Alcoholism

Let’s say you’ve put in a hard week at work, it’s Friday night, and you’re ready to kick back and relax. You and your friends or coworkers decide happy hour at a local pub is the best place to start. You’ve never thought twice about what you drink on the weekends, because you don’t go out drinking during the week. So what’s the harm with a little weekend binge drinking?

The truth is a night of binge drinking doesn’t just cause a hang-over and an unproductive next day. It can be seriously harmful to your health. What scientists are finding is that it’s not just chronic alcohol consumption that is linked to developing alcoholic liver disease. New research has found that weekend binge drinking can cause lasting damage to the liver and make it more prone to liver disease. (This is also true of chronic drinkers who binge drink; there will be more injury to the liver.)

What researchers are also finding is that binge drinking is on the rise. An estimated 43 percent of men and 29 percent of women reported binge drinking at least once in the past year.  The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines binge drinking as five or more drinks within a two hour span for men, and four or more drinks for women. Read more →

With April being national Alcohol Awareness Month, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) has made the first weekend in April (April 5-7, 2013) an alcohol-free weekend. This is an effort raise awareness about alcohol abuse and how it may affect individuals, families, businesses and communities. The NCADD invites all Americans to participate in an alcohol-free weekend.

This experiment is a good opportunity to see if you or a loved can go 72 hours without drinking. If you or a loved one finds this difficult to do, it may be an early warning sign of an alcohol problem. If this is the case, you are strongly encouraged to contact an addiction specialist to discuss alcoholism and its early symptoms.

According to The Alcoholism Guide, some common warning signs of alcoholism are: Read more →

IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                 New Year’s Resolutions and Relapse

Atlanta, GA, January 24, 2013- Just 3 weeks ago millions of Americans committed themselves to a New Year’s resolution to Quit Drinking. Considering 51.8% of Americans over the age of 12 are currently alcohol drinkers and 22 million of those are alcohol dependent, it’s no surprise that this resolution would make #6 of the most popular resolutions for 2013.  Why will some succeed at keeping this resolution and others have already failed?

There are two central reasons for relapse:

• Cravings for alcohol.
• Lack of a support plan to maintain sobriety.

The reason so many people relapse soon after quitting is because the brain’s chemistry needs to be rebalanced. Chronic drinking over-stimulates certain receptors in the brain until they’re damaged. This leads to depression, anxiety, intense cravings, withdrawal symptoms and the desire to drink more. Cutting edge treatments such as Neurotransmitter Restoration Therapy (NTR) address this physical component of dependency by naturally detoxing the body from alcohol, accelerating the brain’s healing and allowing the return of the ability to feel simple pleasure.

The only treatment center in the Southeast to offer the NTR outpatient, 10-day IV protocol of amino acids, vitamins and minerals is ExecuCare Addiction Recovery Center in Norcross, Georgia.  Founder Mike Sanders says, “Healing the brain is a great first step in order for the individual to be more cognitively ready for those next life changes that need to be made.”

Addressing the 2^nd component of relapse prevention, ExecuCare provides the Executive Coaching Program as a follow-up to detox. This program was designed and instituted by their new Executive Director, Jacquie Damgaard, PhD, and provides each client with the necessary coaching and treatment plan to ensure a successful recovery.

Is alcohol the problem? ExecuCare Addiction Recovery Center is offering free Alcohol Dependency Assessments at their facility in Norcross. These confidential screenings are conducted privately by Dr. Jacquie Damgaard and arranged by calling ExecuCare at 877-276-2224 or going online at www.ExecuCareARC.com.  Founder, Mike Sanders, and Executive Director, Dr. Damgaard, are available for interviews and speaking engagements to explain the benefits of this holistic, all-natural, outpatient method of detox.

About ExecuCare Addiction Recovery Center

Since opening its doors in 2006, ExecuCare is the only treatment center in the Southeastern United States offering the 10-day NTR outpatient program, which is 100% natural, and a drug-free alternative to detoxing from alcohol and other drugs. ExecuCare ARC has successfully treated hundreds of clients both in the U.S. and around the world at their facility in Norcross, Georgia. For more information, call 877-276-2224 or 770-817-0711, visit www.ExecuCareARC.com and follow @JacquieDamgaard on Twitter.

Media Contact: Christie Tanner, 404-768-8447
Email: Christie@ChristieTanner.com

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How is it that we can experience something as awful as a hangover and yet let ourselves have more than one of them? A hangover can be one of the worst feelings in the world: the headache, the spins, aching body, dry mouth, nausea and vomiting. Some of us even promise ourselves: never again, only to repeat the behavior the next weekend or a few days later. When this cycle starts to repeat, how do we know when we’ve crossed the line from enjoyable social drinking to more problematic drinking? When is a hangover a warning sign and not just a nuisance?

If you find yourself vowing to not drink as much each week and then breaking it or spending all day in bed with a hangover, you may be at risk for alcohol abuse. Aside from negatively impacting your mental and physical health, this behavior could lead to dependency. So what’s the difference between alcohol abuse and dependency?

Some warning signs of alcohol abuse include:

• Making poor choices when drinking such as drinking and driving.
• Alcohol is at the root of relationship problems. Alcohol seems to fuel fights with loved ones.
• Alcohol is getting in the way of your responsibilities such as work or school.
• Using alcohol as a way to relax or de-stress.

Alcohol dependence is more severe and might require professional help. Some signs of alcohol dependence are:

• Tolerance. This is when your body needs more alcohol to feel the effects it once did.
• Withdrawal. Some of the symptoms that appear when one experiences withdrawal are: sweating, insomnia, irritability, depression, anxiety, shaking, cravings, and more.

It’s important to remember that every person is different. How an alcohol problem looks can vary with each individual. So you need to be honest with yourself about your drinking habits and whether they are interfering with your life.

Alcohol contributes to 2.5 million deaths worldwide a year, making it the number one international killer for 2011, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  There is also a growing concern over the number of alcohol-related injuries such as car accidents, burns, falls and poisonings, as well as other social and financial tolls such violence, disease, child neglect and job absenteeism.

“Substance abuse disorders profoundly affect our society,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). In economic terms, alcohol abuse disorders costs the U.S. approximately half a trillion dollars a year. But as Dr. Volkow said, “[Alcohol abuse] is much more insidious, eroding the foundation of human relationships and the established social contract.” (Medical News Today)

A new federal study in the U.S. found that parents are giving their children alcoholic beverages at a much higher rate than most people realize. According to a report from SAMHSA, in the past month alone 200,000 kids were given alcohol by a parent or other adult family member. This is especially dangerous with studies confirming that drinking as a teenager is a potential gateway to alcohol problems in adulthood. In fact, studies show that people who begin drinking before the age of fifteen are six times more likely than those who start at twenty-one to develop an alcohol problem. Parents need to be aware that providing alcohol to children can expose them to an increased risk for alcohol abuse.

The key finding in a recent study regarding the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI), which is widely used to assess adolescent drinking-related problems, found that the more drinking-related problems experienced by an adolescent at the age of eighteen, the greater the likelihood of alcoholism being diagnosed at the age of twenty-five.