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Causes Of Alcohol Dependency

joe — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:27:38 +0000

Some people may confuse drinking heavily with alcoholism. While the former is an unhealthy but ultimately controlled habit, an alcoholic has no control over his need to drink and his body becomes so dependent on it that withdrawal may result in nausea, sweats and other physical symptoms. An alcoholic will also find that day-to-day activities become impossible – relationships and work commitments are all secondary to alcohol. While recognising the symptoms of alcohol is easy enough, pinpointing its causes are not.

It is unlikely there is just one thing that suddenly makes someone an alcoholic, but rather a range of influences that can make a usually responsible drinker descend into alcoholism. Low self-esteem, depression and stress are all though to be possible entry points into drinking problems.

A sudden emotional shock may lead to heavy drinking in the short term to cope with the issue, but there is the risk that a great dependency on alcohol may develop. Finding other coping strategies, possibly with the help of a therapist or other healthcare professional, is a good way to address any problems before more substantial help is needed.

A hereditary link offers a possible explanation for what causes alcoholism as 3 in 10 men with an alcoholic parent become alcoholics themselves (there is a weaker link in women). It has been suggested that learned behaviour or a troubled childhood rather than genetics may be responsible for this link, but studies on twins separated at birth do support the idea that genetics are at least partly responsible. The genetic similarity may have something to do with many alcoholics being unable to process sugars effectively (insulin resistance syndrome).

This of course does not guarantee that if a family member was an alcoholic you will be too, it just means that you should be aware that statistically you are at a higher risk. Just as people who are aware they are at a high risk of developing other medical conditions may modify their lifestyle slightly, it is advisable that speaking to a GP about any concerns will give you the assurance that help is available should you need it. Equally, alcoholism has the potential to affect anybody, even those who don’t appear to fall into any of the risk categories – advice services are always there for anybody who is concerned.

Advice For Children Of Addicts

joe — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:34:05 +0000

As a child of an addict, you have several issues with which you will likely need to contend. Addiction has a tendency to run in families, leaving you with an increased susceptibility to addictive behaviors yourself. You will invariably have relationship issues with which you need to be concerned as well.

The strain that addiction puts on the parent/child relationship is only one layer of the resounding relational issues that arise as a result of addiction in a family. You will likely have trouble with other relationships in your life. You may have problems bonding with friends or other relatives. You will likely have trouble with other close personal relationships including romantic involvements. You may even have problems in your relationship with your own spouse and children as a result of your difficulties with your addicted parent.

With all of these problems that can creep into your life as a result of a parent’s addiction to drugs or alcohol, it can be very difficult for you to believe that maintaining the relationship with your addicted parent is worth it. You may be tempted to break your ties with your mother or father entirely, and simply try to repair your own emotional and psychological damages. While this thought process is understandable, it is not the healthiest or most practical approach to take.

The truth is that even if you break your ties with your addicted parent, your feelings for them will remain. The bond between parent and child is strong and one that withstands many trials. This bond will be present even in the most dysfunctional relationships and your failure to work on the relationship will only result in more difficulties for you in the long run.

You love your parents and want to see them healthy. You long for the day when they will be able to live without alcohol or drugs. You wish for them to find joy in life and peace in their spirit. Alcohol and drug addiction destroy inner peace and take all the joy from normal daily pursuits. The addiction is not the person, and your parent is a human being with faults and troubles that must be overcome.

Supporting your loved one through the recovery process is important for their success and also for your health and well-being. Being there for them during their most difficult days gives the addict the necessary support system and provides you with the ability to heal with them. Their addiction has had a significant impact on your life as well as their own. Participating in therapy programs with your loved one gives you insight into their addiction. It allows you to know how difficult their struggle truly is, and also lets you learn to forgive them for their shortcomings.

Part of the addict’s recovery process is learning to take responsibility for their own actions and the impact that those actions have on others around them. You must be willing to be honest and open about the difficulties that your parent’s addiction has created in your life. Sharing your feelings and honestly letting your mother or father know how their addiction has influenced you are essential parts of the healing process for you and for them.

You may participate in family counseling sessions with your loved one. During these sessions, you will also learn about yourself and the negative ways in which your own behaviors make your life more difficult. While the addiction may be at the root of most of your family’s problems, your own manner of dealing with conflict or stress may also be contributing to your personal problems and to the problems of your family unit. Healing your wounds alongside your family will help bring you all closer together and make you all better prepared to face life after addiction.

Addiction of one person in the family affects all members of the family in unique ways. Your healing is just as important as your loved one overcoming their physical and psychological addiction to drugs or alcohol. Failing to address all the negative dynamics in the family can result in relapse of the addict and also cause ongoing emotional or psychological issues for other family members.

The bond you have with your mother or father is strong and one you should fight to maintain. Don’t let that relationship slip away or become buried in years of pent-up emotions or bitterness. Learn to love yourself and your parent in a new and healthier way. Become part of the healing process for your family and participate in the recovery program with your parent. You will be glad you did, not just for the sake of your addicted parent but for your own sake as well.

Alcoholism; 7 Signs That you Need Alcohol Rehab

joe — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:59:13 +0000

People often wonder at the level of their substance use or abuse, and although those people that do wonder have some cause for concern (as people with no problems with use don’t think about it) there is a substantial difference between substance abuse and alcoholism; and while abuse may be effectively treated on an outpatient basis, or through a determined and personal effort at change, alcoholism often requires the greater intensity of residential alcohol rehab.

If you see yourself in three or more of the following, you are likely addicted and should consider getting professional treatment.

Are you an alcoholic?

1) You used to get drunk on 6 beers, now it takes 10

2) You get shaky hands when you haven’t drank in a while

3) You go out on the night before an important day at work or school intending on only having a couple of drinks, and find yourself wasted at 3 in the morning.

4) You’ve made a pact to quit drinking for a while, and found you were unable to keep it up.

5) You don’t do as much as you used to as you are very often either getting money for alcohol, drinking, or too hung over to think about much.

6) You used to enjoy early morning weekend activities, but with late night drinking and hangovers, weekend mornings are a total write off.

7) The drinking is making you fat, your boss has noticed your level of use and you don’t feel as healthy, yet you don’t cut down on your drinking.

Yes to 3 out of 7 indicates a big problem

The preceding list was a modification of the American Psychological Association’s clinical diagnosis questionnaire on alcohol addiction, and if you answered yes to three or more of those questions, you have a clinical dependency on alcohol.

An addiction to alcohol will not go away on its own, and there is no point in hoping for a miracle. It’s going to take work, you will probably need either professional help or another form of organized support, and the longer you leave the problem before getting treatment or assistance, the harder it becomes and the worse the ultimate prognosis.

There is always hope, and although recovery is never easy, it’s always possible. Have the courage and the commitment to make a change, and do whatever is necessary to better your life before the harms of alcoholism become tragically great.

Help for Parents With Addicted Children

joe — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:20:10 +0000

Are you enabling your Child to continue in the Addiction Process?

Addiction to drugs and alcohol among our children covers the entire social and economic spectrum in our society. Many ascribe addiction to poor parenting, however while poor parenting can contribute to the addiction problem, good parenting does not prevent it. Some families have one addicted child while their other children, living in the same environment, do not become addicts. So whether you are certain your son or daughter is not addicted, suspect they may be addicted or know that they are addicted, you may want to read more of this article. You will find help on recognizing addiction, learning what you may be doing to enable it and what you can do to help your son or daughter and to help yourself deal with it.

Recognizing Addiction in Your Son or Daughter

Parents are often the last to recognize addiction in their children. Studies have shown that about 4% of parents of 9 to 11 year olds believe their child may have used drugs while about 25% of these children admit to doing so. There are several reasons for this. The children get very good at hiding alcohol and drug use from their parents while parents do not want to believe it to be possible. In addition, there is a judgmental attitude that drug and alcohol use is the result of poor parenting so parents deny the problem even in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. Here are some questions to help you determine if your son or daughter has the disease of addiction.

1. Do you have relatives on either or both sides of your family who are addicted? Genetics plays a large role and sometimes the disease skips a generation or two.

2. Have you found evidence of drug use in your home such as marijuana joints, empty liquor containers (either theirs or yours) or drug paraphernalia? Children will go to great lengths to hide alcohol and drug use from parents, so if they are leaving evidence this is an indication they have lost control of their use.

3. Have you seen a major change in behavior such as grooming habits, loss of interest in family activities, studying habits, withdrawing, depression, new friends, belligerence, extreme defensiveness, etc.?

4. Has your son or daughter gotten a MIP or DUI, been charged with shoplifting or theft?

5. Do they tell you that they are not affected by drinking alcohol or can drink more than their peers? This usually is perceived as good thing by an addict but actually indicates they have developed a high tolerance because of excessive use.

6. Have you seen burns on their fingers or lips, needle marks, or sores on their nose and face?

7. Has your son or daughter lost weight or developed a poor appetite?

8. Do they have money problems and refuse to explain how it is being spent?

Hopefully these questions will help you decide whether there is a problem or not. If you believe there is, you must begin by understanding what is and is not enabling behavior and how to avoid it.

Are You Enabling Your Child in the Addiction Process?

If you are like most parents, your initial response to addiction in a child is “We are going to fix this problem?” The common initial thoughts of parents faced with an addicted child will include, I’m going to punish my child, or I’ll lecture him about the problems with doing drugs or alcohol, or I’ll ground him until he is 30!! However, these attitudes probably will do little to alleviate the problem. Instead they probably increase the desire in your child to abuse substances. This approach, among many others that keep the addiction process going, is called “Enabling Behavior”. After attending Al Anon meetings for a while, it becomes easier to make the distinction between what is enabling behavior and what is helping behavior. You will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle you. The following story illustrates the point.

As fathers, when our kids…even our adult kids, get into life threatening situations, sometimes it is just not possible to say “detach with love” and walk away…at least it wasn’t for me.

My alcoholic ex-wife actually schooled our oldest son with her addiction to wine. She created her own “drinking buddy,” and, because he was 17 and in the midst of those rebellious “dad’s an idiot” times, she won real favor with him by encouraging this “adult behavior.”

By the time he was 18, his mother and I had separated, so, with me out of the house, this boy really “took over the house.”

One night after work I received a panicky call from our youngest son. His older brother had beaten him up and threatened to kill him in a drunken rage. The boy was sobbing.

I had to do something. But before I did, I called my sponsor, who also had a son about my son’s age, and had successfully gotten him into treatment. My sponsor added a compassionate but detached good sound mind to my panic. Together we worked out a plan where I called the DA’s office first, found out that the older son could be charged with a misdemeanor and arrested. Then, when I confronted the boy I had a strong arrow in my quiver.

I used what we call in the program the “broken record” technique. I just repeated over and over the same message to him in the face of his bluster. It went something like this:

“I understand, but I want you to know that I have this option, and if there is any harm done, or even another threat of harm, I will have you arrested.”

Guess what? After I drove over and picked up his brother and got him to safety I called the older brother back. He was looking through the newspaper trying to find a job so that he could leave the house. But we never had another threat of violence against his younger brother. So how did this all end?

Well, my oldest son went through his various adventures, hit a bottom, came into AA, and started his recovery. He married a talented woman who became a nurse, went back to school, received his GED, then went on to a state-operated college and graduated Summa *** Laude. He has made me a Grandfather twice over, and at this moment serving as a phenomenal teacher.

After my divorce from his mother, his younger brother moved in with my new Al-Anon wife and me. After a difficult period with counseling for four years, and some tragedy, he graduated from a state-operated college, and then found Al-Anon. That led to a great sponsor, professional counseling, his finding his own church and his deciding that he wanted to enter the ministry. He graduated went back to school, graduated from divinity school, and now, after a long stint as an associate pastor, has his own church.

A huge thank you to Al-Anon, Darrell my Al Anon sponsor, my new life with this incredible wife, my fantastic sons, and God.

What you can do to help yourself and to help your son or daughter

Prior to making any hasty decisions after learning your child is addicted, it would be beneficial to remember that we are ill equipped to deal with numerous issues that are involved in addiction. You need to get your child help either through a 12 step support group, professional addiction counselor or both. Along with your child’s recovery, you need to seek assistance in dealing with the pain, uncertainty, fear and insanity that are normal for parents of addicted children. The first healthy thought you should engage is that you did not cause the addiction, you can’t cure the addiction and you can’t control the addiction.

Some specific things you can do:

1. Focus on creating a healthy emotional atmosphere in your home. Resist the urge to yell by focusing on saying what you mean, mean what you say but don’t say it mean.

2. Focus on you and not your child. Your and his recovery will be better. Only seek to control yourself rather than your child.

3. It is important for both parents to work together by setting boundaries that define what will and will not be allowed in your home along with the consequences of behavior that is not allowed.

4. Be patient and don’t resent the method of recovery. Recovery of the addict may or may not materialize and chances are that if recovery does occur it will not be a result of what you did rather it will be the result of another addict doing 12 step work in carrying the message of experience, strength and hope to fellow addicts.

5. Keep a sense of humor and gratitude. These help when dealing with crisis.

6. Remember that your child has a higher power. Fortunately, you are not it because you are powerless over the disease of addiction. This frees you up to focus on you and your recovery.

7. Maintain hope that things can get better. This hope will keep you sane and help you with your responsibilities.

8. Do attend a 12 step recovery program for co-dependents and do get a sponsor. You will find out that you are not alone and that there is help.

Okay, so this is not the way you thought the family history would unfold when your child was born. Resentment, shame and anger are probably consuming your thoughts when you see your child. By following the steps outlined above, however, and making a commitment to the recovery process for yourself, you will find serenity, joy and freedom whether your child’s addiction continues or not. Often, the child also gets into recovery after they see the changes in your behavior. Addiction resulting in recovery may be the impetus to get your life restarted and refocused on the things that truly matter such as service to others, compassion, acceptance and honesty.

The Disease of Addiction

joe — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:05:55 +0000

from CounselorDave

In 1956 the American Medical Association (AMA) declared Addiction to alcohol and other drugs, to be a disease. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) followed the AMA, in 1960. Addiction to AOD qualifies as a disease by meeting the following criteria:

Primary: The illness exists in and of itself. (But may manifest in addition to other illnesses.) Chronic: Does not go away, heal spontaneously or remit. Progressive: Over time it gets worse. Symptomatic: Can be diagnosed by the way it manifests in a person’s physiology, behavior and lifestyle. Fatal: If left untreated will result in death. Treatable: Proven medication, therapies, and lifestyle changes do result in the ability to live without the abused substance.

Development of an addiction begins with the voluntary decision to use drugs. No one starts out hoping to become an addict, but as one uses over a lengthy period of time, control of use decreases proportionately.

One who is initially a voluntary user can become a compulsive and obsessive drug user, or addict. An ever-increasing body of scientific evidence suggests that the transition from voluntary user to addict occurs through a combination of processes, including a series of brain changes affecting neuro-transmitters (brain chemicals) that result from repeated drug abuse.

Because changes in brain structure and function are fundamental to the development and expression of addiction, it qualifies as a brain disease–a brain disease that translates into compulsive behavior and obsession with the drug.

We have finally learned that we do not have separate minds and bodies. We understand biology and behavior to be inseparable. Addiction proves this link. This physiological-behavioral view of addiction brings about new drug issues our society must face? First, the fact that addiction is a brain disease does not make the addict a victim with no responsibilities.

Addiction begins with a decision to use drugs (no one thinks they will become addicted), and the addict has to be actively involved in their own treatment for it to work.

But we do need to overcome the moral dilemma that the addict became ill as a result of their own behavior and deal with the brain disease once it is there.

That addiction is a brain disease helps explain why people need treatment; why most cannot just stop through exerted will power.

They literally have a changed brain. Because addiction is a complex bio-behavioral disorder, that’s development and expression are tightly woven into social context, addiction treatment inevitably has many different variations and techniques, sometimes including medicines and behavioral therapies.

As a brain disease, addiction is much more complicated than using a lot of drugs. Addiction has wide range of medical, behavioral and social consequences that affect one’s ability to function in virtually every area of life and society.

Thus, treatment cannot be just abstention from drug use; it must be restoring the individual to fully functioning in the family system, on the job and in overall society.

The best treatment combines medications, behavioral therapies and necessary psychosocial services in different combinations as are appropriate on an individual basis.

That they have this brain disease helps us to understand and explain why untreated addicted criminal offenders have such high post-incarceration rates of recidivism to both drug use and crime.

Untreated, the disease returns to previous severity nearly immediately after they are released back into the community.

On the other hand, initiation of a well-assessed, individual treatment plan, has proven to be greatly effective and numerous studies reflect that even a single treatment episode can dramatically reduce later criminality and drug abuse.

These facts seem to be leading to a national trend to blend both health and public safety approaches in dealing with addicted criminal offenders. Examples include diversion to treatment programs, drug courts and incarceration-based treatment programs.

A combination of Research, Medical professionals, Psychologists, and Certified Counselors are advancing success in treating the Disease of Addiction, monumentally. If society can overcome the stigma attached to mental illnesses and in particular addiction, as it did with leperacy, cancer, and other misunderstood diseases, with proper funding, addiction will become a commonly, successfully treated affliction.

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What Makes Russians Protest Against Methadone Treatment For Heroin Addiction?

joe — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:11:13 +0000

from addiction

When the Soviet Union fell and greater freedoms became available to its citizens, an undesirable side effect of this change was greater access to narcotics. In particular, heroin. And, as in many other countries, along with a heroin epidemic comes HIV infections resulting from the sharing of needles used to inject heroin. Estimates of the number of heroin addicts vary from three million to six million of the country’s 142 million citizens.

Like in America, some Russian doctors propose the use of substitution therapy with methadone. But unlike America, the treatment of heroin addiction with methadone is illegal. In fact, the discussion of the subject is forbidden, as is the promotion of the treatment on a website. Sometimes, even the mentioning it in conversation can bring legal sanctions down on a person.

In 2006, an influential anti-methadone article was published in the Russian Medical Newspaper, then reprinted and distributed to addiction treatment specialists. The article claims that the methadone will be subject to illegal diversion and that heroin addicts are kept addicted while the pharmaceutical companies make a profit. Passions run high as medical and government officials bicker back and forth on risk reduction through substitute drugs that keep people from injecting heroin illegally, and other forms of treatment.

“If harm reduction is one’s only goal, then methadone may be a viable treatment,” stated Derry Hallmark, Director of Admissions and Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor at Narconon Arrowhead. Narconon Arrowhead is one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma. “However, if a person’s goal is to live drug-free, then methadone may not be the best option to treat heroin or opiate addiction. Some drug treatment professionals may keep a person on methadone substitution for a long time, meaning that the person does not learn to live drug-free on their own.”

The Narconon program is a fully drug-free program, meaning that every participant goes through a withdrawal step at the beginning of the program, assisted by nutritional support and physical exercises that calm and extrovert the person and relieve the discomfort of withdrawal. This is followed by a sauna program that uses a dry-heat combined with nutrition and an exercise program. This step flushes out old drug residues that may be connected with cravings. With lowered or eliminated cravings, the former addict is now free to take part in the counseling that allows them to leave guilt and depression behind, and learn the life skills that can enable them to make drug-free decisions in the future.

“The Narconon program offers a viable alternative for the person who wishes to experience life without any reliance on drugs,” added Mr. Hallmark. “Our seventy percent success rate means that we are able to return many drug-free individuals to productive lives.”

If you know anyone who needs help to overcome a drug addiction, please contact us at http://www.stopaddiction.com

Are you Living With an Addicted Person?

joe — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 01:02:49 +0000

from Kenneth

Are You Living With An Addicted Person?

Addiction. Addictive agents are those persons or things in which we form an excessive dependency (1).

Are you living with an addicted person? If you answered yes to that question then you are part of about half of the U.S population, but congratulations. You are among the group that is not still in complete denial.

Next question. Do you still consider addiction to be a problem? If you said yes to this question, then you really need to continue reading to absorb some basic truths that may profoundly improve the quality of your life! (BTW, if you answered no to both of these questions, then congratulations again…only a small fraction of people experience lives totally unaffected by someone else’s addiction).

We are three men who had our lives smashed by the addictions of people close to us, and we want to relay thoughts that will make the experience of living with addicted people less devastating for others.

First, we had to learn that addiction is addiction, whether it is to alcohol, drugs, sex, bingo, or chocolate, and that addiction cannot survive in a vacuum. For example, it takes at least four functioning adults to enable a single dysfunctional alcoholic.

Second, addiction is not a problem, it is a fact, and facts simply cannot be solved. For example, if you have looked forward to a picnic and it has started raining, then that is a fact. You cannot solve this fact.

“Oh no…it’s RAINING!” (insert humorous drawing with a shocked man)

Your only option now is to decide how you are going to react to this fact. Our weather example works to a degree, except that with addiction the costs, in human terms, are much steeper than just being a bit inconvenienced. Living with addiction is never a picnic.

What we are saying is that we had to stop denying that we were totally powerless over someone else’s addiction. Whether we were a spouse, relative, neighbor, a CEO, minister, physician, police (person), a famous talk show host, or the president, it didn’t matter. We were each just another man who kept dancing to the tune of addiction and we were part of their problem. Until we admitted that we were powerless over another person’s addiction, first to ourselves, then to the God of our understanding, and finally to another human being, we were mentally, physically, financially and emotionally trapped.

Please. End the denial. The most effective program for achieving personal honesty and removing denial that we have found is the Al-Anon program. Al-Anon is a 12-step support group for people trying to deal with the situations created by living with people addicted to alcohol. Here are some thoughts from an Al-Anon man raised by an alcohol-addicted mother.

I had always considered myself an honest person, but as I progressed in the Al-Anon program my understanding of honesty deepened. I had to be honest about everything in my life: my past, my intentions, my choices, my thoughts, my desires, and my reality. Honesty became not just refraining from lies in relationships during daily living with other people (i.e., “cash-register honesty”); it was honesty with myself and with the God of my understanding.

Recovery from my own addictions: co-dependency, people pleasing, perfectionism, the need for applause…this kind of honesty, was impossible until the hold denial had on my mind was broken. Denial is like a good paint job over poor construction. I always looked good from a distance. Denial covered my inner despair. Denial, while actually protecting me as a child who lived with addicted parents began to destroy me as an adult. It was like the destruction of a tree; first a few leaves wither, then the trunk, and finally the roots.

Denial impedes growth. It destroys the spirit by allowing poor behavior and choices to guide your life. Denial hides the symptoms so well that the cure becomes unthinkable.

“Mom is just under a lot of stress right now.” She’s a good Mom; she just hits us when she has to let out her frustration. And besides, us kids are her biggest problem anyway” or

“Hello, Robert? Deb can’t make it in this morning. She has a horrible migraine, and she has had trouble getting enough sleep lately,” or

“My daughter works so hard in a helping profession. Nurses all need to unwind after a long shift treating sick people. Besides, she has always been able to hold a job in spite of the drinking.”

Here are some words about denying powerlessness from a father who had to accept that he was powerless over his daughter’s addiction.

The first step states that “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol (all other addictions as well) and that our lives had become unmanageable”. When I first heard this step, I did not know what the word powerless meant in the context of the disease of addiction. I could clearly see that my life had become unmanageable, but no way was I powerless.

After thinking about the powerless part of this step and all my attempts to fix, control, resent and rage at my daughters use of drugs and alcohol, I soon accepted on an intellectual level that nothing I had done in the past worked. I continued to behave and react in the same way until I finally also accepted that I was powerless over all the consequences my daughter suffered as a result of her addictions. The last stage of this step for me was to accept that I was powerless over my anger, need for control and resentments (my addictions) because numerous and varied attempts to fix these problems in myself also failed.

Slowly, I am giving up my attempts to battle this disease and have found in those areas where this giving up is at a deep emotional level, God who has infinite power has taken control. And so, infinite power is in fact available to me as long as I am willing to accept that I am absolutely powerless over this disease.

We want to climb onto our soap boxes now and make some points about denial beyond the individual level. Denial that is being used every hour of every day by authoritative professionals such as physicians, law enforcement, and the clergy, is allowing addictive behaviors to extract a monumental price from all of us.

For example, data just released shows that younger women from the current generation (14-22) for the first time in our history are using alcohol, drugs, and tobacco at about the same rate as their male counterparts (2). And yet, because of denial by law enforcement officers, they receive only 15% of the DUI’s and DWI’s (3). A recent DOT study (US DOT Report H5-801-230) showed clearly the real factors involved in Officer O’Malley’s decision to put the cuffs on an inebriated grandma, or that professional on her way from Happy Hour to her condo.

Does he consider her blood alcohol or the severity of her traffic violation in his decision to arrest for DUI? NOPE!

The most important factors, according to this government study, are 1) how much the officer drinks, 2) his lack of knowledge concerning the difference that alcohol has on the female vs. the male body, 3) the suspect’s attitude during the stop (i.e., men tend to be more belligerent), 4) the suspect’s and the policeman’s age, and 5) the suspect’s ***. Arresting a woman is more complicated for legal reasons and besides she looks, smells and acts like the officer’s wife, girlfriend, daughter, or grandma!

The net effect is to prevent the addicted lady from being identified, and that helps fuel the rapid increases in the rate of addiction among women. We could cite similar figures and stories for physicians and clergymen but the truth is that all of this professional denial serves to hide and thus exacerbate painful social consequences of addiction.

So what can we each do about another’s addiction? We hope by now that you realize that if you hold any delusions about being able to save or help an addicted person, then you need to ask God to remove them, because those delusions are helping to perpetuate the disease. Also, we are inviting you, right this moment, to ask for help from others who have been there. Go to a local Al-Anon meeting. There you will find help. Until you do that, it will just be impossible for you to appreciate the extent to which addiction is making your own life not fun.

Final notice and great news! If you are dealing with what is still the most common form of chemical addiction, alcoholism, you can start your own process of recovery by attending that meeting. There you will find “…the love and support we have been privileged to share.” You can locate local meetings by accessing our web site at menlivingwithaddictedpeople.com and going to our favorite links. BTW…you will also find imaginative posts on the topic of addiction as well.

God Bless.

NOTE; THIS AUTHOR WILL BE OUT OF TOWN ON VACATION. PLEASE SEND ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO THIS E-MAIL; rthelan@sbcglobal.net

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