The use of alcohol has been around almost as long as human beings have. The dangers of alcohol use to excess have become more apparent in recent centuries. Alcoholism is a quite a debilitating condition that causes many problems for many people all the time. There are more people that miss work due to alcoholism in themselves or in their family members than for any other reasons. Businesses lose large amounts of money every year from their employees taking sick days because of a situation do to the excessive use of alcohol.
Alcohol causes all types of problems, mental and physical, that are all completely preventable.
The Anatomy of Alcohol Addiction
There are many reasons that person starts drinking. A lot of people start drinking socially with friends and do not realize right away that they are destined to become an alcoholic. On the other hand there other people who start drinking and fall in love with it right away and their addiction to alcohol is immediate. The reasons why there are some people who can drink socially and practice moderation in regards to alcohol with ease and others who start drinking and cannot stop are not known. There is speculation that it’s a genetic problem, it runs in families, social and emotional issues are factors, but to date the answer is not definitive.
What happens when a person becomes an alcoholic varies from person to person. There are functioning alcoholics who drink themselves to oblivion every night before they go to sleep, but wake up and go to work in the morning. There are other people who don’t drink at all except on rare occasions, but when they do they drink themselves into a blackout and have no memory of what happened. Sometimes these folks get themselves into bar fights or crash their cars and wake up in jail and have no memory of what they did to put themselves in that predicament.
Most alcoholics, in the beginning stages of their condition, feel that they do not have a problem and are in denial that alcohol has control over them. They begin to make excuses to drink, begin to drink alone and always drink to excess. They continue to drink and say that there is no problem despite the obvious harm that is being caused to their jobs, families and health. Eventually most alcoholics get to a point where they do realize that there is a problem and they admit it to themselves as well as to the people around them. Many times they will try to stop drinking on their own or through treatment. There are some people who continue to drink despite the fact that they have a problem and have no desire to get help in regards to this matter. Most alcoholics have to hit rock bottom or have some type of outside influence that is very upsetting to them for them to realize that there is problem with what they are doing. Some people take more drastic wake up calls than others. Some never get it and wind up homeless and living off the street and barely scrounging up enough of change to pay for their habit on a day to day basis. Some of these people eventually die of some type of alcohol poisoning.
Treatment Options
There a few different types of treatment options available for someone who is suffering from alcoholism. Treatment is available for people from all financial walks of life. For those people who cannot pay to go treatment, simply going to Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings are a good option. These are completely free of charge and can give the alcoholic exposure to many helpful resources through other members of the group.
For some people, going to a long term treatment center is a good option. This gives the person time away from their everyday stresses and often offers the person counseling that can be very beneficial for them. There are many private treatment centers and free public treatment centers available. One of the most successful treatment centers for alcoholism is the Narconon program.
Narconon Treatment
The Narconon program offers much help for an alcoholic that is trying to overcome their addiction. Narconon helps the person regain their physical well being in the first phase of the program and then helps them regain their emotional and social well being in the second phase. The first phase of the Narconon program is called the Narconon New Life Detoxification program and consists of a regimen of vitamins and minerals, exercise combined with sweating in a dry heat sauna. This helps the person’s body flush out the accumulation of toxins and residuals that became stored in the persons body from drinking and can cause the person to feel physically and mentally run down, especially when the person stops drinking. Many alcoholics said that they felt so good when they finished this part of the program that they did not feel the need to drink to feel well anymore. Many alcoholic’s bodies get very run down and many alcoholics lack energy due to their excessive drinking. When this happens the person continues to drink because they get to the point where the only time that they feel good is when they are drinking.
During the second phase of the program the person learns the coping life skills that they need to function in life as a sober productive member of society. They learn the art of effective communication, learn how to confront themselves and others, they take responsibility for the misdeeds that they committed that they feel ashamed of, and they also learn what kind of people they should stay away from and which ones they should embrace into their lives. They also learn the tools that they need to succeed in all areas of their lives and make a plan so that they can continue to do so when they finish the program. The Narconon program has a seventy-six percent success rate and helps many alcoholics and drug addicts overcome their addictions every year.
