Alcoholism

What Type of Alcoholic Are You?

In a recent research done by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism an interesting observation was made. A typical alcoholic falls into any one of 5 types. More on the types of alcoholics shortly. The most proliferate category of alcoholics were found to be “Young Adults”. This is an alarming trend and cause for serious concern.

Out of a sample size of nearly 1500, Dr. Howard B. Moss conducting the research along with a team of researchers found that nearly 31% of the alcoholics were young adults and about 20% did not have a family history of alcoholism and were highly functional individuals.

The NIAAA researchers categorized the alcoholics that were studied as part of the research into 5 categories.

Young Adult Alcoholics

This group was by far the largest with 31.5 % of the total sample size of alcoholics studied. They also found very low rates of parallel substance abuse and low rates of a family history of alcoholism. Another noted characteristic was that this group very rarely asked for any help to stop or control their drinking habit.

Young Antisocial Alcoholics

The second largest group of the lot with 21%. Most of the alcoholics in this group were in their mid 20′s and most of them started drinking at a very early age. More than 50% of this group however had a family history of alcoholism. A large percentage of this group, around 75% also usually had other addiction problems such as smoking cigarettes, cocaine, marijuana and opium addiction. The good news though with this group was that more than 30% actively seek help to curb or recover from their addictions.

Functional Alcoholics

The next group categorized as functional alcoholics were typically well educated, middle aged, relatively well to do with stable families and jobs. This group was slightly lesser than 20% of the total sample, 19.5% to be exact. Also nearly 50% of this group were found to be smokers and about 25% had major depression symptoms and illness at some point in their lives.

Intermediate Familial Alcoholics

This group at 19% also was pretty close as far as the sample size to the functional alcoholics group. Again mostly middle aged with close to 50% of them having some family history of alcohol abuse. Close to half of this group had clinical depression with a smaller percentage also having bipolar disorder. Most of the is group was found to also smoke and nearly 20% were found to be addicted to cocaine and marijuana.

Chronic Severe Alcoholics

The smallest of the sample size thankfully at 9% Again most of them were found to be middle aged and had spiraled down the alcoholism route relatively early on in their lives. Close to 80% came from families with a history of alcoholism and also had high occurrence of depression, bipolar disorder, addiction to smoking and marijuana and anxiety issues. This group was found to be more open to alcohol treatment and made up the most percentage in numbers as far as people currently undergoing alcohol treatment.

Sometimes categorizing alcoholics can help individuals and people who treat them assess the situation and come up with the required help, counseling and alcohol treatment options.

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Alcoholism Treatment

Alcoholism treatment often starts with the individual coming to grips with the fact that they are alcoholic. Alcoholism is a very treatable condition and they are many ways to about treating Alcoholism.

Irrespective of how a person has been diagnosed as being an alcoholic, what is key is the fact that the person understands that he is an alcoholic and is sincere and determined in his or her efforts to beat the addiction. There is no point in forcing someone to look for treatment or go into a detox center under pressure because these steps rarely work and pretty soon you will find the person falling off the wagon and well on the road to addiction all over again.

That is not to say that you cannot relapse, infact most alcoholics fall off the program and relapse atleast once before they firm up and get back on the detox program and beat alcoholism. There are many reasons for a relapse and it is important that an alcoholic gets the family support especially spousal support to avoid a relapse.

In the beginning of your Alcoholism treatment almost all alcoholics will experience severe withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms can vary from mild shakes to delirium that can be life threatening. You can also experience hallucinations, convulsions and in extreme cases death. It is always important to seek qualified medical help before you start with any Alcoholism treatment program. This is the main reasons that heavy drinkers are treated in specialized Alcoholism treatment centers or rehab or detox centers that cater specifically to alcoholics and detoxification.

Detoxification treatment mainly involves controlled abstinence from alcohol in a carefully monitored environment that involves constant monitoring of vital signs and always on the lookout for any kind of withdrawal symptoms.

Generally the detoxification process which is the initial part of the treatment for Alcoholism takes about a week to run its course. After that, it is important to monitor the patient as most of his dependency or need for alcohol is primarily psychological. There are many facilities in the United States that offer alcohol treatment services. They range from short term to a more long term in-patient hospitalization process along with outpatient therapy and counseling.

Medical Treatment for Alcoholism

Though there is yet to be a breakthrough drug that can treat Alcoholism, there are medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration that are prescribed to alcoholics that can help in their efforts to stop drinking. At the time of writing this article, there are three medications approved in the United States for the treatment of alcoholism.

Antabuse – Works as a deterrent against alcohol
Naltrexone – Reduces alcohol craving
Acamprosate – Relieves the stress

Support Groups for Alcoholism

The oldest and one of the best methods for Alcoholism treatment is still support groups. The most well known is Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous are a group of men and women who share their experiences and help and motivate each other with the common goal of recovering from alcoholism and avoiding a relapse. Alcoholics Anonymous is a free support group and welcome participation.

Research has shown that support groups and family support is vital to alcoholics and Alcoholism treatment. A support group help each other by sharing and supporting one another. This goes a long way in helping an alcoholic staying sober. Support groups combined with other treatment options is most effective for Alcoholism treatment.

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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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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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Signs Of Alcoholism That Will Destroy Your Life And Family

Being able to recognize the signs of alcoholism as early as possible is extremely important especially when you think that your loved one might have an alcohol problem. The person can be very skillful at hiding their drinking at first, but alcoholism will interfere with the rest of their life and eventually destroy your family.

Living with an alcoholic will slam your life on its head, so begin looking for the following signs of alcoholism and take action now.

#1: Drinking interferes with work, friendships, hobbies or other aspects of their life.

The person may skip going to school, work, meetings or events and declare they were unwell so the family does not realize that alcohol is the cause of their absence. As the alcoholism advances the interferences become more difficult to hide or deny.

For example, it can begin with missing a day of work here and there and end up with showing up at work drunk or getting fired for alcohol related reasons.

#2: The person loses interest in things that kept them social and happy.

One of the sure signs of alcoholism is the person withdrawing. They may have enjoyed playing baseball previously but suddenly stop attending games and drop out of their team. This is often due to the alcoholic spending more and more time thinking about drinking and getting drunk to the point where it becomes a priority and replaces any other interests.

#3: They burst out or become angry every time you attempt to speak with them about their drinking.

This is one of the first signs of alcoholism that brings the attention of the family members to the presence of alcohol abuse addiction. A generic comment or question about the alcoholic’s drinking patterns can receive an overreacted, uncharacteristic response as they start yelling or lose control.

Alcoholics become very defensive and do whatever they can to hide their drinking and discourage family from discussing the issues with them or becoming involved in any way.

#4: They seem incapable or unwilling to stop regardless of the consequences.

Another of the many signs of alcoholism is when an alcoholic loses everything they loved and still continue drinking as if they do not realize what they have done, or simply do not care. Many alcoholics can get fired from their jobs, isolate themselves from all of their friends, and even cause their spouse and children to leave them.

For some, being left by a spouse or being told by a court that they are an unfit parent can be the catalyst to change. For others, the disease can consume them and they continue drinking unless an alternate alcoholic intervention occurs.

Living with an alcoholic is a struggle and most people have no idea how to deal with the situation. Family members end up with no self confidence from being degraded by the alcoholic and eventually isolate themselves from their friends as they try to cover up the alcohol problem at home.

The emotional impact of living with an alcoholic can be felt for a lifetime, especially in the children of alcoholics.

If you witnessed any of these signs of alcoholism then you must act immediately in order to protect your family from living with an alcoholic later on. You must find out the other signs of alcoholism, learn about alcohol abuse addiction and discover the pit falls that many people get into so that you can avoid them. Doing nothing now may result in you becoming one of the heartbreaking statistics.

If left undetected the signs of alcoholism will develop into a full scale alcoholism. Consequently, living with an alcoholic will destroy your family. Whether the person in your home is just showing signs of alcoholism or you already are living with an alcoholic, keep gathering information to help you deal with the situation.

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The Relationship Between Alcoholism and Genetics

The question “is alcoholism is genetic oriented” has not a definite answer. However there are some evidences that it could be. A genetic study shows that some clusters of genetic variation play an important role in alcohol addiction. Alcoholism and genetics related factors are discussed below:

It is shown that all individuals with a family history of alcoholism have some risk of developing the problem of alcoholism. Family history of alcoholism means that either or both the parents had alcoholic problems. Parental alcoholism will be a factor for children to become alcoholics. The risk increases when the child is a boy having novelty seeking personality and impulsive behavior.

A new research shows that alcoholism and genetics have some relationship. The researchers identified a new gene that may be responsible for excessive drinking habit. The scientists used micro array techniques to study the genes expression in the brain which prompts high or low consumption of alcohol. This study gives new room to deal with alcoholism disorders.

Family history of alcoholism seems to have biological dysfunction in individuals who develop stress even before they get into drinking problems while others develop such problems only after the drinking problem arises. Some other studies show that stress may lead to alcoholism. The relationship between stress and alcohol is however not yet clear. But it is found that stress increases the release of Beta endorphin and high doses of alcohol also increase the Beta endorphin. Therefore family history of alcoholism is risky and will exhibit the dysfunction of stress even before the individual develops drinking problems. Hence individuals with family history of alcoholism must try to cope up with stressful situations by some other ways and should try to avoid consuming alcohol.

The degree of genetic influences on alcoholism risk may be sex specific also. The studies show that males with family history of alcoholism have more chances to develop alcoholism than women. A research in more than 50 families shows that alcoholism runs in families. This study reveals that first degree relatives like parents, children and siblings of treated alcoholics have two or four times higher risk of developing alcoholism.

The scientists in Washington have observed that parental alcoholism and personality leads to higher risk of alcoholism in individuals. The novelty seeking personality trait and parental alcoholism will develop addiction to alcohol. If someone has thrill seeking impulsive behavior then they have chance of becoming alcoholics. The risk is double the time more if they have either or both the parent is alcoholics.

The desire for consuming alcoholic products may be due to environmental signals also. However the genetic factors also play an important role here. Adoption and twin studies show that alcoholic consumption is likely to be inherited from parents. As already stated, sex will also influence the genetic factors leading to alcoholism. The researchers identified that Chromosome 1 is the area related to alcohol consumption. Therefore it is confirmed that genetic factors will increase the risk of alcoholism, however the extent of genetic factor leading to alcoholism requires further studies.

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Alcoholism And Healing

Jeffrey showed up at one of my 5-Day Inner Bonding Intensives to deal with his alcoholism and resulting relationship problems. His past two marriages had ended in messy divorces. His business was falling apart. Yet in the face of all of this, Jeffrey could not or would not stop drinking.

Two things were immediately apparent in my first session with Jeffrey. First, he had completely abandoned himself, making others responsible for his self-worth. Due to his unwillingness to take responsibility for his own feelings, he was constantly pulling others for approval with his “niceness.” His inauthentic saccharine niceness felt like sticky glue trying to ooze its way into having control over getting others’ approval. Needless to say, it was not working for him.

Second, he had no spiritual connection, no Source to turn to for love, comfort and guidance. As anyone who has attended AA knows, being able to turn to a spiritual Source is essential for healing. The support of the people within the program can help sustain abstinence, but true healing comes from the inner spiritual connection.

No one had ever confronted Jeffrey with how much they were put off by his controlling niceness. They would just go away, leaving him to wonder what he had done wrong. At first, when the Intensive participants told Jeffrey about feeling pulled at for approval, he felt hurt. But within the loving energy of the Intensive, he was soon able to open to learning about the gift they were offering him. He was able to see that, because he was abandoning himself by ignoring his feelings and judging himself, he was handing others responsibility for his feelings of worth.

Once Jeffrey opened to how alone he felt inside when he abandoned himself, he was able to move into compassion rather than judgment for his feelings. As his heart open to compassion for himself, he began to feel the love that is always within and around us – the love that is our Source.

As a result of learning and practicing the 6-Step Inner Bonding process and connecting with himself and his spiritual Guidance, Jeffrey no longer wanted to drink. The alcohol was filling up the inner emptiness caused by his self-abandonment and disconnection from his Source. He left the Intensive with no desire to drink. Jeffrey has been alcohol-free for many years now.

Rachael had been struggling with her alcoholism for 19 years before attending an Inner Bonding Intensive. While she had a strong belief in God, she had never felt a deep and personal connection with God. Like Jeffrey, she had used alcohol to fill the emptiness and avoid the pain that came from her own self-abandonment and disconnection from her Source. Rachael was constantly judging herself as inadequate. Until the Intensive, she had believed that her pain was being caused by others’ behavior towards her – others’ judgments of her. At the Intensive, she discovered that she was not a victim – that her pain was being caused by ignoring her feelings and judging herself, as well as by not speaking up for herself with her husband and family.

As Rachael learned and practiced the Inner Bonding process, she started to attend to her own feelings and make the connection between her pain and her self-judgments. She also started speaking up for herself. As she opened her heart to her Source, to her feelings, and to the beautiful essence within her, she discovered a joy that she had never felt in her life. The inner emptiness and anxiety that had been her constant companions were gone. Gone too was her desire to drink.

Addictions are caused by self-abandonment – by ignoring your feelings, by judging yourself, and by closing your heart to your Source. They can be healed.

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Alcoholism Marriage: Dealing With Shocking Alcoholism Marriage Issues

If you have found yourself dealing with alcoholism marriage issues and problems, you may be wondering where you can turn to for help, guidance and assistance. You may be married to an alcoholic, but you love your spouse and you want to make the most appropriate decisions not only for your husband and wide but also for yourself and the rest of your family.

When considering alcoholism marriage problems, one of the primary resources that is available to you today is Al-Anon. At its Internet website, Al-Anon has set out its primary purposes very succinctly:

“Al-Anon offers understanding help; support to families and friends of problem drinkers. Our program is adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous and is based upon the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts of Service.”

Today, there are active Al-Anon chapters all over the world. If you reside in a city or town that has an AA chapter, you probably also have an Al-Anon chapter. Considering and understanding all that is involved with alcoholism marriage problems and issues, AA and Al-Anon go hand in hand.

Beyond Al-Anon, if you are the spouse of a problem drinker or alcoholic who is experiencing many alcoholism marriage problems, you might also want to consider obtaining counseling for yourself. There are counselors and therapists that now deal specifically with the difficult alcoholism marriage issues.

Finally, when it comes to alcoholism marriage matters, you need to understand that you alone cannot change the life of an alcoholic partner. Your significant other is going to have to want to make changes in his or her own life. Indeed, as many experts say, a person afflicted with alcoholism may have to hit rock bottom before individual seeks assistance and changes his or her life. The key is not to let yourself get dragged down in the process.

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