Coping - www.hangover.org

Alateen and Al-Anon Resources

Addiction is known as a “family disease”. This is because it doesn’t just affect the addict or alcoholic. Loved ones of the addict/alcoholic are often caught up in the destruction as well. Luckily there are groups that address the family members of an alcoholic or addict specifically. Alateen and Al-Anon resources can be very helpful to the families of recovering alcoholics.

The family group idea is nearly as old as Alcoholics Anonymous. Early AA members and their wives visited AA groups around the country. The visiting wives often told the mates of the newer members of Alcoholics Anonymous about how they benefited from trying to live by AA’s Twelve Steps, and how it had helped to improve family relationships that often remained difficult after the alcoholic had become sober. Al-anon was founded in 1951, and the Twelve Steps were adopted as guiding principles.

Teenage children in the families of alcoholics soon realized that their problems differed from those of adult members. In 1957, Alateen grew out of this need. There are now over 1,700 Alateen groups worldwide.

Alateen and Al-Anon Resources: On the Web

Local Alateen and Al-Anon resources can be found through the website at http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/. The website can tell you about group meetings, what you can expect, and where to find a meeting in your area. Group members share their experience, strength, and hope with each other. Anyone who has been affected by another person’s drinking or drug use is welcome to join. There are no dues or fees in Alateen and Al-Anon meetings.

There are also a number of on-line meetings that can be used to supplement attendance at regular face-to-face meetings.

Alateen and Al-Anon Resources: On the phone

Alateen and Al-Anon meetings can also be found by calling the hotline at 888-4AL-ANON (888-425-2666) from 8 am to 8pm ET, Monday through Friday. There are also phone meetings which, like the online meetings, can be used to supplement regular face-to-face Alateen and Al-Anon meetings.

Alateen and Al-Anon Resources: Starting your own group

If there is no Alateen or Al-Anon group in your community, you may want to start one, along with one or two other people who need and want help. Any two or more relatives or friends of alcoholics who meet to solve their common problems may call themselves and Al-Anon or Alateen group, provided they have no other affiliation is a group.

You must decide on a group meeting place, day, and time. Then contact the World Service Office at Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc. announcing your decision to start a group. You will be given registration information and instructions on how to complete it. The form can be downloaded from the website. When your group is registered, a group number is assigned and a packet containing introductory materials will be sent to the group’s current mailing address. After the registration process is completed the group contacts the local district or Al-Anon Information Service (AIS) to be included in the local meeting directory and the area web site.

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Drinking to Cope

Many studies into drinking alcohol have indicated that multiple that do drink alcoholic beverages, do so as a means to cope with life and its stress. There are so many stresses in life too, for which drinking can be a simple solution. For instance, you can drink to cope with economic stress, job stress, marital problems, and family problems etc. Drinking to cope could mean drinking due to anxiety, fear, sadness, and anger too. Today’s society is so fast paced and there is little support and this could be why some people find themselves drinking to cope.

Do you drink to cope?

When it comes to drinking in order to cope it is not so much the alcohol that is the problem but poor coping skills within the individual. Even though this is quite apparent, a lot of people try to cope with stress by using alcohol and this is actually counterintuitive. Drinking to cope doesn’t actually deal with the problem it just masks the stress. Then people end up having to drink more and more alcohol to gain the same amount of relief from drinking. This is how drinking to cope can easily lead to alcohol abuse and then to alcoholism. Drinking to cope can lead to physical, psychological, health, and social problems. In fact drinking to cope can actually reduce an individual’s ability to cope with stress.

Drinking to cope doesn’t solve anything all it does is create more problems for the individual trying to deal with whatever is going on. Drinking to cope is the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire in order to put it out. This may sound extreme but it is true. Drinking to cope will only make things worse especially for the individual who is drinking to excess. An individual who hasn’t reached the point of alcohol abuse doesn’t have to totally abstain from alcohol, but they should cut back from drinking alcohol or try not drinking to cope because it is absolutely vital to their wellbeing to not drink too much. Drinking too much in order to cope with problems is when many people fall into the grips of alcoholism and once a person has reached that point, there is no coming back. Alcoholism is a lifelong issue and can be really hard to overcome for the person who has drank to the point of changing their brain chemistry.

There are multiple alternative to handling stress other than drinking to cope. For instance many people use yoga to distress. There are also tons of other holistic coping skills and therapies to help with building healthy coping skills. Drinking to cope isn’t the only option.

Here are some healthier alternative other than drinking to cope:

Individual therapy
Yoga
Massage therapy
Exercise
Meditation
Acupuncture
Breathing exercises
Long walks
Cleaning
Talking to someone

No one has to drink to cope. Drinking to cope is a choice that can be changed. The consequences of drinking to cope can be very grave and those consequences don’t have to be felt if other coping strategies can be implemented. Healthy coping skills are a tool that an individual can keep with them forever too in order to instill a permanent sense of wellbeing within them. This is much better in comparison to drinking to cope and just compounding the problems.

Sources:

http://stresscourse.tripod.com/id86.html

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/stress-and-drinking/