Do You Have an Alcohol or Drug Problem?
Friday May 16, 2008
Alcohol and drug use can progress into abuse and even addiction so insidiously that sometimes people do not realize that it has become a problem for them and those around them. The following self-assessment tests can help you determine whether or not it may be time to get help.
Questions for Families:
Comments
I have had a problem with equally alcohol and substance abuse. I’m 26 and just starting to turn my life around. I keep making the same mistakes and am so tired, I don’t seem to have the strength to find another way. I just need some help or advice about how to just say no.
im 27,i had a problem with drugs,from age 12-25.ive taken just about everything apart from heroin and crack.my cousin died of an overdose.she was 25.one of my best friends brothers died from septicemia caused by injecting..he was 23.they were not from broken homes or anything.they were not poor as u would think.they had respectable families etc.i finally realised i had a problem,got help and have turned my life around,am now a different person.that was hard for me..
I am an addict in recovery and grateful for getting well. I was ordered by the court to attend a 6 month residential treatment center for women, because there was an open bed. The clients there are mostly ones right out of prison. I have not ever been to any residential treatment nor have I ever been in trouble for anything to do with drugs. No record or posession, or any drug offense ever. I voluntarilly told the courts that I had used drugs. I did not ever want to go to a program like this. Can I go to the county for a 28 day residential treatment instead of a 6 month one with women prisoners? I am very uncomefortable & I have alot to loose, financially & emotionally? Please resond to my e-mail. thanks
You will have to ask the officer of the court if you can substitute a 28-day program for the six months’ program. Generally, if you can afford to pay for your own treatment, the courts usually allow you to do so, because it saves the taxpayers money. But each jurisdiction is different; you will have to ask.
Hi sweetie. I almost did the exact same thing. I have no DUI’s no arrests for drug related things and almost entered a re-hab house (asylum) because I felt suicidal. Anyway scary ass place, everyone there was out of prison….are you still in that place?
I’ll make my story short and direct. Before I was married I would get my high from sex. I drank, but no drugs. Once married (now 3 years into it)he stopped having sex with me (he has his own issues),anyway I was patient for months and months being a good wife. This year depression has taken over my life. I started cocaine to fill the emptiness and saddness (not wanting to have an affair). Now I can’t stop using. It’s almost a daily thing. All I can say is this drug has a hold of my soul. I don’t see a way out…..Has anyone gotten out?
Can you help me post Juneau Alaska’s Schedule on the site for meetings?
Barbara,
I sent you an email.
BuddyT
NONE of you have and ‘alcohal or drug problem’ Tell me this, if this was your problem, then just don’t drink, but wait, every time you ‘just dont drink’ you for some odd reason start drinking. see, all of you here have only heard the watered down BS that has become AA meetings, you all have an incorrect description of the problem, which gives you an incorrect solution. There is both a phisical alergy (once you start you cant be sure when youll stop) and the mental obsesion (you cannot stop starting). this is why you need to read the big book of AA and work the steps from it because guess what, the crap written on the wall where you have meetings is a ‘breif summary’ of the twelve steps, alot like ingredients to apple pie, if i gave you a list of ingredients to that apple pie and told you to make me and apple pie what would you come up with???? ill tell you apple something but it wont be pie, because without the directions that goes with those ingredients, you cant do it right. the Big Book of AA are those directions, so get one, read it and work the steps properly, if you have any questions e-mail me
anya, please e-mail me
I know exactly how harmful alcohol is in our body. And I really pity those who have not worked things out with their problem with alcohol. I hope things are not late enough for you to realize the consequences of your vices.
I need advice I need help. I’m sinking fast. HELP
Hi,
I recently directed a short film about a family struggling with alcoholism called “Red Love Redemption.” The film is about making amends and shares experience, strength and hope. Here is the link:
http://films.thelot.com/films/851
Best,
Jodi Leib
Film Director
I can only speak from my experence. I couldn’t stand living the same things over and over again. Abusive boyfriends, unhappy at my job, hating myself. No matter what I tried to change, nothing worked. The only thing that was constant in my life was my drinking. NOW, after 16-months of sobriety, I’m have a completely new outlook on life. I’m in a wonderful loving relationship, I have a great job, and I actually feel JOY in my life. Who knew. Only YOU can decide for yourself where your road leads. Programs are out there. But you got to want it. That’s the trick. No one can make the decision for you. I did a lot of research beforehand by going to www.Barnse& Nobel.com, Amaazon.com, and www.choices-nyc.com to find books, pamphletts and stuff. I found great books that helped me make the right decision for myself, and I’m a truly grateful person today.
I have a cousin who is in her late 20’s. She has been drinkin from the age of 14. She has two children. (4 and 1 yr old). She really didnt raise her 4 yr old, until recently; when her mom was got ill. (c.o.p.d and now terminal cancer) I understand that is hard to take. I love them all. Im really close to my aunt, and the 4yr old. I know she drank with both pregnancies. more so with the 2nd one. She has a abusive boyfriend. He has charges against him. Child neglect, and dom. violence on him. But he is there all the time, because she loves him..etc. The family is worried about the kids, and her. So I volunteered my home, my time, my family. I rescheduled our lifes to help. Because no one was welling to help just sit back an talk about it. We I took the kids, she was packing everything up (shs has to move, anyway.) I was helping then, she was just using this time to lay up with her boyfriend, drinkin not getting anything done. So I took them back. I had the kids for 10-11 days. ( off and on) stories would change, when she was goin to rehab, how she was goin blah, blah..alot of lies. She was laid up with the guy that beats her. Like she was on vacation from the kids. I rent and they did me a favor,so I can get the girls for 30 days. My husband has said; enough is enough. She is goin to have to do it on her own; when she is ready. Its not now.
How can someone do that, and not have enough respect for themselves, their kids, parents, and you dont bite the hand that helps you either. I dont know if its court order, or on her own. she lies to much to believe her. My hands are tied. I have to go on with my life. My kids drs appts, my marriage, my life. well thats it. So how do you help someone who dont want the help, and thinks you owe them something just because your family. Thanks Lisa
My husband has in a the Bell Shelter rehab last year from 5/06 thru 12/06 for drug and alcohol abuse and posession charges. While the the shelter for the first three months he was doing just fine up until 09/06 when I could no longer be there for him like he wanted me to. He just could not understand that I was goingthru aa lot @ that time since my cousin had just been murdered and I was having personal issues dealing with everything around me. So instead of supporting each other me with my issues and him with his he decided to have an affair with someone in the program that he had just met in 08/06 for many months I could not figure out what was going on but when I did he could not tell me the truth. I really do not understand how a program like this allows two drug addicts get involved espeacially when everyone there knew he was married and now she graduated from the program in 02/07 and they took off together but the story takes a twist because as expected he and her are now back on drugs and now he is more lost now than he ever was before. I guess no matter what we do as wives to support the men we love we could never compete with the drug habit and the women that they find that support it it since they just really don’t care about anything but having that man find money and drugs for them. Now I fear for him because of our children but if he doesn’t want a good women and a good life with his family he is just going to have to learn the hard way because he is no longer allowed to see our kids and all the financial support he had from me was taken away. Someday he will want to get it together for himself and return to the way it was but by then it will be too late to make a relationship with his kids because now since the last aggresion that he did us the children want nothingto do with him and they are only 8 AND 7. Unti the day that he wants to get his life really together the children and I will have moved on as always without him.
i grew up in alcoholic family who
had lots of alcoholic friends.
i wanted to be sober. but gradually
i too became alcoholic. in my opinion
since i had been a fan of the prohibition party and movement growing
up, was raised with AA, as parents
were members and so were grandparents,
but they never did take it seriously,
alcoholism is caused by alcohol.
if ya don’t drink ya don’t get drunk.
things go better with sobriety.
JUST PASSIN THROUGH
On this journey called life, I like any other “normal” person have been through many difficult times. One golden nugget that I’ve learned is that it is perfectly normal to go through trials, but it is absolutely abnormal to build a house and reside in the middle of them.
God expects us to reach the promise land, but to celebrate that; we must walk through the desert (sand in our shoes, bad hair days & all). In the AA program we are encouraged to work the steps. Rain or shine we are to continue working towards the solution. It’s when we stop and make residence in our troubles; that we set ourselves up for a major fall.
As a kid growing up in the city, my brothers and I along with others from the neighborhood, would finds ways to entertain ourselves during the long summer months. One day (why, I don’t know) we all went down a manhole and began a journey through street drainage system. I remember my older brother instructing us all to take hold of the belt loop of the person in front of us. Holding onto that person for dear life, we all eventually saw the light at the end of the tunnel and conquered the darkness.
Like someone once said, “If your catching hell, don’t hold it and if you’re going through hell, DON’T STOP.”
My friends don’t ever roll over and die in your trials. Cry out to a loving God, didn’t He promise to “ never leave you nor forsake you”? And if you must, grab onto someone by the belt loop and experience the light of the promise land
Yours on the journey
Joe Rivera
Temecula, Ca
09-20-07
if you are an addict and/or an alcoholic, and can go one day without drugs or alcohol, you are MIRACLE!!!!
Alcohol IS a drug. It is a mind-altering addictive drug and causes up to 60 different diseases from cancer (of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, breast, bowel, liver and pancreas), bleeding ulcers, heart attack and stroke, neurological damage, prostate disease, impotence, high cholesterol, infertility, miscarriage, awful birth defects, premature aging and increased risk of pneumonia, to name a few. And second hand alcohol is much worse than second hand smoke. Alcohol is involved in half of all murders, half of all violent crime, one third of all child abuse, one third of all suicides, 60% of all domestic violence, half of all traffic deaths,and a large portion of unwanted pregnancies, sexual assaults and divorces. Over 70% of all Americans say that alcohol has negatively affected their lives. Its time to quit talking about alcohol like it is something benign. It is the world’s most destructive drug and costs the US business and taxpayers nearly $200billion/year! Fourteen hundred students die each year from alcohol related causes! It is a disgusting habit and makes people act stupid at the least. If you Need alcohol to have a good time then you have a problem. So lets stop saying alcohol AND drugs and just say drugs (including alcohol).
A key factor in any alcohol recovery program is this: first, alcoholics have to admit that they have a drinking problem and then they have to find a treatment program they can buy into and one that works for them. In short, one size does not fit all people.
After reading a number of the comments on this website it is apparent to me that a lot of people are really struggling with alcoholism, with drug abuse, or with both. It seems that most of these people want a way out of their addiction and want to start living a better life. Thank goodness I don’t drink alcohol and don’t take any drugs. But if I had an alcohol or a drug problem, I would seek professional help in a program that I believe in and one that I feel will work for me. And once I overcame my addiction, I would fight like crazy to never let myself get into the addiction abyss again. Just my two cents
1 year ago on 01/02/07 I called in and quite a very good job I had been at for almost 10 years because I was so full of anger, fear, and ego from drinking alcoholically for 25 years. I drank all day, every day for the next 2 months only leaving my place to go to the liquor store to buy more gallons of whiskey. On 02/27/07, after 2 months of non-stop, blackout drinking I tried to quit cold-turkey for one day and suffered a seizure from alcohol withdrawl and woke up in the back of an ambulance heading to the emergency room. I started going to AA on March 1, 2007 and took in the program with all my heart, mind and soul and by the grace of God I am now 2 days away from going 10 months without a drink. I have a new job, new perspective on life and live life “one day at a time.” AA and the support groups around it saved my life and opened my mind to a way of life that is better than anything I ever got out of a bottle. Go to an AA meeting, get a big book (AA Big Book), and do what it says and listen to what other people have to share at the meetings. You’ll hear your own story from the mouths of others and realize that there is a way out, and it is a much, much better way to live!
I have been sober and drug fee 31 years, wrote a book, MY MIND HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN, in book stores and on my web site, main purpose is to share my experience, strength and hope, set captives free, I have been given this great gift and now devote my life to speaking, marketing my book with a second one out this year entitled, I’Am Sober Now What!, love to talk with fellow addicts.
Please do yourself a favor and stay away from psychotic drugs, antidepressants etc., even though the so called experts will prescribe them like candy, they are killers and will turn you into a zombie, very dangerous.
We have a very complex system of electronics running through our bodies, when we short circuit them there will be trouble, we’re looking for a quick fix, escape and the so called professionals have no idea what they are prescribing, what the meds will do and how tough it is to get off them, never go cold turkey if your on them now.
I know this alcoholic could not get sober without God, I gave up the alcohol and drugs by Grace, no other way for this drunk-addict, I know many will scoff on this idea that your higher power can be anything, it can but if we want to be truly free then we must go to a power that is greater then any drug, one that can help us stay sober and look deep inside to get to the root causes. Remember that we suffer from a disease of the mind, body and soul, the alcohol or drugs is the symptom not the root, we must get to the root for any lasting recovery and a new life.
I’m not really into the higher power thing, I believe the power comes from within and that’s how I quit drinking. I found the tools on this about.com site really useful and used them last year when I was trying to figure out how to find help. I DID NOT want to go to AA or to a recovery center and I am happy to say I was able to get control of the situation at home and with the help of psychiatrist who prescribed topamax and also I used a program developed by Roberta Jewell that focuses on nutrition and hypnosis and other things. I also started to see a therapist which I never thought I’d do but it was recommended to me by people in the forum I visit almost every day and it was a life saver. Different strokes for different folks. I wish us all to be better and there are just different ways of doing it. I’ve been clean and sober for nearly a year and I feel like I have my life back!!!
ii thing have the biggest problem! read,write,talk, listen, about 14 mounths,to really my life is 1000 times better when have active in drugs,i can hold simple and in one day have many unstayble i thing filling,one up so up and one so down,that make fill crazy in my mind,is hard to want help and i dont say (can you help me) ,so i am happy to read all your comments and hope to finfd the true god want,be well!
girl, i know ur pain, Im an alkie, ex duggie trying my best to get by, pray 4 better days
Im 19 years old about to be 20 years of age on july 20. i feel like i won’t make it another twenty years if i don’t do a complete 180. None of my friends know how i feel they think i’m gonna be the same person till the day i die. Never started doing hardcore drugs until about a year ago even though it’s been around me my whole life. My dad is a recovering crack addict ha if that’s what you wanna call it he goes to rehab every other month for a little bit, then gets out and goes out on a benge. So for that reason i never messed with crack but i’ve been doing heroin no trackmarks just the powder, smokin weed, doing oxycotin, and cocaine. I don’t blame anyone but myself for my own wrong doings but i’m sure partial of the reason the way i am who i am is because most of my family is drug addicts, alcholics, or in jail. someone comment this or just say a silent prayer for a young man tryin to get his shit right.
I kept wondering why mostly of the teenagers are addicting in alcohol. They are having a problem both alcohol and drugs.I myself don’t have a problem about that. I don’t want to waste my life in that stupid vises.Thats why I’m pity for those who are engage in that activity.
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_nice_
This is a comprehensive addiction portal focusing on topics of alcohol and drug abuse. http://www.alcoholaddiction.org
This is the very dangerous addiction and everybody who indulge in this dadly habit should rethink if he want live his/her full life with their own efforts……..
It sounds great to have Red wine, whight wine, Vodka….but there is one more word comes with each of them IT KILLS and that is the ultimate reality…
In very large part, it will vary depending on a person’s physiological makeup (e.g., height, weight, age, current state of health, state of mind). Other considerations include the person’s “frequency” (1x per day? 3-5x per day?) and “quantity” of use and the “length of time” (days? weeks? months?) of their drug use prior to drug testing.