The A-Files, Alcohol A-Z for Alcohol Awareness Month: Mood Disorders

Twenty-six episodes of 'The A-Files' will run throughout Alcohol Awareness Month on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Alcohologist.com and AddictedMinds.com, among other web and social media sites. Episode M is on mood disorders and their intertwining with alcohol use. Bouts of depression are often the direct result of alcohol intake, according to a 2013 study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The researchers linked alcohol abuse and the disease of alcoholism to one third of depressive episodes. These periods of depression are different than depressive episodes caused by other life events. (see online article)

Experts, like Marc Schuckit of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have long known that drinking can spur temporary episodes of depression while, at the same time, many with alcohol use disorders use alcohol to relieve depression. They self-medicate. "I don't know that the average person realizes that heavy drinking can induce mood problems," says Schuckit.

It's a vicious cycle. Alcohol can temporarily make you feel better, but alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. That means any amount you drink can make you more likely to get the blues. Drinking the blues away frequently can harm your brain and cause more depression. Alcohol also is going to mess with the effectiveness of anti-depressant drugs.
The other side of mood disorders is anxiety. People who suffer from anxiety are three times more likely to turn to substance abuse than those who do not have such symptoms.
Those people who never suffered with any issues involving anxiety also can create anxiety problems as a result of alcohol use. (See related publication) This is because drinking excessively induces the symptoms of anxiety, and it can even trigger panic attacks three ways:

• Alcohol drops the serotonin level in the brain. Serotonin is a feel-good brain chemical that when in short supply can cause feelings of anxiety and depression.

• Alcohol drops blood sugar, causing dizziness, confusion, nervousness and shaking. These symptoms can most certainly trigger a bout of anxiety.

• The nervous system is out of whack because the body goes into a state of hyperactivity to counteract the sedative, alcohol.

Some people become so impressed with the way alcohol eases anxiety. The fact that it appears to calm disguises the reality – alcohol is probably the worst solution in the world for anxiety. Or depression. Or any mood disorder.
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 

Keys to early sobriety success

A common error made by those who've never lived a day in their lives challenged by alcohol is that all someone who has a drinking problem needs to do is just stop drinking. There's some sort of finish line in their minds. Those of us who've quit or struggled to stay sober know with certainty there is no finish line.

It is a progressive, disease without a cure. The quit date is just a start.

If you quit as a New Year's resolution, by the Fourth of Dry July, biologically, your body has begun to repair some damage. Insomnia, headaches, dizziness, fogginess, trouble with balance, problems with hand/eye coordination and reflexes are in the rear-view mirror or at least a whole lot better for most recoverers in that six months. But a lot rides on four factors:

1) Diet and exercise

2) Stress management

3) Depression care

and of course 4) the severity of the drinking prior to the quit date.

Nothing can be done about that last one: Nobody has the luxury of rewriting history. But the first three require attention in those first six months and beyond. Diet and exercise are crucial: Neither got more attention while drinking. If you do nothing else, eat veggies and fruit and take a daily walk. Doing so will help with stress management and depression care.

On the stress side, alcoholics have a higher level of the stress hormone cortisol, as detailed in Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud. Non-alcoholics and alcoholics alike drink for the same reason, to alleviate stress. You have a hole in your routine now that you've taken alcohol out of it. Plug something into that hole, whether it is exercise, spirituality, self-help meetings like 12-step groups or Women for Sobriety, etc.

Depression is a chicken and egg thing for alcoholics: How much was there before the alcohol and how much was caused by the alcohol? Let a professional help. Talking is cathartic, especially in recovery. And so is a balanced brain chemistry. Hard-line 12-steppers say you cannot take an anti-depressant and call yourself sober. (Archaic thinking… based on more bullcrap than you'd find at a rodeo.) Trust me, those dinosaurs are hard to come by and none of them know the first thing about the neurochemicals dopamine and serotonin. Just find a different meeting and follow a doctor's orders, including anti-depressants as prescribed. Most of the older recipes are available as generics for $4 these days.

Post-acute withdrawal can last a while – six to sixty months – but not everyone goes through it, and it beats the alternative of going to your own funeral. Quit in Dry July and imagine where you'll be by Christmas.

See the entire transcript with video 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 #18 - The deception of holiday cheer

Holiday blues aren't a reason to self-medicate, they're a reason NOT to.  The new episode of The Sobriety :60 examines alcohol as a mood amplifier.  Watch it on youtube or read the transcript.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of the Dr. Alan Simberg's show, Life Changing Insights, featuring Scott Stevens.  Dr. Simberg led a discussion on the health risks and myths of health benefits of 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 an interview with 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."  

The Sobriety :60 - Senior Health

A new survey puts the number of drinking adults aged 65 and older at 18 percent.  Here are a few other alcohol-related health considerations for seniors in 60 seconds.  http://youtu.be/MfRph1jObVY

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."  

Support group meeting, Men for Sobriety, based on four decades of Women for Sobriety (WFS)

The full article appears in The JournalTimes (Racine, Wis.)

Positive thinking...

Being sober doesn’t mean being miserable. That’s the basic premise of a new, free support group offered in Burlington at the Agape Recovery Center, 201 N. Pine St., Burlington.

Called Men For Sobriety, these Wednesday evening sessions are not a 12-step assessment or court program, and are not intended to replace any recovery resource or counseling. Men for Sobriety is just talk, for sober men who want to stay sober, according to Scott Stevens, one of the group’s co-moderators.
“Our focus is on the positive,” said Stevens, a 47-year-old journalist and former mutual fund industry executive who has been in recovery since 2007 (www.alcohologist.com).

The program’s basic point is that the past is gone forever and, rather than going back and reliving its dark days, it is time to move on and focus on the future, Stevens said.

“Men for Sobriety is a way of life — a new life and starting over,” he said.

Based on Women For Sobriety
Burlington’s MFS group is the only one of its kind currently operating in the U.S., according to Stevens. MFS groups have been meeting in Canada and other countries for more than 16 years, he said. And both they and the Burlington group are based on an international program called Women for Sobriety.

Founded in 1975 by Jean Kirkpatrick, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s doctoral program, WFS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women overcome alcoholism and other addictions. Its self-help groups can be found across the country and focus on a 13-statement “New Life” program of positivity that encourages emotional and spiritual growth (see accompanying box for WFS info).

Like WFS, the men’s program follows 13 statements of “New Life.” “But we don’t sit around and read and memorize things,” said Stevens. “We talk about what’s happening today.”

People in recovery face a lot of stress as they deal with living in a society that seems to focus on alcohol, he said. Both alcoholics and non-alcoholics drink to relieve stress, but doing so is not a good option for alcoholics, he said. “So, let’s talk about that stress, and the shame, guilt and stigma of alcoholism.”

‘Dirty word’
Such feelings are familiar to Stevens, a Burlington resident who has authored a couple books about alcoholism (www.alcohologist.com). His work as a volunteer with the MFS program is part of his own recovery from the disease of alcoholism — a disease that is often still viewed as a “lifestyle choice” made by bad people or a “dirty word” that people are afraid to admit they have, he said.

“That type of thinking still persists,” Stevens said. “But I was the guy sitting behind you in church and playing next to you on the golf course. I’m the guy with the nice house and nice kids who has a genetic problem — once I have one drink, all bets are off and I’m just not able to say no to that second drink.”  (Read more in The JournalTimes)

Scroll down for the replay of the April 13 Sound Health Options 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 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."  

Economy's downturn five years ago impacting alcohol use today

The recession of 2008-2009 has a long reach when it comes to alcohol use disorders, aka alcohol abuse and the disease of alcoholism. New research in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research indicates some Americans still struggle to make ends meet and those who turned to alcohol because of it are suffering from alcohol use disorders today.

 

The study examines the relationship between economic loss and alcohol problems, finding that men and middle-aged Americans are at higher risk for “multiple, adverse alcohol outcomes.” The research team notes that despite higher taxation in many states, the price of alcohol has gone down in recent years and this may make it easier for economically challenged people stressed out by the recession to buy alcohol. “It’s understandable when a person is in such a terrible place, fearing for his economic future, and feeling responsible for his family,” the researchers conclude.

 

“Research suggests that economic downturns can have severe impacts on stress and mental health,” said Nina Mulia, of the Alcohol Research Group of the Public Health Institute. “A 2009 study of 26 European Union (EU) countries found a rise in unemployment led to significantly higher suicide rates among people under age 65. Additionally, a 2011 longitudinal study using U.S. data showed that increased unemployment was linked to declining psychological health. Furthermore, a recent review of many individual-level studies concluded that job loss is associated with a greater risk for depression and anxiety symptoms.” 

 

Drinking – for alcoholics and non-alcoholics alike – is a common response to stress, depression and anxiety. Ironically, a separate 2013 study found self-medicating depression with alcohol, a depressant, causes more depression. "I don't know that the average person realizes that heavy drinking can induce mood problems," said lead researcher Marc A. Schuckit, M.D., of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. A third of depression episodes are tied to alcohol consumption. (See “Journal: Alcohol causes depression rather than curing it”)

 

“This new study brings us a long way towards confirming how much economic shocks impact peoples’ health,” adds Laura Schmidt, of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. “It emphasizes the role of economic stress – what it’s like to lose a job, a house, a retirement ‘nest egg’—and how much that impacts a person’s state of mind and leads to problems with drinking.”

(from examiner.com, see full article)

 

www.alcohologist.com

 

Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud, plus the new radio interview replay is available at alcohologist.com... and please read the new interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK

SUNDAY SNIPPET: December 22

There are several reasons Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud notes in favor of attending some sort of self-help group. Attendance can help stave off relapse, but on a more basic level it provides a place to talk and to be heard and to be understood. It doesn't have to be the 12-steps. There are other alternatives, some are quite effective and might be a better fit given a person's location or belief system. The fact is, regardless of belief system, we need a place to talk about The Things We Don't Talk About.

 

 

"I’m no shill for AA. (No member is: They're anonymous at the level of publicity. It's attraction rather than promotion.) The AA slogan factory drives me nuts. More about this in a moment. I hate the coffee. The Higher Power thing is tough for some people to swallow. Some people stay away from 12-step meetings because they don’t see themselves in the people around the tables or hear their stories told in the tragic stories of others. That is the point in going: To make sure you’re communicating what is stressing you before you go back to the drinking and become those tragic stories. You go because you don’t want to become The Alcoholic You Don’t Want To Be.

 

I screwed that one up, big time.

 

When I first went to a 12-step meeting, I was Alcoholic. No Doubt About It. But I didn’t hear myself as I presently was in the stories. I heard the horror stories. I was a functioning, maintenance drinker with a great job, two cars, etc. I didn’t have this low bottom I heard in the other stories. So I walked away, not realizing that day could have been my bottom. Their stories of grief and shame weren’t me. I had great empathy for their ordeals. What I failed to see was that they were a gift, showing me where I was headed, not where I was. That these ordeals of theirs were mine if I didn’t make that day my bottom. They were the Alcoholics I Didn’t Want To Be.

 

At the dawn of AA in the 1930s, the makeup was men and women with low, low bottoms. Over the years, that changed mainly because those who had hit low bottoms were able to raise the bottom to a level where it applies to Alcoholics-in-training like me who hadn’t had a low bottom. Yet. I failed. I didn’t listen . . . there’s that communication thing again . . . to what they were saying that they, too, were one day in the same shape I was. And then I became the Alcoholic I Didn’t Want To Be a few years down the road. While we have to talk about the stuff we don’t talk about, it pays to listen. A lot. I go to 12-step meetings for this, but there are other options out there, too. Use them. Most are free.  All are free of excuses not to attend."

--from Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud: Relapse and the Symptoms of Sobriety, pgs. 104-105 (image: ThampaPon)

www.alcohologist.com

Alcoholics Anonymous has -- you guessed it -- a slogan.  Sometimes, the clichés get it right.  Meeting Makers Make It. Especially when it comes to beating relapse.  Doesn't have to be AA, though it works for me and many. Just GO.


Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud, plus the new radio interview replay is available at alcohologist.com... and please read the new interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK. 

The elevator doesn't work in alcohol recovery: Taking the steps on 12/12

Many self-help groups employ the 12 steps originated in the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, 74 years ago. The group named after the book, AA, remains the most successful organization in handling the disease of alcoholism today. The only membership requirement: A desire to stop drinking.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2008 reported an annual average of five million people 12 and older attended a group self-help meeting in the prior 12 months. One third also went for one-to-one counseling or group therapy. Because 12-step groups are so widespread, most one-to-one counseling and group therapy is based on the 12-steps and those counselors encourage participating in 12-step group self-help to boost sobriety. In fact, the National Treatment Center Study Summary Report from the University of Georgia found 90 percent of 450 treatment centers are based on the 12 steps, while 10 percent rely on “Behavior Therapy.”

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) seems to endorse the 12-step approach in group therapy as well. In 2008, it found Behavioral Therapy less successful than 12-step methods. “Individuals in 12-step oriented therapy have increased subsequent Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) participation and it is the AA involvement that leads to better outcomes by buffering the effects of social pressures to drink. AA exposes a person to a network of people who have a goal of sobriety and support one another in achieving that goal.”

Group therapy requires signing up and showing up. Group self-help like AA requires only showing up. One thing to note though, if it is confidentiality you seek, one-to-one counseling is the only route 100 percent confidential. Anonymous is not a synonym for confidential. Ask yourself, though, does recovery really need to be confidential? Far too many get ticklish about talking “publicly” about their shame and other stressors. The alternative is not talking. And that leads to relapse. A twelve-step meeting is not the town newspaper. Even if it was, some alcoholics’ under-the-influence feats were more public than anything they’d say in a group self-help meeting ever would be.

These are safe venues in which to communicate. They consist of people who share the exact same struggles. Talking things out among them is cathartic. You don’t need to talk about every confession you have. You don’t get style points for deeper traumas. You do get style points for creating a climate of trust by putting on the table the things that are giving you challenges in sobriety.

Alcoholics risk reaching out because they need a new label, a new place to belong, and there is safety among others who are also trying to shed old labels and stressors. If You’re Not Normal is the three-word death sentence to recovery, Me Too is the two-word pardon alcoholics get at 12-step meetings.

Even if an alcoholic does not ever buy into the 12 steps as a design for living, they are suggested, not required, for membership. “The only requirement is a desire to stop drinking,” the literature says. Twelve-step meetings are places to be among others who feel the same, wore the same masks, suffer the same struggles and have a desire to communicate rather than drink over them. “The most desperate need of mankind today is not a new vaccine for any disease or a new religion or a new way of life,” wrote Taylor Caldwell in the novel The Listener. “His real need, his most terrible need, is for someone to listen to him, not as a patient but as a human soul.”

Everyone, no matter how gifted, healthy or wealthy, encounters an issue that baffles them or breaks the spirit. Twelve-step groups are where alcoholics can communicate the baffling and the spirit-breaking. What all are trying to do together is acquire back self-esteem.

There are alternatives to 12-step groups, such as Women for Sobriety (WFS) and Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART), however none have the track record of success AA boasts, and none are as widely available. Other 12-step groups are available for a number of addictions, from gambling to narcotics to overeating.

The Higher Power thing is tough for some people to swallow. Some people stay away from 12-step meetings because they don’t see themselves in the people around the tables or hear their stories told in the tragic stories of others. That is the point in going: To make sure you’re communicating what is stressing you before you go back to the drinking and become those tragic stories.

From a strictly medical standpoint, alcoholism is remarkably easy to arrest. It’s a lot less complicated than arresting cancer or diabetes. Abandon the bottle long enough and detox and biological functioning returns to something close to normal in a few weeks or months. From that point on, it is a matter of not going backward. That’s the drawback to having a disease that can be arrested but not cured: While it is under control it’s all too easy to forget what life was like when it wasn’t. Twelve-step groups remind alcoholics what it was like. Without the stigma.

One of the most treasured AA stories in print says, “Above all, AA taught me how to handle sobriety. I have learned how to relate to people… deal with disappointments and problems that once would have sent me right to the bottle. How do we do it? By sharing at meetings.”
-- Adapted from the recovery book, Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud. Photo credit: Marcus, Free Digital Photos
(See full article here)
www.alcohologist.com

Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud, plus the new radio interview replay is available at alcohologist.com... and please read the new interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK. 

SUNDAY SNIPPET: December 1

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

 

Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud, plus the new radio interview replay is available at alcohologist.com... and please read the new interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK. 

SATURDAY REWIND: Understand relapse, because it's not at all uncommon

A man I've come to admire in recovery, Bill, relapsed four times in 22 months. It's part of having a chronic disease as this article from the alcohol research news archive points out.  However, so is bouncing back from relapse part of having a chronic disease.  Bill relapsed four times, but gave sobriety a fifth try.  His name: Bill Wilson, one of the founders of the 12-step group Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether or not you subscribe to AA's methods, here is some of the science behind relapse.

Ozzy Osbourne recently suffered a relapse and has admitted to drinking alcohol and taking drugs in the last 18 months. The solo artist and Black Sabbath frontman confessed on his Facebook page April 15 that he was “in a very dark place” and has apologized to his family for his “insane behavior.” He reports he has now been sober 44 days since ending his relapse.

Relapse – a return to a pattern of drinking – is very common among those with the disease of alcoholism. Relapse is considered by most counselors to be part of the recovery process, yet some cynically state that relapse isn’t part of recovery it’s part of drinking.

Terence Gorski, author of Staying Sober, notes “you cannot experience recovery without experiencing a tendency toward relapse.” Louise Bailey Burgess, author of Alcohol and Your Health adds, “Unfortunately, despite desperate determination, the depressing fact remains that not more than 50 percent of those who decide to quit, manage to attain sobriety for the rest of their lives.”

Neuroscientist George Koob of the Scripps Research Institute, in the public TV special "Close to Home: Moyers on Addiction," puts the number at 80 percent of those who have detoxed relapsing within the first year. Yet another expert, Michael Dennis of Chestnut Health Systems says in HBO's, "Addiction: Why Can’t They Just Quit?" “Seventy percent of patients relapse after the first time getting help. It’s not like fixing a broken bone.”

The 2013 book Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud puts the number at nine of 10 sober alcoholics returning to alcohol at least once, noting relapse isn’t even unique to alcoholics. "People with chronic depression have a relapse rate also at 50-80 percent. High blood pressure patients only have to keep taking their meds—a really simple task compared to staying clear of alcohol—and their rate of non-compliance is as high. Patients with seizure disorders: Same thing. Diabetics? Ditto . . . high rate of relapse/non-compliance. Asthmatics are even worse. Relapse is a part of having a chronic disease."
-- from examiner.com (see full article)

Studies completed in 2012 and reported in my book point to an elevated level of the stress hormone cortisol in practicing and recovering alcoholics are a key part in relapse.  Too much cortisol creates an exaggerated startle response, confusion and mood changes like irritability. These non-physiological reactions to cortisol have a direct connection to lapse/relapse and are to what I’m referring when I use the term Symptoms of Sobriety.

Ironically, research from the University of Chicago showed conclusively what does block cortisol. Alcohol. “Alcohol can decrease the cortisol the body releases to respond to stress,” says Emma Childs, a research associate at the university quoted in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, October 2011. That’s one of the many paradoxes of alcohol and the Alcoholic: The quick, easy solution to cortisol giving you the Symptoms is to drink. After all, relieving stress is the number one or two reason most people, including non-Alcoholics, drink. Lapse or relapse is, obviously, a ridiculous alternative that only makes the stress—and the cortisol—worse in the long term. In the hand of an Alcoholic alcohol is no answer, it is a question: “What do you feel like losing today?”
www.alcohologist.com

Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud, plus the new radio interview replay is available at alcohologist.com... and please read the new interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK. 

Five considerations about alcohol and the holidays

For those in recovery, sober is the only way to do the holidays.  For non-alcoholics, here's some food for thought...

Nearly half of annual domestic sales of wine and roughly 40 percent of higher-priced spirits are sold in the final three months of the year as consumers tend to drink more and buy alcoholic beverages as gifts or to bring to holiday parties and other special occasions. Then there are the office parties and gatherings of family and friends.

For many, abstinence is a year-round plan, and for those who may be concerned about their drinking, here are five fast facts about the season of drinking that demonstrate the value or moderation or abstinence.

Parents, not peers, set drinking examples. Much of parental alcohol abuse or the disease of alcoholism is only occasionally visible to the world outside the family. However, children get their attitudes toward alcohol by observing how the adults around them behave while drinking. Christmas can be stressful. Getting home, complaining to our partner and having a drink seems normal. But stop and think what that might be teaching your children – that alcohol is a coping mechanism.

Drink responsibly – you don’t have to finish the bottle just because it’s open, or even drain your glass. Know your limit. Once you’ve reached it, set the example. Also, when planning a family celebration where teens might be present, try to reach an agreement on rules for them beforehand. Don’t feel pressured to let your teen drink if you’ve already decided they shouldn’t drink before a certain age. And don’t feel hypocritical for drinking when you’ve told your kids they can’t. Explain that alcohol is for adults because their bodies have finished growing, and even then, there are laws about drinking and driving. (See nine more alcohol tips for holiday parenting.)

Alcohol adds calories. Many Americans worry about the extra calories from that green Jello stuff or slab of pumpkin pie. Put down the extra glass of wine and save yourself about 200 calories. If you drink a glass of wine before dinner, another glass with dinner and a sweet wine for dessert, that’s more than 400 calories in addition to the meal. If three beers help that dry turkey seem more palatable, that will add an extra 450 calories. (See more in this related examiner.com article.)

Company parties are back. A recent survey by executive search firm Battalia Wilson found that 91 percent of the companies polled will have holiday parties this year, a significant increase from last year’s low of just 74 percent. If you’re a business owner hosting a party, you have liability. For a former drinker struggling with sobriety, there is no shame in skipping a bash. Otherwise, if you’re an attendee, ginger ale looks just like a cocktail and may keep you from legal trouble on the roads, because…

More people get in collisions during the holidays. Twenty-five people die on an average day in alcohol-related crashes. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, the average spikes to 45 alcohol-involved traffic deaths daily. December is Drunk and Buzzed Driving Month to emphasize the dangers of drinking and driving during the travel- and celebration-intensive season. Motor vehicle violations involving alcohol increase an average of 54 percent after Thanksgiving. Twelve hundred Americans will die on the roads this month from intoxicated driving crashes. The numbers are higher in years when Christmas and New Year's land on a weekend, which they won’t this year.

Alcohol-related violent crime increases in December. The Department of Justice reports alcohol-related violent crime is highest in December compared to the rest of the year except July – which is a statistical tie. One-third of state prisoners and one-fifth of federal prisoners report alcohol use at the time of the offense. Twenty-one percent of federal prisoners serving time for a violent offense reported alcohol use at the time of the offense. An earlier study in 2008 by Pew Research revealed that 25 percent of state prisoners given a standard questionnaire to screen for the disease of alcoholism tested positive.
--from examiner.com (see full article)
www.alcohologist.com

Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud, plus the new radio interview replay is available at alcohologist.com... and please read the new interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK. 

SATURDAY REWIND: Increase in suicide rates, alcohol misuse, depression

Two articles from the alcohol research news archive, published three months apart, demonstrate the complex and deadly interplay between alcohol, depression and suicide.  It's sometimes referred to as a "squirrel cage" in which people use alcohol, a depressant, to treat depression...the alcohol causes more depression... which the person self-medicates with more alcohol.


The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that while suicide rates rose slowly between 1999 and 2007, the rate of increase more than quadrupled from 2008 to 2010. A link between depression and economic recession is assumed in a letter doctors from Britain, Hong Kong and the U.S. wrote on the new data to the medical journal Lancet Nov. 7.

There were 1,500 more reported suicides since 2007 than could have been expected using the suicide rate for the previous eight years. About 25 percent of the increase is attributable to the unemployment rate according to the lead doctor in the Lancet letter.

Alcohol use disorders, either alcohol abuse or the disease of alcoholism, are risk factors for suicide across all demographic divisions. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 96 percent of alcoholics who die by suicide continue their drinking right up to the end of their lives.

Alcoholism is a factor in about 30 percent of all completed suicides. Approximately seven percent of those with alcoholism will take their own lives. Alcohol use when accompanied by other disorders, like depression, is one of the AFSP’s top-cited risk factors. Alcoholics, especially those with untreated alcoholism, usually fall into this last group because alcoholics use the depressant alcohol to treat their depression.
-- from examiner.com (see full article)

Bouts of depression are often the direct result of alcohol intake, according to a study in the March issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The researchers linked alcohol abuse and the disease of alcoholism to a third of depressive episodes. These periods of depression are different than depressive episodes caused by other life events.

Experts have long known that heavy drinking can spur temporary episodes of depression while many with alcohol use disorders use alcohol to relieve depression. They self-medicate. "I don't know that the average person realizes that heavy drinking can induce mood problems," said lead researcher Marc A. Schuckit, M.D., of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Not every doctor might be aware of it, either. But it's important that he or she pay close attention to this problem, Schuckit said, because depression caused by heavy drinking has a different prognosis and is treated much differently from depression not tied to drinking. “Although the symptoms of independent and substance-induced depressions can be identical, if the sadness develops in the context of heavy drinking, the symptoms are likely to lift within several weeks to a month of abstinence and rarely require antidepressants to go away.

“It's important for doctors to consider alcohol use disorders as a possible cause of patients' depression symptoms,” Schuckit said—rather than simply "reaching for the prescription pad" and recommending an antidepressant." The patient needs to be forthcoming with information about alcohol use in order for the physician to properly diagnose the source of the depression.

The 30-year study evaluated nearly 400 men who were 18 years old at the outset. About half were at increased risk for drinking problems because their fathers were alcoholics. Over three decades, about 41 percent of the men with alcoholic fathers developed alcohol abuse or alcoholism, and nearly 20 percent suffered at least one bout of major depression. For men with alcohol problems, though, almost one third of those major depressive episodes were seen only while they were drinking heavily, not depression caused by other life events.

If alcohol is the cause, according to the journal, the depression is very likely to disappear with abstinence.
--from examiner.com (see full article)
www.alcohologist.com

Scroll down for the replay of the Dr. Jeanette Gallagher 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 can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK.  
 

SAVE THE DATE:  Scott Stevens will be part of the opening night symposium for the REEL Recovery Film Festival San Francisco.

Wine can help with depression. Or make it worse. Or kill you.

Research published Aug. 30 noted lower levels of depression with drinking “two to seven small glasses of wine per week.” I found it in – wait for it – Wine Spectator. The Spanish study also was reported on other medical news sites, however. And the report could be the loophole a drinker may use to avoid quitting, or the justification an ex-drinker may use to slip out of sobriety.

First, to credit the authors of the study, the research followed more than 5,500 men and women over age 55 for seven years, specifically looking at amount and type of drink and level of depression. “Moderate” drinkers of wine were found to have lower levels of depression than either abstainers or problematic drinkers. Lead author of the study, Miguel A. Martínez-Gonzále of the University of Navarra in Spain explained, “Problematic alcohol intake may be associated with depression not only because of increased intake of ethanol but also because of other alcohol-related unhealthy lifestyles or because of the social environment surrounding problematic drinkers (job loss, family problems, financial problems or other addictions). Any of these circumstances may be a potential trigger for depression, even in the absence of a specific detrimental role for ethanol.” (This link connects to the university's news release.)

Other research from February this year contradicts that message somewhat, noting that a third of depressive episodes are tied to alcohol abuse of the disease of alcoholism and the periods of depression are “different from depressive episodes caused by other life events.” (See full article.) The February study, lead by noted alcohologist Marc Schuckit of the University of California, San Diego, focused on the problematic drinkers avoided in the University of Navarra study.

Heavy drinking causes depression. Light drinking alleviates depression. That seems to be the message. The question on the table is how to distinguish between heavy and light, and whether the individual can drink at all. Physicians define light as 1.2 drinks per day, moderate as 2.2 drinks a day, heavy as 3.5 drinks daily and abusive drinking was defined as 5.4 drinks a day.

Those with the disease of alcoholism have one choice: Zero drinks per day. Total abstinence is the only way to keep the disease in remission.

Experts have long known that heavy drinking can spur temporary episodes of depression while many with alcohol use disorders use alcohol to relieve depression. They self-medicate. "I don't know that the average person realizes that heavy drinking can induce mood problems," said Schuckit.

There is one additional consideration, stemming from a Norwegian study, also from February. “The evidence of the harmful effects of alcohol outweighs data on the benefits of drinking,” a physician wrote in an online issue of the journal Addiction. In a critical analysis of the health-boosting, disease-preventing characteristics of alcohol, Norwegian psychiatrist and addiction researcher, Hans Olav Fekjær, notes in the journal, “Altogether, the evidence for alcohol's ability to prevent diseases is considerably weaker than that for alcohol causing several kinds of harm.”  (Full article.)

Fekjær also noted claims that moderate wine drinking has health benefits. “Wine drinkers generally had more formal education, better dietary and exercise habits and more favorable health status indicators. Altogether, there is ample evidence that groups with different drinking habits differ in several other ways than their drinking, making it difficult to separate the effects of drinking habits from other factors.”

Other evidence-based studies on diseases demonstrate increased health risks with alcohol consumption. For example, Boston University's study earlier this year (see related article) concluded when it comes to cancer, “No amount of alcohol is safe."

While there is observational data that light or moderate drinkers have a reduced risk of several diseases which are influenced by lifestyle factors, whether or not the lower risk is due to alcohol is a more complicated issue. “Taken together, the existing evidence does not seem to meet the criteria for inferring causality. For almost all the diseases, we do not know of any plausible biological mechanism explaining a preventive role for alcohol. Alcohol's possible ability to prevent diseases should probably not be considered as an established fact.

“The absence of definite knowledge leaves plenty of room for wishful thinking, which we observe frequently on this topic,” Fekjær concluded.

Don't drink the Kool-Aid … or in this case, the wine.  Consider other possible consequences of the "cure" for depression.
www.alcohologist.com

Scroll down for the replay of the Dr. Jeanette Gallagher 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 can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK.  
 

SAVE THE DATE:  Scott Stevens will be part of the opening night symposium for the REEL Recovery Film Festival San Francisco.