mental health

November 8, 2009

Shocking Discoveries About Alcohol and Drug Abuse in High School

When I was in the tenth grade in high school, I took a substance abuse class. At that time, I did not realize that alcohol abuse actually was a sub category of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse and particularly about alcohol side effects, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for people throughout the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol rehabilitation and the diverse alcohol rehab clinics that are repeatedly available to individuals who engage in excessive drinking.

Detrimental End Results That are Linked to Alcohol Dependency and Alcohol Abuse

Some of the detrimental effects related to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class unquestionably worried me. The ruined lives and many serious issues experienced by most alcohol addicted individuals made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. Stated briefly, I did not want to face the damage and ruination that alcohol addicted individuals almost always encounter.

Ponder upon this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old person wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What teenager wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that ingesting alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What adolescent wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related issues before he or she becomes twenty-one?

What adolescent wants to experience alcohol withdrawals when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would an individual engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause difficulties in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would an adolescent want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that centers on abusive drinking?

These issues were so significant that I discussed some of them in class during the school year. What was utterly amazing to me was the number of students who simply didn’t care about the dangerous consequences of hazardous drinking that I discussed. It was almost as if they couldn’t care less about the facts and how these effects can shatter their lives. For the first time in my life I started to grasp a saying that my grandfather used to tell me all through my teen and pre-teen years: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.

It’s Liberating, Beneficial, and Important to Stay Away From the Damaging and Unhealthy Results of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

And even at my young age, I also started to comprehend how important, energizing, and beneficial it is in life to keep away from the unhealthy and debilitating effects of drug and alcohol abuse.

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October 23, 2009

Are You Tired? Have Anxiety? Not Sleeping? Change Your Life Diet

The cause of anxiety is well established. When enough stress is presented to the physical-mental-emotional body, nervous behaviors are likely to surface. Worry and excessive thought can interfere with preparation of rest and sleep. Internal organs deficient of energy will present with a long list of imbalancing symptoms such as high blood pressure, spasms, palpitations, restless leg and insomnia, etc. due to depleted energy. Take care of yourself, remove distractions from rest, exercise, be around caring people until you can master the challenges you are confronted with. Eat nutritious food and take natural herbs that don’t add to the imbalance but rather help in re-establishing your center. Consider working with a counselor/pychotherapist to find alternatives to your current anxiety management strategies. 

Here is one piece of the puzzle. Food preferences known to minimize the internal environment of anxiety. 

ANXIETY FREE DIET 

Foods to Counter Anxiety: Apricot, Cherry, Date, Fig, Grape, Grapefruit, Olive, Papaya, Peach, Strawberry, Tomato, Beet, Button mushroom, Cabbage, Carrot, Celery, Chard, Cucumber, Eggplant, Kuzu, Lettuce, Potato, Shitake mushroom, Spearmint, Squash, Sweet Potato, Yam, Almond, Chestnut, Coconut, Sesame seed/oil, Sunflower seed, Amasake, stevia, Agave nectar, Ganoderm, Dill, Basil, Mulberry, Lemons, Brown rice, Oats, Ghee, Green tea

Foods to Avoid: Beef, Tofu, Tempeh, Soy milk, Spinach, Miso, Asparagus, , Millet, Salt, Seaweed, Tangerine, Pinenut, Persimmon, Pear, Honey, Sugar, Oyster, Clam, Mussel, Pork, Peanut

Processed Foods to Avoid: Artificial Sweeteners, Coffee, Wine (beyond 1 oz. per day), Baked Beans (sugar), Baked Goods (doughnuts, cakes contain excess trans fats, sugars), Breakfast Cereals (sugar, processed grain, low nutrition), Campbell’s Condensed Soups (hi sodium), pot pies (hi calory/fat), Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) foods, Hotdogs (unknown ingredients, sodium nitrate), Luncheon Meats (too many additives, sodium nitrate), Margarine (highly toxic), Ramen Noodles (no nutrients, excess sodium), Refined Vegetable Oils (corn, cottonseed, soybeans, safflower seeds and canola), Saltines (excess carb & sodium), Sausages & cured meats (too many additives, sodium nitrate), White & Wheat bread (no nutrition), White Pasta (extremely hi carb & sodium), White Potatoes (solanine-calcium depletion & arthritic pain), Chips & French fries, Cocktails (excess sugar/liver toxicity), Fruit Juice (loaded w/ sugar), Fruit Smoothie (loaded w/ syrup, make your own), Dairy products except goat’s milk (pure mucous), Sodas (removes rust from metal, excess carbon dioxide, imbalances digestive system), Excessive Protein (loss of calcium, damages kidneys)

 

When I had an anxiety attack, I didn’t know about nutrition and herbology and at that time, I could not imagine that traditional Chinese herbs would have been effective with other modalities of treatment. With prolonged stressed, it is essential that people get access to effective and powerful aids. But in the long run, healthy foods and natural approaches to health are very useful in reaching balance.

Individual Constitution will affect outcomes from all foods. For instance, a person that has a cold constitution should not eat foods that make the body colder. Continued ingestion of cold food will make it hard to ignore the painful cold spots. Body organs will slow in function, etc. But in general the above selection benefits most people. If you want to get customized then I would suggest contacting, specifically, an Asian Medicine Herbalist. Understand, I am not selecting accupuncturists. It is very important to find someone who specializes in Chinese herbs or herbology  and food therapy regarding customized food and herb strategies.   

Anxiety relief can be found naturally with food therapy & traditional Chinese herbs.
  

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October 16, 2009

A Young Couple Appraises Their Drinking Behavior and Their Short and Long-Term Dreams, Hopes, and Aspirations

Merissa and Augie have been going out for five years. They met while taking the same travel and tourism class at a relatively large, countryside, private liberal arts college located in the Northern part of the United States. While they were only good buddies at first, they finally started to date when they were in their first year of college.

Because both of them came from very old-fashioned backgrounds, neither one of them drank very much beyond the experimental stage when they first started to date. As the time passed by, then again, they began to go to more football bashes, sorority and fraternity parties, keg parties, and happy hours. As a result, they little by little began to drink increasingly more the longer they saw one another in a dating capacity.

Their Social Life Typically Consisted of Going to Restaurants Three or Four Nights Per Week, Going to Parties With Their Friends, Going to Professional Sporting Events, Going to Happy Hour With Their Friends, and Going With Their Friends to the Local Bar and Grill on the Weekends

After they graduated from college, they both landed jobs in a large city that was roughly eighty-five miles from their undergraduate college. Then they at long last made up their mind to move into the same apartment with one another.

Given the fact that they were far removed from the college drinking scene, nevertheless, their social life frequently consisted of going to happy hour with their friends, going to parties with their friends, going to professional sporting events, going to restaurants three or four nights per week, and going to the local nightspot with their friends on the weekends. Stated another way, Merissa and Augie began drinking in an irresponsible and excessive manner.

Now that they were living with each other and starting to get more earnest about their relationship, nevertheless, they started to think about becoming more responsible, getting married, buying a house, and having children.

With any pivotal adjustment in an individual’s life there is generally something that triggers the specific change in question. For Merissa and Augie the thought of buying a new house and having children was this “vehicle for change.” In a word, for the first time in their lives, Merissa and Augie began to critically assess their drinking and the long term alcohol effects on their lives.

How Would Their Heavy and Excessive Drinking Affect Their Finances, Their Ability to Have Children, Their Relationship With One Another, Their Mental Health, and Their Relationship With Their Parents?

Would their excessive drinking adversely affect their ability to have children? How would they be able to continue spending most of their money on drinking if they were to begin saving for a new house? How responsible would they be if they had children and continued to drink at their current pace? How would they be able to face their parents and tell them about their long term hopes, dreams, and aspirations while they still drank in a hazardous manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their drinking behavior do to their relationship? How would their abusive drinking affect their mental health?

From a different line of reasoning, although neither one of them ever suffered from alcohol poisoning, received a DUI, or experienced alcohol withdrawals, they realized that their abusive and irresponsible drinking was becoming a troublesome issue that they could not discount any longer.

After Giving Their State of Affairs Some Serious Thought, Merissa and Augie Arrived at the Conclusion That Their Hopes, Dreams, and Plans Would not be Reached if They Continued Their Hazardous and Irresponsible Drinking

All of these uncertainties undeniably indicated the same conclusion: Augie and Merissa needed to comprehend more clearly that they couldn’t continue their excessive and irresponsible drinking if their plans, dreams, and hopes were to be brought to fruition.

Once they got to this conclusion, they told their drinking buddies about their marital plans, about their plans to start a family, and about their goal of buying or building a new house. They also told their drinking buddies that they still wanted to associate with them but that they would be drinking in strict moderation from this moment forward so that they could begin realizing their future dreams, hopes, and plans.

Unpredictably, all of their friends expressed relief because they too had been recalculating their lives and concluded that their life-styles were much too frequently centered around drinking. They also believed that they would have to change significantly if they were to become more mature and exhibit more concern for their goals, their health, and for their careers in the next twenty or twenty-five years.

After their candid discussion with their buddies about their hopes, aspirations, and dreams, Merissa and Augie in reality started to have more meaningful relationships with all of their friends. The primary reason for this was the fact that all of them had a similar mentality regarding their heavy drinking and their relatively short and long-term aspirations, goals, and plans.

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September 11, 2009

The Essential Elements in A Fruitful Alcohol Abuse Intervention

What are the necessary issues in an effective alcohol intervention? Why do some addiction interventions succeed as planned while quite a few flop?

The Necessity for a Recognized Track Record of Intervention Success

Scientific study reveals that a fruitful alcoholism intervention needs to be administered by an intervention expert who has an established track record of intervention achievement.

In essence this means that rather than choosing a “typical” alcohol addiction healthcare professional or psychologist for an alcohol abuse intervention, the individual who is selected to direct the intervention needs to be trained in addiction intervention methods and needs to have a reputation of “winning” addiction interventions.

A Few Elementary Illustrations of The Most Optimal Time For an Alcohol Abuse Intervention

Scientific study and alcoholism facts about interventions has also displayed that the most favorable time for an alcoholism intervention is following a special “happening” in the life of the alcoholic or alcohol abuser. The following represents a few examples of these types of important happenings:

  • The alcohol dependent individual or abusive drinker has been caught stealing something of value.
  • The abusive drinker or alcoholic has been caught lying about something of consequence.
  • The alcohol addicted person or alcohol abuser has been locked up for driving under the influence.

In circumstances such as these, the alcohol dependent individual or alcohol abuser is more apt to feel contrite or to feel ashamed, thusly making him or her more receptive to getting the professional alcohol counseling that he or she requires.

At this point in time, moreover, it is also imperative to mention that the alcohol abuser or alcohol addicted individual needs to be free of alcohol during the alcohol intervention. To sum up, if the alcohol abuser or alcohol-dependent person is inebriated during an alcoholism intervention, the lack of success is almost certain.

In the same way, scientific examination has also demonstrated the fact that the abusive drinker or alcohol addicted person has to at least try to listen to what is communicated in an alcohol abuse intervention. Stated another way, during an alcoholism intervention, the hazardous drinker or alcohol-dependent person needs to listen to what his or her drinking difficulties have done to those who care for him or her the most.

The Magnitude of Alcohol Treatment For the Heavy Drinker

And finally, scientific inquiry displays that the major reason for an alcohol abuse intervention in the first place is to convince the hazardous drinker or alcohol-dependent person to get the professional alcohol treatment that is needed. Stated another way, even if the individual who monitors the intervention has a superlative track record of effective interventions and even if the hazardous drinker or alcoholic sincerely listens to every single word that is articulated for the duration of an intervention, if the hazardous drinker or alcoholic is not moved to seek professional alcohol abuse counseling after the alcoholism intervention, then the intervention will be a failure.

Undoubtedly all of these factors are needed for a fruitful alcohol intervention. If, alternatively, the hazardous drinker or alcoholic is not stimulated to ask for alcohol abuse rehab after listening to his or her family members articulate the pain, irritation, and displeasure they feel about the hazardous drinker’s or alcohol addicted person’s hazardous drinking behavior and the concern they feel for the problem drinker, then every other aspect of the alcoholism intervention will effectively be pointless.

Even Productive Alcohol Dependency Interventions Can Boomerang Down the Road

It also needs to be accentuated that despite the fact that the alcohol intervention can be perceived as effective in that it helped put the abusive drinker or alcohol-dependent person in a more receptive state of mind and openly helped the alcohol addicted person or hazardous drinker deduce that he or she required alcohol counseling or professional help for alcoholism or alcohol abuse, the mere fact that the intervention transpired may lead to resentment, irritation, and uncertainty in the future.

To be brief, even when alcohol dependency interventions are seen as fruitful in the short run, in the long run, to the contrary, they may fail and, hence, may make the family and/or the alcohol addicted individual’s circumstance even worse than it was before the alcohol abuse intervention was undertaken.

No matter how unfair or incongruous this seems, try to keep in mind that it is basically one of the main alcohol facts that has to be confronted when doing an alcohol intervention.

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September 6, 2009

What I Learned About Drug Addiction and Alcohol Dependency in High School

When I was a sophomore in high school, I took a drug abuse class. At that age, I did not realize that alcohol abuse actually was a sub category of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for individuals all through the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol rehab and the diverse alcohol rehab centers that are habitually available to individuals who engage in abusive drinking.

Some of the negative effects related to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class undeniably alarmed me. The ruined lives and abundant problems experienced by most alcoholics made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. Stated briefly, I did not want to face the wreckage and destruction that alcohol addicted people almost always encounter.

Think about this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old individual wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What adolescent wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that consuming alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What teen wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related issues before he or she becomes an adult?

What teenager wants to deal with alcohol withdrawals when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause serious issues in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would an adolescent want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that revolves around irresponsible drinking?

These issues were so important that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was utterly unbelievable to me was the number of students who simply didn’t care about the negative effects of irresponsible drinking that I discussed. It was almost as if they couldn’t be bothered with the truth and how these results can shatter their lives. For the first time in my life I started to appreciate a saying that my grandfather used to say to me throughout my youth: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

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August 28, 2009

A Monday Evening Out With Friends From College at a Local Pub Leads To Hazardous and Abusive Drinking and Alcohol Poisoning Symptoms

When Janice was in high school, she had established a reputation as an individual who studied a lot and who rarely, if ever, drank with her buddies. She seemed driven to excel academically so that she would be able to pursue a career that she not only got pleasure from but one that also gave her some security from a financial standpoint.

After much deliberation, in due course she came to a decision that she wanted to be a trial lawyer. In order to accomplish this, however, she would first have to attend four years of undergrad education.

After Finishing High School Janice Gets Accepted Into A Famous Undergraduate University as Preparation For a Career as an Attorney

After Janice completed high school, she applied to and was accepted into an outstanding program in economics. Her rationale underlying this decision was that this subject matter would be good training for law school and wouldn’t be identical to the bulk of law school applicants who decide to take political science as their undergraduate major.

After graduating with a 3.85 GPA at the undergraduate level, she applied to and was accepted at a prominent law school at one of the Big Ten universities.

She was pleased with her legal studies but every so often she was swamped with all the work that law school entailed. Similar to her high school and undergraduate days, nonetheless, she made buddies effortlessly but barely participated in social activities until the quarter was over.

After Being Elated With the Fact That She Had Done Extremely Well on Her Tests, Janice Felt Like Celebrating

Janice was the type of person who worked in a vigorous manner to complete what she was doing and then would take a break when she could. It just so happens, nevertheless, that a good number of the things she did between school sessions or during summer breaks did not have much of anything to do with drinking. Clearly, Janice was anything but a party-person. Now that her final exams for her second year in law school were over and being jubilant with the fact that she had done very well on her exams, because of this, she wanted to let her hair down and do something besides school work for a change.

Drinking at a Local Watering Hole Results in Alcohol Poisoning Symptoms, Calling The Emergency Number, and An Ambulance Ride to An Alcohol Treatment Center

So Janice and some of her friends from school went to a local bar where they had a few cocktails. As the hours went by, Janice persisted in drinking without having to worry about research projects or tests the next day. As a matter of fact, Janice revealed to her buddies how thrilled she was to ”get down” and drink with her classmates from her apartment.

As the evening moved forward, Janice and her classmates continued to drink. As a matter of fact, she was having such a superb time that she didn’t want the night to come to an end. It was almost like she was making up for lost time and trying to cram a year’s worth of excitement into a single evening. Such a “game plan,” it needs to be emphasized, hardly ever works. In truth, when Janice went to the powder room and vomited, her buddies started to feel apprehensive about her wellbeing.

A few moments later when Janice started to speak in a confused manner, slur her words, and then fall unconscious, nevertheless, her buddies immediately knew that they needed to call 911 and ask for emergency assistance because they thought that Janice was displaying alcohol poisoning symptoms.

Once Janice was in the alcohol treatment hospital, the lead physician validated what her buddies had speculated, to be precise, that Janice drank far more alcohol than her body could handle and, as a consequence, she experienced an alcohol overdose

After the emergency room treatment team pumped her stomach until no gastric contents were noticeable, Janice was transported to the recovery room. After staying around three hours in recovery, Janice was then moved to one of the regular hospital rooms. Fortunately, the most critical part of her hospitalization had passed and all of her vital signs were normal once again.

In response to Janice’s situation, her pals thoughtfully called her parents. As a consequence, early the next morning, her Mother and Father and her best buddies went to the hospital to visit Janice and look into her medical progress.

Janice Narrowly Escapes Death, is Thankful to be Alive, and Promises to Never Again Drink in an Excessive and Abusive Manner

Janice was attentive to the fact that she had narrowly escaped death and, as a consequence, was thankful to be alive. Her parents realized how relentlessly she worked in graduate school and how little she let herself have any fun. Nonetheless, they also were aware that Janice needed to stay away from excessive drinking.

As a result, they suggested that in the future, whenever a drinking circumstance unfolds, that she always drink responsibly. Janice was of the same opinion and assured her Mother and Father and her friends that she would never again drink in an excessive and hazardous manner. As stated by Janice, “I never had an inkling that I would become one of the alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics in the local city newspaper. I now understand that irresponsible and abusive drinking is not for me. I say publicly that this will never happen again.”

Fortunately, Janice was not only “school smart” but she also had common sense. Stated another way, she instantaneously knew that she had made an error and made up her mind that she would never make the same error again. In fact, she now realized that she had involved herself in “binge drinking” and that even one instance of this kind of abusive drinking can end in a fatality.

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