Here are some ideas on alcoholic blackouts in podcast form. There is a little personal history here: at one time blackouts became the purpose of my drinking.

Ther are some interesting facts brought out by research on blackouts concerning age and gender differences. The alcohol blackout podcast is about 6 minutes long:

Click on the Podcast Icon below or…just Click Here

Do you have a relapse plan in place? Here is a podcast on minimizing the damage from an alcohol or drug relapse.

Relapse Damage control: 5 Tips

Click icon below:

Teenage Binge Drinking Facts and Information

Information about teenage binge drinking. Some of the dangers of underage binge drinking include an increased likelihood of developing alcoholism, memory problems, health issues, etc.The Negative Effects of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Affect …

Why should people be concerned about the negative effects of alcohol abuse and alcoholism? After all, millions of people drink excessively. And to paraphrase an advertisement I have heard, “millions of people can’t be wrong. …

Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Signs, Symptoms, Effects Research shows a link between alcoholism and memory

Professor Dora Duka, an experimental psychologist, said that her studies show alcohol facilitates memories for emotional events experienced before intoxication (mostly positive) and impairs memories for emotional events experienced …

Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Signs, Symptoms, Effects.

Addiction recovery can be amazingly complex and paradoxically amazingly simple.

Here are three simple steps to stopping drinking and drugging:

Podcast by Bill Urell

1. Make a decision to stop, and stop.

2. Develop a proven workable plan to maximize your chances for success.

3. Implement that plan on a daily basis no matter what.

Is it really that easy…well yes and no.

Click on the podcast icon below to get the whole story on addiction recovery.

There are three medications commonly used as an aid in the treatment of alcoholism.

The three oral medications are:

1. Disulfiram (Antabuse) - Disulfiram discourages drinking by making the person taking it feel sick after drinking alcohol.

2. Naltrexone (Depade, ReVia) - Naltrexone acts in the brain to reduce craving for alcohol after someone has stopped drinking.

3. Acamprosate (Campral) - Acamprosate is thought to work by reducing symptoms that follow lengthy abstinence, such as anxiety and insomnia.

These are currently approved to treat alcohol dependence. In addition, an injectable, long-acting form of naltrexone (Vivitrol) is available. These medications have been shown to help people with dependence reduce their drinking, avoid relapse to heavy drinking, and achieve and maintain abstinence.

Other types of drugs are available to help manage symptoms of withdrawal (such as shakiness, nausea, and sweating) if they occur after someone with alcohol dependence stops drinking.

Although medications are available to help treat alcoholism, there is no “magic bullet.” In other words, no single medication is available that works in every case and/or in every person. Developing new and more effective medications to treat alcoholism remains a high priority for researchers. Click here for further Alcoholism FAQ.

Those are the facts. Now I will present an editorial dissenting view. Click on the Podcast Icon below

The drug or alcohol relapse process has certain signs and symptoms that must be addressed before actual use of drugs and alcohol reoccurs. Relapse prevention is all about interrupting the process prior to use.

By Bill Urell

There are certain signs and symptoms that may indicate that a person may be in ‘relapse mode’ Some or many of the following may occur and are definitely worth paying attention to.

1. H.A.L.T – H is for hungry, A for angry, L for lonely and T for tired. Often when people feel snappish or cranky a quick review of those for symptoms may pinpoint a cause. The danger of not paying attention here is that minor incidents can get blown way out of proportion if any or all of those four states are not dealt with.

2. Dishonesty – This can cause concern in one of two ways, the first is that if you have never gotten completely honest about your addiction and recovery in the first place. The second and more likely scenario is that ‘little white lies’ of convenience have started to creep into your life. This can then progress into deceiving yourself about important things.

3. Complacency – Complacency is a really sneaky one because when it occurs, things are going well. When things go well people tend to slack off and put minimal effort into recovery. Thoughts like “I wasn’t that bad” and “It wasn’t alcohol and drugs that was my problem…it was ________” Those are sure fire signs of the relapse process in full swing.

4. Self-Pity – Climbing on the pity pot usually involves either becoming a victim, “How come everybody can drink except me?”. Or, You can adopt a blaming stance…” If you had my husband/wife you would drink too. If you are a victim or a blamer it is always someone else’s fault, and you are not responsible. If it is not your fault you don’t have to take action because it would make no difference.

5. Frustration – Two very common traits of people in addiction and addiction recovery are poor impulse control, ‘I want what I want, when I want it’, and the need for immediate gratification. This can be childlike in throwing a hissy when things don’t go your way. That can easily escalate to ‘I’ll show them’ and its off to the bar or drug dealer. Identifying drug and alcohol addiction relapse warning signs is not a black and white issue, there are many potential signs of danger, and they are different for everybody.

Bonus Tip: The key to relapse prevention is to identify and interrupt the process as quickly as possible. We want to prevent a thought of using to develop to the point where there is a drink or drug in hand and a return to active addiction. The best way to do that is to have previously developed strategies to handle identified relapse warning signs and symptoms.

Here are some great resources on relapse prevention I discovered. In order:1. A podcast, 2. Why addicts are like unicorns, and 3. 10 common relapse triggers:

Relapse Prevention: Process and Intervention – Relapse Prevention: Proces and Intervention You will not want to miss this incredible information on preventing relapse. Discover the process of relapse and what warning signs to look out for. Recovery from chemical dependence occurs at …

A Theory of Addiction Relapse Prevention – When I first decided to write an article about relapse prevention, I felt anxious about what to include or exclude. I initially thought about all the material I have on relapse prevention, and how I could integrate it into one article. …

Relapse Prevention: 10 Relapse Triggers – The staff at Mark Houston Recovery knows all about drug and alcohol relapse prevention as well as what causes it. Recovery is a journey that lasts a lifetime. Just because you go through a drug and alcohol rehab program doesn’t mean …

I got called out on my ‘Magic Pill” statement.

A couple days ago I made a post Alcoholism: Can It Be Cured? In that post, I made the statement: “Every year or two like clockwork headlines appear that we have created a pill or some cutting edge treatment to ‘cure’ alcoholism. These claims have not come to reality.”

My good friend Patrick over at Spiritual River .com asked “even if the magic pill did come along, allowing you to once again drink like a normal person, would you take it?

I sat down and started to post the obvious answer…then I started thinking, and it got to me. How about you? I invite you to leave a comment.

Click on the Pocast Icon below to hear my answer:

It was my privilege recently to interview Velda Lyons on the topic of women’s issues in addiction treatment and recovery. Velda is a licensed psychotherapist, licensed family therapist and director of phase 2 treatment programming for women at a top tier inpatient drug and alcohol rehab center.

We spoke of gender specific women’s treatment and addiction issues, both problems and solutions. I enjoyed the interview and hope you do too. Add a comment if you would like to hear more interviews from experts in the field.

Click on the podcast icon down below:

This is a superb podcast that examines the question of ‘what is addiction?’ This is the modern view of addiction as a brain disease rather than a bad habit or moral failing. Features Dr Nora Volkoff, Director of the National Institure on Drug Abuse, Shelley Greenfield from Harvard Medical School, Dr Rob Melinka from Stanford University.

Just click on the Podcast icon below for some great info on addiction as a brain disease.

I like this article:

The Slippery Slope of Drug Addiction

Thought it was time to do an article on having fun in addiction recovery. I just happen to live fairly close to one of the leading inpatient drug and alcohol addiction treatment centers in the country.

I started thinking (always a danger) and decided to see if I could talk to a professional.

I interviewed an expert on having FUN in recovery.

Go easy on me, it was my first interview and I was testing out a digital voice recorder, and here is the result… 

Just click on that little podcast icon thingy down below.

I have been fortunate to attend several lectures and seminars by author and clinician John Lee. His website is http://flyingboy.com . He focuses a great deal on addiction and addiction recovery of course, but more specificaly on the effects addiction has on relationships.One way of looking at it is the development of life skills.

Have a listen to Alan Lyme, Director of Education at The Hanley Center interview John Lee.

I don’t know, why you asking? If you are asking if you need drug addiction treatment because you

drug use is starting to cause more problems in your life,

then maybe you’ve answered your question. 

If it were only that easy. One thing about people who have become chemically dependent is we want to continue to use as much as possible, as long as possible. We will make up fantasies, stories, and what really amounts to insane rationalizations to convince ourselves that is OK to keep on with our addictive use, despite the growing wreckage around us.

When it gets to the point where considering drug addiction treatment the stories and fantasies we have surround ourselves with have begun to crack. Reality sets in. We become aware that we need more and more drugs to get high, or worse yet they have stopped working. The time between drug use episodes has gotten shorter and shorter and when we’re not using we are sicker and sicker. These are indications of classic drug addiction symptoms of tolerance and withdrawal.

We can no longer convince ourselves that we’re not hurting people around us and ourselves, but the urge to continue the use is there as strong as ever. That’s the really scary part. We know we’re destroying ourselves and everyone around us yet the pull from inside, the gut wrenching stomach level, is to go use the drug, at any cost. What’s that all about? I don’t get the urge to repeatedly bash myself in the face with a hammer. But I think about one more high.

Well the answer to that question is about another characteristic of drug addiction called compulsion an obsession. The intellectual decision to stop using by itself is not enough, if it were, we would have stopped hundreds of times already, every time we said this was the last. To my mind, the only way to put an addiction and a state of remission, is with some outside help.

The best suggestion I can offer in getting started to seek drug addiction treatment is to get an assessment by a competent professional. There are different levels and types of treatment available and not all are appropriate for all people. a competent assessment by an addiction professional will increase your chances on being matched to an appropriate drug addiction treatment program.

You can click on this article for the exact criteria for drug addiction

Dysfunctional relationships are relationships that create more emotional turmoil than satisfaction; the balance has shifted. Relationships are part of the human experience. But what happens if one or both partners have never been involved in a happy relationship, or had one modeled for them as a child? Chances are they will participate in a dysfunctional relationship.

A dysfunctional or an about-to-be

dysfunctional relationship always has warning signs.

These signs and stmptoms must be identified and confronted in a timely fashion to prevent complete disintegration of the relationship. Here is a list of some warning signs of dysfunctional relationships:

1. Addictive/obsessive attitude: When one of the partners develops addictive or obsessive attitude and all the time seems overly focused on themselves or the other, it is time to reevaluate your relationship because this is the beginning of dysfunctional. You ‘lose yourself’ in the chaos.

2. Imbalance of power: You always feel that you are working much harder than your partner at making the relationship work. When your partner seems to make no effort at that, your relationship is probably going dysfunctional. Relationships are supposed to be a 50/50 partnership. If it has evolved into a 90/10 split with you doing all the giving and very little return, or vice versa a dysfunctional relationship scenario is developing.

3. Tensions show up regularly: Little things that cause tension are always present. These may related to money, friends, love, work or anything else, but they seem to take on disproportional importance.

4. Feeling cornered: In such relationships, either of the partners can get a feeling of being cornered or trapped into a situation that s/he would not like to have got into in the first place. If this feeling of being trapped and hapless keeps recurring, and is not a one-off incident, then it shows there’s something wrong in the relationship.

5. Inferiority/superiority complex: If any one of the partners in a relationship begins developing an inferiority/superiority complex, then there is something that’s going wrong. Relationships are based on equality and trust – no partner should consider himself superior or inferior in comparison to the other.

6. The feeling of frustration: Every relationship has little frustrations, but when they persist and just keep cropping up as soon as one is dealt with, something is certainly wrong.

7. Constant unhappiness: Are you happy? If not, what happened? This is a fundamental question that needs to be answered. If you are constantly unhappy or mentally bogged down, because there is a nagging doubt or a feeling that something is not going right, it is time to evaluate the situation. This can happen when you just cannot reconcile your desires, your feelings and your needs with your partner’s – and neither can he, with yours.

8. Being unsure and insecure: You are so unsure of yourself that you hesitate to do things, thinking about what if it would end up causing a rift in your relationship. In other words, when you go from being spontaneous to overcautious about doing things you like to do. Being unsure brings with it a feeling of insecurity and that is another sign to watch out for.

9. Emotional blocks: Fear, jealousy, obsession, non-involvement, manipulation, distrust, suspicion, disrespect and an uncaring attitude are the usual suspects. If there is continuity in any of these behavioral traits, then your relationship is on its way to becoming past history.

These are some warning signs of a dysfunctional relationship. If you happen to notice any of these, take preventive measures immediately and address the situation. And remember, band-aid measures won’t work, look for long-term solutions.

Perhaps the most commonly used and least effective solution to problems in relationships is to ignore them and hope they go away. Here is wishing you all the best in your relationship.

by Bill Urell

When I was told I would need to address spirituality in addiction recovery “Are you nuts?” was a pretty watered down version of what I thought and said. I didn’t even believe in God and now you’re telling me I have to get spiritual? This is going to be a pain.

So I concentrated on maintaining abstinence without addressing spirituality, my sponsor said ‘Don’t worry about spirituality yet, that’s the advanced stuff. Just concentrate on staying abstinent for now”. Oh, says I, that makes sense. so I accidentally did the right things for the wrong reasons. I went to treatment, and after that I followed a continuing care plan, all the while going to meetings and building a sober support network.

About 7 or 8 years sober a question started creeping into my head. I asked myself ‘Is this all there is?’. Despite being abstinent I was not happy. I started to feel that I was actually happier using than not. Luckily I was a good student and new that this was the beginning of the relapse process. But how do I turn it around?

I addressed the question of ‘spirituality‘. I had come far enough along to realize that what I had was not as important as who I was inside. I think it was Jason of the Argonauts, or maybe Ulysses who fought the Cyclops the one eyed giant monster. He beat him by forcing the monster’s eye around so he was looking at himself. He died because of what he saw. I sure did not want to turn my eyes inwars and look at myself. I was looking outside myself and finding fault with all that was around me.

I was not comfortable with the traditional God image, so I had to get creative. I heard of spirituality as being described of as connection. Connection with yourself, with your family and the society and world around you. That, I could work with. My spiritual journey began at year 7 in recovery and it started with simply asking questions. To me, it was the asking that was important, not really the answers.

The breakthrough came for me when I realized I might not ever find the answers, and that was OK. I could restructure my life to be of service to others, do the next right thing, and be conscious of, and take responsibility for my own actions. That kind of sounded like a workable spiritual plan for me in addiction recovery.

Spirituality did not get me sober. It keeps me sober. What it does for me is add texture, color and depth to my sober living experience. It is not really all about me anymore, but rather how I fit in and connect with those around me. Spirituality, while not the originator of my sobriety, sure makes it a richer experience and is crucial now to my addiction recovery’s longevity.

Who wants to consider the possibility of relapse? In a perfect world it would be ideal if everyone who started on the road to addiction recovery sailed smoothly ahead. Unfortunately that is not always the case. In fact, the majority of people return to use before establishing a solid recovery program. I am not saying relapse is inevitable but the possibility must be looked at and planned for. There is a distinct need for a relapse recovery plan.

If you have a relapse, do not get into beating yourself up saying ‘all is lost, I knew I couldn’t do it.’ Some people throw in the towel and give up. there is another way, and that is to stop immediately and reach out for help. If you trip and fall you can either stay down or pull it together and get back up. Whichever you do it is your choice to do so. The power of choosing your next action, (and the consequences or results) is squarely in your hands.

What can you do now to insure that if a slip occurs you do not fall into that cycle of addiction again? In a word get a relapse recovery plan in place. You need to get very honest with yourself and not keep the slip a secret. Ask for help. It is nearly impossible to recover from a relapse by yourself. You need to ask some hard questions and get answers with the help you have enlisted. What went wrong? What can I do to prevent this from happening in the future? What was I secretly holding on to? Was I honest?

As soon as you identify where you went wrong you can plan corrective measures. It is normal to feel guilt and shame after a relapse, but a better way is to get right back into recovery, that shows courage and persistence. Somebody who keeps trying is showing motivation and commitment to recovery. Chances are for that person, they can learn from their mistakes, do something different and eventually smooth out the bumps and get in addiction recovery on a long term basis.