Alcohol & Hepatitis

All She Has to do is Stop Drinking!

Easier said than done. This overrated and popular assessment is far removed from any understanding of the dynamics of alcoholism...

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

Successful Treatment for Alcoholics

As soon as an alcoholic passes through a detoxification program, they start to learn about their disease and progressively...

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

When the drunk takes a drink, the drink takes the drunk (AA)

A highly developed defence system keeps alcoholics out of touch with reality. Rationalisation, projection and denial eventually make it impossible...

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

How to relieve the pressure of living with an alcoholic

It’s typical for alcoholics to try to blame their drinking on circumstances or others around them, including those who are closest to them. It’s not unusual to hear an alcoholic say, “The only reason I drink is because you…….” Don’t buy into it. If your loved one is truly an alcoholic, they are going to drink no matter what you do or say. It’s not your fault. They have become dependent on alcohol and nothing is going to get between them and their drug of choice. When alcoholics promise they will never drink again, but a short time later are back to drinking as much as always, it is easy for family members to take the broken promises and lies personally. You may tend to think, “If they really love me, they wouldn’t lie to me.” But if they have become truly addicted to alcohol, their brain chemistry may have changed to the point that they are completely surprised by some of the choices they make. They may not be in control of their own decision making.

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

How Does Sugar Addiction and Other Drugs Work In The Brain?

All drugs of abuse target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Drugs are chemicals. They work...

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

Alcoholics Living in the Past – Guilt and Resentment

Recovery from alcoholism is a day-to-day process, starting with the final drink. It occurs in the present with some planning for the future. In my analysis of failure of the alcoholic to cope, guilt belongs with the negative emotions that lead to failure. The lives of most alcoholics have included many shameful, illegal, immoral and stupid actions. My advice to alcoholics is to repair any damage, physical, financial, legal, and personal or whatever than can be fixed, make amends for what can be amended and then forget the past. The fact of being an alcoholic must be accepted, because that has important implications for what can and what can’t be done in the present and in the future. Dwelling on the past, feeling guilty about the devastation that was caused, feeling guilty about being an alcoholic or allowing anyone to make him or her feel guilty is not only a waste of time but is actively destructive. What has happened in the past is now history and nothing can change that. Guilt and resentment about being an alcoholic are extremely common.

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

Intervention in Alcoholism

Sometimes when the alcoholic’s problems reach the crises level, the only choice left to his or her family is professional intervention. It comes down to confronting the alcoholic with how their drinking has affected everyone around him. The alcoholic’s family, friends and employer tell the alcoholic in their own words how his or her drinking has been a problem in their lives. It is not necessary to wait until a person hits “rock bottom” before intervention can take place. Intervention can be defined as “presenting reality to a person out of touch with it in a receivable way”.

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

Why can’t alcoholics see what they are doing to themselves?

Love your liver and live longer, as Dr. Cabot has been saying for the past 30 years; that’s how long I have known this gifted lady. Alcohol kills 3.3 million people worldwide each year, more than AIDS, tuberculosis and violence combined, the World Health Organisation has warned us that alcohol consumption is on the rise. We’re looking at a huge increase in drinking driving, alcohol fuelled violence and one punch killings by cowardly, inebriated men. Alcoholics are in denial and they can’t see it and, what is worse, many of those immediately around them can’t see it either. That is, they cannot really see what is happening, either to these chemically dependent people or to themselves, as the disease progresses. Families tend to enable the victim by letting them get away with bad behavior. They don’t want others to know just how bad things are on the homefront.

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

Don’t Walk Where It’s Slippery

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. When you say yes to sobriety, we have to say no to hanging around certain old friends. If we say yes to overcoming eating binges, then we must learn to say no to sugar and high carbohydrates when shopping. If we are going to march steadily down a new road, we have to keep away from slippery people and slippery places. It is imperative as we look at change and at the equality of our decisions, that we know what our slippery people and slippery places are. Changing our lifestyle to avoid slippery people and slippery places often means giving up certain events, people and entertainment that we have become very comfortable with. That’s difficult. But saying no is really important. Changing bad habits is central to healthy recovery. Every time we allow ourselves to be around the old people and places we are giving the old habit power again. Changing habits and changing patterns must always move toward the new. It is obviously very important to keep away from those people and places that tend to generate the old stimuli, the old feelings, and the old responses. As you look at the habit that gets in the way of your recovery, think carefully about what you are going to have to say yes and no to.

Keep Reading

Alcohol & Hepatitis

Recovery from alcoholism demands change!

Recovery means that things have to be different than they were. It means that I have to be different than I was. All change is about changing habits, which is why a basic understanding of habits is essential to understanding, and ultimately initiating, change. Look at the difference between being drunk and being sober; between secretly, compulsively overeating and controlling that compulsion; between engaging in compulsive shopping behavior and refraining from that behavior. Dramatic, heroic, marvellous change is clearly evident. Recovery can be dramatic when you observe the difference between never saying no and being able to stand up for yourself; between somehow always ending up in destructive relationships and being able to make a choice; between never finding any fault with yourself and being willing to take responsibility for your own consequences.

Keep Reading