Alcoholism is a very powerful illness that can take over your entire body once it is constantly in your bloodstream. The body becomes so adjusted to having alcohol in the system that without it, it cannot function as it normally would. This is what causes withdrawal symptoms as someone attempts to quit drinking “cold turkey” and their body is no longer receiving doses of the drug it relies on so heavily. Withdrawal can be quite dangerous in fact because the body becomes so dependent on having alcohol in its system that it can shut down in ways that are fatal at times. With treatment at detox programs however, withdrawal symptoms can be minimized and in some cases eliminated.

Alcohol withdrawal symptoms can range from mild to very severe depending on how long a person has been drinking and the quantity that they normally drink. Mild symptoms include nervousness, anxiety, depression, difficulty focusing and fatigue. More moderate symptoms include physical problems like vomiting, insomnia, tremor, sweating and loss of appetite. If a person has been drinking heavily for many years symptoms can become very intense with hallucinations, convulsions or black out. The more severe symptoms should be treated professionally but anyone that attempts to quit drinking should consult a doctor even if they have not been an alcoholic for very long.

In order to minimize and avoid withdrawal symptoms as much as possible, detox programs can provide different types of services depending on how intense your withdrawal symptoms will be. Mild symptoms can be monitored with a staff member to ensure that your heart rate, temperature and blood pressure are at a secure level and you have enough fluids in your body to be safe. For more moderate or severe symptoms you can be treated with medication or even be sedated if the symptoms become life-threatening. Detox staff are experienced in dealing with all the various stages of withdrawal and can make sure that your safety and health are intact throughout the entire experience.

If you or someone you know has a problem with alcohol then you should look into the possibility of getting into recovery. Alcohol addiction has a lot of negatives associated with it, not the least of which is a lifespan that is generally reduced by about 20 percent on average, so anyone who is hooked on drinking should look into quitting just for this simple fact alone. The quality of your life stands to improve by leaps and bounds if you can find a way to sober up.

If you want to quit drinking then you have to change your entire life from the inside out. For most people, success in sobriety comes as a direct result of their actions in trying to actively create a new life for themselves. This means that if you want to stay sober then you have to do a lot more than just not drink. You have to get active in recovery and reach out and help other people and set some goals in your life and find some real purpose. If you do these things then it will give you the drive and the motivation to remain sober even when times get tough.

We all have our personal challenges and we will all have our ups and downs so you need to find coping mechanisms and healthy outlets so that you can avoid relapse over the long term. Alcoholism is a very patient disease and so you need an entire life strategy that can carry you through your entire life experience if you want to stay sober in the long run.

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Question by Haruka07: What songs or poems are there about recovery from drug or alcohol addiction?
I’m doing an English project and I need a poem or song about a drug addict or alcoholic recovering from their addiction because they have seen that they have a family to live for, they have something worth fighting for. I can’t for the life of me find any poems or songs like this, though I’m sure they’re out there somewhere! So if you guys could help me out, I would be forever grateful!

Thanks ever so much! ^^

Best answer:

Answer by xo379
RHCP – Under the Bridge
“Under the bridge downtown/Is where I drew some blood/Under the bridge downtown/I could not get enough/Under the bridge downtown/Forgot about my love/Under the bridge downtown/I gave my life away . . .”

The Needle and the Damage Done – Neil Young
One of the most famous anti-heroin songs ever, “The Needle and the Damage Done” was directed at original Crazy Horse guitarist, Danny Whitten, who overdosed at the age of 29 several months after the song’s release. Young later remarked about the song: “I am not a preacher, but drugs killed a lot of great men.” The song appears on Harvest, which was the best-selling album of 1972. “I’ve seen the needle and the damage done/A little part of it in everyone/But every junkie’s like a settin’ sun . . .”

Gracy – Raymond Carter (poem)
No other word will do. For that’s what it was.
Gravy.
Gravy, these past ten years.
Alive, sober, working, loving, and
being loved by a good woman. Eleven years
ago he was told he had six months to live
at the rate he was going. And he was going
nowhere but down. So he changed his ways
somehow. He quit drinking! And the rest?
After that it was all gravy, every minute
of it…

Also…interesting article “When Novelists Sober Up”: http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/tom-shone/when-novelists-sober

Give your answer to this question below!

It is not easy by any means to help alcoholics to recover. It is especially difficult to help an alcoholic who does not really want to quit drinking. In fact, most people would say that it is impossible and you should not even try to help them if they do not really want the help. This is probably good advice if you are spending a lot of time, resources, or mental energy in trying to help someone who continues to self destruct due to substance abuse.

Before you try to help an alcoholic you should first gauge their level of willingness. If they are not willing to help themselves in any way then you are basically wasting your time and energy. So try to determine if it is even worth your time to help them. A good rule of thumb for this is to figure out if they are willing to accept help that is suggested, or if they will only accept help for their problem on their own terms. If they are only willing to get help in their own way, then they are not really ready to stop drinking and you should not try to help them.

Now on the other hand, if the alcoholic in question is really ready to surrender their will to the disease, then they will ask for help and be ready to take some direction. They will admit that they are completely baffled by their condition and they will accept any reasonable suggestion that you give them. For example, they will be willing to attend recovery meetings or go to a treatment center if they are truly ready to get help. Fighting against these ideas is basically a form of denial.

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You’ll find around a hundred million routine drinkers in the states, and some reports are implying that almost 10 million of them can easily be considered alcoholics. That means that around one in ten drinkers has a problem with alcohol. Regardless if it is because of peer pressures or physical dependency, it is typically really hard to quit drinking, but each and every year lots of people make that decisions and begin the alcohol detox process.

Alcohol detox means the elimination of alcohol in the body in addition to the management of the potential withdrawal symptoms. The actual detoxification process doesn’t necessarily take away the desires for alcohol, nor does it rapidly eliminate the physical dependency which may have developed over prolonged use, but it really will get you on track in the right direction of getting sober and stay this way.

Substance dependancy, including alcoholism, is often a severe problem, and extended abuse can cause physical transformations. For example, the body transforms so much that it becomes completely dependent on the substances to be able to sustain regular systemic function. This sort of physiological change is among the reasons why a lot of people usually relapse. Despite how long they’ve been sober, the nature of these kinds of addiction signifies that they have to always be willing to continuously choose to steer clear of alcoholic beverages day after day. After you take the steps in the direction of alcohol detox your entire body will enjoy a chance to purge itself of the chemicals plus resume natural metabolic functions.

This isn’t normally going to be a simple process. Any time you get rid of something that your body has a dependency on it can go into something generally known as withdrawal. This is the length of time in which the person’s body is working to rebuild and repair its regular functions it won’t always be pleasant.

If someone hasn’t been abusing alcohol for a long stretch of time, the withdrawal symptoms could be comparatively light. However, when the individual has been taking in unhealthy quantities for many years, there is a good possibility that he or she may undergo some intense symptoms once the alcohol detox process has begun.

Examples of these symptoms are the sweats, queasiness, throwing up, tremors, stress and fatigue, uneasiness, and possible convulsions and seizures. For anyone who is trying to undergo alcohol detox by yourself, these kinds of symptoms usually are overwhelming. Because of this many people look to various medically administered programs for detoxification. When you’re supervised by a healthcare professional, they are able to prescribe some medications that will help minimize these symptoms.

Certainly, these kinds of medications are not the only way for you to get through these trying times. There are lots of support groups which could provide you with the reassurance and determination required to face every one of these symptoms and begin the subsequent portion of the treatment.

Remember, alcohol detox is known as a fundamental starting point to conquer addiction however it most certainly not the last. After you have gotten the alcohol from your system and defeated the withdrawal symptoms you should begin the next step, which is the ongoing endeavours to be alocohol free using counseling, support, and incessant willpower to be sober.

People often find their way to recovery in the midst of a crisis. Someone standing at the crossroads of recovery, may have been arrested for DUI, may have been fired, or may have received a scary report from the doctor. He may have heard the bottom line demand from his spouse– “Get help or we are getting a divorce.” Or, the alcoholic/addict may in fact, have a moment of clarity and really be able to see that he does have a problem and that help and abstinence are called for. The alcoholic/addict feels afraid. He feels ashamed.  He feels angry at others or at himself for being in this position in the first place.   

Fear, coercion or crisis helps him find his way into recovery. Fear is a fairly good short term motivator, but not so good in the long run. Once the fear subsides and the crisis is over, it is very easy to lose your motivation and momentum. At the point where the cycle of addiction is interrupted by failing to take the next drink, dose, or joint, there is a lot of tension, anxiety, and mindfulness of where you are in the process. Detox or withdrawal may occur, with physical and/or emotional symptoms being very consciously experienced.

When you get to feeling better physically and emotionally after detoxing, it is easy to lose your momentum. Your focus on recovery can dissolve. Some of the problems that once motivated your recovery might be resolved now. Because you have quit drinking or using, your spouse and kids are once again speaking to you and are in the process of forgiving you. You may have even won back some trust. Everything seems to be going well.  

Under these circumstances it is quite easy for you to take your eyes off the target and lose your focus on recovery. Erroneously, you may believe that your abstinence is not so fragile now.  Feeling better, you may think you have it “whipped”. 

Without actively focusing on your continuing abstinence and recovery, your behavior can begin to drift away from the newly instituted behavioral changes that you have made. You run the risk of returning to old thinking, old feelings, and then ultimately old behavior.  The reason why this would happen is that you are not consciously taking steps to continue on a path of recovery. This path involves many changes in your behavior and in your life style. Without making conscious choices in regard to how each decision affects your new recovery life or your old addiction life, you are unconsciously choosing your old life. Choosing recovery is not like jump starting your damaged car battery where once you get it started, it recharges itself as run it. You have to continuously work a program of recovery. Without doing so, your efforts will be short-lived. 

You will quit going to counseling. You will quit going to meetings. You will have stopped calling your recovery support people. Your defenses will go back up and you may take exception to the feedback of significant others who tell you that you are acting like you used to before recovery.

You won’t be able to see that you are on the road to relapse. You won’t be able to understand why they are concerned. You won’t be able to identify the behavioral changes that scare them because you will be back in denial. Being around old drinking/using environments and friends don’t scare you. You can’t understand why it would scare your significant others. After all, you told them that you are not going to relapse. You have learned your lesson. What more do they want? 

After awhile, you will begin to think that you have your drinking or using under control now.  When you think of addiction as a thing of the past, that you now have it under control, you will begin to entertain the notion that you can now drink or use without negative consequences. If any of this sounds like your recent experience, you are in big trouble. You are in the relapse process and unless you do something now, you will relapse–and soon.