Treating Alcohol Withdrawal

What Is Alcohol Withdrawal?

Alcohol withdrawal occurs when an alcoholic person is suppressed from drinking alcohol. Suppressing it abruptly will create a combination of physiologic and psychologic response that is manifested by the alcoholic person

What Causes It?

Alcohol withdrawal are common in adult who are obsessed with alcohol intake. It may also happen to the puberty stage in which teenagers are starting to explore their independence and get too used to drinking alcohol. The main cause of it is sudden termination of the alcohol which the body of the alcoholic cannot tolerate. Consistent intake of alcohol in large amounts can distort a person and may ruin his ability to carry out his daily tasks.

A person can be considered Alcoholic which is described as excessively divulging alcohol when the amount of alcohol intake that he or she takes in in a day would already reach 2-6 pints of beer per day, that’s 4 oz of alcohol.

Things To Be Careful About

Health providers can check for these signs and symptoms to confirm whether the person being assessed is indeed experiencing withdrawal:

Tachycardia (fast heartbeat, >100 beats per minute)

Tachypnea ( fast respiration >20 cycles per minute)

Pyrexia (Increase in temperature)

Arrythmias (abnormal heart beats)

Hand and body tremors

Anormal eye movement

Internal bleeding

Dehydration

Impaired liver function

A confirmatory test that would screen the blood can be performed as well.

Treatment

The goal in treating every alcoholic is to provide immediate relief from the symptoms brought about by alcohol withdrawal. By doing so, further complications can be prevented and a long term rehabilitative therapy can be started.

Hospital stay is most probable for persons who are undergoing the treatment for alcohol withdrawal. This is to make sure that close monitoring is done to the client so that the person’s needs can be addressed immediately in cases of emergency. The person’s vital signs and body’s fluid’s and electrolytes are the main concern that are given much attention in patients recovering from alcohol withdrawal.

Treatment Modality

Close monitoring of the client is necessary to make sure that when the symptoms rapidly worsens, emergency measure can be performed to stabilize the client’s condition. Downers also known as CNS depressants can be given to minimize the symptoms that are experienced by the client. Usually they come in the form of sedatives, and are often administered in moderate to large doses. Maintaining the client calm for a week or two is necessary. This is done by moderately sedating him or her until they have fully recovered from the withdrawal symptoms.Treatment may require maintenance of a moderately sedated state for a week or more until withdrawal is complete.

Benzodiazipines is the usual drug of choice in keeping the client well sedated for a long period of time.

It is the responsibility of the health care provider to monitor the client closely for possible signs of delirium tremens. When Hallucination alone occurs without other withdrawal symptoms associated, it should be reported immediately since it not common.

The client should be screening for other medical conditions that maybe associated with alcoholism. Problems like blood clotting disorders, alcoholic liver disease, alcoholic neuropathy, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, chronic brain syndromes and malnutrition should be watched out for.This may aggravate the condition of the client.

It is highly recommended to Rehabilitate the alcoholic client. This is to further prevent the client from regressing back to his or her alcoholic state, thus promoting lifetime wellness.

What To Expect

Symptoms for alcohol withdrawal usually arise at around 12 hrs form the last intake of alcohol. It is to be expected that the symptoms will be high with 48-78 hrs from the last intake, and this will usually persist for a week or even more. Diurnal variation, fatigue and sleeping pattern changes may take 3-12months to shake away.

All information about alcohol and alcohol withdrawal you can find at http://www.genericlook.com/

Depression And Alcoholism

Basic question is which come first alcoholism or depression? This is pretty much the same question when you ask which did come first the egg or the chicken. Here’s the thought, many individuals drink because they have problems and they are depressed while on the other hand there are also number of people who are depressed as a result of drinking alcohol. I am a recovering alcoholic, in my opinion I truly and strongly believe that the drinking came first before the depression, but I do still believe that there are some connections between depression and alcoholism. Let me explain further.

I basically started drinking at the age of 14, at the time when I became addicted to alcohol, I’m not really sure, but drinking alcoholic beverage remained enjoyable and entertaining to me for many years, well into my early twenties. There are rumors that an alcoholic individual stops developing emotionally specifically at the time they started drinking alcoholic beverage. For years I drink alcohol simply to cover my emotional feelings, whether I’m happy or sad it didn’t really matter at all, alcohol has always been a part of my life, that’s what I thought and I really didn’t understand it during those times, I was actually deadening my emotions and feeling and it really isn’t helping me to grow emotionally. And I was shocked when learning to deal with emotional situations was very difficult for me when I was seeking recovery from alcoholism.

It was really a devastating experience that I kept drinking and knowing that I was destroying my ambitions and myself as well, it also took my love for myself and my self-confidence which lead me to a condition called severe alcohol depression, I have thoughts of hopelessness and it would reach a point that I would think of injuring myself. Finally, I realized at that time that alcohol was the number one precipitating factor that leads me to my depression, but at the same time it was also my medicine for about 6-10 years, when I talk about medicine I am referring to the way of numbing my emotions and feeling that I know I can’t deal in any other way during my younger years.

I then realized that if alcohol was the main cause of my depression then from abstaining from drinking alcoholic beverage would fix my problem which is depression, but mind you it is easier said than done. I have to deal with alcohol withdrawal syndrome, when I don’t drink alcohol I get restless, tremors and many uncomfortable symptoms. The basic solution is to gradually stop drinking alcohol by decreasing my intake each day, so once I was over with alcohol drinking I knew then that I really need to learn how to manage my depression and how to deal with the feelings and emotions I avoided during the past years and in a very healthy manner.

But alcoholism and depression varies from case to case, so make sure to consult your doctor or psychiatrist to diagnose and trace where your depression started.

Brent McNutt enjoys writing for Uniformhaven.com which sells cherokee scrubs and dickies scrubs as well as a host of additional products.

Do Alcoholics Have Any Choice About Drinking?

It’s very simple. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your choices. When you make choices that are good for you, you feel good about yourself, do good things for yourself, and have many good experiences. When you make choices that are bad for you, you feel bad about yourself, do bad things to yourself, and have many bad experiences. One road leads to pleasure, the other, pain…

Have you ever wondered why people do things that are clearly harmful to their health? Perhaps it’s because they really don’t feel they have a choice.

This is why the alcoholic reaches for booze, the junkie for drugs, the sex-addict for porn. It’s because deep in their hearts they have a subconscious need that must be satisfied, and the bottom line is, they haven’t learned to meet that need in a way that truly serves them. Since they can’t see any other way, they haven’t got a choice.

The dictionary defines the word habit as “an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary.” An addiction meanwhile, can be defined as a habit you can’t break without feeling some adverse effects. At that point it becomes a matter of accurately assessing those effects, and then making your decision accordingly. In either case, there is one thing you must know before dealing with an alcohol addiction…

There is always a choice.

The Biggest Choice of All: Personal Responsibility.

The good news is, you already have everything you need to get where you want to go. You have a mind that thinks, a body that feels, and a soul that knows the way. The challenge is getting them all to agree, especially when your mind keeps trying to control the show. But who is really in charge of your life? Is it you, or is it your mind? Are you the master of your thoughts and behavior? Or are you a slave to your own mental impulses?

Consider your actions in life. Everything you do can be attributed to one of two things: Your need to avoid pain, or your desire to gain pleasure. Test this out for yourself. Think of anything you might do today, and see if it can’t be reduced to one of these primary motivations. Here’s a few examples:

Read a book? Gain pleasure.

Pay a bill? Avoid pain.

Go for a walk? Gain pleasure.

Lie to your boss? Avoid pain.

Sleep in? Watch a movie? Answer the phone? Maybe a little of both.

The point is, all your actions, even the actions you really don’t like, originate from either a positive or negative impulse. And every impulse is nothing more than a suggestion that your mind has served up for you to do with as you will. The problem is, being unaware of the essential relationship between yourself and your mind, you react to every thought as if it were a command.

Consider your thoughts for a moment. You have both negative and positive thoughts to choose from. You have negative thoughts to protect you from danger, and you have positive thoughts to bring you delight. The best way to think of this is having a negative mind that wants to avoid pain, and a positive mind that wants to experience pleasure.

But then you have a conflict. To your negative mind, all the potential pleasures in life involve some kind of risk, so it doesn’t want you to go there. And to your positive way of thinking, you can’t fully experience the pleasures in life while you keep holding yourself back, so you disregard the danger.

Imagine an overweight woman standing in front of her refrigerator. On the outside she appears quite calm. But inside, there’s a battle raging over whether or not she’s going to reach in there and grab that slice of chocolate cake. Her positive mind is saying “MMMMM! YES! That cake is gonna taste YUMMY!” While her negative mind keeps saying “NO! Don’t do it! You’re already big as a whale!”

Can you think of a similar example for yourself? A time when you were torn between two possible courses of action? In that situation, what was the pleasurable experience you wanted, and what was the pain or danger you perceived?

Personal response ability means the ability to respond. It is the ability to see various points of view, decide what serves your purpose, and take effective action. It means having the confidence and maturity to figure things out for your self. This way, you can actually move forward instead of feeling stuck or trapped.

The Challenge is…

If you only have two options – pain or pleasure – then it’s not really a choice. It’s a dilemma. So that’s when you have to be clear. Sometimes it is good to think in negative terms, carefully considering the potential threats. Sometimes it is good to think in positive terms, focusing on the potential opportunities. And your third option is to simply stop and be neutral for a moment. To look at both sides equally and objectively before deciding what serves you best.

The reason you struggle is because you have not yet learned how to effectively direct your mind. You are bouncing back and forth between extremes, with no stability in between. Because you have no neutral way to assess your situation, you can’t see all your options. Because you can’t see any options, you remain a victim of your fears and desires.

But there is a path with your name on it. One that takes into consideration both the positive and negative points of view, and enables you to make decisions according to your vision, values and objectives. To find that path, there is one decision that must be made before any other decision will matter:

Is your mind going to serve you? Or are you going to serve your mind?

Either you are going to find a way to master your thoughts, or you will always be a victim of your own mental impulses. Either you are going to learn how to control your thoughts, or your thoughts will always be in control of you. There is no way to succeed without addressing this simple truth.

http://HighsteadAlcoholTreatment.com Mike Highstead is an expert on Alcohol Rehab & Treatment. With a private practice quietly serving many well-known people around the world, his professional success is founded on the personal success of overcoming his own addictions and helping others do the same. Get his free videos for alcoholism and binge drinking at http://highsteadalcoholtreatment.com/alcoholtreatmentprogram/

Causes and Effects of Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a disease in which an individual has the inability to control the strong craving for alcohol. Individual who suffer from alcoholism often need the aid of alcohol in order to feel "normal". They crave alcohol much like any other drug addict craves a "fix". The cravings can be so severe that the individual can feel as if the need for alcohol is greater than the need for food or for water. It may become so severe that they feel that they cannot go a day without consuming alcohol.

The Character of alcoholism:

The disease alcoholism is not characterized by the type of alcohol or even by the amount of alcohol that is consumed by the individual but rather by the need to satisfy the craving for alcohol. It is characterized by the loss of control that is felt by the individual when the craving for alcohol is not satisfied. Alcoholics (individuals who suffer from alcoholism) often build up a tolerance to alcohol over time so that they need more and more alcohol in order to feel "normal". They thus consume more and more alcohol, and this is what puts the individual at risk for serious health problems. There is also a psychological manifestation of the illness (alcoholism) as well as the physical symptoms of the disease.

The Difference between Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism:

Alcohol abuse and alcoholism are two different things entirely. When a person abuses alcohol they do not display a loss of control over their need to drink. An individual who is abusing alcohol acts irresponsibly while under the influence of alcohol, even putting themselves and others at risk when they drink and drive or drink and operate machinery. Alcohol abuse is also a serious alcohol-related problem because it can lead to job loss, loss of property and can lead to relationship problems and encounters with the law due to alcohol related traffic accidents or property destruction. Alcoholism is a disease where alcohol abuse is not drinking responsibly. Both can lead to serious consequences that are alcohol related.

The symptoms of alcoholism:

The disease alcoholism has many symptoms including drinking in secret, hiding the evidence of alcohol consumption, memory loss (blacking out), ritualistic drinking and becoming irritable if the ritual times of drinking are interrupted, craving a drink in order to feel "normal", loss of interest in relationships or activities that would otherwise still hold interest if alcohol was not involved, financial or relationship or legal problems instigated by alcohol, the building of a tolerance to alcohol that requires a higher level of alcohol consumption in order to achieve the same effects, and also experiencing withdrawal symptoms if alcohol is not available for consumption.

Causes of alcoholism:

Scientists believe that there may be some genetics involved in whether or not a person is likely to experience alcoholism at some point in their life. Children of parents who suffer from alcoholism have a higher risk for developing alcoholism at some point in their lives than children of parents who do not suffer from alcoholism.

Studies also show that individuals suffering from psychological problems such as attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, and depression are at an increased risk for developing alcoholism in order to ease the suffering they may encounter dealing with their psychological problems. This need to ease their suffering can turn into dependency on alcohol.

Effects of alcoholism:

There are many effects of alcoholism some are physical in terms of illnesses and other are the effects alcoholism has on the ability of the individual to secure and maintain employment, function at work, home or school, have meaningful relationships with spouses, family members, coworkers, or friends.

Alcoholism depresses the central nervous system and over time this can cause fatigue, muscle paralysis of the eyes and short-term memory loss. Serious health issues that are alcoholism related are bone loss, cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems, neurological disorders, sexual dysfunction, and also stroke. There is also increased risk for certain cancers such as cancer of the colon, esophagus, larynx and liver.

Progression of Alcoholism

The disease alcoholism progresses by three stages, the early, middle and end-stage. It is possible to drink alcohol and not be in any of the three mentioned stages of alcoholism but only if you are a male and drink responsibly which means no more than a drink or two in a 24-hour period or if a non-pregnant woman drinking just one drink in the same period of time. When the frequency of alcohol consumption or the amount of alcohol increases for a male or non-pregnant female so does the risk for developing alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence (alcoholism). Physical and mental health deteriorates as the individual increases the amount of alcohol consumed or the frequency at which it is consumed. As a consequence of irresponsible alcohol consumption the individual may advance into the early-stage of alcoholism.

Early-stage alcoholism starts when an individual begins to rely on the drug, alcohol in order to enhance mood or to escape from problems they are facing. The individual begins to look forward to the next alcoholic drink, even planning when that will be. The love of alcohol begins to replace time spent with loved ones and friends. It is at the early stage of alcoholism that the drinker begins to build a tolerance level that gradually keeps increasing, as greater amounts of alcohol are required to achieve intoxification. Typically the person is still able to function without appearing to be alcohol-impaired so it may not be obvious to the individual or to those around him/her that there is a drinking problem at least until the individual moves on to the middle-stage of alcoholism.

In the middle-stage of alcoholism there is an increased need for more alcohol in order to maintain the same level of "feeling good" so the amount of alcohol that is consumed is increasing throughout the day and the drinker is beginning to lose control over how much he/she is drinking. Relationships, work and even finances may be suffering at this point and there may be some brushes with the law that are alcohol-related. The drinker typically outwardly denies having a drinking problem but it is generally quite apparent to everyone around that there is indeed a drinking problem.

The disease of alcoholism has progressed to the end-stage and it is in this stage that hangovers, blackouts, and health-related problems occur. Physical and mental health issues begin to take a toll on the organs of the body, which become increasingly damaged and functionally impaired over time as the drinking continues. The individual is quite often malnourished due to the large quantities of alcohol consumed that interfere with the normal digestive process and nutrients are not able to be absorbed into the bloodstream.  Even if nutrients were to make it to the bloodstream the liver is usually too damaged to be able to convert them into usable forms for the body. Diseases such as alcoholic cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis, and steatosis are often diagnosed at this time and if the alcoholism is left untreated the body’s organs and systems begin to shut down and death follows. It is in the end-stage that alcoholics often commit suicide, or death comes from organ damage, disease

Alcoholism Common and Serious

Did you know that alcoholism is a serious and common disease? Physicians associate cancers with alcoholism they also see many examples of disease related to alcoholism including alcohol-related cirrhosis, cardiomyopathy, gastrointestinal bleeding and pancreatitis. What more, even those who didn’t actually put the alcohol to their lips suffer the consequences of alcoholism including innocents that suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome, which is a leading cause of mental retardation. There are other serious consequences of alcoholism including the traffic accidents that drinking and driving cause, depression and dementia suffered by those with the disease, suicide, and homicide linked to alcoholism and the risk to children of alcoholic parents that they too might suffer someday the same illness.

Did you know that alcoholism has an affect on every organ in the body? High doses of alcohol can even cause coma and death. Individuals with long-term alcoholism are also prone to experiencing withdrawal syndrome and brain excitability as well as alcohol ingestion, which then leads to cell death and cerebellar degeneration, alcoholic hallucinosis, delirium tremors, and withdrawal seizures.

At risk are those with a family history of alcoholism, those in lower income brackets and those who do not have higher educational achievements. The World Health Organization found that at risk for mental disorders were those who had alcohol dependence.

Alcoholism according to statistics is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. with 85,000 deaths being linked to alcoholism each year in the United States. Another statistic shows that a large percentage of global disease is linked to alcoholism including 7% of breast cancer, 32% of all cirrhosis, 10% of hemorrhagic strokes, 19% of mouth and oropharyngeal cancers, and 25% of liver cancer.

Statistically according to the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey and the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Survey alcoholism in African Americans is higher than it is for those who are Americans and Caucasian as well as higher for those who are Hispanic Americans, Native American or Asian American. Alcoholism is also twice as likely to occur in males than females.

Despite the known danger of alcoholism and how common the disease is, medical doctors fail to make the correct diagnosis of alcoholism in almost 50% of the cases. Patients make diagnosing alcoholism by denying they have a problem when asked, fear of job loss if employer finds out about a diagnosis of alcoholism or too ashamed to admit they have a problem with alcohol.

Sometimes the diagnosis is missed because medical professionals may be unaware of the proper way to screen for and to diagnose alcoholism. It is difficult to have accurate testing to make a diagnosis of alcoholism because blood tests and liver function tests as well as mean corpuscular volume are not always effective. Even the gamma glutamyl transferrin levels test are only 50% accurate.

Alcoholism Uncovered

Uncovering a serious problem like alcoholism begins with defining what the problem is first. The problem is that alcoholism is more than just drinking too much, alcoholism is a disease. A disease in which a person becomes dependent on alcohol, which is a drug, is called alcoholism. Craving alcohol and the addictive pattern of behavior will cause serious health problems, financial and relationship problems even problems with the ability to earn an income if the disease is not managed properly. If a person is not dependent on alcohol but drinks in excess of what is considered to be normal for age and body weight and that the drinking is causing health or social problems but the individual is not dependent on alcohol and hasn’t yet lost control over the use of alcohol the person is said to be abusing alcohol but not suffering from alcoholism.

The good news is that despite what many people think, alcoholism is a treatable disease. Alcoholism can be treated by the use of medications, professional counseling and also by self-help groups and other professional therapies on an on-going support basis. It is possible to recover from alcoholism.

How do you know if you or someone you love suffers from alcoholism?

You would know if you or someone you loved was suffering from alcoholism because you or they would exhibit signs or symptoms of alcoholism. If you are someone suspected that you are someone was suffering from alcoholism because of recognizing the signs or symptoms of alcoholism a medical doctor could discuss the symptoms with the person, take a medical history and examine the individual so that a diagnosis of alcoholism can be confirmed or dismissed.

Signs or symptoms of alcoholism:

The person in question drinks alone or drinks in secret

The person is unable to limit the amount of alcohol they consume at one sitting

The person is unable to remember conversations they have with others, commitments they have made, and may even complain of having "blackouts" in which there are periods of time that they do not remember what they did or where they were.

The individual may make rituals of having alcohol before, with or after dinner or at other times and then becomes annoyed if the ritual is disturbed by anything or anyone or if someone questions the ritual or ridicules it

The person has lost interest in activities that they usually enjoyed and participated in prior to becoming obsessed with alcohol

There is a need or craving to drink that they cannot deny

When alcohol is not available and it is the usual drinking time the individual will become irritated or upset

Stashing alcohol in unusual places at home or work or in a vehicle

Needs to drink in order to feel "normal" or to feel good

Problems with finances, relationships or at work that can be connected to drinking

Has built up a tolerance to alcohol that requires an increase in amount of alcohol consumed in order to meet the same level of intoxication as previously achieved. It takes an increasingly greater number of drinks in order to achieve the desired feeling of "normalcy or have feeling good".

When alcohol is not available the individual will experience withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, sweating or tremors (shaking) if they are unable to consume alcohol