Codependency and Alcohol Freedom

Alcohol And Its Ill Effects

Drinking can become a problem for anyone at any age. It is common for family members, friends, and health care professionals to ignore their concerns about drinking problems in senior citizens. This may be because drinking problems in older people may be mistaken for conditions associated with age. Still, it is important to take note of problem drinking in senior citizens, because the process of aging changes how the body handles alcohol-the same amount of alcohol can have a larger effect as someone ages.

Alcohol and Aging Facts

Research has suggested that, with age, people become more sensitive to alcohol.
Alcohol use can worsen some medical conditions like high blood pressure, ulcers, and diabetes.
When mixed with alcohol, many medicines can be dangerous. Here are some examples
- Aspirin can cause stomach and intestinal bleeding.
- Medicines to control the symptoms of cold and allergies, called antihistamines, often cause drowsiness. When mixed with alcohol, this effect is magnified.
- Using alcohol with large doses of acetaminophen, which is found in many painkillers such as Tylenol, increases the risk of liver damage.
- Certain medicines, such as cough syrup and laxatives, have a high alcohol content in them.

Effects of Alcohol

Drinking even a small amount of alcohol can impair judgment, coordination, and reaction time. These effects may lead to dangerous work and household accidents such as falls and hip fractures. Perhaps more seriously, drinking adds to the risk of car accidents.

Over time, heavy drinking can cause certain types of cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, immune system disorders, and brain damage. Alcohol causes changes in the heart and blood vessels, dulling pain that might be a warning sign for a serious medical problem such as a heart attack. Drinking can also cause confusion and forgetfulness in senior citizens, which may be mistaken for signs of Alzheimer’s disease. People with diabetes are also at a higher risk when they drink-alcohol affects blood sugar levels.People who abuse alcohol may also be increasing their risk of serious conflicts with family, friends, and coworkers.

How to Know if Someone Has a Drinking Problem

Two patterns of drinking are common: early onset and late onset. In some cases, if the person has been a heavy drinker for a long time alcohol may begin to affect his body differently, causing stronger effects with the same amount of alcohol. In other cases, a person starts to abuse alcohol later in life. Depression in older adults is often linked to alcohol abuse. In the beginning, alcohol can provide relief from stress; over time, however, over time, alcohol causes far more trouble and bodily harm than relaxation. Drinking regularly can’t be related to the drinking problems. There are a few signals that can enable you or a loved one to get help. We’ve listed them below.

Consider finding help if you or a loved one:

Use alcohol to calm down or to reduce worrying or depression.
Quickly gulp down drinks.
Often have more than one drink per day.
Cover up or lie about drinking habits.
Hurt yourself or others while drinking.
Need more alcohol than usual to feel its effects.
Become irritable, resentful, or unreasonable when sober.
Develop medical, social, or financial worries caused by drinking.

Getting Help

Studies suggest that problem drinkers of an older age are just as likely to benefit from treatment as are problem drinkers of a younger age. Your doctor can provide advice about your health, drinking, and treatment options. You may also find help at the local health department or social services agencies.

Many treatment options are available. Some have been in use for a long time, such as 12-step programs. Others involve detoxification; using prescription medications to prevent a return to drinking once you have stopped; and counseling, both group and individual. Some newer programs help people with drinking problems to learn which emotions or situations trigger the urge to drink, and they teach people to cope without alcohol. Family support is very important, so many programs work with married couples and family members as part of the treatment process.

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Alcoholism Marriage

Alcoholism and marriage are two things that do not tend to mix well. Alcoholism can be devastating to a relationship, causing a great deal of problems for a relationship. Often, untreated alcohol addiction can result in divorcement as alcohol abuse can lead to physical or intimate abuse, as well as verbal abuse. If you are in a relationship where your spouse consumes a great deal of alcohol, you need to be wary.

If you married somebody who never had problems with intoxicant prior to the wedding, there may be a link between the recently occurring alcoholism and marriage. If this is the case, you should try to find the underlying cause of the problem and take steps to correct it. While correcting the problem will not make the alcohol addiction disappear, it will help your spouse get onto the road to recovery.

While alcoholism and marriage do not often blend well, it is vital that you remember that alcohol addiction is a disease. Like smoking, alcoholism is the growth of a dependency to alcohol. Quitting drinking is very similar to having to discontinue smoking, and can take years to master. Like smoking, one drink is all it take to relapse a recovering alcoholic. Because of this, you will have to be careful on how you approach the subject, as many alcoholics will not admit that they have a problem. This is normally the battle that results in couples splitting, as the person who is the alcoholic will often become furious when it is suggested that they drink too much.

If you are in a relationship with somebody who has always been an alcoholic, alcoholism and marriage may not have as dire consequences. This is partly due to the fact that the alcohol addiction is acknowledged and accepted prior to vows being exchanged. While the consequences may not be as dire, it is very important that you understand that the state of affairs may change when you move in together. While everyone woman or man wants to believe that they can change their spouse for the better, this may not be the case.

Marriage counseling may be required to make a relationship involving alcoholism work. While you can’t force your spouse to quit drinking, you can try to ascertain that you two share a comfortable lifestyle together. Trying to force change will only cause problems. Forcing your spouse to attend alcoholics anonymous or another group may breed resentment, which change change love into hate and lead to divorce.

I hope you gather the desired information from this article, check out my other articles to be surprised even more.

Alcoholism and marriage are two things that do not tend to blend well.

More Help For Spouses Of Alcoholics Articles

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What Do I Do With An Alcoholic Boyfriend?

Question by ai: what will i do with an alcoholic boyfriend?

When me and I my boyfriend met 2 years ago, both of us are alcoholic. After that, I did my best to change, and now, I’m sober. But my boyfriend is still an alcoholic until now. I want him to change just like me, but he keeps on saying, “You met me as an alcoholic, deal with me,” or “Accept me for who I am”. I do love him and accept him for who he is, but I also want him to be a better person. What will I do?

Best answer:

Answer by richard t
I think he will break your heart over and over again and suck you in to drinking again…………..You might love him, but he will destroy you sooner or later……….Find someone else……….

Add your own answer in the comments!

Posted to: Alcoholism, Codependency 8 Comments

5 Signs Of Alcoholism You Must Intercept To Avoid Living With An Alcoholic

The signs of alcoholism are often ignored in the early stages until it becomes apparent that you are living with an alcoholic. No matter how much you love someone or want to take care of them, dealing with an alcohol addiction is a situation no one can really prepare for.

As the signs of alcoholism develop and become recognizable in an individual, family and friends can often think back in time and remember the exact signs of alcoholism that they never realized or did not think it was something they should address immediately. Instead of allowing the almost certain end result of living with an alcoholic, learn the top 5 signs of alcoholism that you can interrupt in the beginning stages and prevent yourself or someone you love from dealing with an alcohol addiction.

1. High tolerance for alcohol is one of the signs of alcoholism that are always left undetected. Many people occasionally drink a bit too much during a holiday or random celebration over the weekend. However, when people begin to increasingly need more and more alcohol just to experience the effect of the alcohol they are usually developing number of signs of alcoholism at the same time.

2. Becoming unsociable. Alcoholics are not usually social drinkers; instead, they would rather drink alone. The people who are living with an alcoholic would sometimes notice that the craving to drink has become so strong that the alcoholic finds it hard to focus or think about anything else. Very commonly, they will turn down spending time with family and friends unless the event or celebration actually involves alcohol.

3. Changes in appearance and health. When living with an alcoholic you must remember that alcohol is a drug and for alcoholics the brain becomes dependent on the drug over time. As the alcohol cravings advance nausea, tremors, irritability, loss of coordination and other physical alcoholic symptoms may become evident. Their eyes can become sunken and red rimmed while the skin can turn sallow and dry scaly patches can occur. Many alcoholics will lose a large amount of weight. Alcoholics also tend to neglect their physical appearance and may have a shaggy beard, raggedy hair and wear rumpled ill fitting clothing.

4. Risky behaviors. As the disease continue to develop, you can experience the changes in the behavior of someone controlled by alcoholism. These changes in behavior are sure signs of alcoholism. They may get behind the wheel of a car while under the influence even when they are dealing with legal consequences; they may fail to show up to work or pick up the kids from school and will often not have a valid reason for their absence.

5. Memory loss. This is one of the advanced signs of alcoholism. When consuming large quantities of alcohol, someone with an alcohol addiction can fall unconscious and will often wake up without any recollection of what they have done. Some may remember their actions but feel guilty or regretful over what their obsession with alcohol leads them to do. Under the grip of the drug, an alcoholic’s personality can alter, resulting in verbal or physical abuse.

By recognizing the signs of alcoholism early, you can quickly get started on learning an approach that will get the one you love the help they need before the addiction becomes all consuming. Although living with an alcoholic can feel hopeless the key to getting out of this nightmare is the right knowledge put into action urgently!

The signs of alcoholism must be closely observed when you suspect you might be living with an alcoholic. Knowing what to do and what not to do when dealing with an alcoholic will always give you positive, desirable outcome. I have found some great information related to the signs of alcoholism and living with an alcoholic.

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Fundamental Information about Alcohol addiction Therapy

It is among the leading cause of death, violence as well as injuries around the world which explains why the field of medicine gives this problem the utmost consideration for health-related interventions. Alcoholism results in a massive bad effect in the society. In contrast to a lot of thinking that an alcoholic can do fine with no health care professional, alcohol addiction is actually, another kind of substance misuse. In addition, the alcoholic isn’t the only one suffering when fast treatment is unavailable. All relevant parties will likely be affected as well. This is the reason why correct counseling would involve rehabilitating the alcoholic’s members of the family as well as significant others too.

The medical method of drinking therapy would certainly need several medicines to help reduce the manifestations of alcohol drawback especially at it’s most significant period where physiological manifestations will probably occur. These would certainly contain anti convulsants, relaxants, sedatives as well as anti – psychotics. Medicines for instance benzodiazepines are only best for temporary use as these drug treatments can cause another type of dependency. This medicine, on the other hand could not heal the main dependency with regard to alcoholic beverages as these medications are merely given to deal with anxiousness, restlessness as well as seizures.

Disulfuram or antabuse is yet another type of medication that may help treat alcoholism. This prescription medication has the capability to change the particular body’s capability to remove acetaldehyde which in turn activates a hangover. This permits the body to experience all of the discomforts every time a drinker decides to consume alcohol while ingesting antabuse. This will then deter the drinker from using alcohol. This medicine is fairly effective and it may aid an alcoholic refrain from alcoholic beverages close to 50 percent. On the other hand, unexpected consumption of alcohol of all sorts such as the use of mouthwashes, colognes and makeup products could lead to exactly the same results and could even result in debilitating conditions such as seizures.

Besides professional medical prescribed drugs there are more types of alcohol dependency therapy such as cleansing. Detoxification, as commonly recognized, is generally combined with a medication which replaces the alcoholic’s dependence on drinking. Benzodiazepine is a type of medication subscribed with cleansing.

Treatment would certainly also call the requirement of psychiatric therapy. This is done via mutual support that is made by many alcoholic support groups and also rehab centers. Alanon or Alcoholics Anonymous along with other treatment groups consider the essential actions to be able to restore alcoholics by means of non expert counseling and discussions that will allow alcoholics to be provided with psychological aid as well as support. For therapy to work, both health as well as psychiatric interventions should be taken and have to be performed correctly.

Identifying Alcohol and Other Drug Dependency

Jimmy quit drinking back in 1999. He had been a heavy drinker since late adolescence—before he married his high school sweetheart. Rita had fallen in love with his happy-drunk cheerfulness. He liked beer; she liked Chardonnay. After five years of marriage, however, Rita decided she “wanted to be a grown-up.” She quit, but Jimmy kept it up. Her perspective about Jimmy’s drunken cheerfulness changed as well—she now saw it as immature and irresponsible.

“How can he keep spending so much money on beer, when he has two children and a mortgage?” she would ask herself. The resentment inside grew a little stronger every day. Over the next fifteen years of marriage, Rita threatened to leave many times. She stayed in the marriage however, hoping that he would see how unhappy she was and change. The arguments would start every night when he pulled his first beer out of the fridge. Her agenda was always, “stop drinking!” His agenda was, “You can’t make me.” Two days before their twentieth anniversary, Jimmy came home from work to find that Rita, the kids, their clothing, the furniture were gone. The only thing left in the house was the refrigerator and the twelve-pack inside.

Jimmy drank the twelve-pack and then checked himself into Detox. He was in Detox five days, where he was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous. After Detox, he went to Rehab at a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) The PHP met six days a week, 8 hours a day for a month. Family sessions were a part of the rehab, and by the end of the month, Rita and the children were back in the house. Jimmy attended AA every evening for 90 days and had a sponsor. He attended at least twice weekly for two years, at which time he thought he had too much to do to go to meetings.

Jimmy was able to stay sober for the next year—except for a couple of times, when he had a few beers over the weekend. But the third time he relapsed, he went on a binge. He drank until he got drunk. He hid the beer cans in his garbage can at work. He could not, however, hide that he was drunk—not from Rita, and not from the cop who pulled him over as he drove down the interstate.

His first DUI, in 2002, cost him Ten Grand, by the time he paid his ticket, legal fees, and increased insurance rates. He went back into Detox for two days, back to rehab at the Partial Hospitalization Program, and back to AA. Rita was so angry that she refused to go to the family meetings this time. Jimmy could tell she was angry and that made him mad. Three months later, Jimmy relapsed again. He told everyone it was Rita’s fault that he relapsed because she didn’t trust him.

The struggle to recovery from Alcohol or Other Drug Dependency (AOD) frequently involves years of sobriety with intermittent relapse and need to start over in treatment. Relapse brings feelings of shame to the person who relapses and frustration and anger to their family. The Alcohol or Drug Dependent person or his or her family often feels like giving up—and many do.

Treatment for Alcohol and Other Drug Dependency is effective—in spite of the possibility of it requiring several starts. People who recover often have family, friends, and sober support groups who are willing to make an extensive investment in the recovering person. Very few people are able to recovery on their own, without strong support.

The first step in recovery is identifying if you or someone you love is dependent on alcohol or other drugs. The medical definition of “dependency” or “addiction”, according to the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV) and the World Health Organization (ICD-10), include meeting any three of the following criteria:

Tolerance. Has your use of drugs or alcohol increased over time?

Withdrawal. When you stop using, have you ever experienced physical or emotional withdrawal? Have you had any of the following symptoms: irritability, anxiety, shakes, sweats, nausea, or vomiting?

Difficulty controlling your use. Do you sometimes use more or for a longer time than you would like? Do you sometimes drink to get drunk? Do you stop after a few drink usually, or does one drink lead to more drinks?

Negative consequences. Have you continued to use even though there have been negative consequences to your mood, self-esteem, health, job, or family?

Neglecting or postponing activities. Have you ever put off or reduced social, recreational, work, or household activities because of your use?

Spending significant time or emotional energy. Do you spend a significant amount of time thinking about using or how to not get caught?

Desire to cut down. Have you sometimes thought about cutting down or controlling your use? Have you ever tried to quit or cut down on your own, but couldn’t?

Jimmy demonstrated all seven criteria of dependency. He required four episodes of treatment before he was able to enjoy five years of sobriety. He lost two jobs, had three DUIs (one of which involved some jail time); and was separated from Rita for over two years before he finally was able to consolidate his recovery skills into maintaining a five-year sobriety.

What did Rita do when Jimmy tried to blame her for his problem drinking? How do moxie spouses and family members react when their loved with Alcohol or Other Drug (AOD) Dependency—or any other mental illness—try to guilt them into allowing the problem behaviors to take them or the family as emotional or financial hostages?

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How to Spot Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol abuse, or alcoholism, is a serious illness that often requires immediate treatment. Not everyone knows what to look for in terms of alcohol abuse, but the truth is that there are very definitive signs that can quickly confirm the need for treatment.

Many alcoholics drink because they are angry or sad, but often end up feeling guilty either while they are drinking or after the effects wear off. Emotional drinking is a very likely sign of alcohol abuse and should not be overlooked. If the feeling of needing to reduce the level of alcohol consumption begins to occur or when friends and family start to express their concern, it is often time to seek counseling for alcohol abuse.

A large number of alcoholics find themselves lying about their behavior, which is usually an indication of shame. This may be a clue that he/she knows their actions are excessive and they wish to hide it from those closest to them, which means that they realize their actions are unhealthy and there may be a good chance for recovery.

If alcohol becomes a way of dealing with stress, the drinker has an undeniable addiction. Stress is a part of everyday life and, if alcohol is how a person chooses to deal with that stress, drinking too will become an everyday activity. For this reason, anyone that drinks alcohol as a way of coping with stress should consider an alcohol abuse treatment program.

There is no universal definition for alcoholism because it masks itself in a variety of ways. For some, it involves a physical dependency on alcohol while others lose their control over how much they drink. For many, the use of alcohol continues with the knowledge that it harmful to their health. There are many reasons that alcoholism may occur, including links to hereditary genes, stress, the addictive nature of alcohol and even the family environment.

The good news is that alcoholism is treatable and, once the signs of alcohol abuse are noticed, a remedy can often begin immediately. Whether it be via an inpatient or outpatient care facility or simply the willingness to stop drinking with the support of family and friends, alcohol abuse can be a thing of the past. Regaining the control over a life that was once consumed by alcohol is not a process that can happen overnight, but it is one that will be worth the effort. The most important step in working toward a life that is free of alcohol is actually wanting that life.

This article is to be used for informational purposes only. The information contained herein is not intended to be used in place of, or in conjunction with, professional medical advice or recommendations regarding alcohol abuse. Before deciding on the most effective method of treatment, the patient must consult a licensed medical doctor for advice and/or to determine the best course of action for his/her individual situation.

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Help for Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Warning Children About Drug and Alcohol Abuse. When a kid starts experimenting with alcohol or drugs while they are still very young, it is a red flag that there can easily be problems in the future. Children need to be educated at an early age about the effects of drug and alcohol abuse.

You as a parent should know the warning signs. You should set good examples for your kids and let them know how dangerous drugs and alcohol are, that they will drive a wedge between them and the unhealthy habits before they ever have a chance to take control of their lives. Letting kids know that they will never be able to reach their goals if they start using will keep them away from making bad choices.

If you are already being affected by drug and alcohol abuse, the best thing you can do is try to convince the person that he needs help. If you have already educated yourself about the signs of addiction, you will find it much easier to understand what is going on and if the addict is actually paying attention to what you are saying.

If you have convinced an addict that he needs drug and alcohol abuse help, it is best to get him the help he needs immediately. There is no time to sit back and wait another day; an addict can become unpredictable especially when he needs to get high, so the sooner the better when it comes to finding help for an addict.

If your family member or friend has exhausted the entire outpatient routes such as counseling, meetings, and 12-step programs, it may be time to get him into a facility that offers care on an inpatient basis. Inpatient treatment will get him the help he needs, as well as keep him away from other influences that will make him want to use. If the addict leaves or walks away from treatment, the family is notified so they can deny the addict a place to stay if he shows up at the door. Tough love is sometimes the best way to get an addict the drug and alcohol abuse help that he needs.

There is one more thing that gives advantage to the inpatient programs, and that is the drug addict is able to learn and find support in others who are suffering through the same addiction problems. Drug and alcohol abuse can be taken care of and the addict can once again be substance-free forever.