You’re probably asking yourself, “Why would he think I’d care?” Well, you’d better care. Stress of one kind or another is the number-one cause of relapse.
Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious – Well Blog – NYTimes.com
For years, both in popular imagination and in scientific circles, it has been a given that exercise enhances mood. But how exercise, a physiological activity, might directly affect mood and anxiety — psychological states — was unclear. Now, thanks in no small part to improved research techniques and a growing understanding of the biochemistry and the genetics of thought itself, scientists are beginning to tease out how exercise remodels the brain, making it more resistant to stress.
A review of patient happiness data shows that four months of therapy, which might run you $1,300, increases happiness as much as a $40,000 raise.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091120084613.htm
BBC News – Alcohol ‘protects men’s hearts’
UK experts said the findings should be treated with caution because they do not take into account ill-health from a range of other diseases caused by excess drinking.
“Whilst moderate alcohol intake can lower the risk of having a heart attack, coronary heart disease is just one type of heart disease. Cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle, is associated with high alcohol intake and can lead to a poor quality of life and premature death,” said the British Heart Foundation’s senior cardiac nurse, Cathy Ross.
“The heart is just one of many organs in the body. While alcohol could offer limited protection to one organ, abuse of it can damage the heart and other organs such as the liver, pancreas and brain.”
The Stroke Association meanwhile noted that overall, evidence indicated that people who regularly consumed a large amount of alcohol had a three-fold increased risk of stroke.
Just goes to show ya how misleading one group of statistics, taken out of context, can be. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of folks with problems are going to look at this and see a license to kill themselves.
According to [several studies in the US, Canada and Europe], using a cell phone while driving can be just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated, causing drivers to miss traffic signals and react more slowly to driving conditions. Frighteningly, the NHTSA estimates that more than 100 million U.S. drivers use their cell phone while driving and about 8% of drivers on the roadway at any given daylight moment are either conversing or texting on their cell phone.
– From RandomHistory.com
You can cut back on alcohol — latimes.com
“We’re on the cusp of some major advances in how we conceptualize alcoholism,” says Dr. Mark Willenbring, director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The institute is the nation’s leading authority on alcoholism and the major provider of funds for alcohol research. “The focus now is on the large group of people who are not yet dependent. But they are at risk for developing dependence.”
This is an interesting idea, but we need to be clear that it refers to people who have not already crossed the line with regard to alcohol addiction. For those folks, once clean, total abstinence is the only safe course.
Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
Step 11. Sought, through prayer and meditation, to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to (alcoholics, addicts, whatever), and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
These are the “maintenance steps” of the 12-step programs, the steps that we practice every day in order to remain clean and sober. I’m frequently bemused by the number of people in the rooms who claim to “practice these principles in all [their] affairs” but who, when asked, will tell you that they do not meditate: “I don’t have the time; I don’t believe in prayer; I tried it, but it isn’t for me,” and so forth.
What is ambiguous about the 11th Step? Why do so many folks seemingly overlook the concepts of prayer and reflection embedded therein?
Actually, I’ll be the first person to admit that I don’t pray, because God as I understand Him/It, isn’t listening and wouldn’t answer. Nonetheless, I use a vehicle very much like prayer to articulate what’s happening in my life and organize my thoughts before I meditate. Then, when I meditate, sometimes answers pop up, and sometimes they don’t.
My personal theory about this (and about praying for guidance) is that, in a manner similar to therapy or talking to a sponsor, speaking my thoughts as if someone were listening forces me to organize them in my own mind. Then, while I meditate, I believe my subconscious processes the issues and often kicks them back with solutions, either then or later.
But that’s only my theory. If you talk directly to God, and if it works for you, there’s no way I’m going to argue with that, but I know one thing for sure: if we ask God for answers, we have to keep still and listen for them. If we ask for knowledge of His will for us , it’s not going to arrive while we’re reading, or in a podcast, or a sudden comment from smoldering shrubbery. If we aren’t quiet, if we don’t open our mind, we will get no useful input until our next lesson comes along (as in, “OK God, what do you want me to learn this time?). Better to avoid the examples, and go with preventive maintenance.
That’s what the last three steps are, after all. They’re the tuneup — the periodic checks that keep our program humming along reliably. Steps one through nine are for getting us through most of the crap, teaching us how to deal with what’s left, and moving us along into real recovery, but it’s ten, eleven and twelve where we “practice these principles in all our affairs” and continue our recovery and development as adult human beings, one day at a time.
Personal inventory, admitting when we are wrong, improving our contact with our program and ethics (if we’re not into religion), carrying the message, and practicing all the principles in all our affairs: that’s the program in a nutshell. Meditation is an integral, essential part of it.
So maybe we ought not be claiming to work a good program and be making the steps a part of our lives unless we’re willing to go all the way. We may fool others, but remember: in this game, fooling ourselves is frequently fatal.
A maladaptive pattern of substance use, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by three (or more) of the following, occurring at any time in the same 12-month period: …
DSM-IV Criteria for Alcohol Dependence
Thanks to the aggressive (and illegal) marketing efforts of drug companies, American doctors write about 10 million prescriptions a year for unapproved uses of drugs.
Pfizer Broke the Law by Promoting Drugs for Unapproved Uses – Bloomberg.com
Should Pot Be Legal? – CBS News
This is the first installment of a two-part debate CBS News.com is hosting between James P. Gray, a retired Orange County, Calif. judge who nowadays is a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and David Evans, an author and advisor to the Drug Free America Foundation. Part 2 will be published on Tuesday.
None of us — especially alcoholics, addicts and codependents — like to be told what we “should” be doing. We’ve been working on this problem for (hours, days, weeks…decades) and some clown thinks all the answers can be found in three minutes of listening and a few minutes of uninformed advice? Bullshit!
…studies compiled by various government health agencies show that the five most-chronicled “hard” addictions — alcohol, drugs, tobacco, gambling and eating disorders — are what society truly pays for. Those maladies cost taxpayers and businesses $590 billion annually, primarily in lost productivity and government-assisted medical treatment. That’s about 5% of the national debt. And it doesn’t count the sometimes bankrupting amounts of money those people personally spend on drugs, liquor, cigarettes or at the craps tables. Economically, those purchases are treated as pure transfer payments, no different than any other form of shopping….
Now, if those issues cost that much, why do you suppose the government puts up with it? How much do your figure the politicians are raking in from the people who sell this stuff, one way or another?
The 5 most expensive addictions – MSN Money
Boosting Medical Students’ Training in Drug Abuse – Health Blog – WSJ
Today, the National Institute on Drug Abuse jumped into the fray, announcing new teaching tools designed to help doctors-in-training — medical students and residents — learn about assessing and treating patients with abuse problems, including tobacco, prescription drugs and illicit substances.
How about alcohol, the most-abused drug of all by a wide margin?
Sex addiction rehab – like that of ESPN’s Steve Phillips – can provide help for serial cheaters
A beautiful family, financial security, an enviable career – in other words, the seemingly perfect life. Yet for high-profile men like actor David Duchovny and fired ESPN analyst Steve Phillips, an addiction to sex ended in a highly publicized stint in rehab. Their addiction is no different from other forms of addiction, experts say, wrecking relationships, destroying families and causing losses, pain and heartbreak.
Oh, it’s not an addiction? What’s more mood-altering?
I’m just finishing Undrunk – A Skeptic’s Guide to AA, by A. J. Adams (Hazelden, 2009). Undrunk may be the most lucid explanation of what AA is (and is not), how it functions and “how it works” that I’ve ever read, including all of the AA-Approved literature. It is at once a primer for the reader who just isn’t quite sure, an explanation for newcomers, and a great narrative of a personal journey, written with eloquence and wit. Along with being funny (at least to those of us who have been there), it’s almost never boring.
Still, as impressed as I am by the book’s content, style and presentation, I have to worry about the writer just a little. Why? Because when he wrote the book, published this year, he was just one year sober.
I know a little bit about writing, and about the research, proofreading, editing, re-writing and so forth that’s involved in birthing a book of any kind. I know that producing a good book — and this is a good book — can pretty much consume a person. I also know, from personal and painful experience, how analyzing AA and becoming a self-made guru can mess with a person’s own development in early recovery. I’m not accusing A. J. of this; I’m just sayin’.
These three things: research, analysis and immersion, create a two-edged sword. On one hand, you have the potential of creating a know-it-all attitude that can seriously hamper your ability to listen, learn, and apply the collective wisdom of the fellowship to your own life. On the other, by immersing in the pool of experience and tradition that is the essence of a 12-step group, there is the potential for deeper understanding and application to self, if approached with a major dose of good ol’ humility.
I like the book. I really, really like it. But I hope things work out better for the writer than they did in this scribe’s early recovery. I’m sure that much of Undrunk’s appeal is due to the enthusiasm of the newcomer who did such a fine job of writing it.
I just hope he’ll be OK.
The whole question:
I drink 6-8 units* every night, but if I start feeling even slightly fuzzy I stop drinking. Last time I got drunk was 3 and half years ago, so am I alcoholic?
Most people would feel a buzz after less alcohol than that, so you have already developed a tolerance to the drug – one of the first signs of a developing addiction.
What happens if you don’t drink for a week? If you can’t do that comfortably, there’s some kind of problem, call it what you will. In any case, your level of drinking is sufficient to adversely affect your health – digestion, liver and cardiovascular systems among other things - over the long term.
*A “unit” of alcohol is a standard measure used in many countries to quantify alcohol intake. It is usually re-expressed as a measure of beer, wine, or spirits for convenience. One standard drink always contains the same amount of alcohol regardless of container size or type of alcoholic beverage. The standard drink varies significantly from country to country, from 7.62 ml (6 g) of alcohol in Austria to as high as 25 ml (19.75 g) in Japan. In the United States, it is equal to 17.7 ml (14 grams) of pure alcohol.
