The Canyon

Alcoholism is a mess, sloppy and chaotic. The alcoholic believe they have everything under control and just how they want it. But if they could look in from the outside, they may wonder how they ever thought that. It can be tough to convince an alcoholic that their life is spinning out of control. Unless, however, it becomes a mess in their own minds.

Life Is Messy And Tough To Control

It’s funny, we humans spend an awful lot of time trying to control things in our life. We try the hardest to control things we have little to no power over. We want that person to finally love us, we want that thing to make us happy, we want to never feel pain or heartbreak again. Sorry, but those are just the normal messy parts of life.

An alcoholic wants control over their life. That’s all, not too much to ask, right? They have felt so powerless for so long, they have often felt like they have no purpose. If their dad hadn’t run off, if their brother hadn’t died, if they’d never moved from their old town, if their uncle hadn’t abused them, if they hadn’t been bullied as a kid, etc. If those bad things hadn’t happened, they would’ve had a better life.

Forgetting About The Mess Of Real Life

And when they want to forget about it for a while, alcohol seems to do the trick. For a while. When they sober up, reality seems to come right back. But when they get the opportunity for more alcohol, they can look forward to a blissful escape. And heck, while were at it, why not escape just a little more? Why not escape as much as possible? There, they finally have it. Control over how much reality comes back in their face. And the more drunk they can be, a less reality they will face.

Everything Is Under Control

Since they have everything under control, they needn’t pay any attention to people who disagree with their Drinking. Who are those people to tell the alcoholic what to do? They know what they need, and it’s to keep reality out of the way. And they are doing a fine job of it, thank you very much. The main plan is to simply drink as much as possible. If they can’t see the mess or hear the mess that is real life, everyday is an escape. Why would anyone want to give this up?

Hiding From Reality Gets Messy

As you can see, and alcoholics who wants to hide from the mess will just stay drunk. as long as this works, they’ll see no reason to change. When the mess starts cutting through the cloud of intoxication, that’s when things may change. When the mess gets messy all over, maybe – just maybe the alcoholic will finally see it and go to alcohol rehab.

Strange how life is messy anyway, and the alcoholic creates a mess while trying to hide from it. They end up with a bigger mess than they ever started with. If they keep their eyes closed, the mess may bury them. But with eyes wide open, an alcoholic can start picking up the pieces one at a time. Alcohol rehab can help them.

photo credit: Jean Pichot

When it comes to relationships, location matters. By that I mean the location of where your relationships starts. Where and how you need a person can be a sign of how likely the relationship is the last and how healthy it may be. If you find yourself searching for the perfect boyfriend or girlfriend in a bar, you may need to ask yourself some questions. What are you really looking for? what do you expect to find here? How already are you to be a mature person in a relationship? with relationships, you often get what you ask for.

Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places

Let’s imagine that you or someone who hangs out at the bars on a regular basis. Sometimes you go with friends, sometimes you may end up there alone. Now, imagine that you started thinking about finding a relationship. The one you just got out of ended badly. Too much fighting, not much in common, and way too much work. You now avoid the bar you found that person in because you know they still go there and you want to avoid drama. But now you find yourself surveying the field, seeing who you might like to approach next.

What Happens When You Meet A New Person In A Bar

Of course, many kinds of people go to bars for different reasons. Just because they are in a bar doesn’t mean they have an unhealthy life or are incapable of being a good relationship partner. However, you may want to reconsider this is your main source for potential relationships. Take a close look, a real close look at how your relationships start at the bar. Do you do most of your talking before anyone has much to drink, or do you hook up when you were both drunk and looking for sex or companionship for the night? If you find that you’re doing a hookup most of the time, you may be choosing the most unhealthy people in the bar.

If you can’t talk to someone unless you’ve had a lot to drink, you may not honestly be ready for a relationship. You in the other person may not be comfortable talking to healthier people. Two people with the risk for alcohol addiction won’t make good relationship partners for each other. Even if one drinks very little, the heavier drinker is likely to be less committed were bought in the relationship. This is a set up for disappointment and heartbreak.

Reconsider Meeting People Where They Drink Excessively

Does this sound like you? You may need to consider this as a sign that you may have a problem with alcohol. If you have never been to alcohol treatment, this might be the time to go. Before starting a new relationship at another bar, you need to consider what a sober lifestyle would be like and what a healthy lasting relationship would be like. Alcohol treatment might seem like the last thing you want to consider when you are lonely and uncertain about yourself, but you can avoid a lot of heartache and disappointment by getting yourself in the right direction. Call today to learn more about alcohol addiction and drug treatment near you.

photo credit: Horia Varlan

Alcoholism – definitely a family problem. If you’re alcoholic, you probably already know this. Growing up with an alcoholic or drug addict made you learn how to survive, parent yourself, and do without much loving attention from your family. The pain from alcoholism is usually passed from generation to generation.

Seeing Old Pain In Your Family Members Eyes

It’s not just you – you have seen something bitter and ancient in your parents eyes when you grew up. Their dulled expression when they were drunk, their uncontrolled anger, and their illogical rants. Something wild and untamed was there in the way they look at you and others. This is the generational gift of alcoholism – old pain from generations past.

No one ever went to addiction treatment, they refused support groups, or claimed that all that counseling stuff never worked. Or worse yet, the elder generations of alcoholics in your family didn’t have alcohol treatment available to them. Help wasn’t offered, and help wasn’t asked for.

Don’t Ask For Help With Alcoholism

Unfortunately, your family also passed down this distrust of anyone prying into their business. And that includes you, as the child trying to understand your world. So in your innocent efforts to understand the chaos of your family, you are left with but a few conclusions. Any sort of help you need isn’t going to come from your family. Or, you can succumb to the chaos and cope like everyone else does – with alcohol.

You might be the first generation in your family to actively seek help for your alcoholism. Awareness is better than it used to be, and alcohol rehab is far more available than ever. But other problems have plagued you. Chronic health problems, not unlike your relatives have faced. Trouble connecting with others, also similar to your family situation.

So when the chips are down and you are backed into a corner, alcohol may seem like your only refuge. At least it’s familiar. You know you shouldn’t, but what’s the use? Everything hurts, just like it does with everyone in your family. They hurt, you hurt, and it doesn’t seem to be anything different for the future.

Hope For Sobriety Still Exists

As a person with generational alcoholism, you might feel that the cards are stacked hopelessly against you. Each and every day you have the chance to make a change. If you can step out and start alcohol treatment, go to just one AA meeting, or just talk to someone you trust, there is always hope for sobriety. Always.

photo credit: Mossaiq

Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research just released a study about heavy drinkers and their general health habits. They report that both men and women have worse health habits if they are heavy or risky drinkers. Only moderate drinkers showed health benefits from consuming alcohol.

Attitudes About Health Significant For Alcohol Drinkers

It seems that the key difference between moderate and heavy drinkers were their overall attitudes about general health practices. Heavy drinkers tended to use cigarettes, not wear seat belts, eat an unhealthy diet, and not see their doctors regularly.

Another part of the story is heavy drinkers’ belief of how much they are in control of their own life. According to the study, they tended to think that good health was a matter of good or bad luck. Instead of collaborating with their doctors, heavy drinkers reported not liking doctor’s visits.

Alcohol Affects Mental Health and Physical Health

The results of the research study has pointed out the connection between attitude and general health. But which comes first, the attitude or the drinking? This is a complicated question, and most likely they occur together. Many people who drink heavily often do so because they are trying to cope with problems. They may already think that their life is out of control, so why would their physical health be any different?

Also, a heavy drinker could be (or become) an addictive drinker. They may need alcohol treatment to get their life in order. But most don’t seek help at an alcohol rehab center. If anything, they might go to their doctor about physical complaints. When addiction thinking sets in, a person sees the world through a black-and-white perspective. Things are either good or they are bad, in control or out of control.

Health Of Alcoholics Depends On Getting Alcohol Rehab

Alcoholics are also more likely to be pessimistic because of their persistent negativity. This outlook on life likely bleeds into their health habits. Just another part of their life that’s out of their control, probably more bad news. So what’s the point of making any sort of change?

Unfortunately, heavy drinkers who don’t get treatment will likely face many health challenges in their future. Heart disease, high blood pressure, skin problems, and liver disease are just a few of the health risks associated with heavy drinking. If you have a loved one who seems to be a heavy drinker, do whatever you can to get them to the doctor or seek alcohol rehab. They may not like going to the doctor now, but they will be doing it a lot more without professional treatment.

photo credit: Tif Pic

Energy drinks have been a growing fad for the last several years, especially among younger people. One of the more popular combinations is Red Bull and vodka. While this may seem like the trendy cool thing for young folks in a partying mood, it is actually very risky. People who do this may not hear the truth about how this combination affects them. Get ready because you are going to read about it right now.

Three Key Risks of Alcohol and Energy Drinks Together

1 – Reduces perception of impairment

2 – Triples the risk of getting drunk

3 – Increases the risk of injury

The biggest problem is that the combination of high levels of caffeine and alcohol is having a misperception of how intoxicated they are. When a drunk person feels stimulated, all they are is a wide awake drunk person. The stimulation doesn’t make them more focused, quicken their reflexes, or help them stay more sober. The stimulation only fools them into believing this. Thus, they may drink more to feel their normal level of alcohol intoxication. They may do things like driving or walking home that they cannot do safely.

If a person drinks excessively because they miss the cues of strong intoxication, just think how much more likely they are to develop an alcohol abuse problem or alcoholism. Just one typical energy drink contains four times the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee. Alcohol rehab could be right around the corner for someone who continues to drink heavily and develop a tolerance.

Energy Drinks And Alcohol Trend With Younger People

Some alcohol manufacturers are even creating combined alcoholic energy drinks such as Sparks, Tilt, Bud Extra. In the last two years, several companies have agreed to reformulate their drinks or completely remove caffeine from the ingredients. While the market for alcoholic energy drinks is a small percentage, that market is almost exclusively young people. Without the benefit of wisdom and seasoned judgment, these kids have little idea how to handle the mixed effects of stimulation and intoxication. Having it prepackaged for them is a pretty bad idea.

This phenomenon is almost exclusively a problem among young drinkers. Combining stimulants and depressants is not new, and many people with drug addiction end up doing this to regulate their mood and daily functioning. This is a bad sign that their own body’s chemical system has been overtaken by the drugs. While energy drinks aren’t on the same level as illegal stimulants, the practice is very risky.

Be Aware Of Alcohol Treatment

If you are a parent, make sure you tell your kids the truth about alcohol and energy drinks. It’s up to you to keep up with these trends so you can stay informed and arm your kids with knowledge. Having an open dialogue about this can possibly keep your kids from trying such a dangerous combination. It could also prevent your kid from ending up in alcohol treatment.

photo credit: djtutusaus

Binge drinking is an unfortunately uncommon occurrence among drinkers today. Getting so drunk that you pass out is seen as a badge of honor, a real social status symbol. People often brush off the problems with binge drinking. Today you will find out why those assumptions are dangerously wrong.

Risk Of Alcohol Poisoning

An episode of binge drinking can put you in jeopardy of alcohol poisoning. Gender is an enormously important factor in this. Women absorb alcohol at faster rates than men, even for a man and woman of the same weight. Many people drink so much that they pass out. It may look like they are just sleeping it off, but they could be at serious risk for death.

Here are some key symptoms of a person with possible alcohol poisoning:

• unconscious or semi-conscious

• slow respiration (eight or less breaths per minute)

• cold clammy skin that look pale

If you know you frequently drink until you pass out, you put your life at risk each and every time. Even when you stop drinking, any alcohol in your stomach continues to enter your bloodstream. Your BAC (blood alcohol count) could be high enough to cause death and you would be absolutely unable to help yourself.

Rapid Rise In Blood Alcohol Count Increases Risk For Blackouts

A person’s BAC (blood alcohol count) rises as they drink and lowers with the passage of time. When someone drinks faster than their body can metabolize the alcohol, they can become intoxicated. Excessive drinking can make a person’s BAC shoot straight up, giving the body little chance to metabolize and flush it out.

An alcohol blackout is when a person has absolutely no memory of events that occurred while they drank. They may have a “final memory” that they can recall, and then it’s nothing for many hours. Blackouts can put a person at risk in so many different ways – harming long term memory, at risk for poor judgment like driving while drunk, at risk for unsafe sexual behavior. Research has found that a rapid rise in BAC is closely connected with blackouts.

Developing A High Alcohol Tolerance

Binge drinking can lead to a person’s body developing higher alcohol tolerance. The drinker notices that the same amount of drinks doesn’t have the same effect it used to. They decided to have more drinks than they had before in pursuit of that same drunk sensation. Over time, they may inevitably put themselves closer and closer to truly dangerous BAC levels.

While all people who binge drink are not alcoholics, many people who are alcoholics also binge drink. Their tolerance is high and they consume high amounts just to get through each day. A very high tolerance to alcohol is a strong risk factor for alcoholism. The body will eventually adapt to these high levels of alcohol, making physical addiction likely.

Alcohol Rehab Can Help

If you are a binge drinker, you may need to take a closer look at your drinking patterns. If you have experienced alcohol poisoning symptoms, had blackouts and developed a high alcohol tolerance, you may need to start alcohol treatment. These are signs that alcohol has taken a strong importance in your life, putting you in danger of death, injury, or other serious consequences. Before you suffer seriously from your drinking, consider alcohol treatment today.

photo credit: Blyzz

Alcoholism is a dangerous thing. It can hide in plain sight while slowly destroying the alcoholic and the family around them. Kids are in particular danger living with alcoholics. They are vulnerable and need adults to keep them safe and healthy – and an alcoholic is anything but healthy. We’ll take a look at how an alcoholic makes growing up a dangerous time for a child.

Risk of Sexual Abuse

A child living with an active alcoholic (not in recovery) is at a greater risk for sexual abuse for various reasons. First, an alcoholic uses faulty logic and reasoning that excuses them from their extreme behaviors. Their judgment is likely to be impaired much of the time. Second, they are more likely to have troubled marriages or relationships with the other parent (or parents) of their children.

These two factors mean that a child’s welfare isn’t going to be valued above all else. The alcoholic parent may be a sexual abuser, perhaps still struggling from sexual abuse in their past. Or, the alcoholic parent may not discriminate who is around their children – family members who have sexually abused in the past, a boyfriend or girlfriend who has abused children, another alcoholic or drug user who has sexually assaulted someone before.

Risk of Danger in the Home

An alcoholic drinks because they attempt to escape reality. Along with reality, they also take their judgment and inhibition. A person’s sense of inhibition protects them from doing risky things like punching someone who disagrees with them, crossing the street without looking, or emptying their bank account on a shopping spree. Unfortunately, those are the very types of things that can happen when an alcoholic is in a family household.

All sorts of careless activities could be happening in the presence of children as well. They could be woken up by a fire because their alcoholic dad fell asleep with a cigarette burning. They could cut themselves on sharp objects left out by the alcoholic parent. And if the parent drives them anywhere while intoxicated, they could be injured or killed.

Risk of Children Using Drugs and Alcohol

Take a look at the sections above and imagine yourself as a child living with an alcoholic parent. Can you see how many children of alcoholics often become alcoholic themselves? Not everyone who grows up with alcoholism chooses to drink. Some don’t drink but pick partners who have addictive tendencies. And others get support and help to choose a much healthier lifestyle.

The children that do drink alcohol have both the socialization of alcoholism from their growing up years and a genetic disposition for addictive tendencies. If they aren’t guided towards healthy choices and educated about their risks, they are likely to repeat the whole sad story of their childhood. Alcohol rehab is a likely destination if this happens.

Alcohol Rehab Gives Families Hope

If left unchecked, alcoholism can destroy a family from the inside out. But if an alcoholic takes a courageous step and goes to alcohol rehab, all hope is not lost. Of course, alcohol rehab is not a cure – there is no such thing. But alcohol rehab can benefit each and every member of the family live a healthier more emotionally stable life. If alcoholism is festering in your family, get more information about alcohol rehab today.

Sometimes the way you try to solve a problem just makes it worse. When you use alcohol to deal with emotional trouble, you will end up with more problems than you started with. If you are on this path of self destruction, you need to pay attention and see what lies ahead of you.

Alcoholism Takes Over Devastates Your Body

Alcoholism Devastates Your Life

Alcoholism can sneak up on you, an accumulation of drinking patterns that eventually got too strong to control. Or, you might suddenly start drinking heavily to deal with a major change in your life. Regardless of how slowly or quickly your alcoholism developed, you are heading down the same terrible path.

Alcoholism can devastate your body. The fact that you are drinking fluid can fool you into thinking you are hydrated. But in truth, alcohol has a drying effect on everything. Just a few drinks can leave you more thirsty than you started. That’s where the cotton mouth feeling comes from after a hangover (acute withdrawal). Can you imagine how your body is effected when you are drinking 20 beers or a whole bottle of hard alcohol a day? Day after day after day?

Alcoholism Devastates Your Emotions and Self Care

Unfortunately, too many people use alcohol to drown their sorrows. When you are addicted to alcohol, your whole day revolves around it. You may think you are still functioning because you go to work or you still sleep and eat some. But it’s all a big distraction from whatever your emotional problems are. If you are feeling depression set in, you are going through a divorce, or you have just lost a job, those circumstances remain even when you drink. The emotional pain remains even when you drink. The problems may get worse because you continue to drink. The more you try to cope, the deeper you go into the pit. Before long, you may find yourself looking ragged, feeling despair, and just about to lose every bit of stability you know.

You don’t have to wait until you actually lose everything to stop your alcoholism in its tracks. Many alcoholics miss the early signs that their life is self-destructing before their eyes. And even when they do see it, they fail to act because they are stuck between fantasy and reality. They just react and cope with more alcohol. It often takes a huge crash in an alcoholic’s life to get their attention. Before it gets any worse, you can choose alcohol rehab right now.

Alcohol Rehab A Healthier Life Path

If you can see the truth about your drinking, then you can also see that things won’t get better unless you get some alcohol treatment. And if you get help sooner rather than later, you may be able to avoid losing everything. Alcohol rehab can’t change the past. If things have been lost, they have been lost. But going to treatment can help you keep the healthiest things in your life. The sooner you start, the better your chances of preserving your meaningful healthy relationships, your job situation, your financial situation, and your health.

Alcoholism is a guaranteed path of self-destruction. But you don’t have to go any further down that path today. You have the choice to step off right now, right this minute. You can choose alcohol rehab and step onto a healthier life path.

In most alcoholic and drug addicted families, each family member takes a role. All roles are meant to distract from the true pain in the family, but they all look somewhat different. The Lost Child becomes the least obvious member of the family, but their troubles are no less significant.

Lost Child Fears Causing Problems In Alcoholic Family

The Lost Child in an alcoholic family blends into the woodwork for fear of causing problems. They have already seen what happens to the scapegoat and want no part of that. They are often identified as a “model child” because they cause no stir. Despite this so-called compliment, their situation is far from positive. It only adds to the illusion that their alcoholic family is doing just fine. They just want it all to go away.

A Lost Child lives in a fantasy world where everything is good and right. They often withdraw from their family and from nearly everyone else. It’s difficult for them to face reality, even as adults when they may not be in direct daily contact with their difficult family.

Isolation Is Survival Skill in Alcoholic Family

Hiding and fantasizing goes from a childhood survival tactic to a general way of approaching life as an adult. Their ability to adapt as a child helps them make it through a difficult childhood. But this can lead to indecision and difficulty forging their own way in life. Instead of being the flexible one like they were in childhood, this isolation becomes restricting.

By taking themselves out of their family situation every day, family members often don’t regard their feelings or opinions as very important. Their isolation brings on social difficulties as they grow older. They may
be a low maintenance kind of person, but they also offer very little to a relationship.

They tend to see more than they speak out about – they are present yet make themselves insignificant. Unless someone captures the lost child at a younger age to teach them healthy social relating skills, they are likely to remain lost for a long time.

Because of their social isolation, people identified as a “lost child” are at a high risk for suicide. They may have escaped the day to day emotional pain of their family life. But they also missed out on crucial social learning and connection.

Alcohol Rehab For Parent Can Help Potential Lost Child

If an alcoholic parent goes to alcohol rehab when their children are young, a potential Lost Child can be reincorporated into the family. It can take some work, but alcohol treatment can teach the entire family how to reconnect. The Lost Child needs to understand that they are important and that they won’t cause irreparable pain by speaking up. Without alcohol treatment, a parent may have no idea what kind of loneliness their Lost Child is experiencing.

If you were a Lost Child of an alcoholic or drug addict, what are your experiences with this? Did you parent go to alcohol treatment during your childhood and get you involved with the family again?

Alcohol may seem like an ideal sleep aid, but it does more harm than good. That’s probably why alcoholics seem to be run down. They are under the immediate slowing effects of the alcohol and they are almost certainly not getting quality sleep. You might be surprised to find out other things about sleep and alcohol.

Sleepless With Alcohol

Alcohol Appears To Help Sleep But Ruins It Later

Alcohol can make a person feel drowsy, even pass out in high enough quantities. But don’t mistake alcohol for a sleep aid. The sleepy relaxed feeling is a temporary effect. Alcohol dehydrates the body, has a depressive effect on the nervous system, and affects circulation.

Over time, alcohol processes through the body and the effects change. As the body bounces back, sleep patterns also become affected. A late afternoon nap from mid-day drinking can make going to sleep difficult at the usual bedtime. Also, late night drinking can cause wakefulness part way through the night. Even worse, when the person has woken up they often have difficulty falling back asleep.

Alcohol Robs People Of REM Sleep

REM sleep is the stage of sleep when people usually dream. They are sleeping much more lightly than in other stages. Scientists aren’t precisely sure how the REM stage benefits work. However, getting the proper amount and frequency of REM sleep seems to make the difference between a restful night and a non-restful night.

Yes, you guessed it – alcohol disrupts the REM cycles too. It decreases the amount of REM sleep and increases non-REM sleep. While the initial effects of alcohol make it seem like a good method for getting to sleep quickly, the withdrawal effects sabotage sleep for the rest of the night.

A person with alcoholism needs sobriety for so many reasons. Getting more restorative sleep at night is one of them. Alcohol rehab centers create restful calm atmospheres to help with disrupted sleep cycles. It can take some time for a person to establish good sleep patterns. A spa-like environment at alcohol rehab can make night time wakefulness more tolerable.

Alcohol Rehab Helps Improve Sleep Habits

Sleep disorders may not be an obvious side effect of alcoholism. Yet many alcoholics fail to realize just how much of a toll alcohol takes on their body. At alcohol rehab, a person can learn how a restful sleep environment looks and feels. This positive example can help them make changes in their own home as part of a healthy sober lifestyle.