Alcoholism
 
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Question: How long does it take for an alcoholic to end the problem with alcohol? Answer: Five seconds.
The details about ending alcohol abuse may be found at Rational Recovery.
In particular, go to The Crash Course on AVRT at Rational Recovery.
The solution is available now.
There is no excuse.
There is no need to fear the future.
End alcohol abuse now. Health Considerations in terminating alcohol abruptly
Normal people metabolize alcohol in the liver through the Microsomal Ethanol Oxidizing System (MEOS) to break down the alcohol to acetate. The enzymes in the liver first break down the alcohol into acetaldehyde and then break down the acetaldehyde into the acetate:
It takes the liver in alcoholics twice as long to process the acetaldehyde to acetate as it does for the normally functioning liver.
This has important ramifications: Acetaldehyde is a dangerous substance to have around in the body in any quantity.
Acetaldehyde:
Acetaldehyde damages the cells in the liver making it progressively more difficult to metabolize the substance in the body of an alcoholic with an ever spiraling degenerative affect.
Acetaldehyde competes with other chemical substances known as brain amines (or neurotransmitters) for the attention of certain enzymes. Acetaldehyde wins this competition and, as a result, blocks the enzymes from accomplishing their primary duty of inhibiting the amine's activity and produces isoquinolines which act on opiate receptors in the brain, contributing to alcohol addiction.
There is an objective test which can be administered to determine if a person is an alcoholic. This test has been available in the past at the Lakeside - Milam Recovery centers.
For the alcoholic, every drink of alcohol is toxic and does damage to the body.
Abstinence is the only true treatment for the disease. ProgressionAlcoholism progresses in three stages:
First stage:
Second stage:
Third stage [some symptoms may occur in late second stage]:
Hypoglycemia causes instant precipitous drops in blood sugar as the pancreas dumps insulin into the body. Overstimulation leads to terrible migraine headaches. Hypoglycemia is the result of third stage alcoholism and alcohol seems to account for over 80% of the cases of hypoglycemia.
Death follows the third stage of alcoholism. Nutrition
An alcoholic in late stages of alcoholism may need to be under a physician's care.
The first of these is Brewer's Yeast -- particularly Brewer's Yeast grown on sugar beets by Lewis Laboratories. Brewer's yeast is rich in B vitamins which will help mitigate the impact to the nervous system. It is also rich in organic chromium which assists the pancreas to stabilize production of insulin and other hormones in the body. Brewer's yeast is also very high in RNA [ribonucleic acid] and DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid] to give the body cells more energy with the ATP cycle and assist with the rebuilding of cellular materials.
Recovering Alcoholics should also consider the Chromium-Glucose Tolerance Factor (GTF) which is essential for burning blood sugar. An alcoholic can reduce cravings for alcohol significantly by using it. The source is also from brewer's yeast, particularly brewer's yeast grown from sugar beets.
The effect of exercise should not be discounted. In Shadow Syndromes, the authors show the profound ability of the body to restore functions to heal itself, particularly when the positive tipping point has been reached.
Fluid levels and proper nutrition cannot be ignored and a balanced diet with sufficient water must be balanced to maintain the body to full effect. Mothers
Dr. John J. Ratey in his book, A User's Guide to the Brain, said this:
Drinking mothers damage their children during pregnancy. Alcohol kills brain cells by the millions at a critical time. GroupsPeople tend to believe that support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous will enable them to overcome their problems with alcohol, but support groups of this nature are deleterious to health and act against an alcoholic taking personal responsibility for ceasing drinking. Here is what thoroughly documented The Orange Papers say:
It should be noted in the research at the Orange Papers website on The Effectiveness of the Twelve Step Program that not only is Alcoholics Anonymous a total failure to stop alcoholics from drinking, it has a side detriment of killing off its attendees at a rate of 3% per year above the averages. Generally speaking, 50% of all alcoholics spontaneously decide to forgo alcohol eventually, while those who attend AA have a failure rate of 88% or higher.
There are those who point out that even for those who eventually use Rational Recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous without realizing it, they have traded one addiction for another. Support groups don't work and Harvard Studies say so.
Support groups are designed to have people depend upon others for their success. It can be used as a method for ready made failure by putting responsibility for one's own life in the hands of another rather than taking ownership for one's own destiny. Sponsors of support group want dependence upon them and the group so they can tacitly control other people's lives. In doing so, they weaken the character and moral fiber of those they manipulate.
Personal responsibility internally motivated leads to success. ChristiansAtheist alcoholics have stopped drinking alcohol on their own. Christians have no excuse.
An online chat room of fundamental Christians were shocked during a discussion of Alcoholism to have a participant tell them that Alcoholism was a genetic disease of the liver. Their reaction was "That's just giving an alcoholic another excuse!". They did not want to be swayed in their prejudice.
What they did not realize was that by definition, Scripture
convicts the alcoholic for every drink of alcohol he or she takes: Alcohol
destroys the Temple of the Holy Spirit1 Corinthians 3:17
Scriptures are very clear that
Proscriptions against the unrighteous even go so far to declare that
For a Christian who drinks and does not know he or she is an alcoholic, there is damage even so for each drink, but for someone who knowingly and purposefully knows and even tells others that he or she is an alcoholic while holding a plastic cup of wine in their hands at a religious festival is playing games.
An irony exists: Though many churches prohibit drinking alcohol entirely, others allow it and some few even promote aggressively drinking alcohol by quoting Scripture in the Old Testament about
This, unfortunately, promotes the idea that the cup should overflow and oft temperance is abandoned, not just by members but by segments of the ministry and even the leadership. Thus it is that an alcoholic who abstained all his life is thrust suddenly into dysfunction innocently. The religion inadvertently creates a problem for the alcoholic and then abandons them as "sinners" when the church itself created the problem.
All alcoholic Christians must stop drinking alcohol: It is a moral imperative; it is sin and it will result in a loss of salvation if the person does not repent.
Repentance is the instant immediate permanent
abstinence of all alcohol forever.
Accountability and competence are intertwined: Each person must take ownership
and responsibility for we must work out our own salvation....
If you say you can do
without it, prove it: take the challenge and do without it.
Adolescents go through a tumultuous time of change
during the years between approximately 13 and 21 years of age. This is a time
critical to the preparation of adulthood. It is a time to explore, grow and make
mistakes in a safe environment to develop good judgment and hone interpersonal
skills for the future.
Adolescence is a transition time when the body is undergoing many significant
changes, such as hormonal alterations and brain development. It is also a time
when young people start to associate more with friends and associates beyond
their childhood contacts. They feel an increased pressure to ‘fit in’ or ‘go
along with the crowd’ in order to be accepted socially. These new circumstances
can be confusing and difficult for the youth to understand and deal with. Often
their ability to make correct or safe decisions is also at a stage of
immaturity. Exposing the brain to alcohol during this period may interrupt key
processes of brain development, possibly leading to mild cognitive impairment as
well as to a further escalation of drinking.
Alcohol is absorbed very rapidly into the blood stream from the stomach lining,
in as short a time as 5 to 10 minutes and it’s effects last for several hours
depending on the amount ingested and how quickly it was consumed. Females
absorb alcohol faster than males because their bodies contain less water. The
water dilutes the alcohol and so the same amount of alcohol will produce a
higher concentration in the blood. After consuming only two to three normal
strength beers, or four or five standard glasses of wine, most people will feel
less inhibited and more relaxed. Anything consumed after this amount most
people slur their speech and become less coordinated and clumsy. Some people
have increased emotional reactions. More alcohol could result in staggering,
double vision, and loss of balance, nausea, vomiting and an impression of the
room spinning.
This is not to mention that from the neurological point of view, the absorption
of alcohol will lead the death of millions of brain cells.
According to information issued from the U. S. government, teen alcohol abuse showed: “Subtle alcohol-induced adolescent learning impairments could affect
academic and occupational achievement. In one study... short-term memory
skills were evaluated in alcohol-dependent and nondependent adolescents ages
15 and 16. The alcohol-dependent youth had greater difficulty
remembering words and simple geometric designs after a 10-minute interval.
In this and similar studies memory problems were most common among adolescents
in treatment who had experienced alcohol withdrawal symptoms."
Aside from the fact that underage drinking is illegal, it poses a
high risk to both the individual and society.
Teen drinkers are more likely to get fat or have health problems, too. One study
by the University of Washington found that people who regularly had five or more
drinks in a row starting at age 13 were much more likely to be overweight or
have high blood pressure by age 24 than their nondrinking peers. People who
continue drinking heavily well into adulthood risk damaging their organs, such
as the liver, heart, and brain.
The teen years are central to the formation of the will to set the purpose of
the adolescent through life through the development of the prefrontal lobes.
Teen girls develop more quickly than their male counterparts. The development of
the prefrontal lobes in teen males starts between the age of 17 to 19 and
continue to the age of 25. Up until full development, the adolescent is pliable
in perspectives and will -- and this becomes part of the psychology of the teen
to believe that he "can do anything". Experiences during this time become
developmental fundamental building blocks for personality for a lifetime. The
military prefers those 19 to 25 because it is a time to set the will and
purpose, the confidence for adulthood. The military does not actually care about
setting the confidence for adulthood, they care because of the pliability of
the candidate and because the Teen feels that they can achieve anything, they
lack the rational process to fear death. The military can use this vulnerability
to get the adolescent to follow certain orders which might be the case after the
person is "seasoned".
During this critical time, alcohol can have a devastating effect, distorting the
perceptions of the adolescent and doing critical damage that will become the
baggage until the end of life.
Both parents and teens should take great care to insure that there is the best
environment possible for adolescents to set forth on the right path. Alcoholism
needs to be nipped in the bud to save the vulnerable teen from deep loss for a
lifetime.
Alcoholics in positions of power can easily hurt
and victimize people and they often do. A spouse, a manager, a minister, a
political leader, can all create havoc in the lives of others with their
dysfunction. The damage that an alcoholic does to himself or herself may often
be but a small part of the suffering in the broader scope of the community.
Practicing alcoholics kill people: Drinking and
driving are devastating in terms of outright deaths, but even more to the
permanent disabilities inflicted on people which last a lifetime. Massive
disfigurement, paraplegics, quadriplegics, people with internal organs
disrupted, brain damage and comas are all a part of the horrifying scenario.
Drinking and driving is costly.
In the year
2000, alcohol related crashes cost Americans an estimated $114 billion,
including $51 billion in monetary costs and an estimated $63.2 billion in
quality of life losses. Additional information concerning the prevalence and
types of problems may be found at the
National Institute of Alcohol and Drug Abuse: Health care expenses,
premature death, impaired productivity, motor vehicle crashes, crime, social
welfare.
Perhaps it is deemed to be lesser in impact for an
abusive spouse or significant other to persecute those close to them, but the
damage is also far reaching, particularly when children are involved. Normally
kind and agreeable people become monsters under the influence of alcohol and all
of us pay dearly.
The practicing alcoholic seldom knows or
understands the impact of what he has done. Deep in denial and with no ability
to discern the social incompetence, the alcoholic is not only dysfunctional but
makes it difficult or impossible for others to function.
It is impossible to be competent in a dysfunctional
environment.
The alcoholic in denial simply is generally
incapable of measuring the negative impact of his behavior -- or more accurately
does not care. It may well be that
the alcoholic generates lots of "friends" in the form of "drinking buddies", but
in reality simply generates more pain and suffering to extend it to even more
people in the sphere of influence. The "drinking buddies" aren't real "friends"
at all, but collaborators in destructive behavior whose association is a matter
of convenience who don't really matter. Generally, the alcoholic cares for no
one but himself.
Those in positions of power are particularly
pernicious because they can enforce their behaviors upon others who may have few
options under the dominion of a person irrational and unreasonable under the
influence of alcohol.
Alcoholics often become particularly abusive when
those who are concerned about their welfare attempt to bring the problem to
light for the benefit of the alcoholic. Usually, this is perceived as unwelcome
interference in the life of someone who really does need the help. In the
denial, the rejection of unsolicited assistance may end very badly for the
concerned person. A belligerent alcoholic can do a lot of damage. In such cases, only superior force will have results, whether
it be the employer with a credible threat of dismissing the alcoholic, the
spouse seeking a divorce or law enforcement. Even in the face of overwhelming
power, the alcoholic will generally remain quite defiant and uncooperative. For
those caught in the influence of an alcoholic, only termination of the
relationship is viable in the long term, unless or until the alcoholic abandons
alcohol in total abstinence.
At the very best, an alcoholic who continues to
consume alcohol will have severely distorted perceptions, effecting extremely
poor judgment to set completely inappropriate priorities in what is most
important in life.
For the sake of the community and the world at
large: If you say you can do
without it, prove it: take the challenge and do without it.
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Be certain
to read
Follow
up with
hampers cellular activities
Alcohol
does not relax the alcoholic as it does in normal people
Alcohol
gives the alcoholic energy and improves performance
Tolerance builds quickly and alcoholics can drink much more than normal people
Over time,
the alcoholic needs alcohol to function because the alcohol fuels the
alcoholic
Convulsions
Hallucinations
Cancer
Pancreatitis
Hypoglycemia
Those
who work with babies who have alcohol fetal syndrome know how damaging it is for
a mother to drink during pregnancy.
