Beat the heat? Three ways the heat beats you when alcohol is involved

Episode #47 of The Sobriety :60+ looks at the danger of dehydration and heat injury.  Read the transcript at  or share the YouTube video .

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

The Sobriety :60 - Heart health, part 1

In an "Ask The Doctor" newspaper column, a Marshfield Clinic (Wis.) cardiologist remarked that in HIS observation over 25 years, a few drinks a week is optimal for heart health.  "That statement contains more bullcrap than a rodeo," says the thirteenth episode of The Sobriety :60.  Watch the new video here  http://youtu.be/Vc12-9gdsk4 or read the transcript at The Sobriety :60 spotlights myths of alcohol and heart health.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of the Bringing Inspiration To Earth show feature with Scott Stevens. Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus an interview with Scott Stevens on Health Media Now and one at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international author from the UK, among his works is the Alzheimer's book "Time to Let Go."  

March Madness? 22,000 will have died YTD from alcohol by NCAA tip time

www.alcohologist.com

 

 

SUNDAY SNIPPET: September 29

Alcoholism is the only disease where successfully getting it into remission relies heavily on paraprofessionals outside the medical community.  When those resources come from within the criminal justice system, the results are statistically below average, as this excerpt from my previous book What the Early Worm Gets begins to point out.

"The professionals and paraprofessionals handling the treatment are critical to the success. And to build that success you need credibility, especially because there are so many paraprofessionals affiliated with recovery. It’s their duty to adhere to a code of ethics simply not embraced in a correctional environment. Knowledge and competence—not necessarily a degree—are required, and trust. Where do those with alcohol problems place their trust? Others who have walked a mile in their shoes. Because you really don't know how it feels to be alcoholic unless you are alcoholic.  A mechanic isn’t a metallurgist even though the material with which he works with is metal. You still need a multi-disciplinary team including medical doctors or psychotherapists, however having someone who is in recovery helping facilitate the recovery process gets better results.

The most important facet of good treatment is alleviating guilt, shame and grief. We look through life’s window which can get coated with a grime of guilt and shame and grief. Those are precisely the three features the criminal justice system uses in its programs to make sure you’re sorry, make sure you know you’re sorry and won’t do it again. Positivity and attitude are the window cleaner that can clean the window of the grimy shame. The criminal justice system doesn't do windows.  They put bars on them. They will work to make sure you don’t forget your shame.

Recovery can be spontaneous. It does happen. However, true rehabilitation is based on Opus Contra Naturam—working against what comes easily— and few people are successful working against what comes easily without help.  Few people are successful for long when that help comes from a corrections environment designed to warehouse people, not provide meaningful treatment."
--from What the Early Worm Gets, pg. 73

www.alcohologist.com

 

SATURDAY REWIND: Who is teaching the kids when summer break arrives? (And the rest of the year, for that matter?)

School is on summer break, officially, for most kids.  The older they grow, the more varied the influences in their lives become.  Summer break may mean more time with friends out of earshot of educators and out of sight of parents.   It may be easier and less embarrassing or uncomfortable to just let the schools and TV public service announcements advise the generation about drinking's hazards... but peers hold a lot of sway.  And so do advertisers (see yesterday's blog post).  What makes the difference is not waiting for teachers or government or entertainers to guide them, according to this article from the alcohol research news archive.  It's a long way of saying, they STILL listen even when you don't think teens ARE hearing.


Parental involvement does more to discourage underage drinking than the school environment can, according to research released December 4 by three universities.

Specifically, the researchers looked at how “family social capital” and “school social capital” changed the chances for and/or frequency of alcohol use by children. Family social capital can be described as the bonds between parents and children, such as trust, open lines of communication and active engagement in a child’s life. School social capital captures a school’s ability to serve as a positive environment for learning, including measures such as student involvement in extracurricular activities, teacher morale and the ability of teachers to address the needs of individual students. Parenting is a better block to underage drinking than the schools, according to the North Carolina State University news release on the study.

"To be clear, school programs that address alcohol and marijuana use are definitely valuable, but the bonds parents form with their children are more important. Ideally, we can have both," says Dr. Toby Parcel, a professor of sociology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work.

The researchers looked at data from a nationally representative sample that collected information from more than 10,000 students, as well as their parents, teachers and school administrators. The research, to be included in the quarterly Journal of Drug Issues, evaluated marijuana use and alcohol use separately.

“Parents play an important role in shaping the decisions their children make when it comes to alcohol and marijuana,” says Parcel. In both cases, researchers at NCSU (in conjunction with Brigham Young University and Penn State University) found that students with high levels of family social capital and low levels of school social capital were less likely to have used marijuana or alcohol – or to have used those substances less frequently – than students with high levels of school social capital but low family social capital.

More than 10 million American youth under the age of 21 drink alcohol, and more than a million of them are binge drinkers, according to the American Medical Association. One in four teens in the United States have consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. "Underage drinking should not be a normal part of growing up. It's a serious and persistent public health problem that puts our young people and our communities in danger," said U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Administrator Pamela S. Hyde in a related November 26 examiner.com story. "Even though drinking is often glamorized, the truth is that underage drinking can lead to poor academic performance, sexual assault, injury, and even death." Teen drinking also can lead to alcohol abuse as an adult or the disease of alcoholism.
-- from examiner.com
www.alcohologist.com

SATURDAY REWIND: Why those egg-in-the-frying-pan anti-substance-abuse ads were flawed

"Just say no" means "Just say NOW" especially when it comes to alcoholics.  This article from my news archive looks at how neuroimaging reveals that negative anti-drinking messages are received and processed differently by drinkers.


In November, neuroscientists released a study on brain wiring that shows why negative messages about alcohol fail to discourage drinking among people who abuse alcohol or have the disease of alcoholism. Negatively framed messages don’t reach people with alcohol use disorders, “the ones most in need of persuasion,” suggests a new study in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors by researchers from Indiana University and Wayne State University, near Detroit, Michigan.

The study revealed that the region of the brain assessing risk is different in alcoholics and they process the message differently than those who are not. Using neuroimaging techniques, the researchers examined the impact of different messages on the brains of substance-dependent individuals and compared them to their effects on non-substance-dependent individuals. The substance-dependent group showed less brain activity in that region in response to the “booze-is-bad” messages that also led to significantly worse and riskier decisions in the alcoholic group than in the non-user group.

"The findings are somewhat ironic because a whole lot of public service announcements say, 'Drugs are bad for you,' 'Just say no,' or 'This is your brain on drugs' with an image of an egg frying," said principal investigator Joshua Brown, associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Indiana University-Bloomington's College of Arts and Sciences. "What we're seeing is that negative messages are not having the same impact on the brain."

The findings suggest that the level of brain activity in regions of the brain that assess risk is lower in substance-dependent individuals than those who are not alcohol-dependent. These two groups process the messages differently, particularly those messages that emphasize what the alcoholic can lose or what he or she will fail to gain.

Social and medical expenses and lost productivity associated with alcohol-related problems cost $223 billion annually, so the messaging may need to adjust, this study indicates. “The government spends millions every year trying to discourage drug use, and a lot of the ads highlight the dangers of drinking and drugs," Brown said. "Should we spend more to highlight the benefits of staying clean instead?"
-- from examiner.com
www.alcohologist.com

SATURDAY REWIND: Many who fought wars, today fight alcohol

When battles end for men and women who serve in the armed forces, another battle – a battle with the bottle – begins for half of the troops. I retrieved this article about active duty and retired soldiers, the brave we honor this Memorial Day weekend, to demonstrate how their service on our behalf renders wounds unseen to many.


While most of America’s warriors return home without traumatic brain injuries or damaged arms or legs, beer and liquor are the crutches for an alarming and growing number of those who serve our country. Servicemen and servicewomen who fought abroad – from Korea to Vietnam to Bosnia to Afghanistan – return home to fight alcohol use disorders at a rate nearly two times higher than the general public.

Many of those who have seen active duty turn to alcohol to try to deaden the images of what they’ve endured. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD) reports that of nearly 30 million veterans in the United States, 56 percent of male veterans and 41 percent of females have problems with alcohol and 23 percent of males and 14 percent of females binge drink.

Additionally, according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, one in eight troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006 to 2008 were referred for counseling for alcohol problems after their post-deployment health assessments. The number of soldiers enrolled in treatment after being diagnosed with alcohol use disorders has increased 56 percent since 2003.

Alcohol use disorders are divided between alcohol abuse and the disease of alcoholism. (See the related article, Know the difference between alcoholism and alcohol abuse, for the distinction.)

 

To gain a fuller understanding of alcohol use disorders among younger veterans and active-duty personnel, the Millennium Cohort Study is following a representative sample of U.S. military from 2001 to 2022. It is the largest prospective study in military history. Findings from this study suggest that Reserve and National Guard personnel and younger service members who deploy with reported combat exposures are at an increased risk for the onset of heavy weekly drinking, binge drinking and other alcohol-related problems.

 

All service branches, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are trying to address the alcohol crisis. In one project, researchers are using smart phones and wearable wireless sensors to record real-time responses to stress among veterans suffering from addictions and trauma. The VA offers a brief, anonymous and confidential tool on their website to help veterans who may have concerns about their drinking. The Drinker’s Check-Up is another easy-to-use website developed for veterans under a grant from the NIH.

 

The referral process and accessibility of treatment options for veterans with alcohol use disorders are only slightly better than the resources available to the general public today, however, the military was playing catch-up with their budgeting for such resources for the past decade. They are taking education, treatment and prevention seriously, today, as we welcome home more of our nation’s warriors from the Afghanistan war, but the resources are available to all veterans.

-- from examiner.com

 

Whether one agrees or disagrees with reasons for entering a conflict on foreign soil, those who serve and their families deserve our support and salute.  They are owed our help and attention, not the stigma Americans attach to alcohol use disorders. 

www.alcohologist.com

 

SUNDAY SNIPPET, May 19

Denial is a word tossed around liberally when it comes to the disease of Alcoholism. It's most often a reference to the very early phases of the drinking when the drinker denies (to himself) he has a problem when it is obvious to those around him he does have a problem. To get to any level of sobriety, an Alcoholic has already tackled that form of denial. What this excerpt from Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud addresses is a different form of denial that rears its head during recovery: The denial that life has, or has to, change because we lost something. It is a stage of the grief process.

 

 

“Alcoholics have a tendency to cling to their denial of their losses, not of their problem. By lingering in the stage, it only makes the cortisol worse. Even though the reason we linger in denial is simply that we don’t want to feel worse, we’re actually feeling worse because of the cortisol. To move away from more of continued Symptoms, the denial evolves into anger. Ashley Davis Prend identifies it as going from “Not me” to “Why me?” and it takes a long time.

 

“On average it takes one to three years to work through the disorganization and anger stage. That’s because you need to process the grief repeatedly so it can sink in, settling on deeper levels of consciousness over time.”

 

Simply put, you’re not going to be pissed off one time for one day, but you’re entitled to it and it is a healthy part of what comes naturally during mourning and recovery. Different anniversaries rekindle the anger. Social losses and financial ones have long tails and breed anger over and over. Impatience sparks the anger, too, because all of us Alcoholics have a little control freak in us.

 

Unfortunately, some of us never get past the anger because that’s where we lapse. We drink at the anger. Or if we don’t drink, we become what’s known as a dry drunk, a bitter and angry person who doesn’t and won’t drink. The dry drunk won’t find recovery, but will maintain sobriety because they cling to the anger. They become dry drunks because of a false sense of power anger provides. It does beat being sad. Sad feels so broken, anger feels powerful, but sadness is the next stage. Rather than moving forward, the dry drunk chooses the power of anger rather than feeling like the ornament at the bottom of the Christmas storage box. They’re usually more of a pain in the ass than they were when they were drinking.”

– from Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud: Relapse and the Symptoms of Sobriety, pg. 79

www.alcohologist.com

SUNDAY SNIPPET, May 12

It's Mother's Day in the United States. For many with the disease of Alcoholism, if we are fortunate to outlive our mothers, they have been the ones to post bail, take us to rehab, pick up our kids, mop up our literal and figurative messes, make our excuses or... just cry the tears moms cry over feeling utterly helpless in the face of the disease's carnage.

In some cases, these signs of caring go to the point of co-dependency. Part of chapter four in Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud: Relapse and the Symptoms of Sobriety delivers a succinct overview of co-dependent behavior from the point of view of both the co-dependent and the drinker. This excerpt makes an important distinction for both: One did not cause the other. They are two separate conditions.


Psychology professionals vastly smarter than I define co-dependence by its three stages of progression:
1. Normal problem solving skews . . . as a reaction to reduce the family crisis and ease the Alcoholic’s pain. This is sick thinking because it ignores the fact that a non-Alcoholic is powerless to control an Alcoholic’s disease. As the Alcoholic becomes increasingly preoccupied with getting, using and keeping booze, the co-dependent becomes more focused on him and begins to change her own behavior in response to the Alcoholic’s lifestyle. (I use “her” because co-dependents often are female, there are males, too. I know several, including myself.)
2. Self-defeating problem solving emerges . . . after the previous stage fails to achieve any progress the co-dependent tries harder. Here’s where a co-dependent becomes more obvious since they begin to take responsibility for the Alcoholic and does so at the cost of their own needs. They’re not as aware of how they feel but can go on and on about how the Alcoholic feels.
3. Chronic repetition takes over . . . regardless of the health of the Alcoholic (e.g. whether they are using, abstaining or in recovery) the co-dependent keeps tending to the Alcoholic because doing so has become her identity. A co-dependent doubts anyone would want them around otherwise, so she makes herself indispensable to the drinker. She’ll struggle when you get well because by stopping drinking you’ve removed from her the single way she made herself indispensable. Minding the Alcoholic has become the meaning of her existence and she needs the Alcoholic to be sick for her to feel well.

That last sentence is a huge source of guilt and conflict, and an ironic one at that, because you can feel guilty for getting better if it seems to be making her worse. You see her struggle with co-dependence even after you’ve had some measure of sobriety. She doesn’t seem to function well or at all without the drinking you. The quality of her life depends upon how much you need her and you feel guilt over that.

There’s no denying that co-dependents feel pain. Sometimes it’s even physical, usually gastrointestinal problems. Guilt is misplaced if you believe you’re to blame. The condition of co-dependence was there before you were sick.

An Alcoholic isn’t sicker than the co-dependent. You are both struggling with similar issues in dissimilar ways. In some ways, the co-dependent is trying to deal with your issues for you. Or attempting to. Dr. Charles Whitfield suggests the hallmark of co-dependency is a problem with boundaries and not knowing where she ends and you begin. “Co-dependents cannot develop without distortions in personal boundaries.” (Co-Dependence: Healing the Human Condition, Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, FL 1991) He didn’t say co-dependents cannot develop without an Alcoholic.

Every Alcoholic’s road back to health begins with an aha! moment when he realizes, “I have an alcohol problem.” A co-dependent needs to have her own aha! moment to realize she has a disorder. Her self-identifying is part of her process of healing and discovering she’s not sick like you or sick from you. You’re not the right person to give her the a-ha moment. Her own lemons; her own lemonade. You cannot rescue her just like NO ONE could rescue you. You can help her. You can’t be her. Show you care . . . which you can do without guilting yourself all the way to a relapse.

The best tribute you can pay to her is to pay attention to your sobriety and its Symptoms.
– from Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud: Relapse and the Symptoms of Sobriety, pgs. 46-47


One of the responsibilities in recovery is making amends to those you've injured. The injury of co-dependence is a very real, often untreated, lifelong one. It is not in the 12-steps or any other program that you have to cure this injury, only acknowledge it. Guilt over co-dependents' struggles can trigger a lapse. And it could also swing the pendulum back in the other direction because often times recovered Alcoholics turn into co-dependents themselves, trying to fix co-dependence they didn't create. Honor mom, know she and others suffered, and that co-dependence (if an issue) is curable.
www.alcohologist.com