November 8, 2008

Brian: Good Afternoon Atlanta to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour my name is Brian Fujii and my co-host Jill Mattingly is back with me

Jill: Hey Brian

Brian: And you had a wonderful restful weekend last week with the beautiful weather and the trees,

Jill: Yes and today is just as beautiful so if you can today take your radio with you and get outside and enjoy the fall weather it is beautiful

Brian: We are going to be talking today about stress and addiction. You know we know that many many times folks will end up using alcohol or drugs to cope with stress in their lives and let me tell you we have had a lot these last few weeks with the economy and the job stress or lack of

Jill: Right now the Georgia and Tech fans are under a lot of stress because they are both losing. We have two TV sets and we are watching the scores and if you want the scores call us and we will give them to you

Brian: We are looking at some events going on in the nation and your own home dealing with the economy many people are looking at their 401K

Jill: Or something big that happened this week what was it? Oh yeah it was the presidential election and that created some stress and so many are relieved or many are not coping. But, today some people are sitting back going I can breathe now. Some are still struggling.

Brian: Glad you brought that up. There are different types of stress. Stress is part of human life. There is good and bad stress. Hans Selier a doctor many years ago said used stress is good, it keeps you on your toes and keeps you creative and then there is distress and that is the stress that causes a lot of people to have difficulty in relationships and sleeping and anxiety so we will talk today about stress and we do know that it is a major issue everywhere. Stress is in your job your home and teenagers. We know that it is out there and we will talk about it and how it impacts addiction. IF you want to call us at the show 770-226-0920 again that number is 770-226-0920 and get in on the conversation. You may be going through tough times and need a stress reliever and we will at the end of the show talk about some specific things you can do to help relieve stress and we will talk about the seasonal change.

Jill: It doesn’t involve Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Just to pull it into my realm the biological the neurobiological stress is something that the body is designed to you know experience and it gets you out of bed in the morning and drives you to eat but the thing is that the brain is set up in such a way for normal amounts of stress and to keep the entity out of harms way and so it all goes back to that fight or flight thing. You will bite or you will try to run away. All of this comes from something deep in the brain and that is the hypothalamus it is a feedback loop and the deep part of the brain it gets your pituitary pumped up and that gets sent down to the adrenals and that releases cortisol and that released in the blood stream causes things to happen to the metabolism. If it is going to fight or have to flee and that is a reason stress is good, it keeps the entity alive. That is why it was put there. So, then that cortisol in the bloodstream will effect the deep part of the brain that responds to it being enough and the loop stops and everything returns to normal. Unfortunately if the stressor is ongoing and too large, then it will override the system shutting down and the loop keeps happening over and over again and then we start to see the damage from ongoing high stress.

Brian: Wouldn’t that be from people experiencing various crises in their lives so that if it does not subside, this show is important because we think there will be reprieve from stress just when you think the economy is better then there is family stress or something other than that.

Jill: Some stressors are natural life events, losing a loved one, an event that has a progression and it has a beginning and if you are healthy and look at it with support it has an end point too and so having a baby the baby will grow up unless, well I don’t know why but it is like I told someone, a monkey is a perpetual baby and you will have life long stress. A friend of mine put on facebook that as long as the nightly news was off she was a lot happier. And I started thinking about it that we can find a stressor every time we turn on the TV. They have to sell advertising.

Brian: Makes good conversation.

Jill: The election was a stressor and it is over and now everyone is back into what does this mean for my 401K. And so now it starts to subside but we are in a time where it seems there is overlap of so many stressors and

Brian: That is where the problem comes in and if we can have some breathing space it is just like you said we have no freedom or option there is always one layer after another and we see it happening more and more and we have clients at Breakthrough that there are some in that realm and they are facing stressors one after another until it becomes unmanageable.

Jill: We need to bring this back around, I can imagine the overlap of so many stressors

Brian: It would be great to have some breathing space but our society has no freedom or option or benefit it is usually one layer after the other and we see this happening so much more and we have clients that truly are in that realm

Jill: Exactly, and I think we need to bring this back around to what we talk about but I can just imagine everyone out there even if there is not a dependency in their lives they are hearing what we are saying and identifying. If you want to call and share with us about how you have had to cope or some ongoing problems please call 770-226-0920 if you would like to talk to us and ask questions or Brian is a wonderful therapist he could do some advice giving, no maybe not, but he is wonderful if you want to come in for that free consultation and talk about what is going on in your life. We are close to a break

Brian: We have Jane in Acworth, How can we help you?

Jane: It is not so much the stress about me but it has been created in our home as a result of my husband thinking that his alcohol best friend or his stress being solved by alcohol. We have two grown children and we need help for the whole family as a result of my husband’s drinking. We need a place, people to talk to people in the same boat. My husband won’t but we need to.

Brian: You have asked the right question and we have family education and families in recovery and one is educational and it really helps the family member to understand the causes of addiction and how addiction progresses and also what needs to be done in order for the person to deal and cope with the addiction and not only for the one going through the addiction but how the addicted individual is impacting the family and your lives are being impacted because of the drinking and you need a place to understand the process and a place where you can discuss in a confidential atmosphere.

Jane; Well my kids are angry and I am in the middle,

Jill: Jane can you hold through the break and let us talk more.

Jane: Sure

Jill: Hold on we will be right back this is real important to talk about in light of the stress that he is causing and so stay with us.

Commercial Break

Brian: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour and before the break we were talking to Jane in Acworth and Jane again for those just joining us I will highlight you have a husband drinking heavily a business owner and causing stress in the home along with you and your children and you want to begin getting some help for you and your kids to talk about some of the stressors going on and coping with them.

Jane: Yes, not to be rude but you said family education, and I know my kids won’t be thrilled with that because they are in college and they will roll their eyes and hang their heads and say no. We know what is happening and they think they know everything so I am saying we need to be somewhere in a room with someone and talk about what is going on so that we don’t feel like we are the only ones.

Brian: You may want to look at your options as a family or marital counseling or even

Jane: I think it is more the effect that his drinking what his drinking is doing to us. And if he is not going to get help the kids and I are willing. I maybe I could call it something that doesn’t say education I just know that we are ready to do something not to give him a pass but for our survival.

Brian: You don’t have to have your husband there,

Jane: He won’t come

Brian: Therefore, what might be helpful to be able to come in with the adult children and into our family education or call it family help whatever works but the point is that the information that you need to understand like what Jill what saying from a physical view point and behavior.

Jane: My daughter is in nursing so that will work

Brian: We will be right up her alley and for you not the kids we have families in recovery and this is just for the spouses of those who are suffering , and you can discuss your own concerns as it relates to the pain and stress with others who are in the same situation. IT is a therapist led group.

Jane; What happens if the kids and I are coming and all of a sudden he says he wants to come um, do we still get to come?

Brian: He will have his own place and like I said he would have his own group and as far as rehab we have day rehab and intensive outpatient and he may like something more conducive for professionals.

Jane: Ok,

Jill: Talk a bit about the families, these are once a week and they are therapist led and there is a certain finite amount of classes

Brian: They hit on specific topics are not regimented it expands upon conversation.

Jill: There are other programs in the community like Alanon and lateen I think your kids are older though but Alanon is usually within a community and is peer led and is not therapist led.

Jane: I am liking what I hear you guys talk about, the election really threw him over the top. So, this you know like I said we are desperate and we will do what it takes

Jill: Welcome back the number is 770-226-0920 again the number is 770-226-0920 please call and get in on the conversation. So the AJC got in on the seasonal stress and just saying AJC stresses me. I still have it in my driveway every morning. Monday morning it came out in the living section it was called de-stress for the season. Signs of the Season would be a good title for this show and not just for the holidays or daylight savings time, but also because of the stock market and the election and job loss and things like that so this definitely is a timely article in the paper and it was great it maybe will save a life this year just to read it and gives great ways to fight stress and before the break we said you will look for coping mechanisms and they can be negative and we don’t want you going in that direction and so

Brian: Sometimes people overdo and they move back into depression as a result of stress and the other side is some pick up the bottle and maybe going and doing illegal drugs or smoking pot and that does not help you de-stress. It just increases it. That is the irony of it all and so many try to decrease and use different types that only increases the problem

Jill: Right, exactly the feed back systems in the brain that allow us to deal with stress, there is something that works real well and that is drugs or morphine which can come in a few shapes and sizes legal and illegal. Vicodin and heroin and it actually will bind to the drug receptor and short circuit the stress loop and give you immediate stress relief and when it wears off you can have more feelings of stress than what you took it for and it doesn’t make sense to go to a coping mechanism that will bring worse stress. Alcohol and Xanax. So, this article was pretty timely and I think that people need to understand there are natural ways to de-stress and if you do get caught in the negative coping skills or pain medication you have to nip it in the bud. You have to do something about it before it results in something worse or increased it for. The number is 7709-226-0920 again 770-226-0920. If this is hitting a cord with you and you are driving pull over and give us a call.

Brian: I know we talk a lot of seasonal effect it produces depression and anxiety abut you know many times people come to us to they find out they have a lot of what we might call post traumatic stress and this is something we see more frequently and that can be an occurrence as a result of a trauma many coming home from war or their families.

So many times there are subtle things that we don’t think about and we see it happening more and more and sexual addiction or physical addiction as children and that becomes very problematic and many times in our clinic that adults are using alcohol or as you said Xanax usually it is a result of past addiction.

Jill: Definite brain changes will occur and there is a lot of research under way with that and especially with soldiers returning and there is a big push for a deeper understanding of PTSD without putting soldiers on medications that they can become dependent upon.

I would love to talk about some natural de-stressors so let’s talk more when we get back

Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back 770-226-0920 again 770-226-0920, if you come to see us at Breakthrough we will sit down and talk very comfortably and then we hear the familiar family stories, we have heard many say here is the event that got me on this slippery slope and a lot come in that have had years and years of sobriety after going through rehab or ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS and then something triggered and created the slippery slope all the way down and that is usually stress.

Brian: Many times unexpectedly and they are now having family members say that they need to deal with it. Stress is a key factor in dealing with depression and addiction.

Jill: 770-226-0920 we are coming into our last segment and there is so much more to say but I would like to talk specifically to those listening and thinking about how stress effects their lives to where they have increased their white wine by three glasses a night or am I taking my Percocet when I don’t need to or I have asked the doctor for Xanax because I don’t know how to get through the day and even those looking at Ambien every night for sleep so your mind doesn’t race, these are all things that you need to be honest about right now and that is one of the best situations I can offer you is to come in for a free consultation and call us If there is a program that we can fit you to we will do it. If you just want to come in and not sign up but just talk to someone. You can come sit with those struggling like you

Brian: SMART recovery and it is for the peer led group it is a way to help prevent relapse and it is a cognitive behavior approach and supervised by staff Thursday evenings at 6pm.

Jill: The programs we offer go from individual therapy to ambulatory detox and intensive outpatient rehab and if you do need inpatient we can refer you and get you the help you need so please call us. Our office number is 770-734-8091 and we can give you the referrals and the information that you need during that phone call and get you set on a different thinking.

Brian: Thanks for listening and we are different and we can help…