Addiction Recovery

A very common reason drug and alcohol relapses happen so frequently is that there is no relapse prevention plan in place.

Here are 3 major areas to be thinking about when constructing a relapse prevention plan, food for thought, if you will. These are broad concepts. It may be wise to develop a muck more detailed plan. Let’s get started:

1. Maintain awareness of addiction.

Complacency sets the stage for more relapses than any other factor. With a lowered level of awareness the door is open for a return of denial. Examples are “I’m doing great now, no problem”, “It wasn’t as bad as everyone made out”, “I’ve been good for so long, I deserve just one”. If denial creeps in, the door is open to rationalizing a return to use, as well as, engaging in risky behaviors. Risky behaviors increase the chance of relapse.

2. Identify your high-risk factors and triggers.

A trigger or high risk factor can be anything that was associated with drug or alcohol use and brings back those memories. It can be a person, place or thing, as well as things like rituals, smells or sounds. Some examples might be the smell of stale beer, seeing your dealer, or getting very emotional.

Basically there are 2 types of risk factors, those that can be easily avoided, and those that cannot. If a situation is known to be risky and can be avoided, do so.

On the other hand there are situations that cannot be avoided. Just about every supermarket has a beer and wine aisle, there may be events where alcohol is served and your attendance is required. In these cases, forethought and planning is needed.

3. Have plans in place before the temptation.

Awareness is an extremely powerful relapse prevention tool It is suggested to identify situations that can be avoided ahead of time, make a list. Read the rest of this entry »

Unfortunately, alcoholic teens are all too common in today’s day and age, and the problem doesn’t look to be going away any time soon. If you or someone you know is experiencing drinking problems at a young age, here are some ways to tell is they require professional help immediately.

First, the symptoms teens experience when drinking is no different than adults, and therefore I won’t give an exhaustive list here. You can easily find alcohol abuse effects elsewhere on the net.

However, one very important thing to keep in mind, whether you are someone you know is drinking at a young age, is that drinking for young people is usually for different reasons than adults.

Typically, adults start doing it in order to deal with some form of discomfort in their lives (whether it be stress from their job, bad family or social life, etc) and it is an effective way of forgetting about their problems for awhile.

Of course, those same problems still exist when they are done drinking, but at least they can forget about them fro the time being. Teens, on the other hand, generally start drinking as a result of peer pressure, whether it be at a party, after school, etc.

While the reason is different, the result is still the same when left untreated-a lifetime of negative health effects and lower quality of life because of alcohol.

If alcohol abuse in teens does indeed exist in yourself or someone you know, you need to get professional help right away. Yes, I’m sure you expected me to say that, but it doesn’t make it any les true.

Trying to stop drinking yourself is extremely difficult, and the success rate for alcoholic teens is very low. I’d recommend you either go to AA or your local alcohol detox center, and they will tell you exactly what you need to do in order to quit (in the case of the detox center, they will likely giv Read the rest of this entry »

The occurrence of an alcohol blackout is unpredictable both in severity and in timing.

When an individual experiences an alcohol induced blackout, his consciousness remains throughout the period but will be unable to have complete recollection of what happened during that time. It is as if events are never imprinted on the brain for recall. It’s amnesia in a way, but it’s caused by alcohol abuse and not a traumatic event or physical injury.

There are two types of alcohol induced blackouts commonly studied:

1. Fragmentary or partial blackouts.

These tend to occur when lower levels of alcohol are taken. You might forget names or what you were talking about in the middle of a conversation. These partially interfere with memory formation during intoxication. People can sometimes remember the missing pieces if they are prompted or reminded of the context of conversation or situation.

2. Complete or en bloc, blackouts

When a person has a complete alcohol blackout, he is still physically and mentally able to perform actions although he may seem not like his usual self. In this type of blackout, an individual is still conscious - but will be unable to retain any memory of what happened during his blackout, what so ever. Prompting or reminders will not lead to recall the events. It appears that the ability to transfer and imprint memory from the present and short term to long term storage is blocked.

How alcohols and drugs can cause blackouts:

In most cases, blackouts are a result of binge drinking, that is, consuming an excessive quantity of liquor in a brief period of time. This has been confirmed by a research conducted for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism which reports how large and especially rapid co Read the rest of this entry »