AHS Views

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.

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.

Have you ever thought about whether you could be an “alcoholic”? Like when you hear about people who drive drunk or the neighbor down the street who had a few too many at the BBQ last weekend… Has it ever made you question your own habits with regard to alcohol consumption?

There are a several problems that can come from the consumption of alcohol. Take Binge Drinking, for example. People who binge drink have a purpose. They intend to get intoxicated and drink several drinks in a short period of time in order to get drunk. This is practiced by many, many people ranging from younger kids to older adults. In can be done once a week or once a month but is still a drinking problem.

Then, there is alcohol abuse. This can basically be defined as the use of alcohol interfering with a person’s life. Perhaps a mother is waking up in the morning and immediately getting intoxicated before she even gets her children out to the school bus. This would “interfere” with her life. This would also create problems, most likely, for the lives of her family members.

Alcohol abuse can lead to dependency. Alcohol dependency is not only a mental need to drink, but actually a physical one as well. An individual who is dependent on alcohol will actually experience physical withdrawal symptoms like feeling shaky, jumpy or nervous, depression, fatigue and irritability if they don’t drink. An alcohol detox program will most likely be needed to help a person through the withdrawal process.

Alcoholism is any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, despite health problems that someone might encounter, as well as negative social consequences.
If you, a friend or a family member fit into any of these scenarios, there may be a need for addiction help through alcohol detox and a good alcohol rehab program. It could save a life!

Without going into a lot of details, the short answer is probably no, and unfortunately the line between the two is pretty grey, but there is a definitely more to it…

A drug “addiction” is generally defined as compulsive, drug-seeking behavior which is due to physical and/or mental dependency on a drug, despite knowingly causing damage to oneself and others regardless of consequence. Most people associate drug addiction with illegal drugs like cocaine, meth or heroin, but the truth is that people can easily become addicted to prescription drugs that were originally prescribed by their doctor.

An individual with a drug “dependence” may not exhibit the compulsive drug-seeking behavior and may have a more normal and collected appearance in life. This doesn’t only include drugs, but can also include the moderate-to-heavy social drinker who has three alcoholic drinks several nights per week or more. You may as well additionally include the millions of people who take prescribed drugs on a daily basis.

As I mentioned before, there is a fine line between dependency and addiction, and a person who is dependent can very easily become addicted. What happens if a drinker gets cut off at the bar? A lot of times, they become belligerent and will go to another bar or store to buy more alcohol, which would be an all too common example of compulsive drug (or alcohol) seeking. They may not even know they are an alcoholic yet but these are the first signs not to ignore.

Another factor, which most people are unaware of, is tolerance. This can absolutely play a role in dependence turning into addiction. An example of this might be someone being prescribed a narcotic painkiller after an injury or surgery. They takes it as prescribed for the recommended time period, but when the medication use stops, the user goes into withdrawals because their body became dependent on it. The next reaction, in a lot of scenarios, would be that they have to get more of the drug to not feel those withdrawal symptoms anymore. They’re basically trapped into use - which leads to addiction.

Learning disability labeled teenagers being put on amphetamines (stimulants) is another common example. These are legally prescribed drugs, by doctors and/or psychiatrists. The children can naturally develop a tolerance to these drugs and then need more, something stronger. In many cases of illegal drug use by teens, it comes on the heels of a long history of Ritalin, Prozac, etc.

So, the one thing we do know is, despite different characteristics and definitions, one does have to be drug dependent to be an addict, but the line  certainly isn’t definite when it is crossed. And, knowing how easily this can happen, it’s extremely important to pay attention. Pay attention to yourself, if you find that you need to take a prescription painkiller. Pay attention to your kids. And, if you find yourself knowing of or learning about someone with a dependence, help them get into a good detox program before it leads to addiction.

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 ….”

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.

According to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), about 5 million people in the U.S. are currently attending alcohol and drug addiction self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and so on. About 45% of the participants said they had been clean for the month prior to the study, and about 33% said they’d attended a drug rehab facility of some sort prior to going to the self-help groups.

I would think that those who attended the alcohol or drug rehab facility first would be more likely to also be the people who are staying clean.

There are several advantages to getting addiction help services in a residential treatment center before attending this type of meeting.

A good center helps you get through withdrawal and would also include some kind of nutritional and exercise program that would start to repair some of the physical damage.

It would also offer counselling as to why you got into drinking and taking drugs in the first place, and a program that would help you change the aspects of your life that need changing so you’re not tempted to get back into it.

The next step is always support of some sort when you leave. Especially if you’re going back into an environment where people drink and take drugs - you’ve got to find some people who don’t. That’s where AA, NA and similar groups come in.

Addiction Help Services can help you find a drug rehab facility or other treatment center that’s suitable for your needs, as well as a support group to help you afterwards.

Surveys conducted by substance abuse agencies generally show that of the 20 million or so people who need addiction help for alcohol, about 90% don’t get it because they don’t consider they have a problem. But a new survey in England, which has much the same alcohol and drug problem as we have here in the U.S., showed that 40% of patients lie to their doctors about how much they drink. It made me wonder if those 40% are among those who also say they don’t have a problem.

The first step to successful drug or alcohol treatment is, of course, admitting that you have a problem. Don’t get me wrong, though - I don’t mean that they have to stand in front of a group of people an say “My name is  …, and I’m an alcoholic” - which is the standard Alcoholics Anonymous thing, and they definitely don’t have to do that forever. But they do have to at least admit it to themselves.

If you have someone in the family, or a friend, who you know needs help but won’t admit it, give intervention a try. An experienced interventionist can talk with the person and get them to admit they need help - sometimes with very little effort. Most already know they need help, but when they’ve spent years denying it to friends and family, it’s hard to change their story. With an interventionist, who they’ve just met and who can recognize an alcoholic from a mile away, it can’t be denied.

If you need help, or an interventionist, call Addiction Help Services. We’ll help you find a way to help your friend.

A new study shows that alcohol shrinks the brain. Millions of people need drug and alcohol addiction help, and we’re spending millions finding out this useless information.

Why do we need it? We already know that just one drink can impair abstract thinking for a month, we already know it causes a gradual deterioration of the body and people die before their time, we already know it’s involved in most domestic violence incidents, we already know it’s ruins families, lives, careers. Shouldn’t we be spending our money making sure people get the addiction help services they need?