Alcohol Recovery Info

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image: female jogger depressed over drinking

Depending on the scope of the program, alcohol recovery refers to the psychotherapeutic, social, medical, and/or educational treatment processes required for an individual to stop drinking alcohol.

The ultimate goal of alcohol recovery is to help the alcoholic stop his or her addictive behavior so that he or she can avoid the social, emotional, physical, legal, and financial consequences that are usually caused by alcoholism.

If you are an alcoholic, isn't it time for you to make a positive and healthy change in your life and reclaim your life by becoming sober and starting your personal recovery from alcohol?

Good News: Alcohol Addiction Recovery is Possible

Is recovery from alcohol a myth? Is alcohol addiction recovery really possible? Similar to other diseases, alcohol addiction, also known as alcoholism and alcohol dependency, can be overcome with prevention, proper treatment, and increased research efforts.

image: young man upset with alcoholic behavior of girlfriend By providing more individuals with access to quality care, such as professional alcohol recovery centers, the costly drain on society and the emotional, physical, and financial burdens it places on families can be significantly reduced.

In fact, research demonstrates strong evidence that successful prevention and treatment and successful alcohol addiction recovery results in significant reductions in strokes, unwanted pregnancy, HIV, child abuse, cancer, traffic fatalities, heart disease, and crime.

Moreover, professional treatment and effective recovery from alcohol addiction improves quality of life, health, and job performance while at the same time reduces involvement with the criminal justice system, family dysfunction, and drug use and abuse.

Ironically, it can be pointed out that one of the key reasons why certain persons get sober and want to recover from alcohol addiction starts with a basic alcohol test.

That is, due to mandatory alcohol tests performed at various checkpoints initiated by various police departments and/or random alcohol tests at work, the "trigger" that induces many individuals to stop drinking alcohol has been an alcohol test that revealed unacceptable levels of alcohol in their saliva, blood, urine, or breath. Once individuals got "caught" drinking alcohol, many of them decided to stop drinking and get professional treatment so that they could re-claim their lives and recover from alcohol.

Alcoholics Anonymous

The best known and one of the most successful alcohol recovery programs is Alcoholics Anonymous.

Alcoholics Recovery. Alcoholics Anonymous is a worldwide affiliation of men and women from all walks image: old man lost in thought while drinking a beer of life who share their experiences, strengths, and aspirations with one other in the hope that they may solve their mutual problem and assist others in their quest to recover from alcohol dependence.

The only condition for AA membership is a desire to quit drinking alcohol. Therefore, total abstinence from alcohol is advocated by the organization.

Members make a conscious effort to refrain from drinking and they accomplish this "one day at a time" as they receive support from others who are actively invloved in their personal recovery from alcohol addiction.

Alcoholics Anonymous recovery and sobriety is achieved through mutual support as members share their hopes, their strengths, and their experiences.

There are no fees or dues for AA membership. Alcoholics Anonymous is self-supporting through its own member contributions. Alcoholics Anonymous is neither aligned with any religious denomination or sect nor associated with any political institution or organization. Moreover, Alcoholics Anonymous does not wish to involve themselves in anything that is controversial and sanctions nor opposes any causes. The major purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous members is to remain sober and help other alcoholics to attain sobriety through its alcohol recovery program.

Heavy drinking can increase the risk for certain cancers, especially those of the throat, voice box (larynx), liver, and esophagus. Excessive drinking can also cause immune system problems, brain damage, harm to the fetus during pregnancy, and cirrhosis of the liver.

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

The core of the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) alcohol recovery program is articulated in the Twelve Steps. Based on the experiences of Alcoholics Anonymous' earliest members, the 12 Steps represent the documented practices and principles, acquired through trail and error, the early members established in order to maintain sobriety and recover form alcohol.

The following represents the 12 Steps in the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program:

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

source: www.alcoholics-anonymous.org

Paradoxically, harmful relationship patterns such as codependency are frequently perpetuated even after the alcoholic or chemically addicted person becomes sober or "clean." Clearly, when viewed from the outside, sobriety in the household would seem to lead to a less chaotic domestic situation. When viewed from the inside, conversely, the co-dependents may be more depressed and unhappy than ever because the earlier balance, no matter how detrimental or damaging, has been upset.

The SMART Alcohol Recovery Program

Recovering From Alcoholism. Another alcohol addiction recovery program that does not rely on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and is, in fact, an alternative to AA is the Self Management And Recovery Training (SMART) program. The founders who developed the SMART program believe that each person discovers his or her own path to drug and alcohol recovery.

image: nurse checking on problem drinker For some people, this path might be the traditional 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. While the SMART program is different than the Alcoholics Anonymous alcohol recovery approach, it does not, however, exclude Alcoholics Anonymous.

In fact, some individual who adhere to the SMART alcohol addiction methodology also choose to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings because they feel that what they hear at Alcoholics Anonymous helps them on their path to permanent drug and alcohol recovery.

The SMART alcohol addiction recovery program is based on scientific knowledge and provides specific techniques and tools for each of the following four program points:

Alcohol detoxification is the process of letting the body rid itself of alcohol while managing the withdrawal symptoms in a safe environment. This form of treatment is typically done under the supervision of a medical practitioner and is frequently the first step in an alcoholic treatment program.

Point 1:
Enhancing and maintaining the motivation to abstain from alcohol or drugs

Point 2:
Coping with urges to drink or take drugs

Point 3:
Learning problem solving skills such as learning how to better manage thoughts, actions, and feelings

Point 4:
Becoming skilled at lifestyle balance such as balancing momentary and other satisfactions

source: http://www.smartrecovery.org/

In the fourth and final stage of alcoholism, the alcoholic manifests an utter disregard for everything, including shelter, family, food, and job. These occasional flights into oblivion are best described, ironically, as drinking to get away from the problems caused by drinking.

Alcoholism Videos

We have included some alcoholism videos so that you can see and hear directly from various people about their struggles with this disease and how some of them are now actively involved in their recovery from alcohol addiction. If you, a family member, or one of your friends has a "drinking problem," seeing what others have gone through and how they attained successful recovery from alcohol is much more "real" than any information you can read about. Furthermore, watching these videos may help you understand what others with a drinking problem are experiencing. So make sure you look at these excellent videos!

Factors that affect your blood alcohol level include the following: how quickly your body metabolizes alcohol, how quickly you consume the alcoholic drink, how much food is in your stomach at the time you drink, and how strong the alcoholic drink is.

Alcohol Recovery: Conclusion

image: young man pondering his life as an alcoholic With all of the damaging aspects caused by alcoholism, it makes sense for people to learn how to abstain from drinking, how to recover from alcohol addiction, and how to restore their lives. If abstaining from alcohol means learning about more alcohol recovery information, joining different alcohol recovery groups, receiving inpatient alcohol detox treatment, or taking medications such as Antabuse, then this is what alcoholics will have to do in order to begin and continue alcohol addiction recovery.

It does not necessarily make a difference whether the person chooses a more traditional program such as the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program, the SMART program, or one of the many other professional recovery programs. What matters most is the following: alcoholics need to acknowledge that they have a drinking problem, they need to want to quit drinking, and they need to find an alcohol treatment program that works for them if they are to attain alcohol addiction recovery and become sober.

Sometimes family members, friends, or coworkers recognize that a person needs help for an alcohol use problem before the person does. This is usually because the person is in denial about drinking and does not think treatment is needed. A person in denial might make excuses for his or her drinking or blame other people or circumstances.

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Alcohol can be dangerous in smaller amounts if it is used in combination with the following drugs: certain anti-seizure medications such as phenobarbital; sedatives such as barbiturates, tranquilizers, and cannabis; and narcotic pain medications such as codine, opium, heroin, darvocet, and codine derivatives.

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