The Consequences
One-quarter of all emergency room admissions, one-third of all suicides, and more than half of all homicides and incidents of domestic violence are alcohol-related. Heavy drinking contributes to illness in each of the top three causes of death: heart disease, cancer and stroke. Almost half of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related. Between 48% and 64% of people who die in fires have blood alcohol levels indicating intoxication. Fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading known cause of mental retardation.
http://www.ncadd.org/facts/numberoneprob.html
The Cost
Alcohol and drug abuse costs the American economy an estimated $276 billion per year in lost productivity, health care expenditures, crime, motor vehicle crashes and other conditions. *Untreated addiction is more expensive than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined. Every American adult pays nearly $1,000 per year for the damages of addiction.
http://www.ncadd.org/facts/numberoneprob.html
An illness of this sort - and we have come to believe it an illness - involves those around us in a way no other human sickness can. If a person has cancer all are sorry for him and no one is angry or hurt. But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes the annihilation of all the things worthwhile in life. It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferers. It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents - anyone can increase this list. Alcoholics Anonymous, page 18
Betty Ford Center REHAB FACILITY Rancho Mirage, California. Founded in 1982. Ofcial Website: http://www.bettyfordcenter.org/ Name Occupation Birth 3-Sep-1935 5-Feb-1969 29-Jun-1944 26-Feb-1932 8-Oct-1943 4-Feb-1948 3-Jun-1925 28-Apr-1966 5-Mar-1958 16-Nov-1964 21-Feb-1955 23-Dec-1971 Actor 16-Feb-1955 15-Dec-1949 12-Mar-1931 7-Sep-1923 29-Sep-1935 20-Oct-1931 12-Mar-1946 6-Aug-1917 29-Dec-1936 8-Feb-1961 26-May-1948 3-Dec-1948 1-Dec-1940 26-Aug-1973 c. 1959 12-Mar-1962 10-May-1930 27-Feb-1932 10-Oct-1958 18-Aug-1922 5-May-1942 Death Known for Capt. Lewis on Private Benjamin Still humpin' around after all these years The Buddy Holly Story The Man in Black SNL alumnus hosted The Chevy Chase Show King of Fake Blood at Rock Concerts Houdini and Some Like It Hot Alcoholic golfer I Just Want To Be Your Everything Pitcher, New York Mets From Cheers to Frasier One of the Coreys Knight Rider, Baywatch Troubled actress OD'd on klonopin Miami Vice, Nash Bridges Founded Southwest Airlines Rat Pack member Great Balls of Fire Twelve times in the World Series Cabaret Cape Fear The Mary Tyler Moore Show Mtley Cre vocalist Fleetwood Mac The Prince of Darkness Stand-up comic and actor in Stir Crazy Superbowl XXXVII no-show William Shatner's drowned wife Troubled former baseball player Sportscaster Cleopatra Country music singer A Place in the Sun Stand By Your Man
Eileen Brennan Actor Bobby Brown Musician Gary Busey Actor Johnny Cash Musician Chevy Chase Comic Alice Cooper Musician Tony Curtis Actor John Daly Sports Andy Gibb Musician Dwight Gooden Sports Kelsey Grammer Actor Corey Haim Actor David Hasselhoff Margaux Hemingway Actor Don Johnson Actor Herb Kelleher Business Peter Lawford Actor Jerry Lee Lewis Musician Mickey Mantle Sports Liza Minnelli Musician Robert Mitchum Actor Mary Tyler Moore Actor Vince Neil Musician Stevie Nicks Musician Ozzy Osbourne Musician Richard Pryor Comic Barret Robbins Sports Nerine Shatner Relative Darryl Strawberry Sports Pat Summerall Sports Elizabeth Taylor Actor Tanya Tucker Musician Shelley Winters Actor Tammy Wynette Musician
12-Sep-2003
10-Mar-1988
17-Jul-1952 2-Jul-1996
9-Aug-1999
6-Apr-1998
Alcoholism is an Allergy
We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all;
Alcoholics Anonymous, page xxvi
Alcoholism is a Disease
-Strong genetic component Type 1 - passed on from either mother or father symptoms occur later in life Type 2 - passed on only from father to son symptoms begin in teens, very persistent -Polymorphisms in aldehyde dehydrogenase -Production of neuroactive substances in the brain not found in non-alcoholics There is no cure, and the disease is 100% FATAL if not treated
!-ketothiolase
O OH H3C
O OH
acetone
acetoacetic acid
!-hydroxybutyric acid
SPREE
SHAME
THIQs in Alcoholism
NH2 HO OH + HO O H3C H HO HO HO
OH OH
NH
tetrahydropapveroline R NH
tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs)
-THP and THIQs formed from acetaldehyde and dopamine -These analogues stimulate -opiate receptors, causing release of dopamine -Endogenous dopamine release stimulates reinforcement center -Naloxone-reversible, dose-dependent increase in voluntary intake of alcohol
Delirium Tremens: Usually appear 2 - 4 days after cessation of drinking. The duration is about 72 hours. Very seldom lasts 4 - 5 weeks. Without treatment, between 5 -15% of DT's end fatally. Symptoms: Reduced ability to maintain attention, disorganized thinking, reduced level of consciousness, vivid hallucinations (mainly visual), delusions, tremor, Agitation, increased overactivity of the autonomic nervous system (dilated pupils, hypertension, tachycardia, persipration, fever). Treatment: drugs that have cross tolerance and dependence with alcohol such as benzodiazepines (librium or lorazepam), hydration, thiamine, multiple vitamins.
Co-Dependency in Alcoholism
Co-Dependent Spouses
The Enabler The Caretaker The Controller
Co-Dependent Children
The Hero The Scapegoat The Mascot The Lost Child
Co-Dependents will eventually get all of the physical and psychological symptoms of the alcoholic
Relapse
-Recovering people should insist that their care providers take the disease seriously -Seven As of Recovery (abstinence, antabuse, AA, aftercare, acceptance, avoidance, action) -Beware the cure - products containing ethanol, or other drugs, can precipitate relapse. -Attitude is all - avoid exhaustion, self-pity, frustration, intolerance, cockiness, and above all COMPLACENCY. -Include family and health care providers
Non-Drug Treatment
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcoholthat our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. 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. 12. 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.