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Stopping drinking has just become easier

Alcohol abuse patterns vary. Some people get drunk every day; others drink large amounts of alcohol at specific times, such as on the weekend. It is common for someone with an alcohol or drug problem to call in sick for work on Monday or Friday. He or she may complain of having a virus or the flu. Others may be sober for long periods and then go on a drinking binge that lasts for weeks or months. Someone with alcohol dependence may suffer serious withdrawal symptoms, such as trembling, delusions, hallucinations, and sweating, if he or she stops drinking suddenly ("cold turkey"). Once alcohol dependence develops, it becomes very difficult to stop drinking without outside help. Medical detoxification may be needed.

Is alcohol causing a problem in my life? Have your family or friends ever complained about your drinking? Have you been late to or absent from work because of hangovers? Have you ever driven after drinking? Have you had trouble with the law after drinking? Have you gotten into a fight after drinking? Do you drink even when you don't feel well? Has your doctor told you that you have health problems related to drinking? Have you ever tried to quit drinking? Have you ever had a blackout while drinking? Do you sometimes have a drink in the morning to stop your hands from trembling or to ease a hangover? Do you end up drinking more than you meant to drink? Have you stopped doing things you used to do because you would rather drink? Do you drink more than you used to drink? If you said yes to any of these questions, drinking may be a problem for you.

Each fall, universities and colleges across the country welcome a new batch of first-year students. And at this time, amidst choosing between "Human Anatomy 101" and "Introduction to Economics," or which fraternity party to attend, college freshmen will face choices involving a substance with an arguably ubiquitous presence on college campuses nationwide: alcohol. Some students may choose to stay away from alcohol, while others may decide to dabble.

There are approximately 10 million alcoholics in the United States. On top of this staggering figure you can also add 20 million alcohol abusers. Most of these alcohol abusers are teens and college students. Figures show that 2 out of 3 adults use alcohol. It has been determined that over half of all suicides, accidental deaths and homicides are related to alcohol. More than 10,000 young people were killed and 40,000 more are injured annually in accidents that involve drinking and driving. As you can see the cost of using alcohol is high and these are just the human costs. Let's also add the cost of productivity and health expenses that occur because of alcohol addiction and abuse. It happens without warning. It creeps into your life and all of a sudden, you're hooked. At first you're the life of the party, and later you're the drunk of the party. When you're young, twenties and thirties, your body can handle all the booze, no problem. But mentally it impairs the way you view and feel the world around you.

Most of the time, alcoholics don't know that alcohol has taken hold of their life. This is called the denial stage. Alcoholics feel that if they can get up and go to work everyday, even though secretly they have an excruciating headache, they don't have a problem. But what keeps the alcoholic going throughout the workday is in knowing that after work, they'll have those highballs or beers, which will in fact, make them feel like their old self again. The problem is, that's not our old self, but our new old self on alcohol. You see, alcohol changes the person we are inside, not only does alcohol, with time, rot our insides, but it rots what comes from within us. What we do, how we treat others, and our spirituality. The potential to be a whole person has been put on hold because of alcohol. The booze stunts the mental capacities and impairs the ability to see the world clearly enough to get passed the weakness and mistakes we make in life.

The slurring phase of being drunk. The next parts of the brain that come into the firing line, the parietal lobes are affected at a blood alcohol level of approximately 0,10 g/100ml. Then your motor skills become impaired, you have difficulty speaking, you speak in slurred fashion (which oddly enough, you cannot hear yourself), you start shivering, and complicated actions become very difficult to execute (I always used to watched alleged drunk drivers trying to fasten their shirt buttons - an everyday activity that suddenly becomes as difficult as threading a needle). At the same time your sensory abilities are hampered. The can't-see-properly phase or being drunk. If the occipital lobe is reached, the alcohol level is usually about 0,20 g/100ml. Your visual perception ability becomes limited. You have increasing difficulty to perceive movement and distance. Your depth perception becomes impaired and your peripheral vision decreases. If you now drive at dusk, you will have great difficulty seeing the little boy running after his ball, or your fellow drinking buddy, staggering by the roadside.

Craving alcohol is a complicated process that involves several different factors. We are usually first introduced to alcohol at a young age (in our teens). Since no-one under the age of 21 (in the US) is allowed to purchase alcohol, it becomes "cool" and desirable for young adults under 21 to give drinking a try. Later on people grab a bottle of booze to feel better, gain more confidence in a social setting or to forget about their problems. Since the alcohol makes them feel better, at least temporarily, they start to crave it.

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Having a hard time getting rid of your drinking problem? With this new article that will aid you stay sober

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