While there are many definitions of alcoholism, the most common is a dependency on alcohol that results in increased usage and negative consequences due to its misuse. Alcoholism can range from mild (high-functioning alcoholic) to end-state (severe dysfunction including liver failure and brain damage).
If R&B singer Charlie Wilson wins either of the awards he’s up for at this Sunday’s Grammys, his will be yet another great comeback story. "People really don’t know how I laid in the streets," Wilson said. "From that to this, I cried when they told me I had a Grammy nomination. It still doesn’t seem real to me, because so many doors have been shut on me so many times…Everything was derailed."
You’ve started seeing someone, first just for companionship, not looking for any long-term entanglement. But now it feels like there could be something there and you want more. What you’re experiencing is a need to share and interact with another human being on a more intimate level. That’s all fine and good, healthy, in fact. But you harbor a secret: you’re an alcoholic. You really don’t want to tell this person your whole story. Maybe if you keep it hidden things will work out okay. Don’t delude yourself. You have to be truthful. If you don’t, somewhere down the line it will come out anyway, and you’ll likely lose the relationship. But how and when should you come clean? How do you tell someone you care about that you’re an alcoholic?
Where Are You in Recovery?
If you are new to recovery, this may be the first time in a long time that you’ve been in a frame of mind to even have a relationship on a deeper level with another individual. This may not be something you want to hear, but now may not be the time to actively pursue a romantic involvement. You may need to give yourself more time to work on your coping skills, give and receive support from your 12-step friends, and work on charting your short-term and long-term goals. Why? The answer is simple. You want to be in a position to freely give and receive love and affection, and not have things clouded by your ongoing work to remain clean and sober. In other words, your focus right now should be on your recovery, as well as envisioning a future that encompasses everything you want – including sharing your life with another. … Continue Reading
By LeAnne Bagnall
Too often, the media relays images of today’s American father in a rather dishonorable, scornful, and offensive light, which may seem out of tune with a customarily prideful and patriotically minded nation. In the news, we hear of irresponsible dads who are absent from the picture, unwilling to support their families, and who choose to carouse in their drunken revelry instead of behaving like a good father should.
By Colin Gilbert
After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Mongolia was left on shaky ground. When the Russians left, the country’s economic infrastructure quickly deteriorated and countless Mongolians were left jobless. One commodity that did survive the collapse, though, was liquor. Cheap vodka and other alcoholic beverages were available at every corner, and the masses of people left in poverty turned to it in an effort to cope with their plight.
Sadly, not much has changed in Mongolia since it became an independent country. There is a shop selling cheap liquor on almost every corner, and the number of people addicted to alcohol is astronomical. The U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2006 that 22 percent of men and 5 percent of women in Mongolia are alcoholics. The rate of alcohol dependency is three times higher than that of Europe. Furthermore, about one in five Mongolian men binge drink every week.
By Leslie Thompson
Alcoholism is a debilitating disease that affects almost 18 million Americans. Unlike other types of addictions where symptoms are obvious because of physical signs or ailments, alcoholism is an illness that can go undetected. Recently Diane Schuler—the Long Island mother who drove the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway, killing herself along with seven other people—was found to be under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.
Her family insists she wasn’t a drinker, but she had a large amount of undigested alcohol in her stomach at the time of the accident, along with traces of the active ingredient of marijuana. Was she harboring a secret addiction? We may never know the truth of what happened that day, but it has become apparent that more and more men and women are successfully hiding their addiction from family and friends.
Alcohol abuse is a serious enough problem for the individual who has it. But the effects of alcohol abuse extend beyond the individual to the entire family, often with extremely damaging consequences.
Three generations of the Douglas family—Kirk, Michael, and Cameron—starred in 2003’s “It Runs in the Family,” a movie whose title suggests that acting, in this case at least, can be inherited. But the Douglas family also seems to pass along something else: addiction. ABC News discusses drug and alcohol addiction among celebrity families in the article “When Fame and Addiction Run in the Family.”
Jason Bateman, former child star who regained notoriety in 2003 with his TV role as Michael Bluth on “Arrested Development” and will soon be gracing the big screen in Mike Judge’s new film “Extract,” recently gave an in-depth interview to Details magazine about his upbringing, struggles with substance abuse, and renewed rise to fame.
After he landing his first regular role on “Little House on the Prairie” in 1981 at age 11, he spent the next decade on the sets of “Silver Spoons,” “It’s Your Move,” “Valerie/Valerie’s Family/The Hogan Family,” and several TV movies in between.
“It was like ‘Risky Business’ for 10 years,” Bateman says of the 90s. “My parents were out of town, they left me a bunch of money, the car, and the house, and I didn’t know when they were coming home. I’d worked so hard that by the time I was 20, I wanted to play hard. And I did that really well.”
A new study shows that one in 25 deaths around the world is caused by alcohol consumption, suggesting that booze is now as damaging to global health as tobacco was a decade ago.
According to a new study in the British medical journal the Lancet, as of 2004, 3.8 percent of deaths worldwide were the result of alcohol consumption. Alcohol-related causes of death include accidents, violence, poisoning, mouth and throat cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, suicide, stroke, and more.
In Part I, Massachusetts (MA) Drug Addiction: judicial attitudes toward drug abuse offenders, I discussed how the Massachusetts judicial system handles criminal drug abusers. However, Massachusetts also has a high number of alcoholics. A recent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) study found that Massachusetts is among the top ten states for binge alcohol drinking (five or more drinks on one day in a month). It is estimated that 25% of Massachusetts residents binge drink. Although there are no conclusive explanations as to why Massachusetts has such a high rate of alcoholism, perhaps some insight can be gained by an examination of the number of college students who reside in the state compared to states with lower rates of alcoholism. Whatever the reason, Massachusetts residents clearly have a problem controlling their alcohol intake. … Continue Reading
