Архив рубрики 'Alcohol and Smoking'
Why I Drank
18.11.2007
- I drank to be witty - and I became a boor.
- I drank to relax - and I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.
- I drank to feel good - and I suffered through sickening hangovers.
- I drank to be happy - and it made me depressed.
- I drank to be a good dancer - and it made me a stranger.
- I drank to be a good conversationalist - and I couldn’t pronounce the words.
- I drank to be sociable - and I became angry and resentful.
- I drank to help my appetite - and cheated my body of nutrition by not eating right.
- I drank to be a good lover - and I couldn’t perform.
- I drank to show I was a man - and became a slobbering, bawling baby.
- I drank to be popular - and lost my friends.
- I drank to enjoy life - and contemplated suicide.
- I drank for camaraderie - and drove everyone away from me.
- I drank to escape - and built a prison for myself.
- I drank to find peace - and I found hell. — Anonymous
Alcoholism at Home
18.11.2007
What to do when someone in your family has a drinking problem
Problem drinking doesn’t just affect society, it also affects people at a more personal level - at home - and can create serious emotional problems for all family members.
Maybe you’re reading this because there’s an alcohol problem in your family. If so, you’ve taken the first step in helping yourself.
Let’s look briefly at what can happen in a family when one member of the family has a drinking problem.
- Usually, the alcohol problem is creating a lot of stress in the home.
- Maybe the person with the alcohol problem isn’t doing their share of taking care of children or paying bills.
- Maybe they’ve lost income because of drinking.
- Maybe they’ve gotten in some legal trouble because of their drinking or,
- when drunk, they’ve embarrassed you.
Any or all of these things can be happening.
Your family is coping with this stress as best it can.
Each family member will cope in their own way.
- One member of the family might become a peacemaker, always trying to resolve conflicts between other family members.
- Another person might try to cover up for the problem drinker by phoning in sick for them at work and lying about the problem to employers and friends.
- Perhaps a son or daughter is getting into trouble or even over-achieving, giving the family something else to focus on.
- Some people in the family might just withdraw into their own world.
All of these roles are just ways to cope with a really stressful situation. But, in the long run, they’re not really helpful because they avoid the real problem and, in some cases, allow the problem to continue.
Everyone in your family, including you, may be having a lot of feelings -
- shame,
- embarrassment,
- anger,
- sadness,
- hopelessness, and
- guilt.
These feelings are normal. But in families where alcohol is a problem, these feelings are often not talked about. In fact, family members might go out of their way not to show these feelings.
There are three unspoken rules* in these kinds of homes:
- Don’t talk - families learn not to talk at all about what’s really going on or to call the problem something else, e.g., calling a hangover the flu, calling a drinking binge stress release.
- Don’t trust - children and other family members learn to be always on guard for the next crisis or “scene.” Promises are broken and responsibilities abandoned, e.g., meals aren’t made for children, bills aren’t paid, promises to stop drinking are not kept. Family members, especially children, learn to “look out for themselves” and don’t trust that anyone will “be there” for them.
- Don’t feel - in order to survive what’s going on, family members often “turn off” their feelings. Sometimes, people in the family don’t believe their feelings are real and are afraid they will be made fun of if they share their feelings. Often, they don’t trust that anyone will listen or care about how they feel.
Living by these three rules is harmful to everyone, especially children.
People in your family probably spend a lot of energy focusing on the person with the drinking problem.
The family constantly adjusts its behaviour to try and control the behaviour of the problem drinker. So, people in the family learn to ignore their own needs in favour of someone else’s.
For example,
- you stopped seeing your friends because you don’t want them to know that your husband or wife, son or daughter has a drinking problem.
- Maybe you’ve stopped saying anything about the drinking because you’re afraid of making the problem worse.
- Maybe you’ve taken a second job to make up for the money lost because of drinking.
All of these things do nothing to help you; they only make it easier for the problem drinker to drink.
I know all of this - what can I do?
If there’s an alcohol problem in your family, some of what you’ve read here might sound familiar. But you want to know what to do. It’s very important that you’re asking this question. Your decision to ask questions and read this brochure - to get help - means that you want to start doing things differently. And that’s the only way to begin recovery - for you and your family.
Here are some things you might want to consider:
Get information
Reading this is one way to get information about an alcohol problem in the family.
Other sources of information include videos, books and other websites.
You might want to visit your local alcohol and drug office for information and resources.
Talking to other people who are in or have been in your situation can also help a lot. There are 12-Step support groups like Al-Anon, Al-Anon, Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA), and Codependents Anonymous (CODA) which welcome anyone who has a spouse or parent with an alcohol problem.
As well, group and one-to-one counselling is available from many counselling agencies.
Remember, you can get help even if the person with the drinking problem isn’t getting any help for themselves.
Find someone to talk to about what’s going on in your family
Too often silence is the main thing that maintains the status quo. Talk honestly about what’s going on with a friend, another family member, someone in your spiritual or religious community, a counsellor, or a support group.
An objective person can really help you get perspective on your situation and talk out some plans.
Having someone to talk to is particularly important for children. Even if one parent has a serious problem with alcohol, the other parent or another significant adult, like a teacher, aunt, or uncle, can really counterbalance the negative effects the problem drinker may be having on them.
Stop doing the “dance”
Many people talk about being locked into unhealthy situations with others as being in a “dance” with them.
Stop the dance by taking care of yourself and your needs. Often even changing one behaviour can stop this “dance” and begin recovery.
For instance;
- If you’ve stopped socializing with friends because of the problem drinker, re-establish those friendships.
- If you’ve covered up or made excuses for the problem drinker to friends, family, and employers, stop doing it.
- Take responsibility for yourself.
You can get help doing this from your doctor, clergy, a therapist, addictions counsellor, and/or a support group. Don’t accept the blame for what’s going on in your family, but do accept the responsibility of changing what you can.
Set your bottom line
Ask yourself: “What am I willing to live with?” Set your bottom line and stick with it.
Don’t make threats you’re not going to follow through on. For instance, if you tell the problem drinker that you’re going to leave if they drink again - you’d better be prepared to do just that.
Only you can say what you’re willing to live with. The choices you make to take care of yourself will certainly help you, but they may also help the rest of your family, including the person with the alcohol problem.
If the family member with the alcohol problem does choose to seek help or treatment, it’s important not to expect miracles.
Just because the drinking has stopped, doesn’t mean that the problems in your family are suddenly fixed.
Generally, recovery - for everyone in the family - is a long, rocky road with places you might get stuck for awhile.
Relapse is an understandable part of recovery and it’s very important not to be discouraged by it.
You’ve taken a step towards recovery, you’ve made a choice to try and live a different way.
If you have healthcare training this manual may help.
ADHD and Alcoholism
18.11.2007ADHD risk for Alcoholism
A pair of new studies adds weight to the theory that children who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are at higher risk of problem drinking during adolescence and alcoholism later in life.
“Children with ADHD are believed to be at risk for alcoholism because of their impulsivity and distractibility, as well as other problems that often accompany ADHD such as school failure and behavior problems,” said Brooke Molina of the University of Pittsburgh, corresponding author for both studies.
In one study, researchers found that 15- to 17-years olds with childhood ADHD reported being drunk an average of 14 times during the previous year, compared to 1.8 times for adolescents without ADHD. Fourteen percent of the ADHD group was classified as alcohol abusers or alcohol dependent, but none of the youths in the non-ADHD group were.
“It appears that one of the reasons for the past inconsistencies in research is that the ADHD-alcohol relationship does not become solid until at least mid-adolescence,” said Stephen Hinshaw, professor and chair of the department of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. “Later on, it may be that only a subset of kids with ADHD — namely, those with more aggressive or antisocial behavior patterns — are at risk by young adulthood.”
Researchers added that parental alcoholism and family stress add to the alcoholism risk for children with ADHD. “One of the reasons that children with ADHD might be at risk for alcohol problems is that alcoholism and ADHD tend to run together in families,” said Molina. “We found that parental alcoholism predicted heavy problem drinking among the teenagers, that the association was partly explained by higher rates of stress in these families, and these connections were stronger when the adolescent had ADHD in childhood. So, the bottom line is that when the child has ADHD and the parent has suffered from alcoholism, either currently or in the past, the child will have an increased risk for alcohol problems himself or herself.”
The studies were published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
References: Marshal, M.P. Molina, B.S.G., Pelham, W.E., Cheong, J. (2007) Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Moderates the Life Stress Pathway to Alcohol Problems in Children of Alcoholics. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 31(4): 564-574;
Molina, B.S.G., et al. (2007) Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Risk for Heavy Drinking and Alcohol Use Disorder Is Age Specific. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 31(4): 643-654;
Rivastigmine in Wernicke-Korsakoff’s syndrome: five patients with rivastigmine showed no more improvement than five patients without rivastigmine
18.11.2007
Aims: To evaluate whether rivastigmine, an achetylcholinesteraseinhibitor (AChEl), may be effective in restoring memory in Wernicke-Korsakoff’ssyndrome (WKS). Methods: Five patients treated with rivastigminefor a period of 6 months were compared with five matched controlpatients, who received 6 months’ conventional treatment, butwithout rivastigmine. Memory tests were administered at baselineand after 6 months. Results: Slight improvements were observedin both rivastigmine and control patients, but no significantdifferences in improvements were found between the study groups.Conclusion: Treatment with rivastigmine may not be effectivein restoring memory in WKS patients.
Ethyl glucuronide concentration in hair is not influenced by pigmentation
17.08.2007
This work shows that the concentration of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in hair, a marker for the evaluation of the alcohol consumption, is not influenced by the presence or absence of melanin. The results confirm that, unlike many other substances, the EtG determination in hair has not to take into account the hair colour for the correct interpretation of hair testing results.
Are drinkers implicitly positive about drinking alcohol? Personalizing the alcohol-IAT to reduce negative extrapersonal contamination
17.08.2007
Aims: The advent of indirect measures, such as the Implicit Association test (IAT), has stimulated interest in implicit cognitions that may automatically steer addictive behaviours such as alcohol abuse. Counter-intuitively, recent IAT research has demonstrated that alcohol is implicitly associated with negative valence, regardless of the level of alcohol consumption. However, because the IAT is susceptible to extrapersonal contamination, this study examined whether previous findings reflect contamination of IAT effects by negative extrapersonal knowledge rather than personal associations with alcohol. Methods: Implicit alcohol associations were measured with a personalized alcohol-IAT, designed to reduce extrapersonal contamination. Whether alcohol associations measured with the personalized IAT would predict drinking behaviour above the variance explained by self-reported alcohol-related expectancies and attitude was examined. Results: In contrast to previous findings with the IAT, the personalized IAT yielded positive associations. Moreover, positive alcohol associations predicted drinking behaviour above self-reported alcohol expectancies and attitudes, demonstrating the incremental validity of the personalized IAT. Conclusions: The present findings support the hypothesis that previous findings with the alcohol-IAT at least partly reflect negative extrapersonal alcohol-related knowledge, and that implicit alcohol associations are positive rather than negative.
Detection and management of alcohol use disorders in German primary care influenced by non-clinical factors
17.08.2007
Aims: The primary objective was to assess the proportion of detected and correctly referred patients in German primary care. The secondary objective was to identify patient and practitioner characteristics that predict detection and correct referral. \AbsHI{Methods} In this clustered cross-sectional survey in German primary care, 3003 patients were consecutively invited to participate, and were asked to fill in a standardized health questionnaire. They were then screened for problematic alcohol consumption using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. The physicians recorded their assessment of the presence of any alcohol use disorder and documented the treatment course of all identified patients for 3 months. Results Correctly identified problem drinkers were 38.6% in a per-protocol analysis and 33.6% using a worst-case scenario. Referral behaviour of physicians was in conformity with current practice guidelines in 64.6% of the documented cases and 27.0% in a worst-case scenario. Several patient (e.g. sex, age) and practitioner characteristics (e.g. age), which influence the diagnosis and referral of patients, could be identified. Conclusions There is a clear need to increase the special diagnostic and therapeutic skills of general practitioners so that they may be able to indicate and perform secondary prevention. Further research should focus on the likely effects of the implementation of these diagnostic and management tools.
Trends in alcohol consumption in Singapore 1992-2004
17.08.2007
Aims: To present trends in alcohol consumption between 1992 and 2004 in Singapore. Methods: Alcohol consumption data were derived from national health surveys conducted in 1992, 1998 and 2004. Age-adjusted prevalence of frequent (drinking 1–4 days a week), regular (drinking more than 4 days a week) and binge (having five or more drinks during a drinking session at least once in the month) drinking by gender and age group for the three surveys were compared. Multivariate analyses for binge drinking in 2004 were performed using logistic regression models. Results: Prevalence of frequent, regular and binge drinking increased between 1992 and 2004. Prevalence increase in binge drinking was highest (from 5.1 to 10.0%), followed by frequent drinking (from 4.5 to 7.5%) and regular drinking (from 2.9 to 3.1%). Uptake in binge drinking increased in both genders and across all age groups but was most evident among adults aged 18–29. Frequent drinking increase was observed for both genders but was most pronounced among women aged 18–29. The level of regular drinking declined in men but increased in women, especially those aged 18–29 and 30–49. Being younger, male, separated, divorced or widowed, a current smoker, or having a monthly household income of S$6000 and above were attributes positively associated with binge drinking. Conclusions: Alcohol consumption, especially binge drinking, has increased among Singaporeans between 1992 and 2004. There is gender convergence in alcohol consumption.