Mobile: Alabama’s Saltwater Port
Mobile, Alabama began as the capital of French Louisiana, playing a key role in the health of the city’s economy as a trading post between France and Native American tribes. Mobile acts as Alabama’s only saltwater port and became a member of the United States of America in 1813 along with the annexation western Florida.
Even with these marvelous sights to behold, the city of Mobile is unable to escape the struggles of alcoholism. Since substance abuse has been classified as a disease and mental illness, the ways we now look at conditions like alcoholism as well as the way we treat it . Alcoholism is a scourge but it can be fought and, best of all, it can be beaten.
Alcohol Abuse and its Dangers
In moderation, alcohol is not a horrible thing by itself. The problem stems from when alcohol is abused, whether once through binge drinking, or consistently throughout the days. Alcoholism can take a few different forms and it is important to look for the signs, the easiest to note being how dependent on alcohol the person is. Coming home from a long day and having a drink first thing could be a sign of dependence, but the real warnings start to flare up when drinks are being consumed rapidly and in high quantity.
Binge drinking is when someone ingests more than 4 drinks in one sitting, generally within a 2-hour period. This method of alcohol abuse has its own dangers associated with it, some of which can be fatal. Regardless of whether one drinks five beers or takes five shots of tequila, binge drinking is problematic and has severe detrimental side-effects. For the most part binge drinking tends to occur in party scenarios, but it can absolutely happen at home. The biggest concern with this form of substance abuse is that it increases the chances of the person getting alcohol poisoning, which is very severe and can sometimes be fatal. Alcohol poisoning can cause confusion, vomiting, seizures, slow heart rate, clammy skin, and dulled responses such as a suppressed gag reflex. While that last one doesn’t seem particularly dangerous, a suppressed gag reflex can be especially fatal. Having no gag reflex can cause death if the victim is unconscious and vomits: vomit can then be inhaled into the lungs.
Alcoholism can have many different side-effects in the long run. Even without binge drinking, having multiple drinks throughout the day, every day, can have serious effects down the road. Problems such as liver disease (like hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer), heart troubles (disease, heart attack, and hypertension), digestive orders (pancreatitis), and even neurological problems (stroke, dementia, and memory loss). The worst side-effect of alcohol abuse is delirium tremens.
Delirium Tremens, or DT, is characterized as a rapid onset of confusion and has many different side effects. This most commonly happens when withdrawing from alcohol but, while rare, can happen when the body is used to ingesting large amounts of alcohol but only receives a small amount. DT generally occurs three days into withdrawal symptoms, and can last anywhere between 48 hours and 72 hours. This particular side-effect of alcohol withdrawal can be fatal so it needs to be treated immediately by medical professionals. DT can cause hallucinations, auditory, visual, and tactile (hearing, seeing, and/or feeling things that aren’t real.)
Getting Help with A Better Today
A Better Today recognizes that alcohol treatment requires the utmost care, knowledge, and keeping in mind that “blanket treatments” don’t work when it comes to the disease. Each client is different from the next, the same way each personalized treatment plan will differ from the next. Substance abuse is a disease that requires different forms of treatment that are dependent on the specific circumstances and severity of the alcoholism.
Regardless of how severe your dependence on alcohol is there is help available and it is more than conceivable to kick this disease, regardless of how dark the days seem now. At A Better Today we have several different options for treatment when it comes to alcoholism. Our staff is second to none in this field and is ready to help you through the process. We offer individualized treatment programs tailored specifically to your conditions, even going as far as to include different forms of therapy for you to utilize.
The primary method of therapy used in ABT is Group and Individual therapy. Our therapists are all educated with Master’s level degrees and are specially trained in substance abuse. These same therapists host both group and one-on-one therapy sessions designed to target the underlying reasons behind our abuse of the substance. Once it is discovered what drives the client to abuse alcohol, or any other substance, then we begin to develop skills and strategies for staying clean and resisting temptation.
There are other therapies available, such as family therapy, music and art therapy, and even equine therapy. These are all used in order to help give you a productive, safe way to combat your triggers and temptations and give you a positive outlet. At ABT we understand that there is no one-size-fits-all treatment that can magically cure everything, so we employ various methods of treatment depending on the individual and the severity of the substance abuse. This outlook on addiction and treatment is what separates ABT from other venues of rehab.
Get It Out!
Before treatment can even begin, your system needs to be clean. Detox is the process where your body is no longer consuming the substance it is dependent on, in this case alcohol, and is flushing all of the harmful toxins out. It is highly recommended to attend an inpatient facility during this period of time, especially if your specific case of alcoholism is severe. There are very dangerous withdrawal symptoms that need to be monitored during detox and having medical professionals nearby can be the difference between life and death.
In short, the more severe your dependency, the greater risk you run of having dangerous withdrawals. The more often we drink the higher tolerance we build, allowing us to drink more while feeling less drunk. Make no mistake, despite the fact that you might not feel drunk after downing two shots of whatever, you are. It doesn’t matter what kind of tolerance you have, the only thing that changes are your perception of how drunk you are. Many things can influence our tolerance levels that are not related to the amount of alcohol we consume (our weight for instance) but that’s not the issue here.
Sometimes the fear of withdrawal itself causes people to continue to drink, not wanting to go through it. It’s true, withdrawal can be a tough time and sometimes rather painful. However, we offer a medically managed withdrawal in order to maximize comfort during this process. These medicines can minimize and even alleviate withdrawal symptoms, making the process of cleaning out your system less painful.
Detox presents a wide range of symptoms, some of which were mentioned earlier in this article. Symptoms like delirium tremens commonly occur during the withdrawal stage, depending on the severity of the alcohol abuse, and are monitored closely by the expert medical staff at A Better Today.
Interventions
Sometimes the hardest part of getting an alcoholic into treatment is getting them to admit that they have a problem in the first place. The first step to solving a problem is admitting that we have one, and for this too there is help available at A Better Today. We have the ability to get you connected with an intervention specialist. These are people who are able to guide you through the process of staging and holding an intervention, who usually have lived through addiction. There are many different ways of executing an intervention, so it’s not just the one we see on television and in movies. Each method is effective against specific circumstances and scenarios, so be sure to ask the specialist about the different forms of intervention and which one will best suit your loved one.
Sometimes family gets edgy with one another, this is another reason that specialists are available. You can ask the specialist to attend and lead the intervention to make sure everything stays on track and assure the alcoholic agrees to treatment by the end of the event. If you want to help your loved one then you need to give them love, support, and compassion during this time of strife. They are suffering from a disease that is causing them emotional, physical, sometimes even social and professional pain and anxiety.
Traveling and Affording Treatment
When going through treatment it is usually recommended to travel away from home during the process. A Better Today agrees with this sentiment whole heartedly. Home may be where the heart is, but home also has an abundance of what is commonly called “triggers.” Triggers are items, places, or even people that cause us to abuse the substance our body is dependent on. Triggers can send us into relapse during the dark hours, and nobody wants that. It could be an old friend you used to drink with, a familiar bar, a stressful situation that made you want a drink in the past. Traveling away from home and away from these triggers is often highly beneficial towards your recovery process.
You may be worried about the cost of detox and rehabilitation. We want you to know that ABT has a variety of affordable payment plans, as well as accepting most private insurance. Many insurance companies will pay for most and possibly even all of the costs for rehabilitation.
If you or a loved one are suffering from dependency on alcohol, we here at A Better Today know we can get you the help you need so that you can start the life you deserve. Treatment is a journey and we have all the knowledge, skills, tools, and professionals to help you start that journey today. Call now at (520) 288-8484 and get started on your tomorrow, today.
