AHS Views

We hear about issues stemming from substance abuse frequently in the US. From drunk driving and drug-related traffic stops to prescription and illegal drug abuse. These problems affect every state in this country and all walks of life.

I came across an interesting read recently, which was about a study done by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on how substance abuse is affecting the workplace. A lot of people equate substance abuse with lower economic areas, homelessness, you name it. But, that’s actually not the majority. Did you know that 77% of illegal drug users are employed full or part-time here in the US?

That means that more than three quarters of the illegal drug using population are mixed in with the working population. What’s more is that substance abuse costs American businesses upwards of 81 billion dollars a year in lost production, work absences as well as accidents. Speaking of absences, about 500 million workdays per year are lost due to substance abuse by employees.

This is a no win situation for either side of the coin. Both the employee and the employer suffer as a result of substance abuse. Employers experience productivity downtrends, suffer because of absenteeism, accident claims and quite possibly the difficulties of dealing with employees who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Then there are the issues that come into play for an addict, i.e. their health, relationships with family and friends, job loss and income reduction and possibly overdose and/or death.

Have you ever known of or worked with someone who was under the influence of an illegal drug or alcohol on while on the job? Apparently, according to the study, more than 60% of adults do currently or have in the past. Why is the statistic for substance abuse in the workplace so high then? Are the abusers not being reported? Probably not. The reasons for this could be fear of retribution by the addict, not wanting to get their co-worker in trouble or that they don’t want to get involved.

Substance abuse is an epidemic in our country. Not just by the homeless man on the corner asking for money to buy who-knows-what, but possibly by your coworker. If we are ever going to get a handle on this debilitating, expensive, pervasive crisis, we’re going to have to actually speak up and do something about it. Get those people into drug rehab or alcohol treatment. Each one of us can do our part to get them addiction help!

I came across a headline today that I thought must have been a joke. When I read further into the article, I realized that it’s not, and am absolutely shocked! Russia is experiencing a heatwave and vodka-swigging, drunken people are trying to swim to cool off, and drowning.

I actually was in such disbelief that I Googled the story to find out if anyone else had written about the terrible events that have taken place. Sure enough, there were several other articles written, that I was able to easily find online. The death toll so far has surpassed 1200 people since June. And, in one day, there were 49 drowning deaths in Russia from drunken swimming.

The most heartbreaking part of this news story was to find out that children are also drowning because their parents are too drunk to notice them. If you can believe this, last week there were five children who drowned at camp because their counselors were too drunk to pay attention!

A lot of people like to take some drinks with them to the beach. It’s certainly quite common in many parts of the world. But this has proven that it can be quite dangerous, if people are being reckless and irresponsible with the amounts that they’re consuming. This would fall into the category of binge drinking, basically drinking large amounts of alcohol quickly to get drunk. Swigging massive quantities of vodka before taking a swim is not the best idea and you’d think that people would have caught onto this by now!

A state of emergency has been declared in Russia because of the death toll. Unfortunately, this is a long standing issue there, alcohol abuse needs addiction treatment. It’s time to really take a look at this crisis and help Russians with their blatantly obvious problems with alcohol addiction. Alcohol rehab programs are desperately needed and fast! It may be a good idea to restrict alcohol from the public beaches too. I’m sure it would help save many lives.

At very early ages, kids are experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Kids from all walks, white, black, Hispanic, coming from homes with or without money, literally any scenario you can think of. It’s a problem all across the US.

A recent study has uncovered some interesting information with regard to children experimenting with and using drugs as well as drinking alcohol. What it found was that girls are more likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol to help them with their problems and emotions, while boys do it more to relax socially.

This is a pretty scary thought; girls thinking that they’ll benefit emotionally from taking drugs and/or drinking. They’re basically self-medicating, which is a very dangerous thing to do. If prescription drugs are truly needed for a condition, they should be prescribed by a doctor, and patients, as well as their parents, should know exactly what they’re taking and why.

Boys and girls alike should know the dangers of these powerful substances and the toll that they can take on them, their families, their education, their friends, every aspect of their lives. Parents should sit down and talk with their kids, not once, but frequently about what’s going on in their lives, who they’re hanging out with and how they are doing emotionally.

Watch for signs that kids may be doing drugs or drinking. Look for things like negative attitude and mood changes, drop in grades at school, new friends or a change in peers, withdrawal and lack of interest, carelessness about grooming and extreme tiredness. And, most of all, follow your instinct. If your gut says something is wrong, chances are that something is indeed wrong.

If you do find that your child is doing drugs, don’t wait for them to get through whatever “phase” they’re going through. Get them addiction help immediately!

Now that the summer is upon us, it’s time for parties and vacations. Often times, at the bbq or family reunion, there will be alcoholic beverages present. And frequently there will be that family member who drinks a few too many of those beverages. Or, perhaps you are the one who’s tipping the bottle a bit too much and maybe your kids are around, hearing you slur your words and get pretty silly.

When it comes to alcohol, and drugs for that matter, children are experimenting with these substances at alarmingly young ages. In a recent study that looked at adolescent drug and alcohol use, there were some interesting correlations between substance abuse and family upbringing.

The study showed that kids who have ‘indulgent’ parents were much more likely to drink heavily. Not shocking… But, what was interesting was that parents who aren’t openly heavy drinkers, but aren’t warm and involved in their kids’ lives, or are strict and a bit cold, also still had higher chances of getting involved in the drinking scene.

The best scenario in a family unit, are parents who are warm, involved in their children’s lives and openly communicative as well as not being big on drinking.

So, as the summer progresses, and the plans for partying with the family are made, let’s all keep this in mind. Let’s lead by example and be warm and loving parents to our kids. It will make a big difference in the long run for the health and well being of our children. And, perhaps help to avoid alcohol addiction treatment in their futures!

So the latest news in the drug and alcohol addiction world, that caught my eye, was about a female middle school teacher in Southern California who was arrested for “drunk teaching”. This woman was actually attempting to teach a classroom full of 7th grade students while she was intoxicated.

This story hit close to home for me because I’m the mother of a 7th grade student and can’t imagine what I’d do if I found out that one of her teachers was drunk while teaching her. What a horrible example to those children that was!

I would venture to guess that this teacher has got some major issues with alcoholism. Anyone in their right mind wouldn’t show up to their job drunk, but much less, to a classroom full of impressionable young students. I can’t imagine that she’d choose to go to her job drunk which leads me to believe that she’s dependent and addicted.

Alcoholism is a very unfortunate problem that far too many people are familiar with. It has crept up on people of all ages and walks of life. And, anyone you talk with will most likely know someone who is an alcoholic. Just ask…

The good thing is that there are options to help people get past their alcohol addiction and dependence. There are alcohol treatment programs all over to help people regain their lives. Alcoholism is not a burden that someone has to live with forever.

It’s my hope that the Southern California teacher wakes up and smells the coffee. It’s time that she attend a good alcohol rehab program, because as far as most people would be concerned, she’s hit rock bottom, and it’s time to fix her life. It would be great if the judge that sentences her for her crime sees this undeniable, underlying problem as well.

I know people who are haunted by how they treated their kids. This is especially true for alcoholics and drug addicts. Their guilt is despairingly deep - it all comes out when they finally get some addiction help.

The ironic thing about it is that their guilt over drinking or taking drugs is one of the reasons they keep doing it. The harm they do while they’re high, and the guilt they feel because of that harm, becomes one more thing they use alcohol to escape. It’s added to the list of whatever their reasons are for addiction in the first place.

You would think that guilt over the pain they’ve caused to others - like their kids - would be enough to make them stop. But, it’s not. It may increase their desire to stop, but it doesn’t make them actually able to do it. It’s an amazing phenomena that most people will actually do more of what they feel guilty about in order to pacify their guilt for doing it in the first place.

Fortunately, kids are pretty resiliant. Most are willing to forgive just about anything.  But that doesn’t necessarily reverse the damage done. Statistics show, for example, that kids who’s parent drink are four times more likely than the kids of sober parents to drink themselves.

Check out the review of The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here: Scenes from a Life - the gruesome memoir of Felicia C. Sullivan, the daughter of an addict.  It’s an extreme case, but even less extreme situations create a similar effect.

Felicia finally cut all ties with her mother - she couldn’t take it any more. But she turned into an addict despite everything she’d seen. Her first blackout from alcohol happened at 17, years later the same happened with cocaine.

There are millions of stories like hers out there. Kids with horrible childhoods, their vows to ‘never be like my parents’, but turning into mirror images nevertheless.

Addiction help services can change all that. Check it out.

I read an interesting interview with William C. Moyers, son of TV (and other venues) journalist Bill Moyers). William, who has long since recovered thanks to a lot of addiction help, had a serious problem with cocaine in the past.

His interviewer asked the question “If you think you might be drinking too much, does that mean you’re an alcoholic?” Moyers came up with one of the most interesting answers I’ve heard: “It doesn’t mean you’re an alcoholic, but it means you are pondering issues that most people don’t ponder.”

I’m not sure I agree with him 100%. Lots of people ponder those same issues - but they have chosen, for one reason or another, to not use alcohol (or drugs) as a solution to those issues. They’ve also chosen to continue to ponder them, rather than try to escape from them.

But, unfortunately, it’s not that cut and dried. There aren’t too many people out there that are self-aware. They don’t realize they have ‘issues’ and they might not be ‘pondering’ anything.

A friend of my son’s is a good example. He’s not a stupid guy by any stretch of the imagination but I certainly would not describe him as self-aware. He was staying with us for a while - he’s in his early twenties - and drank like a fish. Although he admitted it wasn’t good for him and he probably should be doing it.

But when I asked him what was going on, what was he thinking about, he had nothing to say other than “I just like to have a few beers when I get home from a day at work.” That was it. No amount of prodding could get him to look at what’s going on in his head.

There has to be something not optimum going on in someone’s head to want to be blotto half the time. There are a lot of good things about life. Why would someone choose to be oblivious to those things by being semi-conscious?

In truth, whether they know it or not, they’ve got a problem. Not a drinking problem (although they now have that, too), a problem that makes them want to be semi-conscious and not perceive themselves or what’s around them.

Addiction help services can help them get to the bottom of it. Even if someone says “I just like to have a few beers ….”

I read a news item about Baron Geisler, an actor in the Phillipines, who’s going to get addiction help for alcohol. The story says he lost an acting job because he showed up on the set with a few drinks under his belt. It also said he has a history of drunken brawls but, since his mother sent him to alcohol rehab, he’s ‘no longer like that’. He ’slipped’ because his girlfriend left him. He said ‘never meant to hurt anyone or show any disrespect’.

But out of the blue (in his statement about the recent incident) he also denies his involvement in the shooting of a co-worker he’d recently nearly come to blows with - provoked when Baron insulted the other guy’s girlfriend - and he’s up on sexual harrassment charges filed by his roommate’s daughter.

So, in fact, he is still ‘like that.’

He says he’s just ‘very emotional.’  Sounds innocent enough, but it’s obvious that he’s causing his own problems. And until he stops doing that, it’s going to be virtually impossible for him to stay sober.

If he wants a girlfriend who will not get him ‘very emotional’ by leaving him, he’s going to have to stop doing things that result in sexual harrassment charges from other women, refrain from insulting people to the point of them wanting to beat him up,  and get himself into a position where he doesn’t have to deny his involvement in a shooting.

Maybe then his girlfriends will stay with him and he won’t therefore feel compelled to drink.

A facility that offers full addiction help services would have to help him handle those aspects of his personality.  That’s real rehabilitation.  If you’re looking for a facility that will do that, give us a call.

A study recently done in the UK - interviews with young adults about drinking - found that young people consider planned drinking, including getting drunk, to be a fun leisure activity - the way people who don’t drink would plan a vacation or a night out to dinner and the movies. Interestingly enough, Professor Christina Griffin of the University of Bath in England, who carried out the study, said her first step to handle the problem would be to “Stop demonizing and making generalizations about young people and their drinking. We also need to listen and incorporate their views and perspectives,” - which doesn’t sound like she’s viewing their drinking as ‘entertainment’, the way the study participants do. She’s looking at them as troubled people who need addiction help.

A friend of my son’s who can easily knock back eight or 10 beers when he comes home from work told me that he drinks that way because he likes to ‘come home from work and have a few beers.’ That was his only explanation, and his only understanding of why he did it.

There was no concept of stress at work, no idea that he was troubled in any way, no idea that he was trying to relieve whatever pressures being mentally alert brought to bear. He just likes to ‘have a few beers.’ Which, to him, is eight or 10 of them.

He did this for many years. He needed some kind of addiction help, and he had absolutely no awareness of it whatever. That’s how far things had gone. And I believe that’s the case with many people who drink a lot.

Their close friends and family probably know better - they can see the destruction the person is engaged in, they often know when the drinking started and what incident or set of circumstances in the person’s life set them off on that course.  But the drinker can’t see it at all.

It is said that one night of drinking impairs critical thinking for a month. It’s obvious that, in this person’s case, his ability to think has been so severely impaired he doesn’t even really do it anymore. He just drinks. Because he ‘likes to come home and have a few beers.’

It’s important to get these people into addiction help services before their brain is totally pickled. Today they can’t think well enough to know why they drink, tomorrow they might not be able to think well enough to hold down a job, or take care of their family, or keep themselves from falling off a building or drinking so much they pass out and have to be taken to emergency. Whatever …. they need help. Don’t buy their ‘entertainment’ thing.

Parents, or soon-to-be parents, usually consider the safely of their kids when they’re deciding where to live. Primarily, they want to stay away from inner cities, crime and heavily trafficked areas. But there’s one thing they may not consider - the convenience of local stores that sell alcohol.

A recent study on alcohol abuse found that kids who live within 1/2 a mile of someplace that sells alcohol are more likely to binge drink and to drive after drinking.

One thing I didn’t know is that in California licenses will usually not be granted to places that want to sell alcohol if they’re within 100 feet from a residence or 600 feet from a school. That’s good.

But, still, if you can make it more difficult for kids to get alcohol by not living close to a place that sells it - although that may mean a little more inconvenience for you when it comes to regular shopping or popping down to the local store, which also sells beer, to get some milk - you could avoid drinking problems with your kids and the need for addiction help services in the future.

If we’re lucky, it may even deter some adults.