The Canyon

Alcoholism in the Workplace

There’s a new study out that looks at government data concerning the alcohol habits of people working in a number of industries. Is it a surprise that the hospitality industry tops out with 15 percent of its employees suffering from serious alcohol addiction issues?

What the Research Says About Alcohol Abuse in the Workplace

Andrew Webber is the president and CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health. He says, “The impact of alcohol problems in the workplace is a tremendous hidden challenge — in part because very few people with an alcohol problem are ever identified. In the past, employers have led the way to doing more for people with chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. It’s time for American industry to do the same for people with alcohol problems.”

There’s more than just a personal expense when someone abuses alcohol and drugs. It is estimated that about 9 percent of employees in the United States abuse alcohol to the point that it means lost money for their employer in terms of missed work days, higher health care costs and lost productivity.

Men and Women and Alcohol Abuse Stats

It’s not just about the industry you work in. The Ensuring Solutions analysis of data shows that alcoholism rates are gender-related, too. For example, in both the hospitality and construction industries, men are 50 percent more likely to be alcoholics than women in the same industry.

Age Matters in Alcohol Abuse Numbers

It gets even more specific. It turns out that age makes a difference in the numbers as well. Those between 18 and 25 are more likely to have an alcohol problem than those over the age of 26.

If you want to crunch a few numbers on your own, figure out how much alcoholism is costing your business (and how much you can save by offering access to alcohol rehab) by using the Ensuring Solutions calculator.

Check out the percentages of alcohol abuse among different industries as computed by this study:

• * Hospitality: Male - 17.4% Female - 12.6% Overall - 15.0%
• * Construction: Male - 15.2% Female - 10.0% Overall - 14.7%
• * Wholesale Trade: Male - 14.6% Female - 5.3% Overall - 11.9%
• * Professional: Male - 13.3% Female - 7.1% Overall - 10.6%
• * Retail Trade: Male - 13.4%/TD> Female - 6.2% Overall - 9.7%’
• * Finance & Real Estate: Male - 11.2% Female -7.6% Overall - 9.2%
• * Manufacturing: Male - 9.5% Female - 6.5% Overall - 8.6%
• * Transportation/Utilities: Male - 9.1% Female - 4.8% Overall - 8.2%
• * Information/Communication: Male - 12.7% Female - 4.8% Overall - 8.1%
• * Agriculture: Male - 8.7% Female - 1.9% Overall - 7.2%
• * Other Services: Male - 8.9% Female - 3.8% Overall - 6.4%
• * Education/Social Services: Male - 9.4% Female - 4.3% Overall - 5.4%
• * Public Administration: Male - 6.4% Female - 4.1% Overall - 5.3%

For more information about alcohol abuse in different industries, check out the Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems website or Medical News Today. 

Heroin addiction is one of the tougher addictions to recover from.  The way heroin attaches itself and affects the brain is so intense and powerful, it can change a person forever.  However, there have been some hopeful medical advances regarding detox medications.  Several forms of buprenorphine have been used and are being studied for their effectiveness with heroin addiction. 

How Buprenorphine Works

Opiods are drugs that attachs themselves to the neurotransmitter receptors in the brain.  These receptors are usually used by naturally occurring substances in the body.  The receptors and neurotransmitters are like locks and keys. 

Opioids are keys that fit into certain receptor “locks”.  The difference is that opioids are usually rushed through the body in massive toxic amounts, way more than the body normally makes of the neurotransmitters.  The body adjusts to accomodate the presence of larger amounts of the opioid chemicals. 

Buprenorphine is an opioid, but it doesn’t fit as nicely as a true opioid drug like heroin.  It takes up space on the receptors, keeping the really harmful opiods from locking on.  Buprenorphine reacts just enough with the receptors to help alleviate cravings, but it doesn’t give the rush or addictive effects like heroin.  Another benefit is that Buprenorphine has a lot of staying power on the receptors, blocking them from dangerous opioids for several days at a time. 

Subutex a Form of Buprenorphine OK For Pregnant Heroin Users

A Buprenorphine Summit was held in the spring of 2008, gathering psychology and addiction experts from around the United States.  The report on buprenorphine’s use with pregnant women offered some hope.  It was determined that even though mono buprenorphine (also called Subutex) is a Category C drug, it is as safe and effective as methadone.  Methadone is also a Category C drug (not generally recommended for pregnancy).

Buprenorphine Not The Perfect Solution

At this summit, experts from the National Institute of Drug Abuse reported findings about the usefulness of buprenorphine.  They stated that Buprenorphine was actually more helpful with painkiller addiction than heroin addiction.  However, since people react differently to different medications, buprenorphine is still a viable choice for many heroin rehab programs.

Buprenorphine is a legal prescribed drug.  However, some people abuse buprenorphine by crushing and injecting it.  The very drug that is supposed to help them with their heroin addiction becomes the replacement drug.  This method of crushing and injection the drug is very hazerdous because shared or dirty needles can spread disease among users.  This is a true testiment to the psychological and psychological power of opioid addictions.

Buprenorphine Hope for Heroin Treatment

A person addicted to heroin can choose to use buprenorphine to detox their body from heroin.  The Canyon uses medication like buprenorphine, holistic healing treatments, and traditional 12-step methods to treat heroin addiction. 

Addiction is a process that retools your brain, emotions, and body to accept a foreign substance as your boss. You risk life and limb for it, it changes your emotions, it distorts how you think. So once you stop using drugs and alcohol, why doesn’t everything just go back to normal? The changes made by the drugs stick around for a lot of different reasons.

Genetic Vulnerability to Addictive Behavior

What really causes one person to become addicted to drugs when another person won’t? Researchers don’t know exactly how this happens, but they have uncovered one important factor. A person can have a genetic predisposition to addictive behavior. That means they have the right personality and physical “recipe” to grab on to an addiction in whatever form it might take - gambling, drugs, shopping, etc.

So say a person with genetic vulnerability to addictive behaviors is exposed to a lot of stress or rapid adjustment. They are also presented with an opportunity to escape from this stress (drugs, alcohol, etc). When these two forces come together, they can create the perfect storm of emotional pain and emotional cover-up. This is when the addiction is born.

Mental Disorders and Emotional Pain Go With Addiction

Many times, psychological factors like depression and low self worth go along with addiction. You have the stress, the poor outlook on life, and a bottomless mixed drink or endless round of marijuana joints. It’s the recipe for a full-blown addiction to form.

An untreated mental disorder can be like gasoline on a fire. It makes an already bad situation worse in a moment’s notice. A mental disorder does many things to distort reality and magnify various emotions for a person. This provides perpetual fuel for the addiction. Some rough days at work through the lens of depression seems hopeless - drown it in alcohol. Too much to do at home and constant fear that their effort isn’t good enough - escape with marijuana.

Family Patterns and Surroundings

Another ingredient in an addiction is a person’s environment and experiences, especially from their childhood. Let’s imagine that Sara grows up with parents who do a lot of shouting and fighting mixed with cold silence. Mom spends the whole paycheck before the next one comes, dad goes out with the guys all night long, both of them have affairs.

Sara copes with this chaos by burying her head in the sand however she can as a child - fantasizing, making herself too busy, being a little parent to her brother. Meanwhile, no one is really teaching Sara how to deal with her own stress and feelings. Her parents do a lot of avoiding, showing intense emotion, and getting stuck in their own world.

As an adult, Sara faces ordinary and usual stresses of being on her own but has no idea how to cope in healthy ways. She makes herself overly busy, has friends but feels lonely, and marries a charming guy who ends up being abusive. The pain from this “life of extremes” is so overwhelming, she eventually escapes through drugs and alcohol.

Drug Rehab Helps A Person Focus Their Life With Balance

Holistic drug rehab is the most comprehensive way to deal with dual diagnosis situations. The Canyon is a known leader in the field of residential drug treatment for co-occurring disorders. The genetics, the mental disorders, the family factors - The Canyon is equipped to deal with all of them. They teach a person with dual diagnosis how to balance their life, something they may be learning for the very first time.