Alcohol Abuse Therapy – Alcoholism and alcohol abuse facts

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Alcohol abuse is a disease that is characterized by the sufferer having a pattern of drinking excessively despite the negative effects of alcohol on the individual’s work, medical, legal, educational, and/or social life.
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Alcohol abuse affects about 10% of women and 20% of men in the United States, most beginning by their midteens.

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Signs of alcohol intoxication include the smell of alcohol on the breath or skin, glazed or bloodshot eyes, the person being unusually passive or argumentative, and/or a deterioration in the person’s appearance or hygiene.

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Almost 2,000 people under 21 years of age die each year in car crashes in which underage drinking is involved. Alcohol is involved in nearly half of all violent deaths involving teens. 
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Alcoholism is a destructive pattern of alcohol use that includes a number of symptoms, including tolerance to or withdrawal from the substance, using more alcohol and/or for a longer time than planned, and trouble reducing its use.
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Alcohol, especially when consumed in excess, can affect teens, women, men, and the elderly quite differently.

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Risk factors for developing a drinking problem include low self-esteem,depression, anxiety or another mood problem, as well as having parents with alcoholism.

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Alcohol dependence has no one single cause and is not directly passed from one generation to another genetically. Rather, it is the result of a complex group of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors.
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - There is no one test that definitively indicates that someone has an alcohol-use disorder. Therefore, health-care practitioners diagnose these disorders by gathering comprehensive medical, family, and mental-health information.

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - There are thought to be five stages of alcoholism.
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - There are numerous individual treatments for alcoholism, including individual and group counseling, support groups, residential treatment, medications, drug testing, and/or relapse-prevention programs.
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Some signs of a drinking problem include drinking alone, to escape problems, or for the sole purpose of getting drunk; hiding alcohol in odd places; getting irritated when you are unable to obtain alcohol to drink; and having problems because of your drinking.
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - While some people with alcohol dependence can cut back or stop drinking without help, most are only able to do so temporarily unless they get treatment.
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - There is no amount of alcohol intake that has been proven to be generally safe during pregnancy.
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - The long-term effects of alcohol abuse and alcoholism can be devastating and even life threatening, negatively affecting virtually every organ system.

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Codependency is the tendency to interact with another person in an excessively passive or caretaking manner that negatively affects the quality of the codependent individual’s life.

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Adequate supervision and clear communication by parents about the negative effects of alcohol and about parental expectations regarding alcohol and other drug use can significantly decrease alcohol use in teens.

  Alcohol Abuse Therapy - With treatment, about 70% of people with alcoholism are able to decrease the number of days they consume alcohol and improve their overall health status within six months.

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Alcohol Abuse Therapy – Treatment of Alcoholism
By MARK S. GOLD, MD

To understand treatment and make the right treatment choices, it helps to have an overview. Treatment is often seen as having four general phases:

• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Getting started (assessment and evaluation of disease symptoms and accompanying life problems, making treatment choices and developing a plan)
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Detoxification (stopping use)
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Active treatment (residential treatment or therapeutic communities, intensive and regular outpatient treatment,medications to help with alcohol craving and discourage alcohol use, medications to treat concurrent psychiatric illnesses, 12-step programs, other self-help and mutual-help groups)
• Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Maintaining sobriety and relapse prevention (outpatient treatment as needed, 12-step programs, other self-help and mutual-help groups)

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Getting Started

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - First, the alcoholic must overcome denial and distorted thinking and develop the willingness to begin treatment—what Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) calls “the desire” to stop drinking. At this stage, it is important to obtain the help of someone knowledgeable about treatment and the options available. When getting started, some people have lost control over alcohol to such an extent that they will only be able to make immediate decisions and set the most basic goal of quitting drinking. Development of a detailed alcohol abuse therapy plan with goals and choices may have to wait until after detoxification.

On the other hand, “getting started” is exactly the place where some people with alcohol problems “get stuck.” In being stuck, denial is always a problem, but complete denial is not universal; people have various levels of awareness of their alcohol use problems, which means they are in different stages of readiness to change their drinking behavior. Professionals have taken advantage of this insight about alcoholism to develop treatment approaches that are matched to a person’s readiness to change.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Detoxification

The second phase of alcohol abuse therapy is stopping use, which can be done on either an inpatient or outpatient basis. Medical evaluation and alcohol abuse therapy are particularly important at this stage. A large proportion of alcoholics develop dangerous withdrawal symptoms that must be medically managed either in a hospital or on an outpatient basis. Although detoxification is a critical step for many alcoholics, most alcohol abuse therapy professionals are reluctant to call it alcohol abuse therapy, and for good reason. alcohol abuse therapy is what helps a person develop a commitment to change, keep the motivation to change, create a realistic plan to change and put the plan in action. Successful alcohol abuse therapy means a person begins to experience the rewards of seeing the plan work. Just taking away the alcohol does not automatically produce any of these outcomes.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Active Treatment

Relapse to alcohol addiction is most likely to occur in the first three to six months after a person stops drinking, a period characterized by physiological abnormalities, mood changes and complaints of anxiety,depression, insomnia and hormone and sleep problems. Getting active help and support during the early months of sobriety is critical for alcohol abuse therapy to succeed.
In the third phase of treatment, a person typically gains the motivation necessary to maintain a commitment to sobriety, the knowledge and skills necessary to stay sober, and the support systems necessary to cope with the problems of daily life—the problems that everyone has to face—without resorting to the old “solution” of drinking. This is where the help of a alcohol abuse therapy professional is important. A professional will help you better understand how alcohol has affected your health and your life, so that you can set goals and develop a plan to stay sober and choose the alcohol abuse therapy that are right for you.
Some proven medications are available to help with alcohol craving and discourage alcohol use. A alcohol abuse therapy professional will also help you choose medications and treatments for concurrent psychiatric illnesses, like depression or anxiety, if that is appropriate, or for a variety of health problems that often accompany alcoholism.
Research has shown that the longer people stay in treatment—that is, the longer they remain sober and actively committed to sobriety—the more likely it is that they will maintain sobriety. Some treatment professionals think of the phase of active treatment as lasting from six months to a year. During the first critical months of treatment, people often need a variety of supports, especially AA or other self-help groups, to achieve and maintain lasting sobriety.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Maintaining Sobriety and Relapse Prevention
It is often difficult to pinpoint when the active treatment phase ends and a person enters the maintenance phase of recovery. In the active stage of treatment, people learn what they need to do to stay sober and develop the many skills they will use to avoid relapse. A person could be said to enter the maintenance stage when he or she is comfortable with these skills and has had a chance to rely on them to stay sober when life throws them the inevitable curveballs, both in crisis situations and in everyday problem situations. Many people in recovery attribute their ongoing sobriety to participation in a support group such as AA or Women for Sobriety.

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Alcohol Abuse Therapy – Understanding Alcohol Abuse Therapy

The goal of alcohol abuse therapy is abstinence. Among alcoholics with otherwise good health, social support, and motivation, the likelihood of recovery is good. Approximately 50% to 60% remain abstinent at the end of a year’s alcohol abuse therapy and a majority of those stay dry permanently. Those with poor social support, poor motivation, or psychiatric disorders tend to relapse within a few years of alcohol abuse therapy. For these people, success is measured by longer periods of abstinence, reduced use of alcohol, better health, and improved social functioning.

What Are the Treatments for Alcoholism?

Alcohol abuse therapy can begin only when the alcoholic accepts that the problem exists and agrees to stop drinking. He or she must understand that alcoholism is curable and must be motivated to change. Alcohol abuse therapy has three stages:

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Conventional Medicine for Alcoholism

1. Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Detoxification (detox): This may be needed immediately after discontinuing alcohol use and can be a medical emergency as detox can result in the withdrawal seizures, hallucinations, and confusion of delirium tremens (DT) and in some cases can result in death.
2. Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Rehabilitation: This involves counseling and medications to give the recovering alcoholic the skills needed for maintaining sobriety. This step in alcohol abuse therapy can be done inpatient or outpatient, both are equally effective.
3. Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Maintenance of Sobriety: This step’s success requires an alcoholic to be self-driven. The key to maintenance is support, which often includes regular Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings and getting a sponsor.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Because detoxification does not stop the craving for alcohol, recovery is often difficult to maintain. For a person in an early stage of alcoholism, discontinuing alcohol use may result in some withdrawal symptoms, including anxiety and poor sleep.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Withdrawal from long-term dependence may bring the uncontrollable shaking, spasms, panic, and hallucinations of DTs. If not treated professionally, people with DTs have a mortality rate of more than 10%, so detoxification from late-stage alcoholism should be attempted under the care of an experienced doctor and may require a brief inpatient stay at a hospital or alcohol abuse therapy center.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy 

Alcohol abuse therapy may involve one or more medications. Benzodiazepines are anti-anxiety drugs used to treat withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety and poor sleep and to prevent seizures and delirium. These are the most frequently used medications during the detox phase, at which time they are usually tapered and then discontinued. They must be used with care, since they may be addictive.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Disulfiram may be used once the detox phase is complete and the person is abstinent. It interferes with alcohol metabolism so that drinking a small amount will cause nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, confusion, and breathing difficulty.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Naltrexone reduces the craving for alcohol but, as with all medications used to treat alcoholism, is recommended as part of a comprehensive program that teach patients new coping skills. It is now available as a long acting injection which can be given on a monthly basis. Antidepressants may be used to control any underlying or resulting anxiety or depression, but because those symptoms may disappear with abstinence, the medications are usually not started until after detox is complete and there has been some period of abstinence. Acamprosate is the latest drug used to treat alcoholism and enhances abstinence among patients.

Alcohol Abuse Therapy - Because an alcoholic remains susceptible to becoming dependent again, the key to recovery is total abstinence. alcohol abuse therapy typically takes a broad-based approach, which may include education programs, group therapy, family involvement, and participation in self-help groups. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is the most well known of the self-help groups, but other approaches have also proved successful.

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