Alcoholism and Alcoholics
Alcoholism
and Alcoholics
Alcohol Content of Drinks
Physical Harm of Alcohol
Social and Psychological Harm
Do you want to check if you are an Alcoholic?
The Twelve Steps of
Alcoholics Anonymous
Treatment of
Alcoholism
Not too long ago, alcoholism was viewed as a moral problem. Today, many regard it primarily as a health problem. To each problem drinker, it will always remain an intensely personal matter. Alcoholics who approach A.A. frequently ask questions that apply to their own experience, their own fears, and their own hopes for a better way of life.
What is alcoholism?
There are many different ideas about what alcoholism really is.
The explanation that seems to make sense to most A.A. members is that alcoholism is an illness, a progressive illness, which can never be cured but which, like some other diseases, can be arrested. Going one step further, many A.A.s feel that the illness represents the combination of a physical sensitivity to alcohol and a mental obsession with drinking, which, regardless of consequences, cannot be broken by willpower alone.
Before they are exposed to A.A., many alcoholics who are unable to stop drinking think of themselves as morally weak or, possibly, mentally unbalanced. The A.A. concept is that alcoholics are sick people who can recover if they will follow a simple program that has proved successful for more than one and a half million men and women.
Once alcoholism has set in, there is nothing morally wrong about being ill. At this stage, free will is not involved, because the sufferer has lost the power of choice over alcohol. The important thing is to face the facts of one's illness and to take advantage of the help that is available. There must also be a desire to get well. Experience shows that the A.A. program will work for all alcoholics who are sincere in their efforts to stop drinking; it usually will not work for those not absolutely certain that they want to stop.
How can I tell if I am really an alcoholic?
Only you can make that decision. Many who are now in A.A. have previously been told that they were not alcoholics, that all they needed was more willpower, a change of scenery, more rest, or a few new hobbies in order to straighten out. These same people finally turned to A.A. because they felt, deep down inside, that alcohol had them licked and that they were ready to try anything that would free them from the compulsion to drink.
Some of these men and women went through terrifying experiences with alcohol before they were ready to admit that alcohol was not for them. They became derelicts, stole, lied, cheated, and even killed while they were drinking. They took advantage of their employers and abused their families. They were completely unreliable in their relations with others. They wasted their material, mental, and spiritual assets.
Many others with far less tragic records have turned to A.A., too. They have never been jailed or hospitalized. Their too-heavy drinking may not have been noticed by their closest relatives and friends. But they knew enough about alcoholism as a progressive illness to scare them. They joined A.A. before they had paid too heavy a price.
There is a saying in A.A. that there is no such thing as being a little bit alcoholic. Either you are, or you are not. And only the individual involved can say whether or not alcohol has become an unmanageable problem.
Can an alcoholic ever drink 'normally' again?
So far as can be determined, no one who has become an alcoholic has ever ceased to be an alcoholic. The mere fact of abstaining from alcohol for months or even years has never qualified an alcoholic to drink "normally" or socially. Once the individual has crossed the borderline from heavy drinking to irresponsible alcoholic drinking, there seems to be no retreat. Few alcoholics deliberately try to drink themselves into trouble, but trouble seems to be the inevitable consequence of an alcoholic's drinking. After quitting for a period, the alcoholic may feel it is safe to try a few beers or a few glasses of light wine. This can mislead the person into drinking only with meals. But it is not too long before the alcoholic is back in the old pattern of too-heavy drinking — in spite of all efforts to set limits for only moderate, social drinking.
The answer, based on A.A. experience, is that if you are an alcoholic, you will never be able to control your drinking for any length of time. That leaves two paths open: to let your drinking become worse and worse with all the damaging results that follow, or to quit completely and to develop a new pattern of sober, constructive living.
Taken from Alcoholics Anonymous 44 Questions
Alcohol Content of Drinks:
Beers/lagers/stouts/ciders
- alcohol-free: .04 g/100ml
- low alcohol: 0.4-0.9
- standard strength: 2.3-3.1
- premium strength: 3.9-4.7
- super strength: 6.2-8.6
Alcopops: 3.9-4.7
Wines: 3.9-10.1
Fortified Wines (sherry, vermouth, cinzano): 10.9-15.9
Spirits
- light (gin, vodka, white rum): 29.3
- dark (whisky, brandy, dark rum): 31.2
Liqueurs 10.9-31.2
Taken from http://www.medicouncilalcol.demon.co.uk/handbook/hb_facts.htm
Acutely
intoxicated individuals may suffer abdominal discomfort and may injure
themselves, intentionally or otherwise, is generally recognized; less well-recognized is
the fact that they may develop gastrointestinal bleeding, cardiac arrhythmia,
cerebro-vascular accidents and respiratory depression, all of which may prove fatal.
These are
some health problems: Acute Accidents and injury, Esophagitis, Gastritis, Peptic ulcer,
Pancreatitis, Gastrointestinal bleeding, Aspiration pneumonia, Cardiac arrhythmia,
Cerebro-vascular accident (stroke), Neurapraxia, Hypoglycemia, Mallory-Weiss syndrome...
Chronically misuse alcohol may develop, and indeed die from cirrhosis of the
liver, the fact that they may develop damage to every organ system in the body and that
they are just as likely, if not more likely, to die as a result of suicide or injury, is
generally not appreciated.
These are some of the health problems: Accidents and injury, Esophagitis, Gastritis, Peptic ulcer,
Pancreatitis, Hypertension, Cardiomyopathy, Cerebro-vascular accidents
(stroke), Coronary heart disease, Peripheral neuropathy, Osteoporosis, Brain damage:
Dementia, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, cerebellar degeneration...
From http://www.medicouncilalcol.demon.co.uk/handbook/chapter_4.htm
Alcohol-Related Social and Psychological Harm
A number of social and psychological problems arise in individuals who misuse alcohol.
1- Social Problems
Many of the social problems caused by alcohol arise from intoxication or drinking in inappropriate settings. Others reflect the breakdown of relationships as a consequence of chronic alcohol misuse.
Interpersonal Relationships
Domestic discord and even violence is common amongst those who misuse alcohol. Child neglect and child abuse, including sexual abuse, are frequently reported by children reared in families where alcohol misuse has been a major problem. Doctors may become aware of an individual's drinking problem indirectly because of its effects on the family.
Problems at Work
Alcohol misuse causes many problems in the workplace, for example, inefficiency, impaired work performance, accidents and absenteeism.
Criminal Behavior
Certain offences, such as drunkenness. drunk and disorderly and drink-driving are, by their very nature, alcohol-related. However, alcohol is also a factor in the commission of a variety of other crimes including: criminal damage, theft, burglary, robbery, and sexual and violent offences.
Social Disintegration
Some individuals with severe drinking problems lose their social and financial support and drift into vagrancy and homelessness. The 'skid row' problem drinker constitutes only a tiny minority of those with alcohol problems and considerable expertise and effort is required if they are to regain a more acceptable and less damaging way of life. They also form the highly visible stereotype of the problem drinker which can be extremely misleading.
It is hard to measure the exact extent of the social problems caused by alcohol. Statistics based on criminal offences, absenteeism and family breakdown represent only a small fraction of the day-to-day unhappiness and distress caused by intoxication and other alcohol-related problems.
2- Psychological Problems
Prolonged excessive drinking is associated with a number of psychological and psychiatric problems. In some cases it is difficult to determine which came first. In most instances the psychological distress is ameliorated, to a large extent, when alcohol is stopped.
Depression
There is a close link between alcohol misuse and depression. The biological changes induced in the brain by drinking mimic many of the changes evident in depressive mood disorders. It is also clear that the life of the problem drinker with anxieties about behavior, and possibly failing work performance, all contribute to feelings of depression. In most circumstances the depression is secondary to the drinking problem and it is wise for the clinician first to persuade the patient to stop drinking for a period of two or three weeks before reaching any conclusion about the nature of the psychological problems; during this time depression commonly lifts. Thus, 75% of a group of problem drinkers in one series had symptoms of depression at initial presentation, but only 5% reported persistent mood change 4 weeks after they stopped drinking.
In some patients alcohol misuse is a symptom of an underlying depressive illness; these patients often have a family history of affective disorders. This link is more commonly found in women. Between 15 and 25% of all suicides in England and Wales may be associated with alcohol misuse, and almost 40% of men and 8% of women who attempt suicide are chronic problem drinkers. Suicide is therefore a very significant risk in patients who have a serious alcohol problem, particularly when this is associated with depression or a tendency to impulsive behavior.
Anxiety Symptoms
Many individuals use alcohol as a means of coping with social and other anxieties and this may lead to harmful drinking. Patients who have phobic anxiety states are particularly at risk for developing alcohol problems. In addition the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal may mimic those of an anxiety state; the dependent drinker may complain of feeling anxious and restless in the morning, and these feelings are relieved by drinking. It is, therefore, essential to enquire about drinking habits in patients presenting with symptoms of anxiety. The majority of anxiety symptoms associated with problem drinking disappear when alcohol is stopped.
Psychotic Illnesses
Alcohol problems may be associated with, or else may precipitate, psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. In these circumstances the prognosis is often less good than it is for either condition alone and management requires careful collaboration between specialist services.
Amnesia
Episodes of amnesia for periods of hours or even days are a feature of alcohol misuse particularly following periods of heavy drinking during which the blood alcohol level rises steeply. Alcoholic amnesia are experienced by a quarter of young men and 10% of young women during heavy drinking bouts, but if they occur at all frequently they are evidence of a serious alcohol problem. During these periods activities may be carried out in a purposeful way and the individual may not appear drunk. It appears as if memory traces of behavior occurring at these times are not laid down, but the exact mechanism remains obscure.
Alcohol Hallucinosis
This is a relatively uncommon condition which is characterized by the presence of hallucinations, usually auditory, occurring in clear consciousness. The hallucinations can occur either during a period of heavy drinking or following withdrawal or a sudden reduction in alcohol intake. They may take the form of non-specific noises or voices, often derogatory in nature, which may be described as coming from inside or from outside the head. Sometimes the hallucinations resemble those in schizophrenia in that they relate to the subject's actions and activities. The course of the illness is usually self-limiting with resolution in one or two months. It is most important to reassure the patient about the nature of the condition which can seem terrifying. In a small number of individuals there is progression to a state indistinguishable from schizophrenia. Symptoms are best treated with chlorpromazine or haloperidol.
Morbid Jealousy
Morbid jealousy refers to that state where the person, almost invariably male, develops a delusional belief that their partner is being unfaithful. The victim is beset by accusations of infidelity; a search is frequently made for incriminating evidence and the partner may be followed or attempts made to catch them 'in the act'. Victims may be in real physical danger and on occasions tragic, sometimes fatal, assaults have occurred. While this syndrome is found in problem drinkers, it may occur in a range of psychiatric conditions, or indeed as a syndrome in its own right.
Taken from Alcohol-related social and psychological harm
Are you an Alcoholic? Do you want to test it? Click Here
THE
TWELVE STEPS
OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
If you look closely, they are the 5 conditions to make a good Confession in the Catholic Church, spread over 12 weeks: Examination of conscience, contrition of heart, purpose to amend, confession of mouth, and satisfaction of penance.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol —
that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us
to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of
God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to
do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong
promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious
contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for
us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we
tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs.
Taken from The Twelve
Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcohol misuse and its consequences pose significant problems, world-wide, for both medical and social agencies alike. The majority of individuals drink sensibly, most of the time. However, approximately 27% of men and 13% of women drink hazardously while some 6% of men and 2% of women misuse alcohol. And a great problem is that many individuals are unaware of how much they drink and its potential impact on their health, family, work, society... It is the worse drug problem world-wide today.
In my experience as a Medical Doctor practicing in New York there are four way to take care of it:
1- Doctors and
Hospitals.
2- Alcoholics Anonymous, and in-residence institutions.
3- Divine Faith Healing.
4- Relatives and friends.
1- Doctors and Hospitals:
As a Medical Doctor I
have helped to quit alcohol to dozens of patients that keep dry after 5 years.
All of them came to my Office not to quit alcohol, but suffering from
the liver, stomach... and my approach, in general was triple:
1- I gave them a stern
warning: If you keep on drinking, alcohol is going to bring you to the grave, and soon!...
your children will be left without a father or a mother... and you are 35 or 40?...
whatever...
2- If you want to quit, do it now and totally: Do not drink a drop of
alcohol for the next week, not even a regular cough syrup that usually contains small
amounts of alcohol... nothing!...
It will be better for you to take rat poison than a sip of beer or
wine... because the rat poison testes bad and you will spit it out, bet if you take a sip
of wine, the whole bottle will go after it!...
3- When the next week they came back without testing a drop of alcohol,
I explained them that it's got to be that way for the whole life... and all of them were
advised to get in contact with Alcoholics Anonymous.
2- Alcoholic Anonymous, and in-residence institutions:
I am convinced Alcoholics Anonymous is the best place to take care of alcoholics for their lifetime.
When there is a health problem, of course, doctors, psychiatrists, or hospitals, are the place to go... but in, general, most of doctors and hospitals do not take care of alcoholism itself, until there is a serious health damage... and institutions like Alcoholics Anonymous are the ones doing a great job to stop alcoholism in the first phases of it, when there is not yet a serious health problem, and the best job in maintaining the patient alcohol-free for his or her lifetime.
Whenever I can, I
always send a patient or a friend with alcohol problems to:
Alcoholics Anonymous:
Nearest place to you: U.S.-Canada...International
Al-Anon/Alateen...Nearest Place to You:
- Al-Anon:
To help families and friends of alcoholics, whose
lives have been affected by someone else's drinking.
- Alateen
is our recovery program for young people, whose
lives have been affected by someone else's drinking.
... Or to institutions that take care of the alcoholic in-residence situations, living in the institution for several weeks, like St. Joseph's Rehabilitation Center at Saranac Lake, NY -- Mountainside, in Canaan, Connecticut, where they charge $75 per day -- Betty Ford Center in Indianapolis, IN -- Casa de Amigas in Phoenix, AZ -- Bannock Youth Foundation in Pocatello, ID -- Freedom Foundation-Active in India, -- Bronx Addiction Treatment Center -- Manhattan Addiction Treatment Center... and many more!... see Information in New York State (with excellent state, national, and world information).
The Recovery Network
QuitNet Rational Recovery National Families in Action Drug Free Resource Net
National Association of Children
of Alcoholics (NACoA)
Real stories of recovery, treatment, and prevention. From real people. Share yours too.
3- Divine Faith Healing:
I have seen people quitting alcohol after doing a Christian Retreat: Charismatic Retreat, Cursillo in Christianity... and quitting it for good, for more than ten years. Look at Amazing Genuine Testimonies of Quitting Alcohol
The divine healing for alcoholics follows the same guideline as for general Divine Healing of the Sick in the Bible as shown in the Book of Sirach 38:9-11 and James 5:14-16 (The book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus is often not included in the Protestant Bibles).
1- Do not get impatient, trust in the Lord... always trust in God, in Jesus (Sirach 38:9).
BE ENCOURAGED: Neither
be disturbed by what you see around you, nor by your own thoughts. Don't look at your own
limitations, abilities, disabilities, or qualifications. The Lord desires your surrendered
will. Give Him ALL your burdens, great and small. Give Him the opportunity to create
something beautiful out of your frustrations, your disappointments, your grief, your
troubles. Allow Him to heal, to restore, to deliver, to raise you up. Let Him change your
weakness into strength. Become a VICTOR in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Grab the VICTORY in Jesus Christ.
2- Pray to the Lord, and He shall heal you! (Sirach 38:9)... that's a great promise!... and the first prayer should be of thanks-giving, giving thanks for your alcohol habit!... because we have to give thanks to God for every thing and in all circumstances (Eph.5:20, 1Thes.5:16-18). .
3- Call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over you, and anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord... and the prayer of faith will make you well, and will rise you up!... and will stop your habit!... that's a big promise of Jam.5:15, alleluia!... Make a Christian Retreat: Carismatic, Cursillo in Christianity...
4- Make a good Confession of Sins: "Turn
away from sin and order thy hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all offence." (Sirach
38:10)... "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so
that you may be healed." (Jam.5:16, Jn.20:23)...
Confess all your sins, including alcohol, and most specially the sins
of rancor, resentment, hatred, grudge... because if we don't forgive others, we can't even
pray the Our Father where we ask God to forgive us the way we forgive others (Mat.6:12-15,
Jn.20:23).
Confess to God your sin, surrender your will to Him. Do what you can do
and what you cannot do, let Him do it. Simple like that... If you mean
business, He will do what is needed!!!.
5- Offer the Holy Mass, "Give a sweet sacrifice, and a memorial of fine flour, and make a fat offering" (Sirach 38:11)... the memorial we have in Christianity is the Holy Mass, to offer the Father the Lamb of God, Jesus crucified and risen, praise the Lord!.
6- Call the Physician, (Sirach 38:11-15)... it is usually the first
thing we do, but it should be the last!... and in the quotation of James 5 it is not even
mentioned!... by the time you go to the Doctor or AA you may be already healed!, praise
the Lord!.
But most of the times the habit will not be stopped by a miracle, this
will be the extra-ordinary... the ordinary way, the usual way, it will be healed by God,
but using yourself, your determination and will power, and the good care and compassion of
a doctor, a nurse, Alcoholic Anonymous or the other institutions already mentioned, of
relatives, friends, neighbors...
No one can overcome a habit who doesn't really want to do so. You must seriously want to change before you will be motivated to take the steps to freedom.
We may be limited, but He can and will do the IMPOSSIBLE, if
we surrender our ALL to Him. Selling out to Jesus Christ, is the way !
God does not need our abilities or
qualifications to do things, He needs our surrendered will. He is quite capable of working
everything out in our lives, if we allow Him to. Thank you Jesus !
Run the "race", that you
may win. 1 Cor. 9:24
With God All things are possible. Matt. 19:26
We are more than conquerors through Him, who loved us. Romans 8:37
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Phil.4: 13
See Deliverance
from Demons, Sicknesses and Addictions Deliverance from Demons
Deliverance Center
Deliverance
from Addictions Deliverance from Demons
I have seen quitting drugs and alcohol the spouse or children of people who made the Consecration to Virgin Mary
4- Relatives, Friends, Neighbors:
Fundamentally, alcoholism is a health problem — a physical and
emotional disease — rather than a question of too little willpower or of moral
weakness. Just as there is no point blaming the victim of diabetes for a lack of willpower
in becoming ill, it is useless to charge the problem drinker with responsibility for the
illness...
... the alcoholic must learn to stay away from alcohol completely in
order to lead a normal life.
Often an alcoholic is the last person to know he is an alcoholic...or the last person to admit it!... Relatives, friends, neighbors, can do a great job in pointing it out to him, and in getting him in contact with Alcoholics Anonymous or any other institution.
A frequent component of the disease is the alcoholic's belief that drinking is necessary to cope with life. In an alcoholic's confused mind, the need to drink may literally seem like a matter of life or death.
What can you do?: Knowing that more than one and a half million problem drinkers have attained sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous, you may be impatient to "do something" for the alcoholic in your life. You may want to explain that alcoholism is an illness and urge the alcoholic to read A.A. literature and head straight for the nearest A.A. meeting.
You are badly needed by your spouse, or child, or parent, or friend!...
The alcoholic may be rebelling outwardly against the idea of A.A., or any other institution, but may actually be close to accepting your encouragement and support and making a decision to join A.A. or at least listen to what various recovered alcoholics have to say about the program.