Lost in Los Angeles?
Los Angeles is the city of angels and demons, dreams and nightmares, the past and future all colliding together to create . In the words of Emily Mortimer, “Los Angeles is like a beauty parlor at the end of the universe.” There’s a certain destructive, manicured beauty that defines the city. If any city represents the duplicity of human existence, it’s Los Angeles with all the flashing lights and darkness. And in the famous words of Brett Easton Ellis, “People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles.” If you are afraid to merge from your alcohol abuse, you are not alone.
Alcohol abuse is an ever enveloping illness that’s turning the American Dream for many into a nightmare. When someone is abusing alcohol, they might feel stuck and lost in the monotony of impulse, of living for the moment. Like the smog that haloes the city, someone who abuses alcohol will experience a deranged haziness that can keep them planted in their problem. But, merging isn’t as scary as it seems, quitting is possible and there is a bright, clear future through all the smog of pain that fuels addiction.
If you are at the point where your issue has swallowed you whole and you see no end in sight, take courage and realize that your fight has just begun—when you realize you have a problem that’s the first step towards recovery. There’s an end in sight and that end can be filled with happiness if you want it to be.
What’s all the Buzz About Alcohol Abuse?
Alcohol abuse is a buzz word in many ways, but not many people really understand what it is. In simple terms alcohol abuse is when alcohol use creeps into and disrupts the flow of someone’s everyday life. There might not be a real clear line to tell when someone’s alcohol problem has spun out of control but there’s a definitive set of symptoms that characterize alcohol dependency.
People who drink heavily over time start to develop a tolerance to alcohol, which makes it so that they have to drink more and more to get a buzz. This has a real negative impact on the brain as it rewires to compensate for the presence of alcohol. Because of the rewiring, it takes more and more for the person to get a buzz from alcohol. At this point the person who is drinking can make the choice to either keep drinking more and more or they can curtail their drinking. If they continue drinking they will most likely develop a real dependency for large amounts of alcohol in their body.
When someone is dependent on alcohol a lot of other things in their life start to fall to the wayside. Signs of alcohol abuse are: moodiness, elusiveness, lying and neglect. These traits can have real negative ramifications for family and friends as the person abusing alcohol becomes isolated from the people who care about them and further devolve into abuse.
The reasons why people abuse alcohol are complex but some of it reside in genetics. A lot of people are pre-disposed to abuse drugs or alcohol. In that sense, people who abuse alcohol can’t be seen as bad people who do bad things. People who abuse alcohol are victims of genetics and social conditioning that have created within them a predilection towards addiction that is an illness, not a choice. If you have a loved one who is fumbling in the pitfalls of addiction and you want to get them help the best thing you can do for them is hold an intervention.
Are Interventions Effective
If your loved one isn’t willing to get help on their own with their alcohol dependency then it might be time to intervene. Interventions are a great way to help the addict come to grips with the full spectrum of their abuse. A lot of times the addict doesn’t want to hurt other people and when they realize that they are causing harm to others it might help them go seek treatment. The goal of any intervention is to get the person to go to treatment. Period. Though the family might have been ravaged by the abuse of the loved one, the intervention is for the addict to get help.
Before you hold an intervention it’s important to find an intervention specialist. You can call A Better Today to find help you find a specialist. The specialist is trained in psychology and conflict management so that they can properly assist your family in getting your loved one to go to treatment. After you are able to secure a specialist, it’s important to go through a planning process for the intervention. In order to have a successful intervention there must be a couple things that happen.
First, there must be a lot of planning that happens before the intervention itself. The specialist needs to sit down with the family and take inventory so that they may be able to organize an intervention that best fits the loved one’s needs. After that the family and specialist will come up with a team for the intervention. This is a crucial part as you want to make sure you assemble the right and most effective cast for the task. When you decide the team, you can go through the process of developing a script for the intervention. You must stick to the script during the intervention since emotions will be at a high and it can easily get out of control. If the intervention is successful, then the loved one will seek out treatment. Once the person has decided to go to recovery, you may try and convince them to travel and get away from their bad influences. A Better Today is a great treatment facility to help people get their lives back.
Detox and Withdrawals at A Better Today
One of the hardest parts of quitting alcohol is the detox process. The detox process cleanses the body of the poisonous alcohol in their body. Since the brain has become dependent on the alcohol, the body will enter into withdrawals, which are characterized by shaky hands, nausea, sweating, insomnia and in some more extreme cases hallucination and seizures. The seizures can be fatal and because of this it’s important to make sure that the detox is medically supervised, which is offered by ABT.
When someone is going through medically supervised detox, they will have medications given to them in order to offset the withdrawal symptoms. Before the detox, the client will have to go through a medical examination to determine their treatment. After the detox is completed the client will go through the real therapy. Detox just cleanses the body, but treatment cleanses the mind.
Alcohol Rehab and Treatment
At ABT we specialize in cognitive behavioral therapy in our luxurious facilities where our staff is equipped with empathy and expertise to help people recover. The treatment combines group and individual therapy. In the individual therapy, the client will be able to speak to a professional about their issues and uncover the underlying reasons why they drink to stupor. In group therapy they will be able to encounter other people who are going through recovery and heal through the power of community.
When people go through alcohol abuse they can isolate themselves from their community and group therapy helps people realize that they aren’t an island, their actions affect others and they can find and trust of others. As the person goes through therapy they will learn the various tools to survive and thrive with an illness. When someone is dependent on a substance it is an illness and there needs to be a lot of mechanisms for dealing with it.
There’s no definitive timetable for leaving rehab. Some people leave in 30, some in 90. The treatment programs are tailored to meet each person’s individual needs. It’s important that the therapy is made to fit the person, not the person the therapy.
When the client leaves therapy they will go back into the world with a new vision. They will have a re-calibrated sense of self-worth and meaning. But the battle doesn’t end in rehab, it’s just the beginning of the fight that never ends. The good news is that the fight isn’t done in isolation. As the person goes back into the real world they will hopefully establish healthy relationships that give them strength. Thought alcohol isolates, it doesn’t have to end there. Though alcohol isolates, you can re-engage your family and loved ones and become whole again.
If you are looking for help, call ABT. At ABT we are dedicated to getting people healthy and using the most innovative techniques for recovery. Our staff is made up of a lot of people who have gone through addiction themselves so they will be able to have the empathy and compassion that not a lot of people have.
