AHS Views

Can addiction help really change your life? Have a look at Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller. Brooke was very messed up on drugs, and Charlie (hate to say it) had pretty much gone off the deep end. Now Brooke’s getting drug rehab, Charlie’s helping her through it, and he’s getting clean himself. Now they seem to be more than friends – it looks like they’re even talking about getting back together. Since they have two kids, they would also have the family they once had.

A lot of people assume that others will never, ever forgive them for the things they said and did while on drugs and alcohol. But this is a good example of how people can not only forgive, they can also restore trust.

There will be exceptions to this, of course. But it’s not always the fault of the former addict – there are some people who tend to just hold onto things, they never really forgive, never really trust.

I would venture to say that people like that are not the best people to have a relationship with anyway – regardless of whether drugs or alcohol were ever a problem. Neither would be happy, and one person would be constantly reminded, usually by the other person, of what they’ve done wrong.

In fact, having unhealthy relationships – relationships with people who make you feel bad in some way, feel guilty, not up to their standards or with whom there always seems to be some kind of trouble – can be a big reason why people take drugs or drink in the first place.

When someone is going through an alcohol or drug treatment program, one of the steps they should take before they leave the program (and the best drug rehab programs do this) is to do an assessment of the people in their lives to see what relationships are really good for them, and which are not. Bad relationships can really make it hard for the former addict to stay clean and change their lives.

At this point, the Brooke and Charlie relationship seems to be very supportive and worth having. They’re helping each other get through what surely must be the worst times of their lives.

Let’s hope both of them make it, and they wind up back together or, at least, very good friends.

Parents are excited when their kids go off to college, but they are also a little worried. How will their young man or woman cope with being away from home? Will they do well? Will they behave themselves? Will they get involved in things that might cause them trouble? Now, more than ever, that is a very real concern – especially when they go to a ‘party school,’ so named for the alcohol abuse. Drugs are a factor, too, but alcohol is the big one.

Party schools are defined in Wikipedia as “a college or university that has a reputation for heavy alcohol and drug use or a general culture of licentiousness.”

Not exactly what you had in mind when you put that ‘college fund’ aside, right?

Every year, several publications publish their research on party schools and come up with rankings. You, or your kid, can look up the rankings on line – just search top party schools.

The most well-known list is published by Princeton Review. Here’s their top ten for 2011.

Ohio University
University of Georgia
University of Mississippi
University of Iowa
University of California, Santa Barbara
West Virginia University
Pennsylvania State University
Florida State University
University of Florida
University of Texas at Austin

The statistics for young people who drink at college are pretty gruesome – more girls get raped, more students (male and female) have sexual encounters they would not have had were they sober, more injuries all around, more DUI’s, skipping classes because of being hung over, not doing well in exams, turning to ‘study drugs’ like Adderall and Ritalin (very similar to methamphetamine or cocaine) to be able to stay awake and cram for the last few days before exams because they were too busy partying to keep up with their studies properly during the semester, or the entire year.

It’s not pretty.

So, as parents, what do you do with this information? Here are a few suggestions:

Don’t ignore the problem and just hope or trust things will be okay. Not only are your kids likely to have some nasty things happen to them, and definitely not get the most out of their education, it also sets them up to be alcoholics as adults.

Educate your kids on the dangers of alcohol and drugs. Make sure they understand they are poisoning their bodies, and know the statistics and the consequences.

If your kids are already drinking, get control of it before they go to school. If they won’t stop, get them through an addiction help program before they go to college. Same goes with drugs.

And keep a very, very close eye on things. Be very direct about it, and don’t just give up thinking ‘kids will be kids’ and so on. Statistics show that kids are drinking or taking drugs for an average of two years before their parents even find out about it.

Peer pressure in college is at its peak. And it’s hard to resist. It is expected and, if a student doesn’t live up to those expectations, they can be socially ostracized.

Those with a really sense of self and purpose have less chance of being intimidated in these surroundings, although even they can get trapped in the drug and alcohol scene.

But someone who is already drinking or taking drugs already will almost certainly get even worse. It’s like throwing them into the lion’s den.

Getting into a good addiction help program now will not only get them off drugs, it will help with the issues they have that are driving them to alcohol or drugs. With these issues successfully resolved, they should be able to get the education they’re attending college for, and have a lot of sober fun doing it.

Alcohol and kids. I think anyone would be hard-pressed to find a parent who drinks alcohol who doesn’t also allow their teenage, under-age, kids to drink at home. Parents figure that the kids are going to drink anyway, so if they’re drinking at home, or in the home of friends who also live with their parents, then they’re safe. For some reason, parents don’t seem to think of the alcohol abuse as dangerous – they’re just looking at how the kids are going to get home from wherever they are, or other trouble they could get into.

Parents also tend to think that the kids will drink less if they’re at home – after all, the parents are there, or could come home any minute. But parents often retire to their bedroom or some other part of the house to let the kids have their party without interference.

Well, guess what? There have been many alcohol-related deaths right in those homes, with the parents right there – sometimes sleeping while the kids party – and it’s because of alcohol poisoning.

Did you know that drinking just 8 ounces of vodka over an hour or two can lead to coma and death?

Did you know that some people are actually allergic to alcohol and can go into anaphylactic shock with very little alcohol in their system?

Did you know that some of the kids who are drinking might also be taking drugs that could have fatal interactions with alcohol?

Did you know that when someone passes out from drinking they’re not just ‘drunk’, they’ve been poisoned. And their blood alcohol level will continue to rise while they’re ‘sleeping’ People say ‘let them sleep it off.’ In fact, that’s the worst thing you can do. The person is in such a toxic state, they can’t even stay conscious. They could die.

Did you know that the ‘normal’ effects of being drunk – vomiting, mental confusion, you know: “drunk” – is actually the result of being poisoned?

Did you know that alcohol poisoning can lead to permanent brain damage?

Did you know that kids who drink while in their teens are likely to be adult alcoholics and will eventually need alcohol rehab to get over it?

It’s time to take a cold, hard look at what you’re really allowing your kids to do. They’re not just having a good time, blowing off steam or having a nice relaxing stress-free get together with their friends. They are poisoning themselves.

Not only is it extremely dangerous for the kids – you can, in many states be prosecuted for allowing under-age drinking in your home. You can literally be sent to prison for it.
And if anything serious happens – like one of the kids, including your own, dies – you will be charged with murder.

Want to be your kids’ friend? Find another way to do it. Friendship does not include standing by while someone is poisoned.

If your efforts to educate them and use other methods to get them to stop drinking fail, it’s time to find addiction help services that will get them through the problem and out the other side.

It’s hard for someone who doesn’t have an alcohol problem to figure out why some who obviously does have a problem won’t even admit they need addiction help – let alone actually get it.

But surprisingly enough, that is very, very common. In fact, statistics show that less that 8% of alcoholics actually believe they need help. And even fewer – 1.2% – believe they would get anything out of it.

What I have observed with alcoholics is a sense of hopelessness. And I think that sense of hopelessness carries through to their viewpoint about treatment.

Those same statistics, by the way, say there are nearly 7.4 million people in America who are abusing alcohol and need help.

The director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, (SAMHSA), which put together these statistics, “Individuals, friends, and family members clearly need help and support in confronting and doing something about the problem. Without help, alcoholism can be fatal.”

Well, I’d say that’s definitely the case. Often it takes an intervention to get someone who’s taking drugs or alcohol to admit they need help and agree to get it. And you often need to tell the person that if they don’t get help, you will leave them or stop supporting them in some way. They have to have something to lose.

And, yes, that can be very difficult to say to your husband or wife, or child. And even harder to actually do.

She also said the nation needs to ask “why we stand by and allow so many people to self-destruct before intervening.

That tells me she’s not really in touch with what’s going on out in the world beyond her statistics – you could probably count on one hand the number of people who DON’T try to get their loved ones to get help. Or to help themselves. It isn’t that people allow others to self-destruct – they often try over and over again. They just don’t really know what else to do.

One possibility is to contact a good drug and alcohol rehab facility. They can generally help you organize an intervention or step in and personally convince the alcoholic to get help. Alcohol and drug rehab counselors have dealt with the situation over and over again. And they don’t have the problem of the other baggage of a personal relationship. Call Addiction Help Services, 877-554-7308, if you need to find out what to do.

Today, I came across a news release about a Nebraska man who was drunk at his drunk driving sentencing hearing. I have to admit that I chuckled a bit after reading the headline, and thought of the movie Arthur, before reading the entire article and the events that took place at his hearing.

It started out with the young man, Jason Botos, driving his car, and then all of a sudden, jumping the curb and hitting five other vehicles and critically injuring three people. He was scheduled to attend his sentencing hearing for his offenses this week, and he attempted to go to that hearing, but he was drunk. Not just a little drunk, he was inebriated and unable to stand up on his own.

His father drove him to the hearing and couldn’t even get Jason to the courtroom. And, the punishment for Jason not showing up? An arrest warrant was issued. He was arrested, taken to jail, and now will have an even heftier sentence than he would for the drunk driving alone.

While I believe that Jason should be in some sort of trouble for his actions, I also think that there is a very big underlying problem here, which is alcohol addiction. This man is getting absolutely smashed drunk to the point where he can’t stand up. This signals a major problem.

I think it’s crucial that he get into a good alcohol rehab program to actually handle the problem that got him into the mess that he’s in. If it’s not addressed, who knows what he’ll do when he’s done with his jail time? The consequences will most likely be quite tragic!

Difficult – is the only word I can think of to describe what it takes to get someone help to overcome a drug and/or alcohol addiction. About 95% of the time, addicts don’t think they even have a problem. However, they most certainly do, and it’s not just the problem of the addiction, but also whatever the problems are that made them get into the addiction mess in the first place. There’s only one way to handle addiction, and that’s by getting the addict through a successful drug or alcohol rehab program.

With that said, the next issue to overcome is convincing an addict, who most likely doesn’t think they have a problem, to go. But how do you do that? There are a number of reasons that could hinder your ability to be able to do the convincing… Perhaps the addict is scared about people finding out about their problem and what they will think of them. Or, it could be that they think that no one could possibly understand what they’re going through. There could also be strains on relationships that can play a factor as well.

So, the question remains – how do you get them to go? The best solution is to get outside help. And, there are people out there who specialize in getting addicts to go to rehab. They are called Interventionists. These are highly trained individuals who most likely have their own first-hand experience with addiction and recovery from their past. They understand what the addict is going through and have the ability to convince them to go to alcohol or drug rehab.

Do you have a loved one or a close friend who needs to get into rehab? Call a drug rehab program counselor. They can help you determine if an interventionist is needed, and will also help you find the right treatment program. It could save their life!

There are lots of things you can do to help you quit drinking – or, at least, cut down. Some experts suggest that you change your habits. For example, if you hang out with people who drink whenever you see them, spend less time with them. Get to know people who don’t drink. Or, if you habitually stop into the pub on the way home from work, try taking a different route. Or you can decide to only drink on weekends. For other suggestions, check out Do I Drink Too Much Alcohol?

But if these things aren’t working, chances are you’re past the point of being able to handle the problem by yourself and could use some addiction help. And chances are you’d be best off in a residential treatment facility where they can get down to the bottom of why you can’t stop drinking.

New Year’s is coming. Time for resolutions. Quitting or cutting down on drinking is probably close to the top of the list for many people. But just like people who resolve to stop eating sugar or junk, get to the gym everyday, lose weight, etc., the vast majority of those resolutions will be in the toilet within a week or two of the new year.

But the consequences of drinking are usually far worse than being a little overweight, so you have to take it seriously. With addiction help services, you’ll get the help you need to do that. 

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?

“The definition of alcohol abuse is when the use of alcohol is interfering in a persons life, the definition of alcohol dependency is a more severe form of the problem, with the consumption of alcohol a central preoccupation in the afflicted person’s life’, says Dr. Michael Levy, a columnist in The Eagle-Tribune. There are 24 million people in the U.S. who may fall in one of these two categories and who will need some form of addiction help.

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela has had a conditional license for the past several years due to substance abuse problems. On Friday he had his conditional license revoked by the California Horse Racing Board after being stopped and arrested for a DUI in Upland, California. It’s time for him to get the addiction help he needs.

During his stellar career – 3968 wins, including the 1989 Kentucky Derby aboard Sunday Silence – Mr. Valenzuela has had 10 interruptions due to drug or alcohol problems. He’s only 45 years old, and he has not been able to get his drug or alcohol abuse under control. He does need to finally make a change and get himself into a successful drug rehab program.
 
Mr. Valenzuela is not alone when it comes to substance abuse problems – nearly 20% of Americans over the age of 26 binge drink at least monthly, and millions of Americans use prescription drugs for reasons other than a medical condition.

It is also not a surprise that Mr. Valenzuela has not received the addiction help he needs to over come his dependence on drugs or alcohol. The same can be said of the majority of those who need treatment.

Tom Knust, Mr. Valenzuela’s agent said he was shocked by the news. He also said he wouldn’t represent him any longer.

The help Mr. Valenzuela  needs is available to him. I hope he gets it so he can end his drug and alcohol addiction issues.

Addiction Help Services can find you, a family member or a friend the treatment that you need.