clear of Dangerous, Destructive, Damaging, and Unhealthy Circumstances In the Future
Miss Johnson told Dante that one’s peers can undeniably influence an individual in a negative manner, but that the person himself or herself has to eventually be responsible for himself or herself in order to avoid damaging, unhealthy, destructive, and dangerous consequences in the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, Miss Johnson was very well prepared for her scheduled time with Dante. She showed him reports and research studies she had highlighted that summarized diverse drinking facts and statistics that applied to most people in general. Then she showed Dante a lot of data that applied particularly to underage drinkers.
As an illustration, Miss Johnson underscored the difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction and told Dante that people who continue to drink in an abusive manner commonly become dependent on alcohol.
Miss Johnson also explained the concept of binge drinking which she defined as follows: ingesting five or more drinks in one sitting for males and consuming four or more drinks in one sitting for females.
The Counselor Conveys Quite a Few Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction Facts and Statistics
Then Miss Johnson presented various alcohol facts and the following eight alcohol abuse statistics:
1. The 25.9% of adolescent drinkers in the United States who are alcoholic and alcohol abusers drink 47.3% of the alcohol that is consumed by all teen drinkers.
2. Fifty percent of U.S. homicides are related to alcohol.
3. In 2002, U.S. alcoholism statistics and facts showed that 2.6 million binge drinkers were between the ages of 12 and 17.
4. It is estimated that more than 3 million teens in the U.S. between the ages of 14 to 17 are problem drinkers.
5. In the U.S., more than forty percent of those who begin drinking at the age 14 or younger become alcoholic.
6. Very few of the more than 18 million U.S. alcohol abusers receive the alcohol rehabilitation they need.
7. Adolescent drinking costs Americans nearly billion annually. If each congressional district shared this cost equally, the amount would total more than 0 million per district.
8. Alcohol-related problems are unevenly found among both juvenile and adult criminal offenders.
Dante Receives An Important Jolt of Reality Regarding the Short Term and the Long Term Results of Teenage Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Dependency
After Miss Johnson conveyed the aforementioned alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse facts and statistics, it was obvious that what Miss Johnson disclosed to Dante was a real source of discovery for him. Why? Because for the first time in his young life, someone not only took the time to put in plain words the short term and the long term outcomes of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency, but she also took the time to substantiate what she was saying with alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction statistics and facts that related to people in general, and chiefly to young people.
Certainly, it was almost as if a light went on and Dante promptly realized why he should not be engaging in abusive and excessive drinking with or without his classmates anymore. Dante thanked Miss Johnson for her concern and for the material she went over.
Miss Johnson then asked Dante how he felt about getting a physical examination and an alcohol assessment for the alcohol abuse or alcohol addiction rehabilitation he would probably need.
Dante thought about this for a minute and then agreed to get a comprehensive physical examination and to go through an extensive appraisal of his drinking behavior so that he could start an alcohol abuse or alcoholism rehab program right away.
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Denny is a nineteen-year-old teenager who has at long last finally decided to go and see his family healthcare practitioner about his unhealthy drinking. At first, Denny thought he would be able to merely go online, look for some essential alcohol info and come to a decision whether or not he was alcohol dependent.
Not surprisingly, he located several websites that detailed some of the well-known alcoholism symptoms. That’s the positive news. The less positive news, sorry to say, was that Denny manifested many of these alcoholism symptoms.
Illustrations of Alcohol Addiction Symptoms
For example, Denny has been drinking quite a bit more than normal and he has begun to have more angry arguments with the young lady he is dating. In the same way, for the first time in his life he has been having sleeping difficulties. Similarly, Denny regularly has felt depressed and on an ever increasing basis he has been manifesting limited concentration at school. Additionally, he has felt stressed out and more uptight on a regular basis and for the past seven or eight months he has shown evidence of cloudy thinking while at school. In view of the fact that Denny has been manifesting all of these symptoms, he was rightly uncomfortable about his excessive drinking.
So Denny at long last made up his mind to place a phone call to his healthcare practitioner and make an appointment. Actually, this was hard for Denny because his healthcare professional was also his parents’ family healthcare practitioner. The basis for his uneasiness was this: at the risk of embarrassing his family, he had to go and divulge his unhealthy and abusive drinking behavior to his doctor.
When Denny arrived at the healthcare professional’s office, he openly told the family physician about the anxiety he feels about his excessive drinking behavior. When the family doctor asked what was inducing this concern, Denny declared that he had gone online and read about alcohol addiction and especially about alcoholism symptoms. He then stated all of the alcoholism symptoms that he undeniably thought he has.
A Complete Physical Exam and Outpatient Alcohol Treatment
The healthcare professional notified Denny that it was smart of him to focus on his problem drinking, he gave Denny an in depth physical examination, and recommended that he talk to his parents about signing into an out-patient alcohol rehab facility that was run by Doctor Clark, one of his doctor partners who is a chemical dependency and substance abuse specialist.
Moreover, when Denny expressed the fact that he has been feeling a sense of despair to an increasing degree, the physician informed Denny that alcoholism and depression often come about in the same individual. As a result, the physician also recommended that Denny talk to his Mother and Father about seeking counseling to concentrate on his sense of despair. In fact, Denny can go to the local counseling center and make an appointment with Doctor Kennard, a renowned clinical psychologist who specializes in treating youth.
The Merits of Addressing Your Drinking Difficulties and Getting Enthused About Making Positive and Healthy Changes in Your Life
The family healthcare practitioner made it a point to tell Denny that he might not inevitably be an alcoholic, but that he was unmistakably drinking in an excessive manner. In other words, Denny was engaging in teen alcohol abuse. The healthcare practitioner then told Denny that the reason he recommended alcohol treatment in the first place was because he wanted him to face up to his drinking problems, make sure that he stopped them from deteriorating, and start to live in a more healthy manner, even if it meant that he had to absolutely refrain from drinking.
To be brief, by productively treating his problem drinking, Denny would be able to get his drinking problems under control and refrain from the negative cycle that could in all probability lead to alcohol dependency.
Denny clearly did not look forward to facing his parents about his depression and his hazardous drinking. And he unquestionably did not want to face the thought of getting admitted into an alcohol treatment center. And as a final point, he was not euphoric about going to a counselor about his depression. Despite these fears, however, Denny in actual fact felt some psychological relief for the first time in quite a few months because at last he quit making excuses for himself and finally made up his mind to do something affirmative about his careless and excessive drinking.
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Teresa was a forty-nine-year-old marketing manager who knew that she had some drinking issues. As an illustration, within the past month she has experienced the need to have two or three drinks before going to work, two months ago she failed to pass a random breathalyzer test at work, four months ago she got stopped by the state highway patrol for “driving under the influence”, and lastly, for nearly six months she has started to fail to remember what she does and says when she goes out drinking with her pals.
Like huge numbers of other drinkers, Teresa’s involvement with alcohol started out little by little and stayed at this level of involvement for quite some time due to the fact from time to time she engaged in sporadic social drinking. In truth, for approximately eight months, every time she went out with her buddies to drink, she made sure to drink responsibly. Something about her drinking activities, however, seemed to radically change when her husband divorced her.
In Order To Recover From the Loss of Her Husband In a less Painful manner, Teresa Made Up Her Mind To Start Going Out More Regularly With Some of Her Pals Who Love to Whoop it Up and Drink
Teresa got awfully dejected about the breakup with her husband, and as a way to refrain from dwelling on her negative emotions she made up her mind to begin hanging around more repeatedly with some of her friends who love to have fun drinking.
Quite forthrightly, Teresa thought that having fun almost every day by getting a “buzz” by drinking with her friends would help her recover from the divorce of her husband with less distress.
Teresa’s Drinking Increases Significantly the More Routinely She Goes to Family Get-Togethers, Happy Hours, Private Parties, Dinner Dates, and Sporting Events With Her Buddies
It didn’t take long, nevertheless, before her drinking escalated substantially the more routinely she went to and drank at happy hours, dinner dates, family get-togethers, sporting events, and private parties with her buddies. What is more, the fact that her drinking buddies were all quite a bit younger than she was and therefore able to drink and party more thoughtlessly was one of the reasons why she didn’t center more of her attention on her increased drinking. In short, she was drinking and having tons of fun just like everybody else in her group of pals without giving too much consideration about the effects of her hazardous drinking.
Yet somewhere in her mind she knew that she most probably required alcohol rehabilitation but avoided the thought as much as humanly possible.
Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Owns Up to the Facts About Her Excessive and Abusive Drinking to Her Doctor, and Acknowledges Her General State of Despair
One afternoon during her yearly physical, her physician asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell falsehoods to her doctor, Teresa ”came clean” and stated that she commonly drinks more than she should. In truth, she stated that she routinely drinks in an irresponsible and abusive manner. Then Teresa informed her healthcare practitioner about her melancholy. More explicitly, she articulated that wrecked relationships many times started a dismal chain of events typified by increased drinking which further led to more disheartening feelings that, in turn, led to even more drinking. And this is specifically what took place when she and her husband got divorced five months ago.
When her physician heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was reviewing, alcoholism and depression many times happen in the same individual. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, facts, and research investigations he has been studying also emphasize the fact that individuals who drink irresponsibly and who also experience depression need to receive treatment for both medical conditions.
Teresa’s Physician Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcohol Dependency and Alcohol Abuse Evaluation
Teresa’s doctor then told her the following: “I am not trying to make an impulsive judgment, but with your medical condition we may be dealing with two separate issues. As a result, I think we probably should make an appointment for you to get an alcoholism and alcohol abuse evaluation from my partner, Dr. Johnson, who is a drug and alcohol addiction specialist. Whether your drinking circumstance is more related to alcohol dependency or alcohol abuse is not clear at this time, but I feel that further evaluation is justifiable. Then I think we probably should make an appointment for you to get a psychological exam from another one of my partners, Dr. Brosky, who is a psychologist. I want to get a better understanding about your dejection and see how much your depression and drinking are related.” Teresa showed her agreement with her physician’s treatment strategy and thanked him for his time and assistance. Now all she had to do was to try to decrease her drinking and wait for her appointments.
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November 5, 2009
A Health Instructor in the Most Popular Parochial High School in the Region Instructs Her Pupils About the Relevance of Alcohol Addiction Signs
Miss Benning was a health instructor at the best known private high school in the district. Even though she had been teaching for only two or three years, she had already secured a reputation as an instructor with educational methods that encouraged and inspired the pupils in her class to think and to learn.
For example, one Wednesday morning at 10:00 she addressed the pupils in her classroom and stated the following: “For the next few days we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more broad-based viewpoint and we are also going to learn about several of the most typical signs of alcoholism from a less general and more explicit viewpoint.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will unquestionably establish that a drinker with a drinking problem is an alcohol addicted person, but the more signs that a drinker exhibits, the greater the possibility that he or she is an alcohol dependent person.”
Miss Benning then informed the the students that each pupil would be held responsible for examining three alcohol dependence signs and then presenting his or her results to the class via a six minute oral presentation.
The Students are Wound Up About Giving A Thorough Presentation to Their Fellow Students About The Signs of Alcoholism
After learning about the diverse signs of alcohol dependency for several days, the time had finally come for the oral presentations. It was instantaneously apparent that the students in her class were thrilled about the topic because the information that they presented was excellent. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the eagerness displayed by the students in her classroom regarding this subject was an understatement.
The day after all of the students completed their presentations, Miss Benning passed out a piece of paper with a list of all the alcohol dependency signs that were discussed and presented in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked her pupils to study the list and rank the top eight alcoholism signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After approximately five minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and informed her pupils that after she assesses the numbers, she will discuss her findings the next school day.
There was some real anticipation by the pupils while they were walking out of Miss Benning’s classroom. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to come so that they could find out the outcome of their in-class research.
The Students Contrast Their Answers With the Results From A Group of Alcohol Addiction Authorities
When the next school day finally arrived, Miss Benning gave out a sheet of paper that listed the top five alcoholism signs as per the students’ rankings. Next to these results, she added another column that was labeled “correct answer.” She then informed the students in her class that the numbers in the second column she added were the answers that were articulated by a council of alcohol dependency authorities.
Miss Benning asked the pupils in her class to go over the information on the piece of paper she handed out and then to raise their hand if they had any issues, concerns, or questions. Within 30 or 40 seconds, almost every pupil in the class raised her or his hand. It was noticeable that the pupils had some concerns, issues, or questions about their results versus the answers given by the professionals. For instance, just about every student disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the experts, to be precise, “Do you feel really sick when you quit drinking?”
The Principal Difference Between Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Addiction That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then explained to the students in her classroom why this answer was the most precise indicator of alcohol addiction. She pointed out that the principal difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcohol addiction and not with alcohol abuse.
Essentially this means that when an alcohol dependent person suddenly stops drinking, he or she will go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then explained to her pupils that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the brain and by the body to the deficiency of alcohol to which they had become acclimated. Stated more explicitly, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the brain and from the body telling an alcoholic that something is terribly out of kilter and needs to be rectified. These messages consist of a number of dangerous, painful, and uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that can potentially lead to a person’s death if the proper treatment is not promptly obtained.
Miss Benning then went over the many different alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an alcohol dependent person abruptly stops drinking.
The point that Miss Benning tried to underline was this: an individual who engages in alcohol abuse can experience almost any and every one of the alcohol addiction signs that the students had ranked, but the one sign or symptom that few, if any, individuals who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To articulate this as clearly as possible, Miss Benning underscored the point that alcohol abusers, unlike people who are addicted to alcohol, are not alcohol dependent and consequently, when they quit drinking, they almost never go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Students Think They Have Uncovered An Incongruity With the Findings From The Team of Substance Abuse Professionals
The students also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the chemical dependency authorities, that is, “Have you ever had a drink the first thing in the morning to get rid of a hangover or to steady your nerves?”
Miss Benning told the students in her classroom that this sign does not inevitably denote that the problem is alcohol addiction, but that it does highlight the need that alcohol dependent individuals have to drink in order to avoid alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
After Miss Benning explained the relevance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the alcohol dependent individual, the pupils started to grasp the fundamental difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency.
To add a sense of closure to the topic, Miss Benning asked her pupils to take out a piece of paper and answer the following question: “if every person who is an alcoholic knew about every one of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcoholism signs we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would get alcohol dependency treatment?”
After approximately three or four minutes, Miss Benning asked for the students’ responses. While many students believed that around 75 to 85 percent of people who are addicted to alcohol would ask for alcohol rehab if they knew about the facts related to alcohol dependency signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, most of the students thought that this number would not be less than 55 percent.
The Pupils Were Surprised to Discover That Only 25% of Alcoholics in the U.S. Get Alcohol Dependency Rehab
To the surprise of most of the pupils, Miss Benning declared that according to different scientific studies, only 25% of the alcohol addicted individuals in the United States obtain alcohol dependency rehabilitation. This amazed most of the students because they reasoned that first-hand knowledge of the gruesome facts and statistics related to alcohol addiction would motivate the majority of the people who are alcohol dependent to ask for alcoholism rehab.
Miss Benning then stated that alcohol dependent individuals not only need alcohol everyday in order to function but they also need alcohol on a daily basis so they can avoid possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Obviously, the alcohol dependent individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is stronger than logic or facts. Indeed, because the craving for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol addicted individual, this is a thorny issue that is hard to negate.
A few minutes later the bell rang, indicating that the end of class had arrived. Based on the excitement displayed by the pupils when they were leaving the room, Miss Benning knew that she had stimulated and encouraged the pupils in her class to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our country.
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November 4, 2009
Alcohol Relapse, Alcohol Dependency, and Enabling
It is interesting to bring up something that family members who have been negatively affected by the alcoholism of another family member clearly do not realize. It appears that by shielding the alcohol dependent person with untruths and deceit to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have basically created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcoholic to persevere and advance with his or her damaging, destructive lifestyle.
Indeed, rather than helping the alcoholic and themselves, these family members have essentially become enablers who have involuntarily helped worsen the alcohol addicted individual’s drinking problem even further.
Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol dependent individual will continue drinking in an irresponsible and hazardous manner and experience a variety of “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include ill health, diminished mental functioning, deteriorating relationships, serious financial problems, employment difficulties, and legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DWIs).
Relapses Can and Do Occur From Time to Time
According to the research findings and statistics on alcohol addiction, another key alcohol addiction issue concerns alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol dependent person has fruitfully gone through alcoholism treatment and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this situation flies in the face of sound thinking and appears to be so unbelievable that it forces an individual to question why anyone who has lived through the wretchedness of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol therapy and in turn after attaining sobriety. There are, without a doubt, more than a few rational reasons for this.
It should be noted, on the other hand that alcohol dependency research that has focused on the enduring outcomes of alcoholism has shown that long after the alcoholic has halted his or her drinking, critical modifications in the way in which the alcohol dependent person’s brain operates are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol dependent individual has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the alterations that have occurred in the brain is to start drinking once again.
The Necessity for An Important Lifestyle Change
There are even more reasons why more than a few recovering alcohol addicted persons return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after achieving sobriety. In accordance to the alcoholism research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol dependent individual needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more effectively with tough alcohol-related situations that will take place.
Conditions such as returning to the same alcohol addictive atmosphere or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the time when the alcoholic was drinking excessively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these situations can bring about memories that can trigger psychological stress or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent individual to engage in excessive drinking once again. Regrettably, all of these situations may not only get in the way of enduring sobriety for the alcohol addicted individual but they can also lead to relapse and consequently cancel out one’s sobriety.
The Good News: There’s a Lot of Hope for Lasting Sobriety
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted person, family members can actually cause unintentional harm by enabling the unhealthy drinking behavior of the alcoholic.
The drug abuse research literature confirms the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol treatment go through at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent persons and their family members need to know this so that they do not get down in the dumps or stressed out when a relapse manifests itself.
Luckily, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up counseling and education have resulted in more effective, long-term alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency treatment outcomes, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent persons reach ongoing alcohol recovery.
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