An addiction is anything you have to hide

(Originally posted on AddictedMinds.com)

A many-faceted challenge for families, interventionists, and other addiction pros alike is defining an addiction. We have textbook definitions. We have tests. But when it comes down to addressing the addiction with an addict in denial that he or she has one, we are consistently challenged with breaking down denial.
Signaling the problem, we turn to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). The latest version is October 2016’s DSM-5. Its 11-part impersonal analysis for any substance use disorder:

1. Taking the substance in larger amounts or for longer than the you meant to
2. Wanting to cut down or stop using the substance but not managing to
3. Spending a lot of time getting, using, or recovering from use of the substance
4. Cravings and urges to use the substance
5. Not managing to do what you should at work, home or school, because of substance use
6. Continuing to use, even when it causes problems in relationships
7. Giving up important social, occupational or recreational activities because of substance use
8. Using substances again and again, even when it puts the you in danger
9. Continuing use, even when you know you have a physical or psychological problem that could have been caused or made worse by the substance
10. Needing more of the substance to get the effect you want (tolerance)
11. Development of withdrawal symptoms, which can be relieved by taking more of the substance.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

The DSM 5 allows clinicians to specify how severe the addiction is, depending on how many of the 11 signs are present. Two or three symptoms indicate a mild substance use disorder, four or five symptoms indicate a moderate substance use disorder, and six or more symptoms indicate a severe substance use disorder.

BOOM! That was easy.

Now tell the addict he or she is one and needs help. The 947 pages of the American Psychiatric Association’s ‘bible’ do little for that discussion. Assume very few people under the influence of a mind-altering drug have the capacity to use that same mind to analyze (honestly) the symptoms.

A simple pair of personal questions gets at the a-ha moment the impersonal DSM can’t get at eyeball-to-eyeball:
Are you hiding your use? Why?

The answers are C-R-I-T-I-C-A-L to making change. You can get at any of those 11 DSM criteria with those two questions. We hide use because we don’t want anyone to see. Or judge. Or evaluate us on a DSM scale. We don’t want them to see because we don’t want to hear that it’s “wrong” or “shameful” or fill-in-the-blank. Yet, family sees. Counselors see. The addict needs that vision and it comes from that introspection. And very few – if any – are ever asked directly what they are hiding, and why are they hiding it.

Scott Stevens is the author of four alcohol books including the December 2016 release, I Can’t See The Forest With All These Damn Trees In The Way: The Health Consequences of Alcohol. Buy the new BookLocker title now on Amazon (viewbook.at/prehab), alcohologist.com, and everywhere books are sold. Stevens also heads up BlogTender LLC, a content marketing firm headquartered in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Photo by Vasilisa Karpova, used with permission.

The A-Files, Alcohol A-Z for Alcohol Awareness Month: Overdose

(see video in online video/article)

Twenty-six episodes of 'The A-Files' air throughout Alcohol Awareness Month on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Alcohologist.com and AddictedMinds.com, among other web and social media sites. Episode O looks at overdose. There are two types of overdose concerns with alcohol. The first is an overdose with the drug, alcohol, the second is a fatal drug interaction with other drugs, including prescription and over the counter remedies. Neither has a warning sign except what you're getting now.

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant drug. Several times each year the news headlines capture the tragedy of a binge episode death. A teen, a college student, an otherwise productive and smart adult will go down a path of dangerously high consumption. Six people die every day from drinking too much, too fast, shutting down the central nervous system. Three of four are men, three of four are between the ages of 35 and 64 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These are poisoning deaths, not death from the disease of alcoholism.

Impairment from intoxication begins at a blood alcohol concentration of .02. That's the first drink. Intoxication escalates from there… with .08 the legal limit permitted for driving in the U.S. Commonly, charts peg the pass out dosage of alcohol between .02 and .03 BAC and death as likely at .40. The fact is, it can happen lower or higher than that, depending upon the person's general health and tolerance. Singer Amy Winehouse died at .04, a college student in Arizona recently died at .032, I've been in the E.R. with a BAC of .612 and survived. You simply won't know which drink puts you in a coffin until you take it.

The other side of the equation, which can happen at dramatically lower levels of intoxication, is overdose from combining alcohol with other drugs. Even moderate drinking has the potential to interfere with 210 commonly used meds. Many popular pain medications -- and cough, cold, and allergy medications -- contain more than one ingredient that can adversely interact with alcohol (see related story). Alcohol interactions range from nausea and vomiting and dizziness; to irreversible – and potentially fatal – internal bleeding, liver and heart damage. One of the most common causes of severe liver damage is a combination with acetaminophen, available over the counter as Tylenol. Other serious alcohol interactions are associated with herbal remedies such as St. John's wort, valerian and lavender. Alcohol IS a drug, fatal on its own or in combination with other ones.
The entire 26 episode HD series is available on disc, along with fact sheets, for helping professions. See the preorder special at tr.im/AFiles

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Another interview is on Alcohol Awareness.  Syndicated radio program Savvy Central Radio did this interview, too. Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud and the first for Adding Fire to the Fuel also can be found on www.alcohologist.com. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today. Stevens also is the public relations officer with AddictedMinds.com