The Sobriety :60 #21 - Hangovers

Hair of the Dog... popping a prophylactic dose of Tylenol... these are just two lies laid open in the new episode.  See the only proven hangover cure (transcript) at youtube http://youtu.be/k8pJCBwBXxY

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." 

New video trailer for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud

SUNDAY SNIPPET: October 27

The excerpt this weekend comes, again, from Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud: Relapse and the Symptoms of Sobriety.  However, there will be a second excerpt and links to an author interview posted Oct. 28. The book had the honor of appearing on the website of internationally acclaimed historical fiction novelist, Christoph Fischer.  Watch for that tomorrow.  

Today's snippet is the introduction to a chapter on communication in recovery...

Communication is the glue that holds an Alcoholic together during recovery, so in that regard it is me-oriented. In no way does this mean exalting yourself or venting your ego. Instead, the emphasis is on self-disclosure. Self-disclosure is give-and-take even though it might feel like you’re just taking.

We have a bandage of silence over the wounds alcohol left if we clam up. The bandage does not cure the cortisol, it only makes the Symptoms feel less goofy temporarily.

Self-disclosure is the medicine for the cortisol. “Disclosing private information about ourselves is a very effective assertiveness skill. Private feelings and worries cannot be dealt with by other people by denying or disregarding the truths of your feelings,” according to psychologist Manuel Smith. “The type of voluntary self-disclosure is about things we assume we should hide.” Like grief. Like guilt. “Voluntary self-disclosure is not to be confused with the vomiting up of confessions of lack of self-worth.” Voluntary self-disclosure also means talking only about today. Twelve-step manual Alcoholics Anonymous adds, “Unless some good or useful purpose is to be served, past occurrences should not be discussed.”

Talk about what you feel, in other words, not what you did.
--  Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud: Relapse and the Symptoms of Sobriety, pg. 88
www.alcohologist.com

Group says banning public transportation alcohol ads can help protect youth

National alcohol industry watchdog, Alcohol Justice, released a national study Oct. 25, assessing the impact of alcohol advertising on youth, concluding young people are being barraged on the way to school or around town. Actor and activist Kurtwood Smith, known for roles in “That 70's Show” and “Dead Poets Society,” led the event, which called on state legislators and Congress to pass legislation that requires transit agencies to ban alcohol advertising on transit property as a precondition of transportation funding.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, more than 20 percent of public transportation users nationwide are under age 25. In large metropolitan areas like Chicago and New York, many kids use buses and trains to get to and from school. These children are disproportionately minorities and/or from economically challenged neighborhoods.

“Exposure to alcohol ads influences youth to start drinking earlier and to drink more,” according to Alcohol Justice spokesperson Michael Scippa. He says the enticement can lead to alcohol-related problems later in life, including the disease of alcoholism. “Alcohol advertising bans can significantly reduce youth exposure to alcohol advertising.”

In 2012, advertising on transit vehicles and transit stations comprised 17 percent of the more than $1 billion alcohol companies spent on ads outside of the household, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.

The report, "These Buses Don't Stop For Children: Alcohol Advertising on Public Transit," describes the alcohol advertising policies of 32 major metropolitan transit agencies. Eighteen ban alcohol advertising; Chicago, New York and Atlanta were tagged as “lagging behind agencies that protect youth from alcohol ads.” The report noted most major cities continue to allow alcohol advertising on transit-related benches and bus or train shelters even if a transit policy banning alcohol ads is in place.

Limits on alcohol advertising can significantly reduce alcohol-related harm according to the speakers at the Los Angeles press conference announcing the study. A 28 percent reduction in alcohol advertising could reduce underage alcohol consumption and binge drinking by at least a percentage point each, while a complete ban on alcohol advertising could reduce the number of deaths from harmful drinking by 7,609 deaths, claims Alcohol Justice.

The alcohol industry claims it is not targeting minors or encouraging underage drinking. Trade associations for beer, wine and spirits have self-regulatory guidelines in place for alcohol advertising. The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) Advertising Code of Ethics is one such self-policed directive. Its rules associated with schools address stationary advertising, which may not be located within 500 feet of elementary and secondary schools or places of worship.

In 2012, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) reversed its ad policy, citing economic reasons, and approved an ordinance that allows for alcohol advertising to be placed on trains and in stations for the first time in 15 years. CTA President Forrest Claypool says the ban is still in place on “L” stations that serve a high number of students and on all CTA buses. The bus stops, however, are city property and allow alcohol ads. Alcohol Justice's recommendations include alcohol ad bans extended to all government-owned transit-related properties.

The CTA expects to generate $3.2 million in additional advertising revenue from alcohol ads – 0.2 percent of the agency’s annual operating budget. Scippa says, “It makes no sense for public transit agencies or cities to allow alcohol advertising that recoups less than a percent of their operating revenues while governments in the U.S. bear the burden of over $90 billion in annual costs from alcohol-related harm.”
--from examiner.com (see full article)
www.alcohologist.com



Also, please check out the author interview with Scott Stevens on "All That's Written" 10/11/13
www.alcohologist.com

Four of five dieters blame alcohol for weight-loss failures

A survey of the weight-conscious conducted for diet company Forza Supplements Oct. 24 found 81 percent admitting drinking ruined their plans to slim down. One fourth of the 1,000 surveyed reported consuming a quarter of their weekly calorie intake in alcohol alone.

More than a third of respondents consumed 1,000 calories in alcohol alone on a single night out with friends. The survey also found a third drank some alcohol at least three times a week, 25 percent said they drank excessively twice a week and 15 percent admitted to have a heavy night of alcohol three times per week.

A company representative presented four ways alcohol consumption sabotages plans to slim down. The first reason – well known to those with the disease of alcoholism – is that alcohol compromises inhibition and good judgment. “The reason that excess boozing is so damaging to diets is because it makes us deviate from our diet plans and consume more food than planned,” says Managing Director Lee Smith. The food is usually calorie-laden bar fare, typically a burger (490 calories), pizza (675), two pieces of fried chicken (400) or a bag of chips (312).

Smith said the second reason is biochemical. Alcohol suppresses leptin, a hormone. “Leptin tells the body to stop eating and negatively affects many other brain chemicals that are involved in appetite suppression.”

The third reason is that the body recognizes alcohol as a toxin. "Your body stops processing nutrients from the food you’ve eaten while it takes care of the ‘bad guys’ first. As a result, your body burns empty alcohol calories (those low in nutrients) for energy while the digestion of nutrient-rich food is put on the back burner.” The result is a 73 percent reduction in fat burning. “By the time your body gets to burning food calories, it might not need the energy and ends up storing the extra calories you’ve eaten as fat cells.”

Another reason for the lack of weight loss is that alcohol itself has calories. Plenty of them. (See “Alcohol plugs100 calories per day into diets of U.S. adults.”) Pilsener or lager beer usually comes in at around 148 calories in 12 ounces. Drinking light beer, offers about a third fewer, at around 99 calories per 12 ounces. Dry wine contains fewer calories than sweet: 106 calories for five ounces of dry wine and champagnes… double it for five ounces of sweeter wines. 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.

Liquor calories depend on the proof for whiskey, tequila, gin, rum and vodka. Eighty proof contains 97 calories per shot (1.5 ounces). One hundred proof has 124 calories. How you mix the hard liquors will add calories faster. A whiskey sour will have 122 calories and a gin and tonic has 171 calories, a pina colada, 262 calories, and a large margarita can have as many as 400 calories.

“Women on a boozy night out typically drink three glasses of wine, plus a cocktail (such as a margarita) and a shot of spirits and mixer, all adding up to just less than half their daily calorie intake of 2,000 calories,” says Smith.

One other, more obvious thing about the weight-loss difficulty is what alcohol does to motivation: Who feels like exercise when hungover?
-- from examiner.com (See full article)
www.alcohologist.com



Also, please check out the author interview with Scott Stevens on "All That's Written" 10/11/13
www.alcohologist.com

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.

SUNDAY SNIPPET: October 6

Spontaneous sobriety can and does happen, sure, but it is very rare.  People get help from others to successfully bring the disease of alcoholism into remission.  This Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud excerpt looks at a key benefit of getting professional help.  It's not the only solution offered in the book, but it hands-down beats going it alone, white-knuckling it, praying for spontaneous sobriety and using an impaired brain to fix an impaired brain.

 

"Improving assertiveness and communication are among secrets to succeeding in sobriety. You have to do it out loud, though, not just between the covers of a book or in the sanctuary of your home. Put it into live practice. Moving from a social arena of dozens of monologues with no dialogue to an arena of healthy exchange puts you in a good position to thwart relapse and the Symptoms of Sobriety.

Ultimately I am talking about day-to-day interaction, but to get there, individual therapy, group therapy and group self-help are effective resources most successfully recovering Alcoholics tap. The controlled environments are one way to meet the more intensive communication needs before trying out our new skills on the public at large, especially if we’ve pushed away from public interaction for a while.

Therapy, or counseling, is not for answers why Alcoholics drink. Every therapist will give you a different answer suited to their own bias and their own specialty. It is a disease: That’s enough explanation. The real value of counseling is unquestioned in the treatment of patients with the disease, just like it is for people suffering with cancer, not for the answer to why but for how to live with it and communicate through it.

Non-Alcoholics see a therapist for change.
Alcoholics see a therapist to see a therapist. To talk. We know there is no changing the disease. Instead of change-making, counseling is people-providing. There’s no miracle transformation when you leave the office: You’re still Alcoholic. But you’ve bettered your assertiveness skills, your communication.

People-providing probably does not require professional assistance, however too much is at stake when you struggle with sobriety to leave it to anyone but a pro. At least at first. And one-to-one or group therapy are safe first steps. If you can afford it or have insurance to cover it, one-to-one counseling is the most value you can purchase for your recovery.

Therapists have their critics but I’m not one of them. I have not met anyone, Alcoholic or non-Alcoholic who couldn’t stand to gain from talking with a professional. Hell, 74 percent of therapists have been or are in therapy! (W.E. Henry, The Fifth Profession, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA 1971) Even when life is good it can still have its slushy spots. Talking through them with a pro is critical to success in recovery.

Not everyone is at ease being verbal at first with a counselor. So write to yourself first. You may discover value in journaling on an ongoing basis, but at a minimum, writing down your feelings before the counseling helps you focus. It’s not about paragraphs or pages or punctuation. Writing helps you put yourself over your disease, establishing your superiority over it, because you realize a consciousness you never had while drinking. When you read what you wrote, you will understand what I mean."

— From Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud: Relapse and the Symptoms of Sobriety, pgs 94-95

 

 

“Why drag about the corpse of your memory? Bring the past to judgment into the thousand-eyed present and live ever in a new day.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.