The Alcohol Free Social Life!

This is a question people ask a lot - how do they know they are a ‘problem drinker’ versus a full-blown alcoholic and what is the difference?The truth is the meanings or definitions of both is subjective.

There are people who identify themselves as alcoholics or addicts and they scoff at the idea that they or a course can help them change.Other people identify their heavy alcohol drinking as being a temporary issue in their life and decide to resolve it. I will turn to scientific research to discuss this with you. I am going to refer to an article from the Los Angeles Times newspaper from November 16th 2009 entitled ‘You Can Cut Back’.

The article quotes research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.The institute is the USA’s leading authority on alcoholism and the major provider of funds for alcohol research. This organisation has conducted the ground-breaking National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, the largest and most comprehensive look at alcohol use in America.

The project surveyed 43,000 people 18 and older in 2001 and 2002, and again in 2004 and 2005, with the results released in increments beginning in 2006. From the article, only 1% of those surveyed fit the stereotypical image of someone with severe, recurring alcohol addiction who has hit the skids.The data suggest that there are two forms of alcohol disorders: one that fits the traditional view of alcoholism, in which the need for a drink takes over a person’s life, and a time-limited form in which people drink heavily for a period but then cut down and recover.

Perhaps the most remarkable finding of the epidemiologic study was how many Americans experienced an alcohol-use disorder (either abuse or the more severe dependence) at some point — and how many recovered on their own. About 30% of Americans had experienced a disorder, the research showed, but about 70% of those quit drinking or cut back to safe consumption patterns without treatment after four years or less.

The article then goes into more details to talk about the genetic and environmental factors which can influence a person’s propensity for alcohol problems. However, the point is that a lot of the solution is about you learning and developing both awareness and skills around drinking - rather than labelling yourself as an alcoholic or something that you cannot change.

So, the first step in any problem drinking or alcoholic or addiction issue is always to see your medical practitioner to determine what is safe in terms of cutting down cold turkey or gradually. You then have skills to learn - and taking responsibility is the key. As I discovered this week, someone thought that he needed to understand the difference between being an alcoholic and a problem drinker.

In his specific instance, that was not the real issue. The real issue was that he really wanted to stop drinking forever because he had had enough of the years of abuse alcohol had given to him and he couldn’t recover as quickly. However because he worked in a music and entertainment environment where other people were drinking he felt like he ’should’ try to control his drinking and be a moderate drinker.

Deep down I knew he really wanted to stop drinking but he was being torn apart from feeling as if he would be letting his friends and colleagues down, not bonding, being seen to be boring etc.In his mind, he saw it as a question of being either an alcoholic or problem drinker. He was secretly hoping I think, that he could find evidence he was an alcoholic and then use this as a way to justify not drinking.

The simple thing was he had the power to make a decision to decide whether to continue drinking or stop forever. Once he made the decision he could then face any consequences.Obviously that is one specific example. In your situation, there are likely to be similar underlying factors at play and it is key to discover what these are. Once you have seen your medical practitioner, and taken their advice and follow-up, you must then work out what you want with drinking and then work on the strategy.

If your situation is very serious, your medical practitioner will take action and refer you to the relevant specialists. In most other situations, I believe you can play a critical part yourself in working on your alcohol issues - as the evidence from the major study quoted above suggests. So, whatever the prognosis and whatever label you have - you need to work out what you can control and can work on yourself and what you cannot control and may need help from your medical practitioner and specialists.

Read the full Los Angeles Times article here: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/16/health/he-alcohol16

One of the most common issues is that people drink too much alcohol because it is a habit. It is something they have been doing for so long that any other behaviour simply does not occur to them.One of the reasons is because ‘everyone else is doing it’. So if you are in a pub or bar with your friends and you have had a couple of drinks, everyone might decide, let’s have another one.

However that extra drink may be too much for you in terms of your health, weight, staying sober etc.Because all of your friends are agreeing to continue with this, you do also. This is a psychological principle called ’social proof’.

If you are unsure of how to behave in a situation, you look to those around you to make your decision. Similarly everyone else does the same - and as you continually do it, so drinking alcohol becomes a habit.One lady actually e-mailed me to say she had not been drinking for many weeks but suddenly felt an urge to drink when she saw her husband having a drink. Again part of this is habit - she may have been drinking for years together with her husband - so seeing her husband drinking ‘triggered’ her usual habits and so she felt the urge.

However, if she wants to change - and if you do also - you need to change your habits. So investigate when are you drinking - when is it because  you consciously want to and when do you just drink because you always do - e.g. if you go to see a band play do you habitually order a pint - again because everyone else is doing the same.If you can recognise your habits, you can start working on what you are going to do about them.

It can often be difficult to really acknowledge that you are drinking too much. You might have been drinking for a long time and not feel too drunk. However drinking excessively could be doing damage to yourself.

So here is a little test you can take to really understand if you are drinking too much. This is normally what a medical practitioner will give you to fill in as a form of assessment. It is a 10 question test developed by the World Health Organisation and should be quite accurate in helping you assess your current situation with alcohol.

It is called the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, or AUDIT and if you score above 8 there can be no more cop-outs. It is time to face up to the truth.

www.tinyurl.com/yzzaje3

Take the test and see your score. Please note this is not intended to replace you seeing your medical practitioner and you must make an appointment with them to deal with your alcohol issues. However, this is a good start.

I would like to include this interesting video from YouTube about real-life women and their alcohol problems. What is interesting here is how common some of these drinking issues are and most importantly how some of these problems start and continue gradually. 

Here is the description of the video from the Research Channel on YouTube:

This program by the National Institues of Health features narratives of seven women recovering from problems with alcohol. These stories make it clear that it’s possible to miss danger signs and that social drinking can become problem drinking, which in turn can evolve into addiction. Abuse and alcoholism are often perceived as problems that only affect men, but alcoholism has been on the rise among women for the last 30 years.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with the term alcoholism - heavy drinking or alcohol addiction I believe are better words - because they can be broken and are in your control to deal with, I still think this video raises some important life stories and challenges.

A short video which explains what alcohol does to your brain. It tells you what happens biologically to you. Find out more here: 

You may feel that you could have a problem with your drinking. Either you may be starting to become aware of how much you are drinking or you may already know this for sure.

Wherever you are, always the first step is to really understand that your drinking is actually an issue which is starting to affect you and those around you.

To be sure of where you stand in relationship to alcohol at the current moment, it is worth you asking yourself a few questions.

The Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC) has produced some questions you might want to consider asking yourself if you are worried about your alcohol intake: http://www.alcohol.org.nz/IsThereAProblemContent.aspx?PostingID=901

Here are their questions in more detail: 

Please visit ALAC’s website for more information and resources to help you decide whether to control your drinking and indeed, how to cut down:

http://www.alcohol.org.nz

Females respond more prominently to alcohol than males. This is due to the greater mass a male has compared to a female. Also, males contain a greater amount of water per unit of mass than females, and water dilutes the alcohol. Because of the different physical composition of males and females, females can only consume seven drinks per week or three beverages a day in moderation. Sometimes, females are tempted to drink as much alcohol at once as males, but they do not share the same tolerance. By developing tolerance to alcohol, more problems would arise to the drinker than if she were to be less tolerant.

Often changing very simple things in your routine can affect your drinking levels and quantities.

One example is a freelance journalist who changed when she went for a jog from before work to after work, and that led to cutting out excess drinking as she used to have a drink as a way of separating work from leisure time. By going for a run instead of taking that drink, she was able to cut out the need to reach for alcohol.

What about you? What are the habits and routines you have with alcohol. Many people end up having several glasses of wine at the kitchen or dining table in the evening.  Their routine has been set this way for a while. 

The only way is to change this routine. Do something different, either in or out of the house or leave the kids with the grandparents etc. Whatever makes sense with your situation.  Something different - but you must first work out what is your routine and the reasons why your routine is causing you to drink too much.

Can you go to new places with new people? Do something new - outside your comfort zone. For example, I went to a Brazilian late night venue last week for the first time in ages. It was a lot of fun and I didn’t need to drink alcohol. What could you be doing?

Obviously with routine, the classics are routes to work, work itself - could you change your hours, work from home/the office more, who you work with- which teams and departments, a change of scenery or even company may be needed.

Then your leisure time. What do you usually do? Could you change this in terms of who you hang out with and where you go. If you have kids or family, this might not be as easy but there are still numerous alternatives and options you probably haven’t even considered yet.

Please start looking into your routine as a way of making changes to your life. 

I am very happy to report that so far 143 people have taken the Alcohol Survey. It has been really eye-opening to understand the real life problems people are experiencing. All over the world some of the major issues crop up again and again.

The first thing which surprised me was the age profile of people with issues. In the media we are so used to reading about teenage or college student binge drinkers. But in the survey, 38% of people were between 45-54 years of age. The next biggest group was 35-44 years of age. A quarter were in the younger 25-34 and then the 55-64 age categories.

Let’s get onto the main issues concerned.

The first question was an open-ended question:

What is your main problem/concern with alcohol? 

The top 3 responses with over 20% of people responding were:

1. Can’t Stop Drinking When You Have Started or have had one drink

2. Feel The Need To Drink or you are drinking too much

3. Worries and concerns about your physical health

There were also many comments about worrying about what happened when you were drunk and the guilt and remorse felt the next day. Many people also just wanted to cut down and stop alienating their families.

What Are Your Reasons For Drinking?

Surprisingly by far the biggest response was Boredom. I had a multiple choice question and over 50% of people across age groups mentioned this as their number one issue.

 Here are the main issues with the number of people who mentioned them:

1. Boredom - 65 people mentioned this out of 143

2. Low Self-Esteem 52

3. Relationship Issues 45

4. Work and Economy: 40

5. Family Issues: 24

Others

6. Stress Relief

7. Because Alcohol is Fun

8. Habit

People who had suffered from abuse also had an issue here. Grief was also an issue for some of the older participants in the study.

Please could you let me know your thoughts about everything above. Does this make sense to you? Do you have the same issues or are there other things which make you turn to drink?

Please leave a comment so other people can learn from your experiences and we can start a discussion around this. If any of these areas touch you - e.g. boredom and relationship issues please post a little about what your specific situation is here so others can learn from you

Thanks,

Rahul

P.S. If you want to still take part in the Alcohol Survey, please click here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JadJvps7S_2f_2bqN6kl8U30iA_3d_3d

Please could you take a quick 2-3 minute survey about your problems with alcohol.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JadJvps7S_2f_2bqN6kl8U30iA_3d_3d

If you put in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom, I will send you a free 1-page effects of alcohol on your body and mind info page. It will summarise the key impacts alcohol will have on you in the short and long-term

All the information collected is anonymous (the e-mail is simply there to send you the report).

My aim is to get a better understanding of what peoples’ problems with alcohol are and what the causes could be