Addiction Recovery Australia: addiction recovery

Showing posts with label addiction recovery. Show all posts

Saturday, 2 May 2015

How Bipolar Contributes to or Exacerbates Addiction Issues

Bipolar Patients with Comorbid Substance Use Disorders; Diagnostic and Treatment Considerations:

Comorbidity of bipolar disorder (BD) and alcoholism and substance use disorders (SUDs) represents a serious public health problem and a major challenge to treatment systems.

Bipolar disorder is among the top causes of disabilities worldwide, and reportedly the fourth leading mental illness as a source of disease burden in established market economies. Large epidemiologic surveys in the United States have consistently confirmed a high association between bipolar disorder and SUDs. The Epidemiological Catchments Area Study reported bipolar I and bipolar II disorders as having the highest association with SUDs when compared with any other major psychiatric disorder.

The prevalence of lifetime alcohol abuse or dependence in persons with bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorders were found to be 46%, and 39.2% respectively.

Similarly, the National Comorbidity Survey reported respondents with mania to be 8 to 9 times more likely to have an additional lifetime disorder of drug or alcohol dependence compared with the general population. The most recent and largest epidemiologic survey of more than 42,000 respondents in the United States, the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), reported that mania and hypomania were associated with very high rates of SUDs. Those with mania were 6 times more likely to have alcohol dependence and 14 times more likely to have drug dependence over the past 12 months.

Research from; Psychiatric Annals, Volume 38 Â· Number 11, NOVEMBER 2008

IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS IN THE GRIPS OF AN ADDICTION OR BIPOLAR EPISODE, CALL US TODAY FOR IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE. PHONE 07 560 66315

Web: www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au

Email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

ABOUT COACHING WITH SUBSTANCE (WINNER Best Not-for-Profit 2014)

We are Australia's leading award winning addiction treatment and rehab consultants for gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, eating and internet addiction, along with eating behavioural disorders and co-dependency for Australasia and New Zealand. Call us on 07 5606 6315 if you want to speak to an Addiction Specialist.

Our Founder, Maria Pau is a 4x No. 1 best-selling author on the subjects of addiction and co-dependency and spiritual wellness. She is the Program Director of Coaching with Substance, the first of its kind in Australia as registered public benevolent institution, charity and not-for profit association that focuses on wellness using coaching principles of peak performance. She is currently completing her PhD on Recovery Coaching and is the first registered Recovery Coach in Australia.

We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all. Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, spiritual insights, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced recovery coach, registered provisional psychologist, ordained Taoist Monk, mental health officer and certified naturopaths (including Ayurveda and Acupuncturist). Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Friday, 1 May 2015

Alcoholic blackouts

Alcoholic blackouts were first documented by E.M. Jellinek in his book "The

Disease Concept of Alcoholism."

An alcohol-induced blackout (a blackout caused heavy drinking) is a period of time during a drinking episode when a person is functional but cannot remember what they were doing.

A "blackout" is not to be confused with "passing out.".

Passing out means having episodes of unconsciousness during drinking when the drinker is not functioning and appears to be asleep

If you or someone you love is in the grips of addiction call us today for immediate help.

Coaching With Substance is Australia's No. 1 provider of Recovery Coaching Services and WINNER of 2014 Best Not-For-Profit in ALL Addictions.

Call us 07 5606 6315 (7days) Confidentiality assured.

Website www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au

Email info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

We are Australia's leading award winning addiction treatment and rehab consultants for gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, eating and internet addiction, along with eating behavioural disorders and co-dependency for Australasia and New Zealand.

Maria Pau is a 4x No. 1 best-selling author on the subjects of addiction and co-dependency and spiritual wellness. She is the Program Director of Coaching with Substance, the first of its kind in Australia as registered public benevolent institution, charity and not-for profit association that focuses on wellness using coaching principles of peak performance. We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all.

Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, spiritual insights, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced recovery coach, registered provisional psychologist, ordained Monk, mental health officer and certified naturopaths (including Ayurveda and Acupuncturist). Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Thursday, 30 April 2015

Are you drinking too much?

Are you worried about alcohol abuse or alcoholism? Here are the signs of problem drinking.

It’s a common question. How do you know if you have a drinking problem?

Drinking alcohol is a problem if it causes trouble in your relationships, atwork or in school, in social activities, or in how you think and feel.

The signs of alcohol abuse:

1. The need to drink before confronting certain

situations

2. Frequent intoxication

3. A steady increase in the amount of alcohol

consumed

4. Solitary drinking

5. Early morning drinking

6. Denial of drinking

7. Family disruptions over drinking

8. Blackouts or temporary amnesia

9. Continuing to drink despite adverse

consequences from drinking

If you’re still not sure if you have a problem with drinking alcohol, take this alcohol screening test. And check this out if you’re interested in learning how to cut down on your drinking.

What is the difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism?

Alcohol abuse differs from alcoholism in that it does not include

an extremely strong craving for alcohol, loss of control, or physical

dependence. In addition, alcohol abuse is less likely than alcoholism to include tolerance (the need for increasing amounts of alcohol to get high). Problem drinking can be successfully treated with brief intervention by primary care physicians. Alcohol addiction is a lifelong disease with a relapsing, remitting course.

Alcoholism is an addictive dependency on alcohol characterised by:

1. craving (a strong need to drink)

2. loss of control (being unable to stop)

3. physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms

4. tolerance (increasing difficulty of becoming drunk)

Alcoholism is a type of drug dependence. There is both physical and psychological dependence on alcohol. Alcoholism is a primary, chronic, progressive, and sometimes fatal disease due to the habitual use of alcohol often described as any "harmful use" of alcohol--meaning the alcoholic continues to drink despite recurrent social, personal, physical, or legal consequences as a result of their alcohol use.

If you or someone you love is in he grips of alcohol addiction call us today and let us help you 07 5606 6315. Website www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au. Email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Monday, 27 April 2015

5 Alcoholism Myths

5 Alcoholism Myths

These myths would be of interest to anyone involved with alcoholism – wives, partners, parents, children, adult children (co-dependents) and of course the alcoholic.

Myth 1: An alcoholic is the falling-down drunk on skid row.

Answer: Only three percent of alcoholics are on skid row. Those alcoholics on skid row are undoubtedly in the last stages of the illness. Most people with alcoholism are in the early and middle stages. They have families, they hold regular jobs, they may not appear to be any different from anyone else. The person with alcoholism may be an automobile mechanic, an officer of a large corporation, an actor, a salesman, a press operator, a stock clerk, a secretary, a housewife.

Clearly the disease of alcoholism is no respecter of persons.

About 80% Australians use alcohol and enjoy the relaxation it brings them. Unfortunately about one in fifteen of these develop the disease of alcoholism. This disease eventually causes premature death or insanity unless it is treated. But it is a slow progressive illness and often requires five to twenty years before its victim becomes unemployable or incapable of being a responsible employee or housewife.

Myth 2: Alcoholics are hopeless drunks.

Answer: Nothing could be farther from the truth. While there is no known cure, alcoholism can be arrested with proper treatment. Fifty to seventy percent of employed alcoholics who receive treatment recover and lead normal lives. For example, the businessman and the doctor who founded Alcoholics Anonymous were once considered by their friends to be “hopeless drunks”. Instead, they demonstrated that alcoholics are anything but hopeless. And the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, through which millions have received help, offers dramatic proof that people with alcoholism can recover. High Functioning Alcoholics (HFA's) are the most common form of Alcoholics, and the ones in most denial.

Myth 3: Alcohol is the cause of alcoholism.

Answer: The exact causes are still not known despite continuing research. However, it is known that alcohol by itself is not the only cause. If it were, then there would be 1 alcoholic for each person who drank alcohol.

We can draw parallels with another disease whose cause we do not know– cancer. Some people develop cancer, others do not. Similarly, some drinkers develop alcoholism, others do not. Like cancer. in another way, alcoholism can be treated and the chance of recovery is better in the early stages. What is becoming very clear that there is a definite genetic factor.

Myth 4: Alcoholics could recover if they had enough will power.

Answer: Recovery from any serious illness requires a strong will to live. This is not what we mean when we talk about "will power". People do not recover from illnesses by simply resolving that they will stop being sick! They can resolve to go to the doctor. That can help. They can resolve to follow the doctor’s advice. That can help. They can resolve to follow through with any kind of treatment that is necessary. All theses things can help in their recovery from the illness.

Actually, most people with alcoholism have a great deal of will power. For example, the person who has a responsible job and a serious case of alcoholism. By sheer will power he gets to work in the morning on days when with any other illness he would stay home in bed. After a bender he gets up in the morning with butterflies in his stomach and suffers from “the shakes”. Somehow he gets shaved without cutting himself too badly, has a shower, puts on his clothes, and takes a bit of the “hair of the dog that bit him” the night before. The nip of alcohol quiets his shaking nerves enough so that he can get a cup of coffee and a slice of toast to sit in his stomach. Then he goes off to work and somehow gets through the day even though he may feel terrible. This is not the picture of a man lacking will power.

Instead, it is a picture of a conscientious man who wishes to keep up appearances — a person who is suffering from an illness and does not know that he can get treatment for it. Like most people, he believes the myths about alcoholism being a moral problem.

Myth 5: Alcoholism is a self-inflicted moral problem

Answer: Some people are ready to admit that alcoholism is a disease — but then maintain it is a “self-inflicted disease”. This is a pretty silly idea if you look at it carefully in the light of what happens with other illnesses. Being overweight may help bring on a heart attack. Yet, we never say a fat person’s heart attack was self-inflicted. Most people have had the experience of mission sleep and fatiguing themselves, and then catching a cold. Again, no one says that the cold was “self-inflicted”, even though, with sufficient rest, they might not have caught the cold. Thus if we say that alcoholism is “self-inflicted”, we also must admit that many other illnesses are “self-inflicted”. In addition, we do not speak of any disease itself as being a moral problem. ALCOHOLISM IS A DISEASE NOT A DISGRACE!

IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS IN GRIPS OF ALCOHOLISM CALL US TODAY FOR IMMEDIATE HELP ON 075606 6315 or EMAIL: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Alarming Gambling Statistics

What are the social and economic effects of gambling addiction?

In 1998 the National Gambling Impact Study Commission funded a study to determine the overall cost to society posed by problem and pathological gamblers in the United States.

The results showed that approximately $5 billion was lost annually, with an additional $40 billion in lifetime costs for productivity reductions, social services and creditor losses. Studies have concluded that two out of three pathological gamblers commit illegal acts in order to pay gambling-related debts. This places a hardship on our legal systems, prison systems and public assistance programs.

Gambling

The following consequences of problem gambling all result in economic costs for states, communities and individuals:

* Job loss, unemployment

* Debt, bankruptcy

* Embezzlement, fraud, check forgery

* Eviction, forced home sales

* Crime, arrest, incarceration

* Poor physical and mental health, suicide

* Alcohol and drug abuse

The families of problem gamblers also suffer greatly from physical and psychological abuse; harassment and threats from bill collectors and creditors; increased stress stemming from neglect and divorce; and the extra financial burden placed on them to repay debts.

Sadly, children are negatively affected by gambling addiction in several ways.

* Physical and emotional abandonment is a very real phenomenon.

* Casino kids are left in cars or on the periphery of the gambling action while their parents gamble, or may spend hours with babysitters, thus missing the nurturing they need.

* Children of pathological gamblers are typically abused verbally, mentally and physically by the gambler, and often even more so by the co-dependent spouse.

* Finally, these children are much more likely to develop gambling addiction than their peers.

Excerpted from research: Effects of Problem Gambling. California Council on Problem Gambling (Anaheim, CA); 2006.

If you or someone you love is in the grips of GAMBLING ADDICTION please call our professionals at Coaching With Substance, Australia's leading treatment and rehab consultants for HELP. Call 1300 773 422 (7days) or 07 560 66315

Web: www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au

Email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

About Coaching with Substance

Maria Pau is an award-winning addiction / co-dependency specialist and the Program Director of Coaching with Substance in Australia. We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced therapist as well as a medical officer and Naturopath. Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

Monday, 1 December 2014

Why Drug Stigma Still Matters

More sinned against than sinning?

“Psychological theories of illness are a powerful means of placing the blame on the ill. Patients who are instructed that they have, unwittingly, caused their disease are also being made to feel that they have deserved it.”

- Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor

Addiction is always a hot topic, in its way, if only because of an endless supply of fallible starlets. More seriously, valuable research is taking

place in myriad directions - the psychology of addiction, the disease of addiction, the neurobiology of addiction, the neuropsycho- pharmacology of addiction, etc. What sometimes goes missing is any serious analysis of the

stigmatisation of drug addiction.

The UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC) is an independent research group comprised of 12 “expert commissioners” charged with providing objective analysis on drug policy matters. The group recently issued a paper authored by Charlie Lloyd of the University of York. In “Sinning and Sinned Against: The Stigmatisation of Problem Drug Users,” Lloyd set out to pull together the evidence-based research on the effects of stigmatising “problem drug users.” The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) defines problem drug use as “injecting drug use or long-duration/regular use of opioids, cocaine and/or amphetamines.”

According to Lloyd’s analysis of the research literature, the groups most frequently referred to as stigmatised are the disabled, the mentally ill,

minority ethnic groups—and drug addicts. To make matters worse, multiple problems often attach to addicts: “Problem drug users frequently report suffering from other stigmas: being black, female, Hepatitis C or HIV positive, disabled, or suffering from a mental disorder. However, research shows that problem drug user status is the most stigmatising.” The stigma is continuously cemented in place by rhetoric about the “war on drugs.” There is no comparable public war on disability, or mental illness, or ethnicity—at least not overtly.

I cannot vouch for Lloyd’s analysis, but a good deal of it smacks of common sense at the street level. Others have suggested it is logical to assume that the stigma attached to hard drug addiction serves, by example, to deter others. “However,” Lloyd writes, “attempts to scare young people away from drug use have not proved effective. The evidence reviewed here suggests that stigma keeps users away from treatment.”

So this is not a theoretical concern. Stigmatisation “may be a major stumbling block to successful rehabilitation.” Health professionals and hospital staff “can be distrustful and judgmental in dealing with problem drug users but drug users can themselves be aggressive and manipulative.

In the United States staff who choose to work in hospitals serving the most deprived, inner-city populations appear to be more compassionate and patient.”

The prevailing public view, Lloyd writes, is that problem drug users tend to be “dangerous, deceitful, unreliable, unpredictable, hard to talk with and to blame for their predicament. Young people may have more negative views in this respect than adults.”

Of course, drug addicts can be all those things at one time or another. Drug abusers often stigmatise themselves. For the user, these conflicted feelings lead some of them to feel that “the very act of seeking treatment serves to cement an ‘addict’ or ‘junkie’ identity, which can lead to further rejection from family and friends.” This is most commonly experienced by users on methadone maintenance treatment, “who feel particularly stigmatised, in comparison to other treatment types.” Lloyd notes that a lifetime stigma sometimes attaches to heroin and cocaine addiction, continuing “to haunt such ex-users, preventing access to good housing and employment.” As he trenchantly observes, there is plenty of room “to stigmatise users less, without rendering heroin or crack-cocaine significantly more attractive.”

Lloyd concludes that the primary culprit, the complicating factor, is “blame.” Compared to “blameless groups” such as the disabled and the mentally ill, problem drug users, he writes, “are blamed for taking drugs in the first place and are also perceived to have a choice whether or not to take drugs in the future.”

If public and professional stigma has the power to prevent addicts from entering treatment (as it formerly held a similar power over the mentally ill, and before that, the disabled), what can be done about it? Lloyd makes several concrete suggestions, most of which centre, predictably, on

education:

-Drug education in schools should focus on the causes and the consequences of active addiction, rather than relying on scare stories.

-It’s time to teach health care and pharmacy staff about the medical, social, and psychological aspects of drug addiction.

-Treatment agencies need to focus on the whole person, “and not see problem drug users as solely problem drug users. Some drug addicts are also bird-watchers.”

-Users themselves, as well as their families, often benefit from a greater understanding of the mechanisms of addiction. This can have the effect of reducing “the self-blame felt by many drug user’s parents.”

-Finally, “police need to reflect on their practice in policing problem drug users at street level.” ‘Nuff said.

DrugScope, a leading U.K. charity with a membership drawn in part from

the ranks of drug treatment and education workers, praised the report as

“timely and insightful.” Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope, said

that the report effectively “evidences stigma as a barrier to recovery and

reintegration.”

If you or someone you love is in the grips of any addiction don't let "stigmatisation" get in the way, call us today in confidence for immediate help. COACHING WITH SUBSTANCE PH 07 5606 6315 (7days). Confidentiality and privacy assured. INTERNATIONAL CALLERS 61 7 560 66315

EMAIL info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

Website www.CoachingWithSubstance.org.au

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Omniomania (compulsive shopping or shopping addiction)

This is perhaps the most socially reinforced of the behavioural addictions.

We are surrounded by advertising, telling us that buying will make us

happy. We are encouraged by politicians to spend as a way of boosting

the economy. And we all want to have what those around us have –-

consumerism has become a measure of our social worth.

Although widespread consumerism has escalated in recent years, shopping addiction is not a new disorder. It was recognised as far back as the early nineteenth century, and was cited as a psychiatric disorder in the early twentieth century.

Almost everyone shops to some degree, but only about 6% of the Australian population is thought to have a shopping addiction. Usually beginning in the late teens and early adulthood, shopping addiction often co-occurs with other disorders, including mood and anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders, other impulse control disorders, and personality disorders.

Normal Shopping v. Shopping Addiction

So what makes the difference between normal shopping, occasional

splurges, and shopping addiction? As with all addictions, shopping becomes the person’s main way of coping with stress, to the point where they continue to shop excessively even when it is clearly having a negative impact on other areas of their life. As with other addictions, finances and relationships are damaged, yet the shopping addict feels unable to stop or even control their spending.

The Controversy of Shopping Addiction

Like other behavioural addictions, shopping addiction is a controversial idea. Many experts balk at the idea that excessive spending can constitute an addiction, believing that there has to be a psychoactive substance which produces symptoms such as physical tolerance and withdrawal for an activity to be a true addiction.

There is also some disagreement among professionals about whether compulsive shopping should be considered an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), impulse control disorder (like pathological gambling), mood disorder (like depression), or addiction. It has been suggested that, along with kleptomania (compulsive stealing) and binge-eating disorder (BED), it be viewed as an impulsive-compulsive spectrum disorder.

How Is Shopping Addiction Like Other Addictions?

There are several characteristics that shopping addiction shares with other addictions. As with other addictions, shopping addicts become preoccupied with spending, and devote significant time and money to the activity. Actual spending is important to the process of shopping addiction; window

shopping does not constitute an addiction, and the addictive pattern is actually driven by the process of spending money.

As with other addictions, shopping addiction is highly ritualised and follows a typically addictive pattern of thoughts about shopping, planning shopping trips, and the shopping act itself, often described as pleasurable, ecstatic even, and as providing relief from negative feelings. Finally, the shopper

crashes, with feelings of disappointment, particularly with the themselves.

Compulsive shoppers use shopping as a way of escaping negative feelings, such as depression, anxiety, boredom, self-critical thoughts, and anger.

Unfortunately, the escape is short-lived. The purchases are often simply hoarded unused, and compulsive shoppers will then begin to plan the next spending spree. Most shop alone, although some shop with others who enjoy it. Generally, it will lead to embarrassment to shop with people who don’t share this type of enthusiasm for shopping.

What If I Have a Shopping Addiction?

Research indicates that around three-quarters of compulsive shoppers are willing to admit their shopping is problematic, particularly in areas of finances and relationships. Of course, this may reflect the willingness of those who participate in research to admit to having problems.

Fortunately, treatment is available at Coaching With Substance. For most individuals with this addiction the Coaching With Substance rehab program has proven very successful. Statistics show that child physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse are very common factors in many cases.

If you or someone you love in the grips of a shopping addiction, call us today and let one of our COACHING WITH SUBSTANCE (CWS) Addiction Recovery Coach Specialists assess your problem and set out a recovery coaching plan for you. Call us today 07 5606 6315 (7days)

Confidentiality and privacy assured. INTERNATIONAL CALLERS 61 7 560 66315.

EMAIL info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au. Website www.CoachingWithSubstance.org.au

Remember, you are a worthwhile person, no matter how much or how little you own.

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Sources:

Black, D. “A Review of Compulsive Buying Disorder.” World Psychiatry.

6:14-18. 2007.

Black, D. “Compulsive Buying Disorder: A Review of the Evidence.” CNS

Spectr. 12(2):124-32. Feb 2007.

Christenson G, Faber R, de Zwaan M, Raymond N, Specker S, Ekern

M, Mackenzie T, Crosby R, Crow S, Eckert E, et al. “Compulsive

buying: descriptive characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity.” J Clin

Psychiatry.55(1):5-11. Jan 1994.

McElroy S, Keck P Jr, Phillips K. “Kleptomania, compulsive buying, and

binge-eating disorder.” J Clin Psychiatry. 56 Suppl 4:14-26. 1995.

Mueller A, de Zwaan M. “Treatment of compulsive buying.” Fortschr

Neurol Psychiatr. 76:478-83. Aug 2008.

Tavares H, Lobo D, Fuentes D, Black D. “Compulsive Buying Disorder: A

Review and a Case Vignette.” Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 30 Suppl 1:S16-23. May

2008.