Addiction Recovery Guide

The Addicts Guide

Do you hate your addiction? Are you ready to kick it for good? Do you have no clue where to start? The Addicts Guide is here to help you kick your addiction for good. While The Addicts Guide was originally written for readers who had difficulty with alcohol, it's information can be applied to many other addictions, especially with drugs.

Millions of people have suffered from addiction in the past one hundred years. Luckily, with the methods included in The Addicts Guide you no longer have to be one of those suffering. There are simple ways that you can stay sober and live a perfectly normal life. However, to begin real sobriety, the type that will last more than a few weeks, you need to be willing to take the next step. Just thinking that you want to quit is not enough, your alcohol addiction needs serious treatment, and it will require serious effort on your part.

Emotions are a huge part of your addiction. Whether your addiction was to a substance that made you feel on top of the world, or at the bottom of the gutter, you can control your emotions with several techniques that are in The Addicts Guide. Experts have helped pour their professional careers into The Addicts Guide in order to assist you with the emotional impact of your addiction.

Physical reactions to addiction are often the hardest part of an addiction to overcome. Not only will you feel like you need the substance you are addicted to, you will feel constant cravings and desire to go back to your addiction for years, if not for the rest of your life. The Addicts Guide lists some great tips on how to suppress cravings and manage your addiction.

Six years of blood, sweat and tears have been poured into The Addicts Guide in order to help you get the information that you need about becoming sober. An addiction recovery plan, which is necessary in order to fully recover from your addiction is also key to The Addicts Guide. Drug addiction recovery is not done in one day, or even one month. You will need to work at your addiction treatment for many years to come. The Addicts Guide will give you hundreds of helpful tips that will make sure you stay on the right path while you are recovering from your addiction.

There is help out there for addicts. Whether you are addicted to alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, or heroin The Addicts Guide is here to help you. Through expert knowledge, and helpful advice you can conquer your addiction. The Addicts Guide also provides plenty of support for you after you have beat your addiction, to prevent you from ever relapsing! Get The Addicts Guide today to save yourself and your loved ones from further pain and suffering from your addiction.

The Sober Sources Network

Drinking Problem?

Article by: Larry McMahon

“Am I an alcoholic ?... or just a social drinker ?” How often have you asked yourself this question ? Alcohol (unlike Nicotine) is not inherently addictive. Indeed, it is true, that for most people, alcohol is a positive “quality of life” element. But sadly...for a minority of drinkers – it becomes a compulsive and life-wrecking addiction.

It seems there are three ways of becoming an alcoholic...

If you're depressed...

The first way is, if you suffer from Depression, and use alcohol as your own self-administered medication. You could say that this is yet another Irish solution to an Irish problem. A significant number of the regular customers of every bar, fall into this category. But Drink, as an anti-depressant, is very deceptive !

Initially Drink seems to help – especially if the depression takes the form of a social phobia. Alcohol helps the depressive to feel more relaxed (and less depressed). And the more he drinks – the more relaxed he feels. But unfortunately the “cure” is worse than the illness. The subsequent hangovers are especially bad – and make the depression even worse…thus driving the individual to drink again, as the only form of relief. And so the vicious cycle continues in an ever downward spiral.

Maybe it's in your Genes...

The second route into alcoholism, is through Genetics. If you happen to inherit a genetic tendency towards alcoholism, it can be a real trap. It does seem to be the case that alcoholism can run in certain families. Full marks to those individuals who spot this in their own families – and decide to take evasive action. If you see how booze can ruin so many lives within your own family tree, it can be a very wise decision to abstain totally.

To read this article in its entirety please visit: www.larrymcmahon.com for more original content like this

Make a Happy Holiday

http://www.cbtrecovery.org/happyholiday.htm

Making a happy holiday season...

The holidays can be a real challenge to our sobriety

· families and social gatherings are harder to avoid

· there are more opportunities for lapsing,

· and alcohol seems to be everywhere.



While sobriety often involves avoiding situations where alcohol is present, that may be much more difficult due to our jobs or family obligations.

But successful sobriety involves planning for urges, and much of the distress can be of our own making. Hence, we can make a happy holiday if we plan for urges and focus our thoughts.
Plan and prepare for urges.

· Having allies as you plan for the holiday parties can make it easier to develop exit strategies for parties.

· BYOB—bring your own special beverages.

· Do some role playing so you are prepared for the drink offers.



But remember that most people don’t really care if you are drinking, so you’re unlikely to have to defend yourself.

Anxiety about not drinking in public seems to be a common reason for lapses! “No, thanks” is really all the answer anyone needs—though dense folks may need to hear it a couple of times.

Our own families can seem to be an obstacle to sobriety, but ‘seem’ is the operative word and our own beliefs and expectations are the real problem.

· Avoid self-fulfilling prophecies: ‘she always gets to me’, ‘he’s going to drive me nuts’.

· Try to be aware of our own absolute and demanding thoughts. Then it’s easier to see how we set ourselves up for distress.



The underlying belief in most cases is a demand we are making that everything be perfect, that there be no disharmony or conflict…in other words, that people not be human, and that they live up to an ideal we’ve constructed for how the holidays ‘should’ go!


Recognize happy moments when they are occurring.

Some people spend so much time planning for happy events that they forget to notice when the happiness is happening! It isn’t that golden moment when you all sit down at the Norman Rockwell table and Grandpa carves the turkey—it’s the laughter an hour before when the kids were ‘helping’ in the kitchen.

As we plan for an idealized holiday, we may be building unrealistic expectations, creating anxiety about imperfections, and magnifying flaws. If we are more rigid in our thinking, we may become more and more brittle as the time passes and all the flaws seem to mount ….

Taking a step back and seeing when people are genuinely enjoying spontaneous moments can make those imperfections seem trivial.
Be realistic about the past.

We use our own subjective and highly imperfect memories of how it ‘used to be’—implying, in this belief, that something has changed. Or the memories of ‘bad’ holidays past may be clouding the happiness of this one.

These anxieties and distresses can be real triggers. How realistic are those memories, good or bad, and why are we allowing them to impinge on this year?

If we spend our time planning for perfection and remembering perfection—is that the measure of happiness during the holiday?

Taking a step back to pick out the moments and images of beauty, with our newly sober and sharper minds, can give us a perspective that we missed when we were drinking.

Taking a moment to recognize the things we appreciate about this season—the beginnings of the longer days, the stark beauty of the winter, the colorful and joyous things that have been assembled by those who have come together—taking those moments can help provide a balance and serenity.

And seeing the humor in the madness and folly of seasonal travel and family gatherings can help us tolerate even the most ill-minded folks!

You can’t change other people. But you can change how you react to them, and create reasonable expectations.

We can plan to avoid lapses. And we can keep to an unshakable belief that there is no aspect of this season that drinking would make better.

Make a happy holiday!

Don S. of the Sober Village

Department Of Health Research Shows Women Are Unaware Of Link Between Alcohol And Breast Cancer Risk

New research from the Department of Health's Know Your Limits campaign reveals that the vast majority of UK women (82%) don't realise alcohol consumption can increase the risk of developing breast cancer.

According to the General Household Survey, around 4 million women drink more than the NHS recommended daily limit of 2-3 units of alcohol, equivalent to one large glass of wine a day (250ml at ABV 12%). [1]

We know that regularly drinking alcohol can slightly increase the risk of developing breast cancer and the risk increases the more you drink. Drinking, on average, one unit of alcohol per day increases a woman's risk of breast cancer by about 6%. This risk increases by a further 6% for each additional unit of alcohol consumed on a daily basis. For example, a woman who drinks two units per day each and every day of her adult life would increase her risk of breast cancer by about 12%. [2]

Unlike many other established breast cancer risk factors, alcohol consumption is something we can change. The important message is for women to be aware of how many units of alcohol they are consuming and to drink in moderation.

Dr Sarah Cant, Policy Manager at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said:

"Drinking moderate or high levels of any type of alcoholic drink has many health consequences, including an increased chance of developing breast cancer.

"Although many factors might affect our risk of getting breast cancer, limiting how much we drink is one thing we can do to try to reduce that risk - it's never too late to change your drinking habits."

Drinking alcohol is one of the few identified risk factors for developing breast cancer. We don't yet know all the causes of the disease but it's thought to be a combination of hormonal, genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors. For most women, the biggest risk factor for developing breast cancer is increasing age.

The earlier breast cancer is detected, the better the chances of successful treatment. It's important for all women to be breast aware and to attend NHS Breast Screening appointments if they are over 50.

More information about breast cancer risk factors can be found here

To find out more about the Know Your Limits campaign visit http://www.units.nhs.uk

[1] The 'around 4 million' figure is based on 21,119,500 women aged 16 and over in England (ONS 2006 population estimates). General Household Survey data shows that in 2006, 20% of English women drank more than 14 units in the week (using the new methodology). Using this, the Know Your Limits campaign estimates that 4,223,900 women aged 16 or over exceeded the 14 units in 2006.

[2] These figures are estimates and reflect the incidence of breast cancer in the UK population and the size of alcoholic units in the UK.

Notes

- For more information about the established, possible and doubtful risk factors for breast cancer, Breakthrough Breast Cancer has published the BMA award-winning booklet, Breast Cancer Risk Factors: The Facts. Copies can be obtained by calling the Breakthrough Information Line on 08080 100 200 or can be downloaded here

- At the moment we don't have enough information or the means to prevent breast cancer. That's why Breakthrough Breast Cancer has launched the Breakthrough Generations Study, in partnership with The Institute of Cancer Research. This is the largest, most comprehensive investigation into the causes of breast cancer in the UK. Involving 100,000 women over the next 40 years, the study aims to provide the most detailed information yet on what causes breast cancer and as a result, give an understanding of how the disease can be prevented in the first place. If you would like more information about the Breakthrough Generations Study, please visit http://www.breakthroughgenerations.org.uk.

Source
Rachel Pilkington
Assistant PR Officer
http://www.breakthroughgenerations.org.uk

Excess Drinking Shrinks the Brain

The more alcohol you drink, the more your brain shrinks, a new study has found.

"The take-home message is that, if you drink a lot, you're going to hurt your brain," said Rajesh Miranda, an associate professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. "This is something we knew, but this is a huge study that quantifies that."

"It's not surprising that alcohol would cause shrinkage of the brain. That kind of thing has been observed in animal models and smaller studies," Miranda added. "The surprising thing is that they 1/8the study authors 3/8 showed that even low levels of drinking are not protective, as people had seen in other cases."

The findings are published in the October issue of the Archives of Neurology.

Brain volume decreases naturally as people age, at a rate of about 1.9 per cent per decade. At the same time, the brain acquires white matter lesions as it gets older. Both of these changes also accompany dementia and cognitive decline, according to background information in the study.

Moderate levels of alcohol consumption have been linked with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, leading researchers to hypothesize that restrained tippling might also slow declines in brain volume. Previous studies have also found that drinking alcohol in moderation is associated with improved cognitive function and a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

For the new study, led by Carol Ann Paul, of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, researchers conducted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and health exams on 1,839 adults (average age 60) participating in the Framingham Offspring Study between 1999 and 2001. None of the participants had evidence of clinical dementia or had suffered a stroke.

The men and women were asked how much alcohol they drank each week, then were classified as abstainers, former drinkers, or low (one to seven drinks per week), moderate (eight to 14 drinks per week) or high consumers of alcohol (more than 14 drinks a week).

Most participants (almost 38 per cent of men and more than 44 per cent of women) fell into the "low-consumption" category. Men were more likely than women to report being moderate or heavy drinkers.

Alcohol had no protective affect on the normal, age-related shrinkage in brain volume, the researchers found.

To the contrary, the more a person drank, the more their brain volume diminished. This relationship was somewhat more pronounced in women, although women tended to be lighter drinkers.

The gender difference could be explained by biological factors, namely that alcohol is absorbed faster in women and they tend to feel the effects of alcohol more than men, the researchers said.

More information

The http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/dementia.html U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on dementia.

SOURCES: Rajesh Miranda, Ph.D., associate professor, neuroscience and experimental therapeutics, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine; October 2008 Archives of Neurology
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Drunkeness

Drunkenness, in its most common usage, is the state of being intoxicated by consumption of ethyl alcohol to a degree that mental and physical facilities are noticeably impaired. Common symptoms may include slurred speech, impaired balance, poor coordination, flushed face, reddened eyes and uncharacteristic behavior..

For more information about the topic Drunkenness, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Blood alcohol content — Blood alcohol content (or blood alcohol concentration), often abbreviated BAC, is the concentration of alcohol in blood, measured, by volume, as a ... > read more

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