Signs of Alcohol Addiction and Excuses the Alcoholic Makes

Just because alcoholism (or alcohol addiction, or alcohol dependency) is a progressive degenerative disease that includes the following four symptoms: craving, physical dependence, tolerance, and the loss of control, it is obviously hard for alcoholic to understand that he has a serious problem with alcohol. Some tools may be used to identify a loss of control of alcohol use. These tools are mostly self-reports in questionnaire form.

Most well known is the CAGE questionnaire, named for its four questions. The CAGE questionnaire, among others, has been extensively validated for use in identifying alcoholism. Two "yes" responses indicate that the respondent should be investigated further. The questionnaire asks the following questions:

- Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking?
- Have people Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
- Have you ever felt Guilty about drinking?
- Have you ever felt you needed a drink first thing in the morning (Eye-opener) to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?

Behavior of a person affected by alcoholism is not determined by his own will, but by the will of the addiction, that now creates his reality. The alcoholic believes that he is making his own choices when in fact they are being made for him by his alcohol addiction. One set of signs of alcoholism is the regular excuses the alcoholic makes to himself and others for the abnormality of his thinking and behavior:

Problem? What problem?
Thus an alcoholic with multiple and perfectly obvious negative consequences from his pathological drinking may, and (from his perspective) honestly deny, that he has a serious problem with alcohol.

I am not THAT bad!
The alcoholic admits that problems connected with his alcohol addiction exist, but he stoutly claims that they are not really as bad as others make them out to be.

It wasn't my fault or it is not the way it looks!
Attempt to distance the alcoholic from the aftereffects of his actions. Alternative explanations are composed or persons (responsible for) were founded, for instance, the employer, who fired him, or the officer, who arrested him, or the wife, who divorced…

All I want is a little relief!
Blind to the fact that it is his alcohol addiction and its consequences that are making him miserable, alcoholic falsely believes that the addiction is the only source of comfort for him.

I am not hurting anybody, but myself!
Frequently expressed as "Leave me alone! I'm not hurting anybody, but myself!" this excuse appeal to a legalistic right to self-harm at the same time as it disagree with the social realities of the alcoholic's destructive behaviors. The alcoholic unable to identify how his behavior does in fact affect and harm other people.

I've got to be me! or you knew this when you married me!
Unable to distinguish himself from his addiction, the alcoholic cannot visualize existence without the addiction. The possibility of "losing" the addiction is impossible to him since it would, he believes, mean the loss of himself and of everything that makes life worth living.

Other common stereotyped excuses alcoholics use are include, but not limited to the following:
- I have to drink for my work!
- You're not so pure yourself!
- Trust me - I know what I am doing!
- I can stop any time I want to!
- I am not nearly as bad as other people!
- I have to drink to drown my sorrows!
- Now is not a good time to stop!
- Nobody is going to tell me what to do!
- I would be OK if it weren't for you!
- Look at all I have done for you! or this is the thanks I get!
- I do not have time (or money) to get help!
- I will handle it myself!

The fact that many alcoholics actually believe above-mentioned transparent foolishness is a striking illustration of the power of alcohol addiction.

Drug Addiction Treatment

Most of all addicted individuals believe that they can stop using drugs of their own free will, and most try to stop without treatment. Absolutely sure, some people are successful, but some don’t. The reason is that self-administration results changes in the brain that persist long after discontinuation of drug. These changes often include an inability to exert control over the impulse to use drugs. So this inability is the symptom of drug addiction.

The common problems when a person starts to use drugs and can’t stop, even he doesn’t need it, are: psychological stress because of the rush of city life; family problems; psychiatric illness; pain, not physical, but usually associated with medical problems; social group pressure (advice of relatives and friends); high-pressure advertising (persuader to buy this or that catholicon).

Drug addiction treatment is assigned to help addicted people stop compulsive drug seeking and taking. Treatment can occur in a variety of forms and settings, and take different lengths of time. Keep in mind: drug addiction is a chronic disorder as a general rule, so a short-term, one-time treatment is usually not effective. Any treatment is a long-term process that requires endeavours from the patient.

The best drug addiction treatment programs are usually offer a combination of therapies and other services to meet a requirement of the individual patient. The individual differences, those taken into account are: age, race, pregnancy, other drug use, comorbidities, culture, sexual orientation, gender, parenting, housing, and employment.

On a case-by-case basis, drug addiction treatment can include:

• Behavioral therapy; individual or group consulting; cognitive therapy; contingency management. Behavioral therapies can help motivate people to get in on act drug treatment; find best strategies of treatment; prevent exacerbation and relapse; give countenance. It can also help people improve communication, relationship, and parenting.

• Medications, or their combination. Treatment medications, such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, are available for individuals addicted to opioids. The group of nicotine preparations (patches, gum, lozenges, and nasal spray) and the medications varenicline and bupropion are available for individuals addicted to tobacco. Antidepressants and antianxiety agents, mood stabilizers and antipsychotic medications, may be also necessary for treatment success if patients have such mental disorders as depression, anxiety disorders (for example post-traumatic stress disorder), bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia.

Alcohol Addiction Treatment

Drinking alcohol becomes a social problem today. Many people enjoy drinking together being blind to the future. In the leisure time many people are in need of alcohol addiction treatment, even not knowing about it. Drinking is so common in our society, that it is really difficult to realize you have a drinking problem. The result is thousands of innocent deaths each year, crimes and domestic violence, family disruption.

People who get over drinking don’t want to realize the realities and own to alcohol addiction. When you are able to talk over the necessity of alcohol addiction treatment, with an overdrinking person, you're over the worst.

Note the following!

Mental signs of alcoholism:
• Incapacity to control drinking;
• Drinking causes dangerous situations like driving drunk, unsafe walking, fighting, aggression;
• Increasing of irritability, excitement and anger;
• Avoiding activities that do not implicate the opportunity to drink;
• Immoderate weeping and emotional displays;
• Unexplained absences and absence without leave from work especially blue Mondays, or difficulty making commitments;
• Oversleeping or hypersomnia.

Physical signs of alcoholism:
• Slurred speech, giddiness, clumsiness or unsteadiness when intoxicated;
• Blackouts or even temporary blindness;
• Weight loss;
• Redness in the face or cheeks;
• Numbness or tingling in hands and feet.

Long-term drinking can cause serious health problems; alcohol affects virtually every organ in your body. The most significant effects include:
• Liver inflammation, usually leads to cirrhosis, a serious, irreversible liver condition;
• Risk of heart disease, stroke
• Risk of cancer increases is five times larger;
• Stomach problems and dietary deficiency;
• Neurological problems such as confusion, numbness and epochal amnesia;
• Birth defects;
• Erectile dysfunction.

So the most important thing is to recognize a problem. Don't take it unkindly: alcoholism is an addiction, a kind of disease. If you or some of your close friends or relatives have this problem, you need an alcohol addiction treatment. Place confidence to specialists. Today alcohol addiction treatment includes the variety of methods to find the best way to manage the condition. Alcohol addiction treatment may include: working with mind, body and spirit as components of a healthy life. In most clinics treatment is delivered by a team of professionals of higher category representing all necessary disciplines (from neuropathists to immunologist).

What is Addiction?

With the term "addiction" some different kinds of obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence are usually meant. Today these addiction types occur widely: drug addiction, video game addiction, crime, money, alcoholism, problem gambling, computer addiction, pornography addiction, work addiction, compulsive overeating, plastic surgery addiction.

In accord to medical terminology, an addiction is a state, when the body depends on a substance for normal functioning. With the substance a great variety of subject matter are implied. This is high range of subjects beginning with coffee and chocolate, and ending with drugs.

Usually make a distinction between physical dependence and psychological dependence. There is no clear-cut distinction exists for addition types. We can not take up the position that the drug addition, for example, is a physical dependence. A person may be in want of a drug for psychological reasons.

In recent years psychologists, psychotherapeutists and neuropathists meet with problem of addictions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. Many people also feel psychological dependency on such things as food, sex, pornography, telephone conversations, work, exercise, spiritual obsession (as a counter to religious devotion), cutting and shopping. The absence of the addiction subject causes guilt, shame, fear, despair, failure, rejection, anxiety, even depression.

Physical dependence is an irritation and a heavy requirement for a substance and characterises with a syndrome when the substance is suddenly discontinued. These are: narcomania, alcoholomania, drug dependense. On the other hand, most antidepressants may cause drug habituation. So, it turns out that physical dependency can be a major factor in the psychology of addiction.

Psychological dependency is a dependency of the mind it usually causes psychological abstinence symptoms (such as melancholy, irritability, insomnia, depression, want of appetite). Addiction may be caused by an overcare, apprehension, aching void that a person experiences in the absence thereof of the attachment object. The existence of psychological dependency itself, points at crude thoughts and psychological instability. Self-injury dependence is not limited only to substances; even activities and manners. Internet addiction, computer addiction, sexual addiction, self-injury, pornography addiction, eating, compulsive buying are all addictions of psychological group.

Two Methods of Drug Addiction Treatment: Biophysical Program

A biophysical program helps people recover without the application of replacing drugs or medications and uses a holistic approach. The term 'biophysical' means something related to using of physical principles and methods to biological problems.

A biophysical addiction treatment is based on the fact that drug addiction usually includes two main components. There is the physical dependency and cravings for the drugs as well as the mental want for them. This type of drug treatment uses a drug-free approach, and incorporates an effective detoxification method that goes above mere withdrawal and actually eliminates the drug residues that have stored in the body. The result is the addict no longer feels the physical effects of the drugs and he now has a sound body and clear head to address the mental/emotional side through a social education method.

A program that addresses the biophysical aspects of addiction as well as the mental and emotional components in a drug-free manner will ultimately provide the best long term results. But treatment approaches universal focus on the individual's ultimate choice to pursue an alternate course of action.