August 5, 2007 - Teen Drinking
BREAKTHROUGH ADDICTION RECOVERY HOUR
AUGUST 5, 2007
Brian: Good Morning and welcome to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, my name is Brian Fujii here with my co-host Jill Mattingly, Jill what is in the news for us today?
Jill: There is never a loss for stories on addiction and substance addiction issues out there. The first story I wanted to bring up was something from last week where it was talking about liquor replacing beer as the drink of choice among teens, very interesting study, researchers were finding that four in ten teens in five states or four states, Arkansas, New Mexico, Nebraska and Wyoming where the study was done, are choosing hard liquor rather than beer. Isn’t that interesting? Everyone thinks of teen drinking is beer, but according to this study they are turning to bourbon, rum schotch and whiskey. They are starting to think possibly it is easier to conceal mixing it in you know uh, red bull or coke or something like that and also um, it helps them to get drunk a lot faster and that is what they are going for especially with binge drinking being on the rise. You know parties on campuses it brings me to the next story which is out of New Jersey, um this uh, co-ed was 18 years old from Long Beach, California and part of a fraternity and uh must have gone to a nice fraternity party and we probably have the vision of what that would look like and proceeded to drink at that party and unfortunately succumbed to alcohol poisoning and it says that when they did the blood alcohol it was .46. And that is five times the legal limit for driving and so you know obviously people need to remember that this is a poison and not something that is like a fruit drink going overboard on grape juice and this is something that can actually kill you and it did talk about the fact that he drank about a half a bottle of vodka in a short amount of time that plays back to the story that teens are using alcohol to get drunk faster and they don’t realize the danger.
Brian: When they drink they want the effect and in college they want to be accepted and that is a key area for focus today to get people into addiction treatment. It is interesting in this story that the Dean of Students
Jill: The Dean of Students was the one that was charged and that is interesting, a turn around in terms of trying to stop hazing and uh, you know binge drinking at parties on campus is to charge the people in charge of the young people. So,
Brian: Another issue of accountability.
Jill: The story that came out last week and I don’t want any jokes Brian, but it is about females being at greater risk of alcohol related brain damage. We have been talking at our program all along in our teaching about the damage that is caused by heavy drinking and long term addiction and dependency and now the studies are coming out and backing this up with brain technology now, they said they were doing animal studies and found females more vulnerable to neuro-toxicity. If something is toxic it is going to destroy something and this neuro-toxic means it is destroying brain cells, neurons and so they are finding out that women are much more uh, at risk and usually it is in the withdrawal stage if someone is going through a withdrawal drinking lots of alcohol that is when the damage occurs and it is occurring in women at a much higher rate than men. If we can look at some things that
Brian: Things that might be hopeful at the same time though if they stop drinking and maintain sobriety we can find that over 8 to 12 months later and they maintain that sobriety then they can truly begin having brain healing.
Jill: Yes, that has shown up on PET scans and studies. When you abstain from drinking you can regain the connections that were damaged by the alcohol addiction and dependency. It kind of floods over the story of females suffering brain damage at a higher rate, well this poor woman’s picture was plastered over the internet and a news story coming out of Florida um this woman had the misfortune and uh as being arrested for the second DUI in three months so she had had one three months earlier and obviously she did not make the connection on drinking and driving as being bad and so maybe there was some brain damage going on, so the irony of the story is that she had her mug shot plastered all over with her in a t-shirt reading and you can look this up, her t-shirt read, “I am not an alcoholic, I am a drunk.. Alcoholics go to meetings.” So that is how she will be remembered you know Florida (laugh) history. Anyway, the story we end the section with is quite ironic. Um watch what you wear if you are going to be out and about drinking and driving which we do not recommend be careful what kind of t-shirt you wear cause you will get caught.
Brian: This morning we look forward to trying to find ways that individuals especially with stinking thinking is a way to get people into addiction treatment and one of those ways is what is their willingness and many times we find out that those that are suffering from alcohol is that they are truly in denial as this young lady here, um has a real question weather or not she really needs help. So as we take a look today, one of the key things is how do we motivate people to get into addiction treatment and last week we looked at the comments of the stages of change and I know that when we looked at motivational interviewing there are various stages and one of the first phases is absolute denial like the lady in this article. Obviously she is drunk and um, will be arrested and still probably saying I don’t have a problem and that is what we call pre-contemplative. For our audience please call at 770-226-0920 or 1-888-920-2665 and we can answer some of your questions today as we discuss this.
Jill: Her first DUI three months ago should have been a wake up call for her to realize there is a problem. If it was her first the family had an opportunity to intervene also.
Brian: As an individual begins experiencing some of the consequences of their behavior, then they might begin thinking what they said, maybe I have a problem and this is where it moves into the area of addiction. Dealing with addiction when we start having problems with social context or the law and with our employment. All of these begin to trigger us to say maybe I have a problem and that begins the person to move toward the contemplative phase where they think about it and hopefully after this lady goes through this event she is thinking that she needs help. This is a great way that family members can begin looking at ways to get their loved ones into addiction treatment. We are at our segment’s end so if you would like to call us please do and if you have situations at home or work or you are needing to talk about difficulty with individuals in your work place call us at 770-226-0920.
Commercial Break
Jill: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, this is Jill Mattingly and my co-host Brian Fujii, we are discussing alcohol and alcoholism and we will be giving our number throughout the program and you can call right now, flip open that cell and call 770-222-0920 or 1-888-920-2665. And we also know the nature of what we are talking about can be confidential and difficult to talk about and if you don’t want your name said on the air and you don’t want to be heard and so if you want to call and give a question to our engineer he will pass it on to us and we will answer for you. That is another way we can take questions and hopefully you will feel comfortable doing so. We can be reached at www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com that is our website and you can go get a lot of information on that website about our facility and about addiction all across the board and we have a lot of information and you can spend a lot of time on that website right Brian?
Brian: We have recently updated it and it looks wonderful
Jill: We had a big week this week
Brian: Sure did, we moved into our new facility in Norcross, Georgia, 8000 Miller Court East, Norcross, GA 30071 and we would certainly like you to come visit us or give us a call and our new number is 770-734-8091and we would love to be able to hear from you and if you have questions during the week or someone you are concerned about and want to find ways to get them into addiction treatment we would certainly like to help. Free consultations
Jill: We have a lot more elbow room in this new location and it is really a wonderful experience being able to grow. We are adding more people and more services we are just real excited about what we can do in the Atlanta area.
Brian: Our facility can accommodate and more group rooms and new education center and especially for our programs that we will talk more about such as family education and the importance of family members understanding the addiction process and their understanding helps to better support the addicted loved ones.
Jill: The stages of change that you were talking about before the break, the last one was preparation, that is not just packing a bag is it. What is that
Brian: When you finally begin to realize that you or they have a problem they may come to someone asking for help and where can I go what can I do and the family realizes that the problem is out of hand and they have to get some help and they need to prepare for those questions when someone asks where can I go? All of the various stressors can produce interest in the family to seek help and preparation means that they are looking as to where they can go to get help. They go on line, they maybe are talking with pastors, or neighbors, trying to find ways to get help so the family now is actually doing an active search to try to find special programs that meet the family needs in such a way that is by location or addiction treatment program. There are many types of programs there are out patient also inpatient too. I know that when we talk about alcohol detox we do an ambulatory alcohol detox.
Jill: In patient alcohol detox is a needed uh, type of hospitalization for someone who may have a lot of other physical problems or polysubstance addiction or very difficult to treat, however ambulatory alcohol detox is one of the really great tools especially that families can use but when a loved one can alcohol detox from home or in a comfortable surrounding and have medical care,
Brian: That personal attention that you can get from the family and the staff being there and providing one on one which you may not be able to get in a larger unit where you have a lot of other people surrounding you.
Jill: You are talking about having a more individual attention going through addiction treatment
Brian: Yes, once the person gets medically stabilized and now that they are on anti-craving medication like Naltrexone or if an opiate addict they may be dealing with Suboxone and then they feel better and then thinking more clearly.
Jill: Definitely have seen that!
Brian: Then they can really begin benefiting from the next phase which is the addiction treatment phase and that can take on a wide variety of things and the most intense is the inpatient setting where you will be there 24/7 and a lot of times is a secure environment and no freedom to move in and out
Jill: Not a lock down, but there are some like that
Brian: There are others that are the intensive out patient which allows an individual to come and go to the facility but they may have it like ours, we will have at least a minimum of 9 hours a week where they can come in for psychoeducation and group therapy and individual therapy and be involved in family education. This is very intense and for us it is about 24 sessions.
Jill: That brings up an interesting situation does addiction treatment look the same all across the board. I know there is quite a handful here in Atlanta, and that isn’t even counting the smaller addiction treatment facilities that don’t have the big names do they all do the same type of thing? In patient, Intensive Out Patient, same materials
Brian: No, I don’t think so. We utilize a non 12 step model and some use the 12 step model. Others spend a lot more time doing individual therapy and what we find out is that as they are assessed we see and try to find what is the best level of care for that person and when we determine that then we develop a unique program that supports that need and until we do a clear assessment on the individual and understand the needs and requirements then we are able to provide the unique program for the recovery.
Jill: And there may be people in the audience thinking about m,aybe for themselves looking into addiction treatment programs and maybe loved ones out there thinking about that person who has the alcoholism and they are kind of afraid to bring the addiction treatment word up to them but they may be wondering what is out there and what would you recommend?
Brian: They can go to our website, or call this number 770-226-0920 and ask us right now, absolutely we will be able to share and just give us an idea where they think they are and where their loved one needs the help and once they come in we have this free consultation and that is a powerful benefit when they come in with the loved one that is suffering and talk with them and break through the resistance. They don’t want to get into addiction treatment and as you begin to talk and begin to build that relationship it is really amazing how they begin to really look at things, maybe addiction treatment is an option.
Jill: The free consultation is the key, definitely, we are going to take a break and we will be right back. 770-226-0920 or 1-888-920-2665.
Commercial Break
Jill: Welcome back and if this is where you are you don’t know what is waiting at home. How can I bring up the subject and what do I do, you may feel like screaming and crying or leaving the elephant in the room.
Brian: They see the individual destroying their own lives before their very lives and they feel so helpless and sometimes they think that by yelling or screaming or making them try to feel guilty is the best way but studies have shown that through motivating the individual and trying to provide empathy but also we will talk more about this in a few minutes of how a family member can block a person from addiction treatment because they are too accommodating.
Jill: Define empathy, because sometimes you think sympathy and that is devastating for someone with this problem.
Brian: Sympathy is feeling sorry for them but empathy is saying I feel with you, and some will say you don’t know what I am going through
Jill: Putting yourself in their shoes, would you respond to someone yelling at you if you were struggling with something
Brian: That sure would not motivate me
Jill: (laugh) it is such an emotionally charged situation and that is the only thing you can think of doing sometimes.
Brian: You go back and forth because when you go into that kind of dialogue one person is getting the information and there is a lot of problem identification instead of problem resolution and that is what we talk about in our addiction treatment because we can identify problems but what are we willing to do about it. How do you get people into addiction treatment and one of the best ways we have found out is that we need to have a sense of empathy so if you are feeling with that person then obviously you will not be screaming at yourself you will find ways to support their willingness. Do we need confrontation? Yes. We find out that so many times when individuals get into very strong confrontation they are also dealing with their own emotional struggle.
Jill: Oh, interesting
Brian: So, it they begin to identify that they are struggling also and that is what we are talking about this area of codependency and there has to be a strong amount of acceptance, a difference between caring about the person and being very angry and out of control with their behavior, so a part of this is to help them to know that you care and support them but not the behavior. Cognitive behavior therapy is helping them change the way they think so they can change the way they behave,
Jill: I thought about how you would treat a child, you know you want to be very loving and caring and accepting however you don’t want to support a bad behavior and that’s one of the hallmarks of bringing up a well healed child.
Brian: You love the child but hate the behavior you never stop loving them but we are not talking about their addiction in some cases what you read here this morning as to what is going on on campuses they are someone child and so there is unacceptable behavior and there is anger but they are angry at the behavior and the consequences of the behavior and you find a way to separate that so that if there is empathy and acceptance it begins to build confidence in the addicted person to say, that maybe I can benefit from help.
Jill: So believing that they can change
Brian: Right, people can change. If we didn’t think they could addiction treatment would not be an option but they can make a change and make a difference in their own lives. When they realize that they themselves become their own healing agents and take responsibility for their own feelings that becomes a powerful tool for them and it is the same thing in dealing with the family member who is trying to get the person in and I want to continue more about this area because of co-dependency, families become their own worst enemy.
Jill: It is not necessarily the person with the problem it is the person that is caring for the alcoholic that keeps addiction treatment from working.
Brian: Let’s focus on this issue and ask some questions and see if someone will look at their own life. Give us a call at 770-226-0920 and we will be right back.
Commercial Break
Jill: Welcome back my name is Jill Mattingly and my co-host Brian Fujii, please if you have any questions or comments about alcohol or alcoholism please call at 770-226-0920 or 1-888-920-2665 and you can call outside of the area. We also have a website that you can get lots of information on addiction, www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and that is easy to remember. Brian, we are opening a can of worms, we are going away from just the alcoholic now and we are really talking about the web of denial and web of illness and talking about the family and the people closest to the alcoholic and not necessarily family but good friends
Brian: We talked earlier that the alcoholic impacts a minimum of 4 to 6 people in their life, that can be husband or wife or children or boss or relatives, anyone of those it is amazing at how this web begins to build.
Jill: That obviously calls for some type of intervention with the families also and I know a program you do that is Family Education and tell us about that in those sessions.
Brian: The Family Education is the cornerstone for addiction treatment because in a family usually there is no one person that takes center stage but yet in the individual that is addicted everyone is focused on that person’s behavior should I bringh a friend home? Well I don’t know if I should can I will Dad be sober, now the constellation begins to change and everyone in the family begins to try to ask questions and make adjustments dependent on how that key person’s behavior is at that time,
Jill: Sober or under the influence. Sometimes when they aren’t the family wishes they were. Because the you know activities are a little less stressful I guess, and then there is
Brian: There is a lot of dysfunction it is also the passivity and that can be just as difficult as aggressivness and you want responses and they don’t do anything. The non interaction is also just as much a disparity with the family and so in Family Education we try to help the individual family members to understand first of all how an individual moves from just using the alcohol to abusing the alcohol and finally becoming dependent on the alcohol. It is really amazing when the family begins to understand and also how the brain that pleasure pathway is being impacted by the use of the alcohol. That they come to understand that that is the reason why they can’t stop drinking.
Jill: Is this the reason why this is not the person I married.
Brian: Right because as we do our study, someone moves from stage to stage in addiction process all of the normal things school work family friends, the more they drink the more the other external situations these relationships are going down the drain. If you could get into the brain of the alcoholic you would find that less and less important items such as family and friends, work and so forth was being replaced through this focus on alcohol.
Jill: That is a difficult situation for the children that are involved in these families and the spouses. When you do the education are the children involved or private sessions with the whole family.
Brian: They will bring grown children where they can understand and we have had some teens and some adult brothers and sisters, that is the first thing, they really never understood why they could not stop drinking now I know. Also, there is hope and there are some very specific phases of recovery and that is very helpful for the family and gives them hope and anticipation and they know how their behaviors are changing
Jill: It also doesn’t give them ammunition to attack the family member with the problem cause they want to point the finger and say you are the problem.
Brian: It is interesting I have not seen that as much as people saying wow I can be a part of the recovery process and that is very encouraging to the one who is recovering.
Jill: How do you deal with family members that start to cover up for the one with the problem and say well he wasn’t that bad, etc.,.
Brian: That is a good point because that is co-dependency and the definition is a co dependent person has let another person’s behavior effect them and is obsessed with controlling that person’s behavior.
Jill: Their whole focus is on the other person and controlling their behavior and they find they can’t do it and then the frustration and anger, we see situations like this in our programs and having the family member want to be involved in addiction treatment but actually being detrimental to the progress and
Brian: That is where healing needs to come because addiction is a family illness. That is so hard for many to hear because they aren’t the addict but as we take a look at the web that interfacing of family members they do begin realizing that they have to break free of that.
Jill: That is why we are Breakthrough, let’s go ahead and go through some questionnaires and identify if someone is having a problem with co-dependency.
Commercial Break
Brian: Welcome back and to our audience we would like you to reflect upon some of these that we are talking about today. Let’s take a look at one of the questions. Do you put others wants and needs before your own?
Jill: Every mother in Atlanta is saying yes,
Brian: To the extreme however where they don’t feel that they have ownership for their own wants and desires and one of the key things about codependency is that an individual that has an issue of codependency is very reactionary person and they rarely make active choices and they are usually in reaction to another’s behavior and they basically are revolving all of their thoughts and behaviors and their activities around that one individual so take for example in some ways most care givers have an issue with codependency whether they are a doctor or a nurse of social worker. We hear the statement that they are working the addiction treatment more than they are. If you are putting so much energy into someone else’s addiction treatment and they just listen then they aren’t working and somehow that is very easy for doctors nurses, etc., to get very hooked into that so that even we can be very not immune right.
Jill: Right
Brian: Do you ignore your own values to maintain a relationship that goes right to the heart of what we were saying we don’t want that person to get mad at us and we don’t want to feel embarrassed because that behavior and as a result we struggle and the person is saying how can I be my own [person and that is one of the real issues that we teach.
Jill: Not just values that is a nebulous word, but your taste, the things you even like to hang on the wall, changing your places like the church you go to, the friends you hang with all to keep this relationship together for fear of rejection, that is how I see someone that is really spiraling into deep codependency. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? If they don’t know that is difficult.
Brian: Another is do you feel overly responsible or assume responsibility for someone else’s feelings or behaviors. Now in the addictive family the individual is determining how the family structure is to be developed who comes to the house, what functions they go to or don’t go to, how are they going to handle the emotional outbursts that may occur and then are they going to remain victims or are they going to choose to not allow that behavior to impact
Jill: When they become center stage because they are the alcoholic the codependent is giving excuses for them being center stage.
Brian: That is right and that is another way that individuals prevent them getting help. They are just as much in denial of the problem as well as the individual who is addicted. You find out that co-dependency is reactionary but like I said rarely to that take proactive steps. These behaviors are destructive and keep people from finding peace and happiness. So many times they find their only sense of peace and happiness is making someone else happy
Jill: I know that, because that is a clear cut way to put it and the other thing is
Brian: They are miserable as a result
Jill: Criticism and shame are some of the characteristics of not necessarily who you are but they do come out when you are in the throws of codependent behavior.
Brian: That diminishes the identity and the sense of self esteem it is a real challenge and that is the reason why family education is so vital to helping for true recovery and holistic recovery for the family as well as the individual that is addicted.
Jill: That questionnaire and it has hit home with me and so I know our audience knows it too. You can continue to call the station or go to our website, www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and get a free consultation it’s always worth it to get the information and to talk to someone.
Brian: That is our show for today, hope it has been helpful.
