So Who Exactly is an "Addict" or "Alcoholic" Anyway?

It's a common question many people have. Am I really an addict? (... or How do I know if someone I care about is addicted?) What's the difference between an alcoholic and drug addict? Is there a difference between a cocaine ... heroin ... or even a marijuana addict?

alcoholics anonymous 4th edition

A lot of people today drink alcohol and a fair number use drugs. (Does that make them all alcoholics or drug addicts?) Of course not!

ALCOHOLIC

So how do you know for sure? ...

The difference between someone who is addicted and someone who simply uses or abuses a particular substance is the "compulsion to use" (whatever the substance may be)

And what do I mean by "compulsion to use"? ...

Simply that most people who for example drink, know when to stop or have the power to say, "enough is enough." (not always, but most of the time)

Whereas the alcoholic or drug addict can't say no or simply walk away like most people can. As an addict or alcoholic - once you start it becomes almost impossible to stop - to control your using because the compulsion to use or drink is just too strong.

When you become addicted you almost lose the power to choose. That might sound flimsy or wish-washy, but it's not and I'll tell you why in the next part of this course ...

The other big question ... is what's the difference between being an alcoholic or drug addict, whatever your drug of choice may be?

If you look at it carefully ... not a lot actually. Yes your drug (or drink) of choice may be different ... create a different form of high (or feeling), but the end result is still pretty much the same, i.e. "addiction," which leads to "destruction" - or call it what you will - (mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally) ... and which can ultimately lead to the heaviest price that anyone can pay ... death.

So as a heroin addict that process might happen fairly quickly, whereas for the alcoholic it may happen far more gradually over a number of years, yet the consequences (no matter what the substance), of addiction will be very similar.

That's why it's a good idea to start thinking in terms of "addict" rather than "alcoholic," "drug addict," "junkie" or whatever you've been thinking of or using to describe such a person up to now. (Addicts like to think of themselves as "special and different" and that their problems are unique - but in actual fact they are no different to any other "addict"). I know I've been there ...

Why do you think most major rehab facilities treat alcoholism, drug addiction and even things like gambling and sex addiction pretty much the same way?

Addicts even refer to alcohol as a drug because they know that even though for most people it can be enjoyed in moderation - for them it can't - and that's why it's viewed in the same light (even though it may legal and regarded as socially acceptable.)

So Who Exactly is an "Addict" or "Alcoholic" Anyway?

ALCOHOLIC

Perspective on the Progression of Hepatitis C

Many people who have been diagnosed with Hepatitis C are able to live very healthy lives without experiencing any symptoms. However, it is important to recognize the fact that even though one may feel healthy, Hepatitis C is a progressive condition. This means that liver damage develops slowly over time. Experts believe that although one may not be showing immediate symptoms, such as high enzyme levels, the virus is still advancing, just at a slower rate for some people.

Medical experts believe that liver damage occurs in four to five stages: inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure. As the body tries to fight against infection, the liver becomes inflamed, thus beginning the initial phase of this disease. Fibrosis is the process of the inflamed liver tissue becoming scarred. Eventually, the scarred liver tissue can no longer repair itself; it is at this point that cirrhosis occurs. The first three stages of liver disease can occur rapidly or at a very slow pace. If you take appropriate measures, like supplementing your diet with a high quality liver support supplement such as milk thistle, you can actively slow the progression of liver damage.

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

Cirrhosis occurs when there is more scarred liver tissue than healthy tissue; this stage is generally considered an irreversible condition. Once cirrhosis is present, there is an increased risk of developing liver cancer. Following liver cancer, when the liver is no longer functioning, the final stage in the progression of HCV is liver failure.

The medical community hasn't yet been able to find a way to stop the progression of liver disease. Although, clinical studies have shown that making healthy lifestyle choices, for example abstaining from alcohol, to support your liver can help to slow this progression. Also, nutritional supplements, such as Maximum Milk Thistle, have been shown in clinical studies to protect liver cells from damage, help regenerate liver cells and have been proven to slow the progression of fibrosis.

Learn more about Hepatitis C, as well as the three main factors that accelerate the progression of the virus.

Perspective on the Progression of Hepatitis C

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

How Can I Help an Alcoholic?

Putting up with what we perceive as weakness in the one we love or have a relationship to can be frustrating. We can help an alcoholic by not allowing his addiction to make us feel not loved enough for him to quit drinking. The first step in helping an alcoholic is to find him the kind of therapeutic help to understand why he is using alcohol to self medicate. If the alcoholic is using alcohol as a kind of medication, his treatment should be to consider alcoholism as a secondary diagnosis and his psychological problem whether depression or other primary diagnosis as the main focus of treatment of how to help them stop drinking.

alcoholics anonymous

Treating the alcoholics depression with anti depressants can work, and those living with the alcoholic can help by making sure that he doe not mix the two drugs. Another way that we can help an alcoholic is to change his mental health provider. If the alcoholic is targeted as an alcoholic, he will be taken off anti depressants, even if they work, by his counselor. The alcoholic will then be faced with his depression, no medication and his diagnosis of being an alcoholic. He will relapse. We can help an alcoholic by changing his mental health counselor and giving his new counselor just his symptoms to make a diagnosis.

ALCOHOLIC

It might sound confusing, but once a person is designated as an alcoholic, his treatment options become limited as far as how to help an alcoholic concerning group therapies and counselors who perceive in him a weakness to alcohol that is both biological and emotional. The alcoholic as a person who is too weak to stop drinking is not just a stereotype for late night comedy shows. Helping an alcoholic is much like finding the missing link in his behavioral patterns that can explain why he is drinking and to find a substitute to the alcohol until he can handle the cause of his needing to blur his hold on his reality.

Like many other mental disorders that can be helped with the elimination of the drug substance, alcoholics can be helped by a change in environment and friends. Talk therapy helps if the therapist is willing to drop her pre conditioned mind set that the alcoholic is depressed because of the need for alcohol working on his brain and can think about the situations he is relating that led him to begin to drink to mitigate the pain of depression caused by a situation or organic depression. If alcohol can be seen as a cure and not a cause for depression, one can help an alcoholic by finding a therapist who is willing to give the alcoholic a diagnosis that can allow his underlying mental health problem to be treated.

Good luck

How Can I Help an Alcoholic?

ALCOHOLIC

Addictions Hurt More Than Just the Addict - How to Recover From Living With an Alcoholic

If you live with or have lived with an alcoholic, you can recover from it. Addiction can hurt you more than you think. Remember, you can't fix a person. Your partner, spouse, parent, or friend must admit they have an addiction. Most alcoholics are in denial. They can't recognize and see they have a problem. However, you can take control of your life and heal from alcoholism. If you had a parent (or both) that was an alcoholic, it wasn't your fault. They had issues that had nothing to do with you. Chances are they had issues within their childhood that weren't resolved which led them to drink. Whatever you do, get help. Join groups, journal, and get counseling because you can recover from living with an alcoholic.

alcoholic drinks

Addictions Hurt More Than Just the Addict - How to Recover From Living With an Alcoholic

ALCOHOLIC

Get counseling. You could benefit from counseling. Work with a counselor who'll help you to move forward with your recovery. If you keep lamenting about the alcoholic and how he/she affected you, it will keep you stuck. You want to understand your part. Why did you stay as long as you did with your alcoholic partner/spouse? How did your alcoholic parent affect your childhood? How do you internalize the affects of alcoholism? Children who grow up with an alcoholic parent(s) will benefit from counseling. They need to know it's not their fault; they didn't do anything wrong.

Join Al-Anon or some other support group. It may help you to join a group that addresses living with an alcoholic. You may benefit from knowing that you're not the only one who's lived with an alcoholic. The key is not to become stuck within your story. You're more than a person who's lived with an alcoholic. It's an experience that you can learn and move forward from them.

Forgive yourself. If you stayed with an alcoholic, forgive yourself and forgive the alcoholic. You may have stayed with an alcoholic partner/spouse because you felt guilty for leaving. Perhaps you had children and didn't want to break up the family, didn't have anywhere to go, or weren't strong enough to leave the relationship. Forgive yourself and the alcoholic who was in your life. You did the best you could as they did. If you grew up with an alcoholic parent, forgive yourself if you had 'negative' feelings. It was only natural. Forgive yourself if you blamed yourself for your parent's disease. Forgiveness can set you free!

Are you living with an alcoholic?

Living with an alcoholic can be challenging. Even though you love an alcoholic, it may be in your best interest to leave the relationship. What are you getting out of the relationship? What is it that makes you stay? How is it serving you? How healthy is it for you? Why do you think it's healthy? Ask yourself these and other questions to assess your reason why you're staying. You may have a fear that you won't find someone else or that you're abandoning the person. Do what's best for you. You may be doing more harm than good by staying in the relationship. Don't be an enabler. Get help and get out!

You can recover from living an alcoholic

You can recover from living with an alcoholic. Forgiveness is the key. Forgive yourself and the alcoholic. You're not condoning the action or saying, "What you did to me was okay," you're simply releasing yourself from the situation. If you grew up with an alcoholic parent, forgive them. They did the best they could at the time. Remember, it wasn't your fault. Chances are alcoholism runs in the family. If it does, you have a 90% chance of becoming an alcoholic. Of course, this doesn't have to happen. You can choose not to become an alcoholic. What will it be!

Addictions Hurt More Than Just the Addict - How to Recover From Living With an Alcoholic

ALCOHOLIC

Christian Help For An Alcoholic

Religion plays a huge role in a recovering alcoholic's treatment. In fact the whole history of alcoholics anonymous was based off of Christianity and the belief of God. If you were to read the Big Book, which is the manual to AA, you will see that one of its traditions is to turn and trust that God will get you through each day.

alcoholics anonymous big book covers

Many Christians believe that God will be able to deliver you completely out of the clutches of alcohol by cleansing and justifying you. Even though the bible states that alcohol abuse is the failing of the flesh, many believe that the Holy Spirit can help you produce the self control you need to beat it as long as you have the faith.

ALCOHOLIC

You also have to take your recovery one step at a time. It has been said that once you are an alcoholic, you are always an alcoholic. You can never go back to drinking without losing control to it. Many Christians and other religions believe you need to have God's help to deliver you from the urge to drink at all. In order to do this, ask for his help when it comes to you deciding not to have a drink right now. You have to take each day as it comes and focus only on the now and not on the future.

God and spirituality is the basis behind the recovery program for Alcoholics Anonymous. Through out the twelve steps of the program there is a constant theme of turning to God and making amends with him and your life throughout your recovery. The first and probably hardest step of the program is to admit that you were powerless over alcohol and that your life had become unmanageable. Once you get through that step, the of the steps might still be difficult but nothing like that first one.

It's been said that many recovering alcoholics go on to become Born Again Christians after they work the twelve steps of the program. This might be because the 12 steps is very close to the beliefs that people of Christianity faith have. A Born Again Christian is when you essentially hit rock bottom in your life and then you rediscover Jesus. It is also thought of as a total spiritual rebirth. Many recovering alcoholics, including yourself might feel that you could never have reached the point you are at without Gods help. You come to accept that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one in the same and that your life is in their hands.

Not everyone in the world is accepting of Born Again Christians and you might be one of them. However almost everyone in AA's recovery program has admit to having a stronger belief in God and what ever religion they may follow. You have to follow your heart and believe in what you feel most comfortable believing in.

Christian Help For An Alcoholic

ALCOHOLIC

How to Deal With an Alcoholic

There are hundreds of guidelines I could share on how to deal with someone suffering from alcoholism. An alcoholic in our lives can present situations that we are unfamiliar with. How we handle ourselves in the midst of interacting with a problem drinker is the key to enjoying or not enjoying our life.

alcoholics anonymous big book covers

Let me set the foundation with you first, then I'll give you some solid things to use in this dysfunctional relationship you are involved in.

ALCOHOLIC

If you think about it, nothing that you have done up until this point has caused the alcoholic to quit drinking. To take it a step further, nothing that you have tried has caused them to stop acting the way they do. In many instances we beg, argue, demand and try to control everything that they are doing, and nothing works. Am I right or not?

Now, think for a moment of how frustrated, angry, sad and depressed that you may have become as a result of trying to deal with an alcoholic. Do you think that if you had reacted to their behavior differently that you would not be experiencing so many negative emotions? Of course you wouldn't.

With these things in mind, does it stand to reason that if their behaviors have not changed and ours have for the worse that we should learn how to deal with the situation differently? I mean if they refuse to make changes, then that only leaves us holding the power to change our own lives.

So the first step in understanding how to deal with an alcoholic is admitting that you need to change the way you react or respond to everything they are doing. For instance, if they are the type of alcoholic who loves to argue and fight, it takes two people to do this. When we make the decision to NOT participate, then "we" reduce the chances of experiencing negative emotions.

The same principle applies to obsessing over what the problem drinker is doing all of the time. They are going to do what they do no matter what. When "we" start changing our focus and get it off of what they are or are not doing and begin to do things that we enjoy, we will then experience less frustration in our lives. This is called "letting go."

As we begin to realize that we cannot control their behaviors, it becomes easier to let go of many of the things they are doing. As we let go of the things we cannot change and start changing things we can, then we begin to experience more peace and serenity in our lives.

I hope you were not expecting me to tell you how to get the alcoholic to stop drinking. I cannot offer any advice along those lines other than quit enabling. The sooner they suffer the consequences of their choices the quicker they will hit bottom and ask for help.

In review, understand that nothing you have tried has made them quit. Accept that you are the one who needs to start changing the way you interact with them because they are not going to change. Start changing your focus and getting it off of everything they are doing and begin to enjoy your own life again.

Now those are the foundational principles of how to deal with an alcoholic. Like I said earlier, there are hundreds of tips I can share with you. These few that you have received today will be challenging to start with. Just remember to do the best that you can and learn all that you can about how to deal with an alcoholic. The more methods you learn and practice on a daily basis the better "your" life will become.

How to Deal With an Alcoholic

ALCOHOLIC

Liver Cancer Prevention

Surprisingly enough, many liver cancers can be prevented. There isn't a liver cancer vaccine yet, but there IS a hepatitis B vaccine that was approved for use in the United States in the early 1980s. The hepatitis B vaccine protects both children and adults from the hepatitis B virus. Chronic infection with the hepatitis B virus is one of the leading causes of liver cancer worldwide.

It is recommended that all children be given the hepatitis B vaccine and that all adults who are at risk, like health care workers and those who engage in risky behavior, get the vaccine as well.

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

The other leading cause of liver cancer is chronic infection with the hepatitis C virus. So far, there is not a vaccine to protect against hepatitis C infection. The best prevention against hepatitis C as well as hepatitis B (for those who have not been vaccinated) is understanding how the viruses are spread and how to avoid contamination.

Both hepatitis B and hepatitis C are spread through shared use of a contaminated needle (drug use), through unprotected sex, and through childbirth. There was a time when a blood transfusion carried a major risk of contracting hepatitis B or hepatitis C, but better screening has reduced that risk to only one per two million transfusions today.

If you are at high risk for contracting hepatitis B or hepatitis C, you should be tested for these infections often. There are drugs that your doctor can give you to treat these infections. There are no drugs that cure these infections, however, and it is unclear whether treatment actually lessens the chances of cancer developing.

Alcohol abuse is the number one cause of cirrhosis of the liver. Cirrhosis can lead to liver cancer. This cancer prevention technique is quite simple - don't abuse alcohol and if you are abusing alcohol, stop.

Liver Cancer Prevention

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS