Drug Addiction Recovery Month

September 2008 marks the 19th anniversary of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

People around the country just like you are organizing events to bring awareness to the fact that treatment really does work and the chances of recovery from addiction are higher when individuals and families have access to the right resources.

Enlist Community Groups and Leaders

Addiction counselors, pastors and clergy members, employers, friends and family, recovery groups, treatment centers, and social service organizations can all benefit from sponsoring, planning, organizing and participating in Recovery Month outreach campaigns.

Public Awareness Events

Educational and anecdotal articles for the local paper, banners on your personal blogs and websites, sporting events and athletic marathons, radio interviews, school presentations, information booths at health fairs and farmer’s markets are all excellent ways to get the message of recovery into the public eye.

Publicity and Media Outreach

Focusing on the people affected by substance abuse brings a real face to the concept of “addiction” and highlights the fact that it is a disorder that impacts people from all walks of life. Speaking to the media about your personal experiences touches people who may otherwise never get past their own prejudices about alcohol and drug addiction.

RecoveryMonth.gov offers tips on crafting media advisories, press releases, op-eds, proclamations, and public service announcements that can be submitted to your local media networks for publication or broadcast about your event.

Drug Education for the Masses

Downloadable documents that discuss everything from commonly abused substances, the importance of treatment for a person addicted to alcohol or drugs, and audience-specific materials that speak directly to a group’s interests will help aid your message during Recovery Month and all year long. Print them out and pass them around wherever you go to spread the word about addiction and recovery.

Connect with Other Event Organizers

Advocating the importance of recovery methods is just the beginning. Connecting with the people around you who encourage and support your efforts to stay clean keeps shame from beating down your personal resolves. Coming to face to face with other addicts who struggle with similar internal demons creates a bond that acknowledges the triumphant effort involved in the work of recovery.

Tell Us: What are some ways that you celebrate your recovery? And if you haven’t taken the plunge yet, what are some ways that you will celebrate your recovery?

Meditation During Drug Rehab

While the stereotypical approach to meditation involves brown-skinned bald men in orange robes sitting cross-legged on a mountain top, meditation benefits every person who makes the time to practice simple ways of relating with the world around and within them. Buddhist monks are the Olympic athletes of meditation, and you can choose to devote your every waking moment in the quest to cultivate enlightenment, or you can seek balance and renewal while you wait for a red light to change during rush hour.

What is Meditation and How Does it Enhance Drug Addiction Recovery Efforts?

The stereotypical image of Buddhist monks deep in meditation is just that – an image. Assuming the posture can alert your senses that something different is about to happen, but active meditation is much more than a sitting pose. It is an exercise of the mind that aims for detached contemplation, focused observation, expanded awareness, and letting go.

Just thinking about un-thinking can bring immediate relief. Your muscles loose their unconscious tension, your breathing becomes relaxed, the brain slows down to let everything pass. Sound familiar? The feeling is probably very similar to what you experienced when using depressant substances. The difference is no harmful side effects. Meditation can’t kill you because it’s what your mind does anyway when you’re not actively using it.

Turning inward offers you insider information as to how your body is handling the stress of rehab and recovery, and actively participating in the practice of meditation gives you something to focus on whenever you start feeling the urge to use again. It’s free, it’s always with you, and most importantly, it puts you in control quickly.

Types of Meditations that Enhance Drug Addiction Recovery Efforts

Visualization – Find the center of your cravings; imagine drawing an outline around the edges. Sit with it for a while; don’t try to push it away. Let it be. When the time is right, let it go.

Breathing – Bring awareness to your breath, focus on one area of your body (such as your head, your neck, your shoulders) and release any tension you find along with every exhale.

Rhythmic sounds – Moving water is one of the best ways to encounter the natural rhythms of the Earth and allow your personal rhythms (breathing, heartbeat, digestion, brain waves) to become harmonious with their surroundings. Drums, bells, singing bowls and chanting mantras are all further ways to find a peaceful rhythm you can connect to.

Moving in mindfulness – Walking, stretching, dancing, yoga, qui gong, swimming, even lifting weights can all combine the effects of the previous techniques for an all-around exercise in mental as well as physical transformation.

Tell Us: What are some other meditation methods you’ve found for helping you stay clean?

Drug Addiction and the Family

Some couples click because they like the same movies or the same foods, the same music or the same hangouts. Any common connection combined with mutual attraction can spark the kind of whirlwind romance that sweeps you off your feet. The one thing we all have in common is that inner longing for true intimacy: knowing someone as well as you know yourself, and trusting another person with your most vulnerable feelings. When one or both of you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, real intimacy is an impossibility.

Drugs and Alcohol Function as Security Blankets

Some couples rely on getting high or getting drunk in order to connect with each other. The anxiety, fear, and shame that shrouds them as individuals is too much to bear, even for themselves. Just the thought of opening up and exposing those wounds to someone else is a tortuous experience. When we allow the inner parts of ourselves to be seen, we risk rejection. The fear of being hurt by another person can become so overwhelming we feel as if we need to kill the pain to get past it. Drugs and alcohol become our shields, our emotional body guards that protect us from outside dangers.

Disconnecting is Not a Way Of Connecting

When a relationship is focused around drug or alcohol use rather than real human experiences, problems, and needs, we ignore the aspects of ourselves and our partners that are most in need of love and attention. Each partner begins to withdraw because their needs are not being met. Dependency on drugs and alcohol increases to cover up the pain of an inadequate relationship, and the dysfunctional cycle continues.

Detox and Drug Rehab Brings Couples Closer

Learning to live with yourself and love yourself in spite of past mistakes can pave the way for meaningful, intimate relationships with other people. If both partners recognize the need for change and commit to the process of detox and rehab, the common connection in the relationship evolves into offering support and motivation for staying clean, learning to work constructively on problems, and communicating effectively so that everyone’s needs are satisfied.

If the promise of a healthy relationship isn’t quite enough to convince you it’s time to get help, consider the possibility that at any time there could be an announcement of a new addition to the family. Do you really want to continue your drug habit with your pregnant wife? What kind of an example will you set for your kids if you keep drinking? If you’ve already kicked the habit by the time baby comes along, you’ll be ready to focus on your little one and provide for their needs while still paying attention to your own.

Tell Us: If your partner was more supportive of you getting clean, would it motivate you to get help?

Ninja Drug and Alcohol Interventions

As with most attempts at communication, the message you intend to send can be easily garbled if the receiver has an entirely different interpretation. The original meaning can be so obscured that it appears completely different from what you were actually trying to say.

The case of the “Intervention Ninjas” from Clifton, New Jersey is one such example. Realizing that drugs were creeping into the lives of their friends, two courageous 20 year olds decided to do what friends do best: intervene and hope for the best. Except in this case, the lads decided to go dressed as ninjas – complete with swords, throwing knives and stars, nunchucks, masks, and homemade smoke bombs – delivering anonymous letters in the middle of the night to the homes of known drug abusers and dealers. That was the plan, anyway. Caught in the act by local law enforcement officers, the dysfunctional duo were apprehended running swiftly into the night soon after delivering the first letter.

Keep Drug and Alcohol Interventions Safe, Simple and Legal

Clearly, intention is not everything. These guys could have been killed if a homeowner happened to see them sneaking around the premises. Admittedly, though, the chance to personify your favorite superhero for a legitimate cause is almost too good to pass up. But the time these guys invested in dreaming up this plan and drafting threatening letters written in Shinobi-style prose to deliver under the cover of darkness could have been better spent reaching out to parents, peers, and teachers for help.

The Right Backup is Everything at A Drug or Alcohol Intervention

The best way to get the attention of someone who is in the grip of alcoholim or drug addiction is to approach them openly and honestly, gently and with an overflow of compassion. Focus on their good qualities, seek to understand the source of their suffering, offer hope through continued friendship and help through a commitment to rehab. Come prepared for emotional turmoil, and accept what happens. Insist that your needs in the relationship be valued and respected. Speak from the heart, and know that what you ask is both rational and reasonable.

Get your ducks in a row before the actual intervention. Know who will be there, who will say what, what you will do if the person accepts or rejects an offer for drug addiction treatment. If it seems like too much, lift the burden from your shoulders and hire a professional interventionist to take care of the organizing, delegating, and moderating of the process from start to finish. You’ll be free to focus on what matters most – how much you care about the dangerous situation your friend is involved in.

Tell Us: Have you ever taken part in an intervention? Put one together? Been the one intervened upon? Any pointers you want to share? Anything you wish you had known ahead of time?

Time for Alcohol Rehab

Not to be confused with a sneezy rhinoceros, allergic rhinitis is inflammation of the nasal passages. That stuffy, itching, sneezing, burning feeling in your eyes, nose, ears, throat, and sinuses that usually happens in response to pollen, mold, or animal dander. Some people just call it allergies, or hay fever.

An estimated 40 percent of the world’s population suffers with this upper respiratory infection, with rates continuing to climb in first world, westernized nations. Usual treatments range from nasal sprays, to decongestants/antihistamines, to weekly allergy shots, which can all help clear up the infection. If the stimulus is still in your environment, however, symptoms will return after treatment ends.

What the Research Says About Alcohol Abuse and Rhinitis

So what does all this have to do with drinking too much alcohol? Plenty, according to a new study published in the Clinical and Experimental Allergy journal. Danish researchers monitored 5,870 women who were symptom-free at the start of the study. After nearly a decade, 1,354 had developed respiratory infections such as rhinitis and hayfever. They also found that the risk for developing the infections increased around 3 percent for every alcoholic drink consumed during a week.

The Significance of the Relationship Between Alcohol Abuse and Rhinitis

Individuals with eczema and asthma typically have more frequent bouts with rhinitis, and those who suffer from hives can find themselves with frequent outbreaks relating to alcohol use. While alcohol has long been recognized as a trigger for hypersensitive reactions, previous studies indicated suppressed immune responses leading to serious bacterial infections. Rhinitis, on the other hand, is thought to be a response from the body’s overactive immune system, stimulating it to act on everyday intruders as if they were life threatening.

The Symptoms of Alcohol Abuse-Related Rhinitis

Symptoms of rhinitis often include runny nose (rhinorrhea), frequent sneezing, post-nasal drip, congestion, coughing, wheezing, headache, and fatigue. While it won’t kill you, it certainly makes life miserable for a while and it’s yet another way that alcohol can mess with your life, mess up your head and just make you feel terrible in general.

Is it worth it? Are you ready to stop? Are you stopping because of the negative physical health effects? Tell us about it: what made you face your battle with alcoholism and get treatment at an alcohol rehab center and how you are staying clean and sober every day.

Alcohol Addiction

Most of the time, when we talk about the effects of alcohol, we tend to focus on the emotional and biological responses of the addict. But for every person addicted to alcohol, there are countless more who have been directly harmed by the user while under the influence.

Excuses, Excuses

When someone you love starts acting strange, it’s normal to try and find a plausible reason for their behavior. “He had a bad day.” “She really took it hard after the divorce.” “Grandpa’s just been so lonely since Grandma died.” You hope it will pass, and you try to get on with the day, not realizing that you’re actually contributing to the problem. In time, the alcoholic comes to rely on these supportive statements and may become defensive or hostile when your approval is withheld.

Men Versus Women and Alcohol Abuse

Managing emotions is a different game for different genders. The depressant effects of alcohol typically elicit physical, confrontational reactions in men, and emotional, provocative responses in women. In other words: men, because of their higher testosterone levels, tend to act out while women, because of their higher estrogen levels, tend to cry out.

Both become rooted in maladaptive patterns and relationships where men are predominantly the abusers and women are the proverbial victims, and it doesn’t seem to matter who is actually struggling with the alcohol addiction.

Startling Statistics on Alcohol Addiction

Close to half of all violent crimes are committed while the attacker is intoxicated:

* 37 percent of assaults
* 57 percent of domestic violence incidents
* 60 percent of sexual crimes
* 86 percent of murders

The law doesn’t make excuses for inebriated acts, and neither should you. Places like Al Anon can help you learn strategies for a good offense, and connect to other people who have loved ones that are either active or recovering alcoholics. Many groups now have online chat rooms and meetings if there aren’t any local services in your area. Learn how to stand up for yourself and step out of the abusive cycle with the dignity you deserve.

Does This Sound Like You?

Or someone you know? Have you found that you are more violent when you drink rather than sedated, like you may have hoped? The number of problematic scenarios that become possible when you drink to excess are too many to count. Violent behavior is just one of them. Get help at an alcohol rehab before it’s too late.

Alcohol Addiction Treatment

Naltrexone (Vivitrol) continues to make news among recovering alcoholics for its effectiveness in curbing alcohol dependence and consumption, but even bad publicity is good publicity. Since the drug was approved for use in 2006, there have been 70,000 doses shipped to medical clinics and rehab facilities around the country. While no one knows for certain how many doses have been administered, 196 reports of serious, adverse reactions at the site of injection have been submitted to the FDA.

Alcohol Addiction Treatment Drug Not Without Side Effects

The Vivitrol website advises both patients and doctors alike on the correct procedure for giving the drug. They warn:

“Once a month, a healthcare professional will inject Vivitrol into the upper outer portion of your buttocks, alternating sides each month. As with any intramuscular injection, some patients may feel pain or tenderness at, or after, the time of the injection. In addition, you might feel itching, swelling, a lump, or other discomfort at the injection site…. The most common adverse events associated with Vivitrol in clinical trials were injection site reactions, nausea, headache, fatigue, dizziness, vomiting, decreased appetite, painful joints and muscle cramps.”

If symptoms haven’t disappeared after two weeks, have grown increasingly worse, or you experience other symptoms that haven’t been listed, call your doctor for an immediate consultation. Sixteen patients have had to undergo surgical procedures as a result of abscessed tissue and necrosis. Yikes!

Take Charge of Your Alcohol Addiction Recovery

As with any drug or medication, it is vitally important that you are aware of how much, how often, and where the injections are supposed to be given. Have the nurse or doctor double check the label to make sure they are giving you the drug you are supposed to be getting. Observe any reactions. Keep tabs on yourself afterwards, or have a friend or family member keep an eye on you for a day or so. Most importantly, trust your instincts, even if your gut disagrees with what your doctor tells you.

Tell us: Have you ever been on Vivitrol? What was your experience?

What do you think of the use of medications to fight cravings during and after drug and alcohol treatment? Is it worth the risks?

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.

The other day I posted about a study that said cocaine use during pregnancy actually changed the structure of DNA in the baby’s brain. That makes sense, right? The fetus is developing and when drugs are present, it’s logical that how things developed would be affected. But you’re safe once your born, right? Especially once you’ve reached adulthood?

Wrong. It turns out that alcoholism can do the same thing to an adult’s DNA, change its very structure.

Alcoholism Withdrawal and DNA

In the simplest terms, chronic alcohol use reshapes your DNA without affecting the coded sequence or what you’ll pass along to your children. What it does affect is how your genes express themselves in your brain, especially in terms of the anxiety that is so prevalent when you try and stop drinking. These changes are called “epigenetic,” minor changes that specifically affect the chemical chromatin.

Dr. Subhash C. Pandey is a professor and director of neuroscience alcoholism research at the UIC College of Medicine and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago, the lead author of the study. She says,

“This is the first time anyone has looked for epigenetic changes related to chromatin remodeling in the brain during alcohol addiction. Our findings suggest that HDAC inhibitors may have potential as therapeutic agents in treating alcoholism. We need new strategies to treat alcoholism that are directed toward the prevention of withdrawal symptoms. Anxiety associated with withdrawal from alcohol abuse is a key factor in the maintenance of alcohol addiction.”

Treating Alcoholism

Withdrawal symptoms after a long period of alcohol addiction can be overwhelming. It’s difficult enough to change your life and give up an addictive substance, but when that change comes with painful physical withdrawal, few make it alone. The longer you have been drinking, the more important it is that you get medical help and assistance with your alcohol addiction through alcohol rehab. If you would like to treat your addiction in the Santa Monica Mountains in Malibu, California, call The Canyon.
For more information about this study and others, check out the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) website and Medical News Today.

To continue our ongoing discussion on the issues of alcohol abuse and alcoholism — last week we talked about the signs and symptoms of alcohol abuse, the signs and symptoms of alcoholism and the latest addiction to the classifications of alcohol use – so I thought today we’d talk about a detail that we might have missed. Size.

Size Matters Where Alcohol is Concerned

The problem with gauging how much you drink comes with the variance in the amount of alcohol that comes in each drink. A 12-ounce beer has about the same amount of alcohol has a 5-ounce glass of wine or a 1.5 ounce shot of spirits (or a mixed drink made with 1.5 ounces of spirits). But is that beer you ordered at the restaurant really 12 ounces? Is that glass of wine 5 ounces? If you ordered a gin and tonic and it came in a ball glass, then it’s most likely a regularly sized drink. If you got a Long Island Iced Tea, however, you’ve got way more than 1.5 ounces of spirits in your glass.

What Your Liver Can Handle

There are some differing opinions on this, but your most agree that your liver can successfully clear one liquor drink and two glasses of wine or two beers in a day. And no, you can’t ‘save up’ and have 15 drinks over the weekend and cash in on a week’s worth of sobriety. Remember that alcohol is a toxin. Drink too much and your liver can’t process the alcohol, leaving the unprocessed alcohol to damage your liver. But if you think you’re drinking the moderate amount that is safe for your liver but you’re still having problems, check the amount of alcohol that’s in your drinks.

What the Experts Have to Say About Alcohol Content in Drinks

William C. Kerr is a senior scientist with the Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute and first author of a study on alcohol content in drinks served in restaurants. He says:

“There are a number of factors that influence the alcohol content of drinks. These include glass size; percent alcohol by volume (%ABV) of the beer, wine or spirit, for example a 15-percent wine versus an 11-percent wine, or a six-percent beer compared to a 4.2-percent light beer; accidental pour variability; and probably most important, the intentions of management and the bartender.”

Alcohol-content information is not often available in many bars and restaurants, so this study was pretty revealing. Kerr found: “First, the typical wine, beer or mixed spirits drink in bars is larger than a standard drink, often by 50 percent or more. Second, within these beverage types, the alcohol content can vary widely. Third, particular beverage types and drink types vary in average alcohol content and variability.”

The average glass of wine? 43 percent larger than a standard drink. The average draft beer? 22 percent larger than the standard. Drinks mixed with spirits? 42 percent larger than the standard.

What About You?

Do you have a problem with alcohol abuse? Did it start with oversized drinks in the restaurants over dinner with a client? Or too many cocktails over lunch or after work with friends? It doesn’t matter how alcohol abuse begins. What matters is that you stop in time to save your body from irreversible damage. If you have any questions about alcohol abuse and alcoholism, check out the informative articles available at The Canyon.