Barry used to boast to his drinking pals how he could stay employed at a difficult and fulltime job and get drunk virtually every night. Unfortunately, after engaging in this destructive lifestyle for around four-and-a-half years, he started to display various alcohol related difficulties.

Barry Begins to Experience Several Alcohol Related Issues

As an illustration, he had a very hard time getting up for work because he felt so little energy when he got up. Moreover, most mornings Barry suffered through a horrible hangover. In short, the combination of his hangovers and his lack of energy did not make it easy for him to get up and feel like he wanted to go to work. To make things more difficult, about a week ago he received his second DWI in the past four months.

To complicate things further, at his job his last two work evaluations were less than tolerable. And finally, his marriage with his wife had declined due to his depression, angry outbursts, financial difficulties, and his lack of patience.

Even though Barry was only twenty-four years old, he frankly started looking like he was in his mid forties. Sadly, this is what irresponsible and abusive drinking can do to an individual. And in truth he understood that he was experiencing the adverse consequences of alcohol abuse or alcoholism and that he was too young to throw away his life to unhealthy and abusive drinking. So initially he tried to drink responsibly and in moderation. Sadly, he soon grasped the fact that he lost all control after consuming his first drink. Stated somewhat more forcefully, after his first drink he invariably proceeded to get intoxicated. Due to the fact that this was an event that was repeated every single time he drank, this greatly disturbed him. In fact, he began to wonder if he was manifesting some of the signs of alcoholism and alcohol abuse.

Barry Makes up His Mind To Make an Appointment to See His Doctor

After mentioning his excessive alcohol drinking and his abusive drinking with his wife, he eventually decided to make an appointment to see his physician. When Barry saw his healthcare professional, he openly confirmed that he has been drinking in a hazardous manner, that he may be exhibiting alcoholic signs, and that he wants to stop drinking. He then said that drinking in moderation doesn’t work for him and, consequently, he wants to learn how he can live without drinking alcohol.

Barry also told his family doctor about his depression and how this mental health issue was adversely influencing his relationship with his wife. His family doctor referred Barry to Doctor Welty, an alcohol and drug addiction therapist, who convinced Barry to enroll in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility as an in-patient for alcohol detoxification and alcohol rehabilitation. Fortunately, Barry would also be able to get medical attention for his depression at this treatment center.

Stopping Drinking Was the Best Decision Barry Had Ever Made

After six months of comprehensive treatment, Barry left the residential treatment center and continued his recovery via going to local Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and via outpatient counseling. Encouraged to change his life in a healthier way, Barry bought some vitamins at a health store and a cookbook. He then joined a fitness center and began working out three or four times per week. Within four months Barry was a new man. He now looked younger than he was, he wasn’t depressed anymore, he was in shape, he was eating nutritious meals, and most important of all, he remained sober for numerous months. He also didn’t resort to angry outbursts, he became more patient, and he became a more compassionate person in his relationship with his wife. Stated simply, refraining from drinking was the best decision Barry had ever made.

Diane drank on a usual basis with her pals. One Friday after all of her classes were finished, she started reflecting on the amount of alcohol she drank on a fairly regular basis and the excessive and irresponsible drinking of her buddies. As a consequence of this, she courteously asked all of her drinking buddies the following question: “what do we really know about alcohol poisoning, binge drinking, alcohol abuse, and alcoholism? Stated more explicitly, how much alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse information do we really know? For our young age, we surely drink in an excessive and abusive manner and I am really beginning to wonder if all of us are headed for a life filled with alcohol-associated problems when we become older.

I believe that we need to go on the Internet and find out all that is possible about alcohol abuse, alcohol poisoning, alcoholism, and binge drinking. And then if we have any relevant issues that we can’t comprehend after we complete our online research, we can drive to the student health center at the college and ask Nurse Jones to help us understand what we don’t know.”

It Shouldn’t Come as a Great Surprise That What Diane Mentioned Would Lead to a Heated Discussion

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that what Diane stated would start a heated discussion. For instance, her best friend since the third grade, Angie, said that they are too healthy and too young to be worried about abusive drinking. Another friend named Brayden claimed that since most young adults drink there’s no logical reason why they should be any different. Another classmate named Katherine said that all she wants to do is to have fun drinking with her friends. And still another friend named Max actually agreed with Diane primarily because both of his parents abused alcohol and both of his parents had a history of alcohol related issues.

Diane explained to her pals that she comprehended everything that they had stated but that getting involved in abusive and unhealthy drinking at such a risky age really can’t be very healthy or conducive toward establishing a meaningful life. When some of her drinking buddies asked what kind of alcohol difficulties Diane was discussing, Diane articulated the following: alcohol-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and cirrhosis of the liver and other alcohol-related problems like alcohol poisoning (which can be fatal in some instances), alcoholism, and alcohol-related traffic accidents and fatalities.

Hazardous and Abusive Drinking Frequently Results in Drinking Problems

When Diane then stressed that careless drinking commonly results in financial, legal, relationship, and school problems, some of her pals finally started to understand how extensive and how debilitating abusive and careless drinking can be. To be sure some of her pals opened up and started to reveal how these alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse effects had adversely affected some of their friends and their parents.

After discussing some of the alcoholism and alcohol abuse problems that are related to abusive drinking, the vast majority of her drinking friends seemed to agree to the idea about getting information on the web. They were, on the other hand, cautious about discussing their drinking behavior with the administrators at school. As Diane thought about this she told herself, “at least they are somewhat excited about leaning more about their excessive and hazardous drinking. This is an excellent start.”

For the past thirteen years Jenny has been an RN at a large metropolitan hospital. In addition she has also been teaching Sunday school at the local Nazarene Church. Even though she lived in a medium size countryside town where it seemed like every person knew everyone’s business, almost nothing was known about Jenny. Needless to say almost everyone knew that she had worked quite a few years as a nurse and that she taught Sunday school for as long as she was a resident of their small town. Besides that, then again, it almost seemed as if Jenny was merely a visitor in their community.

You can imagine the hubbub that was created when it was discovered that one Sunday morning Jenny had passed out due to too much alcohol. To be sure, the article in the hometown weekly newspaper claimed that Jenny not only passed out, but that she also received a DWI because her blood alcohol concentration was substantially higher than the legal limit for intoxication. This is clearly one of the alcohol effects on the body that no Sunday school teacher wants to have made known to the entire community. But this is exactly what occurred, much to the embarrassment of Jenny.

Jenny Gets Quite Troubled About Her Arrest for Drunk Driving

It almost goes without saying that Jenny was very unhappy about her arrest for driving while inebriated. Not only should she have known better about drinking and driving because of her nursing position, but she also should have conducted herself according to a more lofty yardstick because of the simple fact that she taught Sunday school.

After her arrest for driving while under the influence, Jenny thought about moving out of town so that she would not have to feel dismayed about her arrest and also so she wouldn’t have to justify her actions for the five hundredth time to the other members of her community. After discussing things with her minister, however, she finally determined that she would get alcohol counseling at a local rehabilitation center. She did this for two simple reasons. First, it was relatively easy for her to drive to a local rehab hospital. And second, she honesty wanted the word to get spread among all the individuals in the community that she was in all honesty dealing with her unhealthy and excessive drinking.

Jenny Goes Through Detox and Gets an Extensive Examination

After Jenny went through detox, she was thoroughly examined by a healthcare professional at the drug and alcohol rehabilitation hospital. She then underwent a variety of laboratory tests where it was determined that she was not dependent on alcohol but instead was engaging in irresponsible and abusive drinking. In short Jenny was engaging in long term alcohol abuse.

Jenny was provided with the alternative of getting alcohol counseling as an in-patient or getting alcohol rehab as an outpatient. Jenny, then again, believed that she could still work as a nurse and keep her Sunday school teaching position if she were to be registered as an out-patient and this is precisely what she did.

According to her treatment action plan, Jenny went to two rehab sessions every week, she learned a lot about alcohol info, she worked on her take home “projects,” and she found out how to do things in life without having a need for alcohol.

After nineteen weeks, Jenny thought that her drinking problems were under control and so she got released from the drug and alcohol treatment center under the proviso that she would return for follow up counseling once per month for the next eight months. Jenny signed an agreement form and followed through on her “word of honor.”

Jenny Makes up Her Mind to Stay Away From Any and All Drinking Circumstances and Finds Out That Her Self Respect Becomes More Pronounced

After she finished her counseling Jenny reasoned that she would be able to drink in moderation. After pondering her situation more intently, nevertheless, she arrived at a decision that she would completely abstain from any and all drinking circumstances.

When Jenny arrived at this conclusion, she found out that her sense of worth became stronger the more she was in charge of her life. And as her positive attitude about herself became more established, it seemed like she became more outgoing and started attending more community functions such as local high school basketball and football games, music festivals, carnivals, Christmas tree lighting ceremonies, flower festivals, rib roasts, and strawberry festivals.

Jenny Faces Her Abusive and Irresponsible Drinking, Decides To Do Something Constructive About It, and Reaffirms Her Faith

As the years went by, the people in the town expressed more consideration for Jenny because she was intermingling with them more routinely and also because she addressed her excessive and hazardous drinking and decided to do something positive about it. It may have been her imagination, but it also seemed as if her Sunday school students displayed more respect and affection for her.

Jenny is a living illustration of someone who had a hazardous problem and who did something beneficial about it. She is also a person who learned that her religious faith is not only something that is intrinsic, but that it is also something that affects the way in which a person relates to other people.

How do you know that you have a problem with your drinking? When is it evident that you are engaging in alcohol abuse?

If you have unsuccessfully struggled to quit drinking or if you have given your word to yourself that your drinking days are gone and then you were made aware that you were drinking in an excessive manner just a few days later, chances are exceptionally good that you have drinking problems. The point to highlight is that if you have made an effort to quit drinking and cannot get this accomplished, then your drinking is controlling you, rather than the other way around.

Likewise, if it takes greater amounts of alcohol to get the same “high,” you probably need to realize that you have a drinking problem.

You may be telling yourself that the justification for your drinking is so that you can decrease your anxiety or get rid of the sorrow or depression that you feel. In a similar manner, you may be trying to avoid an injurious situation and may be looking for something more beneficial, more favorable, or less mournful.

As you continue to drink, however, you will realize that drinking does not result in the same high and you will also understand that drinking doesn’t help get rid of whatever elicited your pain in the first place. You may also become aware that the more often you drink, the more depressed you feel.

As you continue to drink in an abusive way, unfortunately, you may become addicted to alcohol and, as a consequence, you may add another major issue to deal with rather than finding more successful and beneficial ways of managing your alcohol induced issues.

An Alcohol Appraisal is Probably Needed

If you have decided that you have a drinking problem, possibly the most positive thing you can do for yourself is to call your doctor or healthcare practitioner and arrange for an appointment for a thorough physical and for a review of your drinking behavior.

If you truthfully think that you have a dangerous drinking problem, it might be a good idea to get prepared to find out that you need to get alcohol reahbilitation.

At this juncture, what are your alternatives? You can indisputably say no and refuse to see your health care professional and persist with your pattern of abusive drinking.

It actually doesn’t take a genius, then again, to understand that repeated, hazardous drinking, if left untreated, will go downhill over time and more likely than not result an early death. Therefore, your most beneficial alternative is to address your drinking circumstance and obtain the alcohol therapy you need.

The Charade of the Functioning Alcohol Dependent Person

It is somewhat paradoxical to note the fact that several alcohol dependent individuals lead busy and active lives and have houses, pets, families, vehicles, jobs, and any number of material possessions similar to non-alcoholics.

Many of these “functional” alcohol dependent people may have never been cited for drunk driving and may have been lucky enough to avoid all alcohol induced legal issues. In spite of this fortunate situation, nevertheless, these alcohol dependent individuals need to drink in order to live on a regular basis while keeping up their facade as they associate with the outside world.

Ask anyone who has seen them when they are bingeing or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcoholism, nonetheless, and they will be quick to affirm the legitimacy of the drinker’s situation and the facts about the alcoholic’s drinking predicament and about his or her alcohol generated problems.

Why Do Alcohol Addicted Individuals Fail to Acknowledge Their Drinking Difficulties?

As alcohol dependency research and statistics on alcohol abuse have stressed, no matter how observable the alcohol induced difficulties seem to those who interact with the alcoholic, alcoholic individuals characteristically deny that drinking is the cause of their alcohol induced difficulties. Not only this, but alcohol dependent individuals usually blame their alcohol-related problems on other people or upon other situations that surround them rather than seeing their part in the difficulty.

The root of the predicament is that alcohol addiction is a disease of the brain. Once the problem drinker has become alcohol dependent, he or she often resorts to denial, manipulation, and lying as a way of dealing with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make matters worse, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms typically thwarts the alcohol dependent person’s rare attempts to abruptly abstain from drinking. As dreary as the alcoholic’s way of life is, on the other hand, the positive news is that quality help is generally obtainable – if the alcohol addicted individual reaches out and gets alcohol therapy.

Summary

Acknowledging the fact that drinking is leading to issues in your daily functioning is conceivably the easiest way to find out if you have a drinking problem. Stated another way, if your drinking is bringing about difficulties with your health, at work, in your relationships, with your finances, at school, or with the law, then you have a drinking problem that needs to be dealt with.

If you have a drinking problem, moreover, this means that you are involving yourself in irresponsible drinking.

While some drinkers may be able to detect their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their difficulties, and substantially decrease the quantity and occurrence of their drinking, other drinkers, nonetheless, need to tackle their drinking difficulties by getting professional alcohol therapy. What’s more, due to their tendency to deny the facts and warp the truth, alcohol dependent people without a doubt need competent alcohol treatment for their abusive drinking.

And lastly, if you feel more depressed the more you drink, you will probably need to get counseling for your problem drinking and for your depression.

Jennifer is a thirty-one-year-old loan processor who has been ingesting alcohol in a hazardous and excessive manner since her fiancée and she broke up their relationship. In fact, for the past nine months she has been drinking very nearly one-and-a-half bottles of wine every night, and on the weekends she also has been drinking more than a few cans of beer all through the day. In short, Jennifer has been drinking so excessively and abusively that it’s a wonder that she hasn’t suffered from alcohol poisoning.

After feeling dispirited because she was starting to let her health go downhill, Jennifer at last told herself that enough is enough, that it’s time to quit the self pity party, that it’s time to quit the hazardous and irresponsible drinking, and time to get going with her life. So the next Saturday morning at 10:00 AM, she made up her mind to quit drinking suddenly and completely without preparation or planning.

When She Stopped Drinking She Felt Terrible, Her Head Was Aching, She Vomited Numerous Times, She Had Utterly No Appetite, She Started to Perspire Extensively, and She Was Extremely Moody and Nervous

When Jennifer quit drinking, she thought that she would more likely than not be tempted to have a drink or two, but she never supposed that she would feel so sick. More directly, just about two-and-a-half hours after she quit drinking, she had utterly no appetite, she vomited several times, her head was throbbing, she started to perspire extensively, and she was extremely stressed out and moody.

When she called her best friend and told her that she had stopped drinking and that after a few hours she all of a sudden started to experience flu-like symptoms, Darlene, her best buddy, told Jennifer to call her doctor and discuss what was taking place.

She Admits to Her Medical Practitioner That She Has Been Drinking In an Irresponsible and Excessive Manner, That She Just Tried to Quit Drinking, and That She is Experiencing Terribly Painful Flu-Like Symptoms

So Jennifer called her doctor, informed him that she has been drinking in a hazardous and irresponsible manner for many months and that when she attempted to totally stop drinking earlier in the day, within a few hours she felt as if she had the most awful flu-like symptoms that she had ever gone through.

Her family doctor told her that she may be experiencing symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and that she should have someone take her to the emergency room as soon as humanly possible.

As soon as Jennifer got off the phone, she got a relative to drive her to the hospital. Interestingly, all the way to the hospital, as sick as Jennifer felt, the only thing she could think about was whether or not she might be an alcoholic.

Obviously her medical practitioner had phoned ahead and informed the emergency room personnel to expect Jennifer because when she got to the hospital, she was met by two ER employees who immediately asked her to get in the wheelchair they had with them. After getting transported to the emergency room and undergoing two or three important tests, it was verified that Jennifer was in truth going through alcohol withdrawal symptoms and was in need of alcohol detox.

An emergency room doctor gave her some drugs to lessen the intensity of her flu-like symptoms and also gave her some meds to help eliminate the alcohol that was still in her circulatory system.

An Alcohol Dependency Physician Clearly Explains That She is Addicted to Alcohol and Then Discusses What Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms and Alcoholism Stages Are

After a couple of hours, Jennifer was taken from the ER and transported to the recovery room. After she was in recovery for nearly two hours, Doctor Truxton, an alcohol dependency specialist, came to talk to her. He took his time and explained that Jennifer had gone through alcohol withdrawal symptoms when she quit drinking due to the fact that she had become an alcoholic.

He then discussed the fact that with heavy drinking on an everyday basis, the person’s brain gradually adapts to the alcohol in order to execute tasks and operations in a “routine” way. When the person then suddenly refrains from drinking, it can be stressed, the brain responds by giving rise to alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Furthermore, her healthcare practitioner also went over the various alcoholism stages that an individual who is alcohol dependent regularly experiences as the disease gets progressively worse as time goes by.

It is Established that Jennifer is in the Earliest Stage of Alcoholism and She Gets a Good Projection For a Full Recovery if She Gets the Alcohol Addiction Rehab She Needs

Fortunately for Jennifer, it was determined that she was in the first stage of alcohol addiction and, as a consequence, she was given a good prognosis for a total recovery if she will get the alcohol dependency rehabilitation she needs.

Jennifer told the medical practitioner that she will do whatever it takes to get sober and to reclaim her health. She also articulated that she has an exceptional hospitalization insurance plan that will quite possibly pay for most of the treatment costs. It was apparent that Jennifer was quite thankful about her optimistic prognosis and felt free from worry knowing that she will be able to get the alcoholism rehab she requires so that she can start on the path to recovery.

It is fascinating to mention something that family members who have been unfavorably affected by the alcohol dependency of another family member plainly do not realize. It seems that by protecting the alcohol dependent individual with falsehoods and deceitfulness to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have essentially created a condition that makes it easier for the alcohol addicted individual to persevere and proceed with his or her harmful, destructive existence.

To be sure, rather than helping the alcohol dependent individual and themselves, these family members have in fact become enablers who have involuntarily helped deteriorate the alcoholic’s drinking problem even further.

Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol addicted individual will continue drinking in a hazardous and excessive manner and suffer from a range of “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include employment difficulties, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DWIs), ill health, deteriorating relationships, serious financial problems, and diminished mental functioning.

Relapses Can and Do Transpire

According to the research findings and statistics on alcohol dependency, another key alcoholism issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted individual has effectively undergone alcohol dependency therapy and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first glance, this situation seems contradictory to sound thinking and appears to be so improbable that it forces a person to speculate why anyone who has gone through the dejection of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol treatment and in turn after reaching recovery. There are, of course, many likely reasons for this.

It should be noted, then again that alcohol dependency research that has focused on the long standing outcomes of alcohol dependency has shown that long after the alcohol dependent individual has halted his or her drinking, critical alterations in the way in which the alcohol addicted person’s brain operates are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol addicted person has to do to involve himself or herself in actions that correspond with the changes that have taken place in the brain is to start drinking once again.

The Need for A Crucial Lifestyle Change

There are additional reasons why quite a lot of recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. According to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol dependent individual needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more competently with difficult alcohol-related circumstances that will take place.

Conditions such as returning to the same alcohol addictive environment or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the days when the alcohol dependent person was drinking abusively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can elicit memories that can trigger psychological tension or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent person to engage in irresponsible drinking once again. Sadly, all of these circumstances may not only work against ongoing sobriety for the alcoholic but they can also result in relapse and consequently counteract one’s alcohol recovery.

The Good News: There’s a Lot of Hope for Lasting Sobriety

In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted person, family members can in point of fact cause unintended harm by enabling the unsafe drinking behavior of the alcoholic.

The drug abuse research literature highlights the fact that most people who effectively complete alcohol rehabilitation go through at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get dejected or overwhelmed when a relapse manifests itself.

Happily, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up rehab and education have resulted in more successful, enduring alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency therapeutic outcomes, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent individuals reach ongoing alcohol recovery.