Posts Tagged ‘alcohol withdrawal symptoms’

A Young Man’s Irresponsible Drinking Leads To a DUI and Time In The County Jail

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Jesse had a difficult time keeping a job. Indeed, because of his lethargy and lack of drive, he was jobless far more regularly than he was employed with a job. And when he did get employment, he had an extremely hard time getting to work in a timely manner, he usually received less than great performance appraisals, and he called off sick so regularly that he typically got fired three or four weeks after he started working. To no one’s surprise, one of the outcomes of Jesse’s less than positive employment record was the fact that he was virtually penniless almost on an everyday basis.

In spite of Jesse’s disgraceful work history and financial disregard, however, by some means he made it a point to drink heavily on a day-to-day basis.

So it came as no big shock when Jesse got arrested for a fifth DUI. When he went before the court, the magistrate told Jesse that his alcohol-related actions was deplorable and, consequently, he was going to sentence Jesse to spend twelve months in jail.

Time In Jail To Think About The Disruptive Consequences of Careless Drinking

During his time in the county jail, Jesse was expected to learn more about alcohol facts, about the unhealthy effects of thoughtless drinking, and he was required to get alcohol treatment. The judge highlighted the fact that unless Jesse gets professional alcohol rehab and discovers how to live a life of abstinence, he will most probably be spending a lot more time incarcerated in jail.

Jesse said that he grasped what the magistrate was proclaiming but he still thought that placement in the local jail was not the appropriate punishment. The judge saw things from an entirely different perspective and declared that it was his responsibility to keep alcohol dependent people off the streets who drive under the influence and who get multiple DUIs. To corroborate this statement, the judge quoted some respected, comprehensively researched alcohol statistics that underlined some of the disruptive outcomes that are related to abusive drinking.

Although Jesse knew that he drank in a hazardous manner, he never believed that he was an alcohol addicted person. So it was quite a shock when Jesse began suffering from alcohol withdrawal symptoms around three hours after getting locked up in jail.

To monitor his symptoms of alcohol withdrawal in a safe and sound manner, Jesse was life flighted to a rehab facility for alcohol detox and then returned to the county jail. While locked up in jail Jesse received alcohol rehab but due to the fact that he got this treatment as something that was imposed upon him, he did not take ownership of his irresponsible drinking.

When his time behind bars was finished, the judge without faltering told Jesse that he would be under rigorous surveillance and would be required to take periodic urine alcohol tests.

Jessie’s Hazardous Drinking Stops Him From Living in a Productive and Accountable Manner

After hearing how Jesse failed to take ownership of his drinking problem and how he halfheartedly followed the treatment regimen while in the local jail, the magistrate knew that it was simply a matter of time before he would be seeing Jesse once again in court about his abusive and hazardous drinking behavior. As the magistrate thought about Jesse’s situation, he couldn’t help but think about how some people never use common sense and discover how to live in an accountable and productive manner.

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What I Learned About Drug and Alcohol Addiction in High School

Monday, October 19th, 2009

When I was a sophomore in high school, I took a substance abuse class. At that age, I did not realize that alcohol abuse in reality was a sub division of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse and particularly about alcohol side effects, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for individuals throughout the world. I also learned quite a bit about alcohol rehabilitation and the various alcohol rehab facilities that are repeatedly available to alcohol abusers.

Negative Effects That are Correlated With Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse

Some of the injurious end results correlated with alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class certainly startled me. The ruined lives and countless serious issues experienced by most alcoholics made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. Stated differently, I did not want to face the disaster and destruction that alcohol addicted individuals almost always experience.

Reflect on this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old individual wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What adolescent wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that ingesting alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What young person wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related issues before he or she becomes twenty-one?

What young person wants to experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to quit drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause difficulties in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would a young person want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that focuses on excessive drinking?

These issues were so meaningful that I discussed some of them in class during the school year. What was absolutely inconceivable to me was the number of students who simply didn’t care about the harmful effects of irresponsible drinking that I discussed. It was almost as if they couldn’t care less about reality and how these effects can destroy their lives. For the first time in my life I started to comprehend something that my grandfather used to emphasize all through my younger years: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.

It’s Invigorating, Important, and Beneficial to Stay Away From the Damaging and Unhealthy End Results of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

And even at my young age, I also began to comprehend how important, beneficial, and enlivening it is in life to remove yourself from the destructive and unhealthy outcomes of alcohol and drug abuse.

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A Health Instructor in the Most Financially Challenged Co-ed High School in the State Instructs Her Students About the Significance of Alcohol Addiction Signs

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Miss Benning was a health teacher at the most popular parochial high school in the local community. Although she had been teaching for only five years, she had already secured a reputation as an educator with instructional approaches that stimulated and encouraged students to think and to learn.

For example, one Wednesday morning at 9:30 she addressed the students in her class and announced the following: “For the next two or three days we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a general perspective and we are also going to learn about a number of the most familiar signs of alcoholism from a less general and more detailed point of view.”

“Not all of these alcoholism signs will without doubt validate that an individual with a drinking problem is an alcohol addicted person, but the more signs that a drinker displays, the more likely it is that he or she is a person who is addicted to alcohol.”

Miss Benning then told the class members that each student would be held responsible for investigating four alcohol addiction signs and then presenting his or her conclusions to the rest of the class via a five minute oral presentation.

The Students are Enthused About Giving A Detailed Presentation to Their Fellow Classmates About Alcohol Addiction Signs

After learning about the diverse alcohol dependency signs for quite a few days, the time had arrived for the student presentations. It was instantly apparent that her students were wound up about the subject because the information that they presented was extraordinary. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm manifested by the students in her class concerning this topic was an understatement.

The day after all of the pupils completed their presentations, Miss Benning passed out a sheet of paper with a list of all the alcohol addiction signs that were presented and discussed in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked her students to study the list and rank the top ten alcoholism signs that were most indicative of alcohol addiction. After approximately ten minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and informed the pupils in her classroom that after she goes over the results, she will discuss her findings the next school day.

There was some real excitement by the students while they were exiting Miss Benning’s classroom. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to come so that they could learn about the outcome of their in-class research.

The Pupils Match Their Answers Against the Results From A Board of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Authorities

When the next school day finally came, Miss Benning gave out a piece of paper that listed the top three alcoholism signs as per the pupils’ rankings. To the left of these results, she included another column that was labeled “experts’ answer.” She then explained to the students in her class that the numbers in the additional column she added signified the conclusions that were put together by a council of chemical dependency specialists.

Miss Benning told her students to look over the information she handed out and then to raise their hand if they had any concerns, questions, or issues. Within 10 or 20 seconds, just about every student in the class raised her or his hand. It was evident that the students had some questions, concerns, or issues about their results versus the answers given by the professionals. For example, just about every person in the classroom had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the professionals, to be precise, “Do you feel exceptionally ill when you refrain from drinking?”

The Principal Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse

Miss Benning then told her pupils why this answer was the most accurate indicator of alcohol addiction. She stressed the fact that the main difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.

In essence this means that when an individual who is alcohol dependent suddenly stops drinking, he or she will go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Miss Benning then informed the students in her classroom that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the body and by the brain to the deficiency of alcohol to which they had become accustomed. Stated differently, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the body and from the brain telling an alcohol dependent person that something is exceedingly misaligned and needs to be rectified. These messages consist of a number of uncomfortable, painful, and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that can potentially lead to a loss of life if the appropriate treatment is not immediately undertaken.

Miss Benning then listed the many diverse alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an individual who is addicted to alcohol suddenly stops drinking.

The point that Miss Benning tried to highlight was this: an alcohol abuser can experience almost any and every one of the alcohol dependency signs that the students had ranked, but the one symptom or sign that few, if any, people who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

To explain this as clearly as possible, Miss Benning underscored the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol dependent people, are not alcohol dependent and as a consequence, when they stop drinking, they almost never suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

The Students Feel They Have Discovered A Variance With the Findings From The Board of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Specialists

The students also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the drug and alcohol abuse professionals, to be precise, “Have you ever had a drink the first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?”

Miss Benning explained to the students in her classroom that this sign does not necessarily imply that the problem is alcoholism, but that it does underline the need that individuals who are alcohol dependent have to drink in order to prevent alcohol withdrawals.

After Miss Benning explained the relevance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the person who is addicted to alcohol, the students started to appreciate the major difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency.

To add a sense of closure to the topic, Miss Benning asked her students to take out a piece of paper and answer the following question: “if every person who is alcohol dependent knew about every one of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol dependency signs we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would get alcohol treatment?”

After roughly one or two minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ predictions. While many students reasoned that around 70 to 80 percent of people who are alcohol dependent would get alcoholism rehabilitation if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol dependency signs, most of the pupils figured that this number would not be less than 55 percent.

The Pupils Were Amazed to Discover That Only 25% of Individuals Who are Alcohol Dependent in the United States Obtain Alcoholism Treatment

To the surprise of most of the students, Miss Benning mentioned that according to various scientific investigations, only 25% of the individuals who are addicted to alcohol in the U.S. get alcoholism rehabilitation. This astonished most of the pupils because they reasoned that first hand experience of the appalling statistics and facts associated with alcohol dependency would motivate most of the people who are alcohol dependent to ask for alcohol dependency rehab.

Miss Benning then stated that individuals who are addicted to alcohol not only need alcohol on an everyday basis in order to function but they also need alcohol on an everyday basis so they can avoid possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Apparently, the alcohol addicted individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than logic or facts. Certainly, due to the fact that the craving for alcohol is “reality” to the individual who is alcohol dependent, this is a thorny issue that is hard to overcome.

A few minutes later the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Based on the buzz displayed by the pupils when they were leaving the room, Miss Benning knew that she had motivated and stimulated the pupils in her class to stop and think about an important health and social problem that exists in our society.

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A Young Lady Tries With Everything in Her to Quit Drinking, Suffers Through Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms, Concludes That She is an Alcohol Dependent Person, and Makes Up Her Mind to Seek Alcohol Counseling

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Jennifer is a twenty-seven-year-old public records researcher who has been consuming alcohol quite extensively since her boyfriend and she decided to break up. In fact, for the past three months she has been drinking very nearly a bottle of wine every night, and on the weekends she also has been drinking a number bottles of beer during the day. In a word, Jennifer has been drinking so abusively and excessively that it’s a miracle that she hasn’t suffered from alcohol poisoning.

After feeling dejected because she was starting to overlook her health, Jennifer finally told herself that she’s had enough, that it’s time to stop the self pity routine, that it’s time to stop the irresponsible drinking, and time to make a new start with her life. So the next Saturday morning at 9:00 AM, she determined that she would stop drinking suddenly and completely without planning or preparation.

When She Attempted to Stop Drinking She Felt Terrible, Her Head Was Throbbing, She Vomited Several Times, She Started to Sweat Profusely, She Was Extremely Anxious and Moody, and She Had Absolutely No Appetite

When Jennifer quit drinking, she figured that she would quite possibly be tempted to take a few drinks, but she never visualized that she would feel so sick. More directly, around three hours after she quit drinking, her head was aching, she was extremely moody and restless, she had utterly no appetite, she started to sweat extensively, and she vomited several times.

When she called her best friend and told her that she had stopped drinking and that after a couple of hours she abruptly began experiencing flu-like symptoms, Stephanie, her best pal, told Jennifer to call her healthcare professional and tell him what was happening.

She Admits to Her Doctor That She Has Been Drinking In an Irresponsible and Hazardous Manner, That She Just Tried to Stop Drinking, and That She is Going Through Nasty Flu-Like Symptoms

So Jennifer called her physician, informed him that she has been drinking in an excessive and irresponsible manner for quite a few months and that when she attempted to completely stop drinking earlier in the day, within a few hours she felt as if she had the nastiest flu-like symptoms that she had ever experienced.

Her healthcare professional informed her that she may be experiencing symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and that she should have a neighbor or relative drive her to the emergency room as soon as possible.

As soon as Jennifer got off the phone, she got a relative to drive her to the hospital. Interestingly, as sick as Jennifer was, all she could think about all the way to the hospital was whether or not she might be addicted to alcohol.

It seems that her physician had phoned ahead and told the emergency room personnel to expect Jennifer because when she got to the hospital, she was met by two nurses who promptly told her to lie down on the portable bed they had with them. After getting transferred to the emergency room and undergoing a couple of necessary tests, it was established that Jennifer was in fact suffering from alcohol withdrawal symptoms and was in need of alcohol detoxification.

An emergency room healthcare professional gave her some drugs to lessen her flu-like symptoms and also gave her some meds to help eliminate the alcohol that was still in her circulatory system.

An Alcohol Addiction Doctor Explains That She is Dependent on Alcohol and Then Discusses What Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms and Alcohol Dependency Stages Are

After two or three hours, Jennifer was taken from the ER and wheeled to the recovery room. After she was in recovery for just about three hours, Doctor Michaels, an alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction specialist, came to see her. He took quite a bit of time and explained that Jennifer had experienced alcohol withdrawal symptoms when she stopped drinking due to the fact that she had become addicted to alcohol.

He then stated that with continuous and heavy drinking, the drinker’s brain gradually becomes accustomed to the alcohol in order to carry out tasks and operations in a “routine” way. When the person then suddenly abstains from drinking, it can be pointed out, the brain takes action by creating alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Not only this, but her healthcare professional also explained in a clear fashion the various alcoholism stages that an alcoholic regularly suffers through as the disease gets worse over time.

It is Discovered that Jennifer is in the First Stage of Alcoholism and She Gets a Favorable Projection For a Full Recovery if She Gets the Alcohol Rehab She Needs

Fortunately for Jennifer, it was verified that she was in the first stage of alcohol dependency and, as a result, she received a favorable forecast for a full recovery if she receives the alcohol dependency treatment she requires.

Jennifer told the doctor that she will do whatever it takes to get sober and to re-establish her health. She also articulated that she has a first class hospitalization policy that will more likely than not pay for most, if not all, of the treatment costs that will be incurred. It was apparent that Jennifer was extremely happy with her optimistic medical prognosis and felt reassured knowing that she will be able to get the alcohol addiction rehabilitation she needs so that she can start on the road to recovery.

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