Archive for October, 2007
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
Alcoholics are often the last to know they have a problem with alcohol. Their spouse, children, neighbors, friends, boss and co-workers usually recognize that there is a problem long before the alcoholic is ready to admit it to himself. It’s easy to say to yourself, “I just have a couple drinks a day. I can handle it.” The problem is, that “couple of drinks” is generally more like 10 or 12 by the end of the day. It’s time to admit you have an alcohol problem and seek treatment if you do any of the following:
- Hide your drinking by drinking alone or in secret
- Are unable to limit amount of alcohol your drink
- Need a drink when you wake up
- Suffer frequent falls and bruises
- Get ticketed for DUI and/or have frequent auto collisions
- “Black out,” don’t remember conversations or activities
- Stop taking care of your appearance or suffer chronic depression, anxiety, weight loss, insomnia, low self-esteem, irritability or, for men, erectile dysfunction
- Lose interest in activities and hobbies that used to give you pleasure
- Feel a compulsion or need to drink
- Make a ritual of your drinking — such as before, during or after dinner — and become irritated if the ritual is disturbed or questioned
- Become irritable when your usual drinking time nears, particularly if alcohol isn’t available
- Hide alcohol at home, work or in your car
- Gulp your drinks, order doubles or get drunk on purpose
- Only feel “good” or “normal” when you’re intoxicated
- Build up a tolerance to alcohol so that it takes an increasing number of drinks to become intoxicated
- Experience withdrawal symptoms — nausea, sweating, shaking, tremors, seizures, hallucinations or delirium tremens (DTs) — when you don’t drink
- Have legal or financial problems, trouble with relationships including separation and divorce, or problems at work due to alcohol; take sick days to recover from hangovers
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Posted in Alcohol / Alcoholism Recovery | Comments Off
Monday, October 29th, 2007
We all pay for alcohol abuse and addiction. Alcohol is the most abused drug in America. More than 100,000 U.S. deaths each year are caused either directly or indirectly by excessive alcohol consumption. Drunk driving, cirrhosis, falls, accidents, cancer, stroke, heart attack — all caused by alcohol — kill at least one person in our society every hour of every day.
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Posted in Alcohol / Alcoholism Recovery, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, October 27th, 2007
Alcohol is a depressant that works on your central nervous system. In some people, alcohol may produce an initial feeling of stimulation, but the effect is short-lived. As you drink, your body and brain are slowly sedated. Alcohol lowers your inhibitions, affects your thoughts, emotions and judgment. It decreases reaction time and can impair speech and muscle coordination. Alcohol makes some people feel sleepy or dizzy; some, overtly friendly and talkative; some, morose and depressed; others, angry, even violent. Too much alcohol can severely depress vital centers in your brain. Binge drinking can cause coma and death.
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Posted in Drug Info, Alcohol / Alcoholism Recovery | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
In America, alcohol is our drug of choice. For far too many of us, though, the occasional social drink gradually leads down the dark path to abuse and eventually to the addiction we call alcoholism. Nearly 18 million Americans abuse alcohol, according to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. Each year more than 100,000 Americans die from alcohol-related causes. Tragically, alcohol is a factor in almost half of U.S. traffic deaths, Alcohol abuse is one of America’s most serious social, economic and public health problems. It cuts across social, economic, racial, gender and age boundaries. Alcoholism is rampant in every sector of American society.
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Posted in General Addiction, Alcohol / Alcoholism Recovery | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
The teens and young adults who take club drugs are generally unaware of the power and potentially deadly side effects of these drugs. They consider club drugs to be “party drugs,” something that will give them a nice high then wear off, like alcohol, leaving them fairly untouched. It is this lack of perceived risk that makes club drugs so dangerous to teens and young adults. Young people take club drugs often without thought, sometimes unknowingly, and generally with alcohol, which exacerbates the drugs’ effect on the body. Through such casual use, young people unwittingly place themselves in considerable danger of suffering a severe, potentially lethal, drug reaction.
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Posted in General Addiction, Drug Info | No Comments »
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Collectively they’re called “Club Drugs” due to their popularity at dance clubs, raves and trances. The teens and young adults who take them “to enhance the experience” consider them “party drugs,” fun but not dangerous. Club Drugs are, in fact, powerful and dangerous drugs that can have disastrous, even life-threatening, consequences, particularly when mixed with alcohol.
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Posted in General Addiction, Drug Info | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Club Drugs. You hear about them on the nightly news when a local teen dies after taking Ecstasy at a party. They crop up in date rape cases on television crime shows. In an episode of NBC’s The West Wing, they were used to lure the President’s daughter into a kidnapping trap. Club drugs seem exotic and only a little risky, and therein lays their allure and their danger. Because they are relatively easy to get and fairly inexpensive, club drugs are particularly popular with teens and young adults.
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Posted in General Addiction, Drug Info | No Comments »
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Welcome to the Transitions Recovery Program and Drug Rehabilitation Center blog. We are committed to helping people with alcohol and drug addictions recover from the disease of addiction and regain control of their lives. We created this blog to educate the community about drugs and alcohol, to provide a valuable resource and conduit to information, to inform about new and successful treatment programs, to share life-skill techniques and coping behaviors that can help both recovering addicts and their families, to create a dialog with the community and to provide hope.
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Posted in General | 2 Comments »
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