Tag Archives: alcoholics

Alcohol and Memory

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Alcohol and Memory

Alcohol and Memory     

Everyone knows that alcohol has a profound effect on memory. It’s no big secret that after a night of partying your memories can be a little hazy. But what is the connection between alcohol and memory? How does alcohol affect your ability to remember?

Alcohol and Memory: How alcohol affects the memory

Alcohol primarily interferes with the ability to form new long-term memories. Memory formation and storage take place in several stages, proceeding from sensory memory (which lasts up to a few seconds) to short–term memory (which lasts from seconds to minutes depending upon whether the information is rehearsed) to long–term storage. When someone attends to sensory information, it is transferred from a sensory memory store to short–term memory. The transfer from short-term memory to long term memory depends on many different factors including rehearsal, depth of processing attention, motivation, and arousal. Alcohol impairs the transfer of information from short term memory to long term memory.

Alcohol and Memory: Blackouts

One of the more extreme effects of alcohol on memory can be seen in blackouts. These are periods of alcohol-related amnesia. Most people experience one of two types of blackouts-en bloc blackouts and fragmentary blackouts. En bloc blackouts happen when you are unable to recall anything from the blackout period, even when your memory is prompted. Fragmentary blackouts are classified as being able to remember certain things during the blackout period, but having gaps in your memory. Fragmentary blackouts seem to occur with lower blood alcohol content then en bloc blackouts. Sometimes, when prompted, a person can remember certain things that happened during a fragmentary blackout.

The important thing to remember about blackouts is that they are not the same as “passing out” or losing consciousness. Blackouts are periods of time when the drinker is completely conscious, having conversations and performing sometimes amazing feats, but later they have absolutely no memory of the events that transpired.  Total amount of alcohol ingested does not seem to be the determining factor when people blackout. Whether or not a person will blackout seems to depend on how quickly they consume the alcohol. Surveys suggest that a person can drink the same amount or more alcohol as he or she did when the blackout occurred and not experience memory loss, provided they drink the alcohol over a longer period of time.

Enough alcohol will prevent the brain from recording new memories. These periods of amnesia are primarily “anterograde,” meaning that alcohol impairs the ability to form new memories while the person is intoxicated, but does not typically erase memories formed before intoxication. During the blackout, the brain is not recording anything going on, which is why you are unable to recall it later. Alcohol affects the hippocampus area of the brain, which is involved in memory storage.

Though repeated episodes of blacking out will lead to permanent changes in the brain, blackouts are more psychosocially damaging than physically damaging. Many people report engaging in high-risk behavior during a blackout. They drive while intoxicated, get into fights, or engage in unprotected sex. During a blackout, normal restraint of emotions, impulses, and desires is impaired and that may result in enormous harm to self and others.

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-2/186-196.htm

http://www.livescience.com/14952-alcohol-blackouts.html

 

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

Alateen and Al-Anon Resources

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Alateen and Al-Anon Resources

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.

Housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism

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Housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism

There has often been a lot of controversy about housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism. The people who enter these programs are used to people giving up on them and thinking they aren’t worthy of time or energy. There are plenty of places that will house homeless people if they are willing to give up drugs and alcohol. However, there are relatively few places that will let you continue to live there if you continue to drink.

Unlike other shelters and public housing, housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism will allow alcoholics to continue to drink in their rooms. They will not be forced to choose between housing and sobriety.

Housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism: Public opinion

People living in neighborhoods where these housing programs are being started often worry that they will flood the streets with alcoholics. Taxpayers often object to paying for housing that allows homeless alcoholics to continue drinking. Also, the idea of giving chronic alcoholics access to their drug of choice on the taxpayers’ dime is unacceptable to most addiction counselors. To them, it is basically giving up on a treatable disease.

Housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism: Harm reduction

Much of the idea behind housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism is to cut down on simply cycling people from doorways and alleys to emergency rooms and jails. Housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism actually save taxpayer money, improve community livability, and uphold people’s innate dignity. An ambulance ride and trip to the emergency room can easily cost $2,000. One night in detox is about $220. In one year, a chronic drinker can cost the taxpayer $50,000. Housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism cost about $13,000 per resident annually.

The aim of housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism is to reduce alcohol’s harm to themselves and to the community at large. Drug and alcohol treatment services are available, but participation is not a requirement to stay.

Housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism: Hopeless cases

Most of the people who end up in housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism have been to treatment numerous times. Sometimes there are alcoholics that can’t be treated-like those with such severe brain damage, there’s no chance of meaningful life, and those with irreversible liver damage who do not meet criteria for transplantation. However, for some who are not hopeless, avoiding the consequences of their addiction (like living on the streets) may aid them in avoiding changing their behavior. These wet houses may be the best place for hopeless cases-basically a place where they can drink until they die with a little dignity. However, it can be dangerous for someone who can recover to go to a wet house. They have no reason to quit drinking. Their meals, housing, and even their booze is paid for by tax dollars. Housing programs for people living with chronic alcoholism can rob these people of the chance to get better.

 

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

Alcoholism Risk Factors

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Alcoholism Risk Factors

Alcoholism Risk Factors

There is no stereotypical alcoholic. Alcoholics come in all shapes and sized and from every socioeconomic background. Neither money nor fame can protect a person from the disease, as we see all the time in the media. Alcoholics living in homeless shelters or under bridges actually account for a very small percentage of the total. Most alcoholics are employed and have homes and families. Anyone can suffer from alcoholism. However, there are certain people that are at a greater risk than others.

Alcoholism Risk Factors: What is a risk factor?

While there is no one cause for alcoholism, certain psychological, economic, and social aspects that can increase the likelihood that someone will become an alcoholic. These are known as risk factors.

Alcoholism Risk Factors: Who is at risk?

Psychological risk factors for alcoholism include mood disorders like depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder, as well as personality disorders like antisocial personality disorder. Social risk factors for alcoholism include male gender, being between 18 and 44 years of age, Native-American heritage, unmarried marital status, and lower socioeconomic status.  Environmental factors, including a person’s family’s beliefs and attitudes and exposure to a peer group that encourages alcohol use, seem to play a role in initial alcohol use. Studies also suggest that there is a genetic component to alcoholism. People who have immediate family that suffer from alcoholism or drug addiction are more likely to abuse alcohol themselves.

Alcoholism Risk Factors: What are the lifestyle alcoholism risk factors?

Some of the alcoholism risk factors have nothing to do with your gender, race, mental status, marital status, or socioeconomic status. Some of them simply have to do with how you drink and how drinking affects you. Those who abstain from alcohol aren’t at risk for becoming alcoholics, so any alcohol consumption increases your risk of alcoholism. However, people who drink moderately are at much lower risk than people who drink heavily. Another one of the lifestyle alcoholism risk factors has to do with the age you are at when you start drinking. People who start drinking earlier in life have a greater chance of becoming an alcoholic. Likewise, the longer you drink, the greater chance that you will become alcoholic.

Alcoholism Risk Factors: What are the personality alcoholism risk factors?

For some time, we’ve known that people who suffer from certain mental illnesses are at a greater risk for developing alcoholism. In recent years, however, it has been shown that certain personality types are at greater risk as well. These traits are now considered personality alcoholism risk factors. These personality alcoholism risk factors include:

  • Having a low tolerance for frustration
  • Having aggressive tendencies or difficulty with impulse control
  • Needing an inordinate amount of praise
  • Feeling unsure or not worthy
  • Demanding perfection

Alcoholism Risk Factors: What if you have no alcoholism risk factors?

It is important to note that even if you don’t have any of these alcoholism risk factors, you can still develop alcoholism. Alcoholism risk factors do not cause alcoholism, and lack of alcoholism risk factors does not prevent it.

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

Drinker’s Remorse

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Drinker's Remorse

Drinker’s Remorse

“Ugh, I am never drinking again.” I say as I touch my fingers to my throbbing temples. “It’s just not worth it.”

I must’ve said those words a hundred times over in my drinking career. The guilt, shame, and/or physical discomfort would keep me away from booze for a couple of days, but inevitably, I’d be back at it again the next weekend. Eventually, my drinking landed me in rehab and then in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, but that’s a different story for a different day.

That feeling I had, I learned later, is known as drinker’s remorse, and it’s pretty common amongst binge drinkers. Binge drinking is defined as having 4 or more drinks in one sitting for women, or 5 or more for men. Drinker’s remorse comes from the either regretting what you did while you we’re wasted, or regretting you drank enough to give you a wicked hangover.

My worst feelings of drinker’s remorse would come when I either remembered something awful I had done while drinking or someone else reminded me of something awful I had done. I’d wake up and think, “Oh shit! What did I do last night?” while frantically trying to piece together the events of the night before. Other times, I’d wake up and be peacefully unaware that anything was amiss, because I had “blacked out” while drinking.  That is, until a friend would call to remind me, and the awful memories would come flooding back. Or until the random guy I had gone home with would turn over in bed and make me aware of his presence. Or I would look at my phone and see who I called or texted while I was wasted.

I hated that feeling of drinker’s remorse. I felt like my heart had dropped into my stomach. My brain would frantically race through thoughts like:

“How bad was I?”

“Did everyone see?”

“Can I sneak this guy out of my apartment before my roommates wake up?”

“Do I still have friends?”

“Do I still have a job?”

and finally

“FUCK!”

The main difference between me and my non-alcoholic friends is that they would have one or two of these mornings of drinker’s remorse, and then they would learn their lesson. They wouldn’t drink that way again. I never learned my lesson. No matter how many times I woke up with drinker’s remorse, no matter how many times I would promise that I would cut down or quit drinking all together, I would be back in the same place a couple of weeks later.

In my experience, drinker’s remorse can be cured in one of three ways:

1. Exercise (In fact, people who exercise regularly get drinker’s remorse less frequently)

2. More liquor (Not always the best choice, but that didn’t stop me!)

3. Resolving the issue you regret (This can’t always be done, but if you can apologize or make up for something you regret, this is the best cure for drinker’s remorse.)

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