Friday, October 21, 2011

How to Write Powerful Letters For Alcoholic Intervention and Alcohol Abuse Help

Alcoholic intervention letters are a powerful strategy you want to use. A key to it's success is preventing this special alcohol abuse help event from becoming emotionally charged with anger and resentment. The alcoholic feels defensive and edgy in the first place and is possible to start arguments, so if someone takes the bait to argue, anger will overtake the session. The fight will dominate the meeting and will destroy it's purpose. In order to prevent it from happening, only one person will speak with the addict, answering concerns and objections. Everyone else only reads from their intervention letter.

alcoholic drinks

A good intervention letter is an important tool, ensuring that your love and concern for the addict is expressed, the purpose of the session is clear and there is no anger, blame or recrimination. Everyone reads their letter, committing to refrain from adding anything else in the alcoholic intervention. This will protect participants from bursting into impetuous arguments, keeping the meeting on track.

ALCOHOLIC

Start your letter with authentic expressions of your love for this person. Speak generously from your heart. Outline in details what you love and cherish about that person. Identify events when he or she was especially helpful to you, made a difference to you and the times when you have been proud of the person. List the person's beautiful qualities and what you miss about him or her.

The addict will anticipate recriminations at the start of the alcoholic intervention. Hearing about how much they are loved and the contribution they have been to others can stimulate the alcoholic's willingness to enroll in a alcohol abuse help clinic.

Next, remove morality - right and wrong - from the situation, shifting it into the medical realm. Express that alcoholism is a disease which requires medical treatment. Confirm that it is not a matter of the addict's willpower or strength, but a matter of receiving treatment for a serious illness. Request the addict to receive professional alcohol abuse help immediately following the alcoholic intervention.

Then list factual examples which illustrate the alcohol problem. These must be your own experiences, not what you heard from others. For example:

"Mum, I visited you three times this week to see how you are, and each time, you were drunk by 7pm. Your speech was slurred and anything I did seem to anger you. You screamed and cursed at me, calling me offensive names and it hurts me so much! Then the next day, when I brought it up, you have no memory of my visit. I know you love me and don't want to hurt me, but when you've been drinking, how you treat me is intensely painful and shatters me."

Eliminate all blame, recriminations and anger. These sabotage the goal of the addict accepting specialized help during the alcoholic intervention. Express how the addict's behavior makes you feel about yourself rather than blaming the person for your feelings. For example:

Then express real examples which expose the alcohol problem clearly. Whereas, "When you've been drinking, how you treat me hurts me deeply and makes me feel unwanted" addresses the behavior without blaming.

Conclude your letter with love and concern. Express your support of alcoholism recovery, requesting the alcoholic to enter a specific in-patient clinic.

When this simple format of an alcoholic intervention letter is combined with a firm request for receiving professional alcohol abuse help is repeated by every participant, it creates a powerful impact on the alcoholic leading to that person saying yes.

How to Write Powerful Letters For Alcoholic Intervention and Alcohol Abuse Help

ALCOHOLIC

Living With an Alcoholic Wife - Beat the Challenge

Living with an alcoholic wife can absorb your entire personal life. While you do as much as you are able to help your wife get through her alcohol addiction, you also need to remember that you have a life too.

alcoholics anonymous 4th edition

To keep your sanity while living with an alcoholic, there is a decision you must make: Stop allowing your life to be absorbed with providing the constant care for your alcoholic wife. It's a tough choice to make as feelings of responsibility
and guilt have a strong grip on you conscience. What makes it harder still is that you love her dearly, especially when she's sober. To start breaking the cycle while you're living with an alcoholic wife, the best thing you can do is to begin taking care of yourself first. Find information, support and help for living with an alcoholic.

ALCOHOLIC

It is difficult to maintain but it is absolutely vital that you have solid patience when living with an alcoholic. Give yourself permission to put your own health first: mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. You need to do this so you can be positive and encouraging as you support your wife to find her way out of her alcohol abuse addiction. Study the most effective ways you can help her so that you are best prepared and remain consistent in your support.

If you haven't done so yet, remove ALL the alcohol from your house. Don't even think of hiding it because living with an alcoholic is like having Sherlock Holmes around. You can bet your last penny that your wife will find it. You may even want to stay away from alcohol yourself and turn your house into an alcohol-free zone.

If you have been nagging at her to seek professional help, you'll need to stop doing it as continuing this way is ineffective. When living with an alcoholic wife one of your main goals must be to help her reach the point of no return where she definitely wants to change and improve her life.

If you have been fixing the problems which her alcohol abuse addiction has caused, then stop doing this too and stop picking up the pieces after her. Each time you shield your wife from the consequences of her alcohol abuse, it keeps her away from reaching the state of wanting to make a change. Make it clear that you love and support the woman you married, not the alcoholic.

Although living with an alcoholic is extremely hard, you can make it easier by finding out what else you're currently doing which is not helping. Reduce your frustration, resentment and stress by finding out what to do and what not to do while living with an alcoholic wife. Make sure that you are both eating well. Malnutrition can stimulate the alcoholism and you do not want that. Do not isolate yourself from the world. Make sure you continue to spend time with your friends and have personal life away from the alcoholic. Be kind to yourself and give yourself permission to have your own life and to be happy while you are living with an alcoholic.

Living With an Alcoholic Wife - Beat the Challenge

ALCOHOLIC

Hepatitis Part II - Types of Hepatitis

As we mentioned in previous articles, hepatitis is characterized by the destruction of a number of liver cells and the presence of inflammatory cells in the liver tissue caused by excessive alcohol drinking, disorders of the gall bladder or pancreas, including medication side effects, and infections. There are many other infective agents that can cause inflammation of the liver, or hepatitis. However, the term is unfortunately commonly used to refer to a particular group of viruses such as Hepatitis A, B, and C.

hepatitis

In this article we will discuss types of hepatitis, there are 5:

HEPATITIS

1. Hepatitis A (HAV)
Hepatitis A causes swelling and inflammation in the liver and is very common in underdeveloped countries, resulting in drinking water or eating food that is infected by the hepatitis A virus (HAV). It can also be transmitted through sexual intercourse. This type of hepatitis usually has slow onset and most people fully recover. Hepatitis A can be discovered by blood testing.

2. Hepatitis B (HBV)
Hepatitis B virus is most often contracted via blood contact such as blood, semen, body fluids, IV drug abusers sharing needles or someone using tainted needles. It can also be transmitted through sexual contact and from mother to baby during childbirth. Hepatitis B causes inflammation of the liver leading to a serious infection that can cause liver damage, which may result in cancer.

3. Hepatitis C (HCV)
Hepatitis C, like hepatitis B is spread via blood and body-fluid contact such as blood, semen, body fluid, IV drug abusers sharing needles or someone using tainted needles. Hepatitis C used to be the most common type of hepatitis acquired through blood transfusions until a test for it became available in the 1980s. Hepatitis C causes inflammation of the liver resulting in liver damage that can lead to cancer. It also commonly leads to chronic liver inflammation and slowly damagesthe liver over a long period of time before leading to cirrhosis of the liver, that means scar tissue replacing normal, healthy tissue in result of blocking the flow of blood through the liver and preventing it from from working as it should.

4. Hepatitis D (HDV)
Hepatitis D is caused by the virus HDV. You can only get hepatitis D if you are already infected with hepatitis B. Hepatitis D also causes inflammation of liver and is transmitted through infected blood, needles and sexual contact with with a person infected with HDV.

5. Hepatitis E (HEV)
Similar to hepatitis A, hepatitis E is also caused by drinking water or eating food that os infected by the hepatitis A virus (HAV). It can also be transmitted through sexual intercourse causing temporary swelling of the liver and no long term damage to it.

I hope this information will help. If you need more information of the above subject, please visit my home page at:

Hepatitis Part II - Types of Hepatitis

HEPATITIS

Thursday, October 20, 2011

You're Married to an Alcoholic - What to Do?

"My Partner is a Functioning Alcoholic"
Being married to a functioning alcoholic can cause many problems in a family. Tens of thousands of families in North America alone are struggling with this issue.

alcoholics anonymous 4th edition

A drinking problem can begin in many ways. For some people it begins with social drinking. Social drinking can gradually deteriorate into alcohol abuse and eventually into alcohol dependence. The drinking became a habit and the habit became alcohol dependence or alcoholism. It matters not whether the alcohol is in the form of beer, wine or hard liquor. Alcohol is alcohol in any shape or form.

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Now your partner has shifted from enjoying a drink to compulsively needing alcohol to feel okay. And you may have shifted from being giving and caring to being addicted to your partner's care. Compulsive caretaking often grows alongside the deteriorating self-care of the compulsive drinker.
If the alcoholic has more or less continued to hold down a job, he is politely called a "functioning alcoholic." But he is an alcoholic nonetheless. He works a great deal below his potential, he neglects or abuses his family and he may not live very long if he continues the self-abuse.

Like all addicts, he lies (bold faced lies, lies of omission, cover-ups, and minimization), he makes excuses, he blames others for his drinking, and he continues to seek out and use alcohol despite the consequences.

If there are children present, they copy the lying, justifying, blaming behavior which they see modeled. They also learn to keep family secrets and to cover for their alcoholic parent. In other words they join in the "dance of alcohol" and participate with their parents, learning how to be alcoholics or how to live with them when they grow up.

If you are an alcoholic and you are in a marriage, you may have to leave your drinking behind completely in order to gain any hope of reversing the progressive damage your alcoholism is inflicting on yourself and your family.

If you are living with a functioning alcoholic, there are steps you can take too. Perhaps more importantly at first, there are things you can learn to avoid so that you don't further your partner's alcoholism. Making excuses for him, for example, only makes things worse. You don't want to be an enabler or a rescuer.

The Alcoholism Test
Over the years in my psychology practice many women have started their first session with "My husband is a functioning alcoholic." In the last few days alone two more women took the Alcoholism Test and left a comment opening with "My husband is a functioning alcoholic." I seldom see or hear the statement without also sensing an undertone of desperation and frustration, as if to say, I didn't bargain for this when we got married.

You're Married to an Alcoholic - What to Do?

ALCOHOLIC

Diary of a Practicing Alcoholic

Each day a practicing alcoholic is a an internal struggle that lies within. Learning to function in an inebriated state of mind becomes second nature to an alcoholic. While it's true that alcoholics may come across as being selfish individuals, many times they care more deeply than what is let on.

alcoholic whipped cream

Alcoholics struggle with their inner demons each day of their life. The brain of an alcoholic simply doesn't function in the same way as most. Simple tasks, such as going to the store, are often difficult to endure. With bars on every street corner, and liquor available almost anywhere you go, no "outing" is safe from inner addiction that beckons an alcoholic to succumb to temptation.

ALCOHOLIC

Trying to understand an alcoholic is another story in itself. Why would any sane person stay up drinking until 4 in the morning, when they have to be at work by 7. Who would jeopardize their careers, for the sake of "one" more drink? Why would someone damage their liver, for the sake of putting themselves into a drunken stupor? The answers to these questions you need to step inside the mind of an alcoholic. You can't get any clear answers from medical book, and recovering alcoholics even seem to lose some of the insight that a practicing alcoholic can give you.

If you have ever wondered what it is like to be an alcoholic, you need to walk in the shoes of a practicing alcoholic. The picture isn't pretty, but you just may walk away with a greater appreciation of what the disease is all about, and you likely be more compassionate about the trials and tribulations that an alcoholic goes through.

Alcoholism affects millions of people all over the world, yet the lifestyle is glorified on television in many ways. You have to step into the dark side of alcohol abuse to witness the dark journey that awaits an alcoholic that continues down the path of self destruction for themselves, their families, and everyone that steps inside their own private hell.

Diary of a Practicing Alcoholic

ALCOHOLIC

Hepatitis Part III - How to Prevent Hepatitis With Foods

As we mentioned in previous articles, hepatitis is characterized by the destruction of a number of liver cells and the presence of inflammatory cells in the liver tissue caused by excessive alcohol drinking, disorders of the gall bladder or pancreas, medication side effects, and infections. Therefore strengthening your immune system and cleansing your body of toxins become the most important factor in avoiding being infected by hepatitis virus. Here are some foods containing antioxidant and liver cleansing powers:

hepatitis

1. Fresh water algae
Fresh water algae contains high amounts of antioxidant-chlorophyll that has the power in strengthening the immune system to fight any bacteria and virus infection. It also helps in cleansing liver toxins as well as fat build-up in liver.

HEPATITIS

2. Whole grain products
Whole grain product stimulates the liver to rid the body of toxins, supports the heart and is rich in protein, B vitamins, and fiber. It also helps lower blood cholesterol, reduce tumors, strengthens the immune and treats hepatitis.

3. Green vegetable juices
The fresh raw vegetable juices are vitally important in the nutritional treatment of hepatitis. Green Vegetable juice contains high amounts of vitamin C, bioflavonoids, carotenoids, living plant enzymes to aid digestion & vitamin K resulting in cleansing of liver toxins as well as strengthening the immune system, helping to fight against hepatitis infection.

4. Legumes
Legumes contain the nutrients and good sources of water-soluble fibers that your body needs to produce and activate the dozens of enzymes involved in the various phases of detoxification.

5. Cold water fish
Cold water fish contain high amounts of essential fatty acids that helps to support the detoxification pathways in the liver, break down toxic chemicals and toxins from the blood stream. A healthy liver filter will keep your blood stream clean and free of dangerous toxins and microorganisms. The regular use of a liver tonic such as essential fatty acids support the repair of liver cells.

6. Limit daily intake of alcohol
Alcohol is a potent toxin to the liver. Excessive alcohol drinking can lead to cirrhosis and its complications, including liver cancer.

7. Stop smoking
Cigarette fumes contain high amounts of cadmium, a toxic chemical that causes not only blood clots but also weakens the immune system functioning by fighting against harmful viruses and detoxifying the liver.

I hope this information will help. If you need more information, please visit my home page at:

Hepatitis Part III - How to Prevent Hepatitis With Foods

HEPATITIS

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Yeast Free Alcohol - What Types of Alcoholic Beverages Are Yeast Free?

Yeast, for the majority of people, is a safe bacterium that is the major ingredient in an enormous amount of foods consumed everyday in America. Yeast leavens bread, curdles cottage cheese, and ferments wines, beers, and every other alcoholic drink. But for some people, medically prescribed diets limit all yeast consumption. This can be devastating to those who enjoy a bottle of beer or a glass of wine, as there does not appear to be yeast free alcohol.

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So is there such a thing as yeast free alcohol?

ALCOHOLIC

All alcoholic beverages are fermented during the brewing process. This fermentation is what causes alcohol to be present in beers, wines, whiskeys, etc. In order for this fermentation to take place, yeast reacts with oxygen and alcohol is the product. This means that in order to have an alcoholic beverage, yeast must be present.

However, just because yeast is used in the brewing of alcohol does not necessarily mean that yeast free alcohol does not exist. Wineries, for example, ferment their beverages with yeast. But through several distillation processes, including rigorous filtration procedures, almost all yeast residues are removed from the finished product. This is to assure that the wine is clear, colorful, flavorful, fragrant, and that no more reactions continue inside the bottle. If there were still yeast bacteria present in a finished product, the yeast would continue to react and cause the wine to be far too alcoholic and ruin the taste.

For beers, vodkas, bourbons, rums, and other alcoholic beverages, however, one must be extra careful, especially if the alcohol is imported. Some breweries are not as particular about the yeast content as are wineries. In Russia and the Czech Republic, for example, vodkas and beers are unpasteurized and contain a significant amount of active yeast bacteria. The beverages acquire a much different taste as they continue to age inside the bottle.

However, by law, all domestic beers must be pasteurized and filtered. This means that all domestic-brewed drinks, like Budweiser or Captain Morgan, are both examples of yeast free alcohol.

I'd recommend that you consult a physician before making any changes to your current diet. I'm not a medically-trained doctor, and can not speak for the tolerances of every person; nor can all types of alcohol be treated as yeast-free, regardless of law or likelihood.

Yeast Free Alcohol - What Types of Alcoholic Beverages Are Yeast Free?

ALCOHOLIC