Why Athletes Could Benefit from Drug Class

Professional athletes usually have very short careers. Even if one manages to sustain a long career they always end before the age of 50, usually before the age of 40, and many before the age of 30.

To stay on top for the few short years they have, athletes do whatever it takes to “stay in the game,” including taking performance enhancing drugs, anti-inflammatories  (like cortisone) as well as prescription medications to ease pain.

Athletes are drawn to prescription stimulants because these drugs give them a boost of focus and energy. Seeking a competitive edge, some players feign symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to get “legal” amphetamines.

Does Major League Baseball have a problem with stimulants? You bet it does!

The number of players getting “therapeutic use exemptions” from baseball’s amphetamines ban, quadrupled in recent years. While some players undoubtedly have a legitimate medical need for ADHD medications, it appears that others are merely looking for ways to evade the amphetamine ban.

I would like to see MLB and other organizations work harder toward keeping athletes from using prescription drugs. Just because it is available, and teams have on-staff physicians, does not mean that these should be doled out like Halloween candy. Therefore, I believe it would be very beneficial if MLB mandated drug classes for all players. They are our heroes after all.

Why Not Take a Drug Class?

As a counselor for both in-class and online drug classes I can tell you there is nothing funny about addiction. That said, I want to start this blog entry with a joke: "How can you tell an addict is lying? Her lips are moving."

The human brain is a powerful organ. It can convince the rest of the body to what it wants and when it wants. Deception and denial are sentinel features of active addiction.

Addiction leads people to commit crimes and to lie to loved ones and practitioners -- not to mention to themselves -- in order to satisfy the illness's obsession with chemicals or behaviors that deaden or otherwise alter feelings.

Think You’re Safe?

You may think just because you smoke a joint now and again for pop a Percocet here and there you are ok. Guess again! It's not just people addicted to the "hard stuff" who are in denial. There are millions of people equally addicted to legal substances, including but not limited to alcohol and nicotine.

If you think you are drinking, smoking or using drugs too often, I encourage you to take a drug class. Drug classes will not only educate you about the drugs and their effects on the human body, but help you gauge the nature of your use patterns. If you prefer to maintain total anonymity, there are online drug classes too.

Lung cancer kills 160,000 Americans each year, more than prescription painkillers and, despite the fact that it kills far more women than breast cancer, it gets much less attention. My mother, who died at 58 of lung cancer, never had to lie or commit crimes to buy her drugs, but the illness drove her to deception in myriad ways, not the least of which was to ignore her health. She smoked until the last weeks of her life and hid her cigarettes the way an alcoholic hides bottles or an addict hides a stash.

Those outside of the illness of addiction see the crimes and lies and conclude that "these people" must be morally depraved: thus the long-standing and persistent cultural conviction that addiction is a failure of willpower and morals. It can be tempting for physicians to take the lies personally and turn against their patients in anger.

Having lived with many people addicted to various drugs, including both my parents, I understand this temptation. After all, if we addicts respected you, wouldn't we tell you the truth?

Well, hell -- in active addiction, we can't spot the truth if it falls on us, which it often does. Distortion of reality is part of addiction. As the late author David Foster Wallace, himself a recovering alcoholic and nicotine addict, once said, addiction is the only illness that tells us we're not sick.

Social stigma throws up additional disincentives for an active addict to face the truth. For several years I was reluctant to admit to my physician that I was having a terrible problem with my medications: I knew if I mentioned the A-word I would be kicked out of the practice into a psychiatric hospital -- thus being forced to deal not only with the complications of drug withdrawal but also with I didn't know how much debilitating pain. Call me proud, but I also couldn't bear to see the look in the clinic staff's eyes when my chart was labeled with the Scarlet A.

In the end, after seeing my father die at 68 of gastrointestinal cancer that was untreatable because of his severe alcoholic cirrhosis, I decided I had to get help. I was able to hire a physician to manage an outpatient detox for me. I was lucky -- not everyone is so fortunate.

Facing the Truth

Dr. Capretto of Gateway told me it's hard to tell how many Pennsylvanians need addiction treatment and can't get it, but, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Recovery Organizations Alliance, in 2009 more than 800,000 people in our state couldn't get treatment because of financial constraints. Those who want to get sober who have neither the cash nor insurance to cover medically supervised detox and those on Medicare -- which, unbelievably, does not pay for treatment centers -- have to sweat it out on their own, a dubious and sometimes risky proposition, especially if they've been taking popular sedatives such as Xanax or Ativan, or even alcohol, withdrawal from any of which can cause life-threatening seizures if not monitored.

I'm not suggesting that society tolerate dishonesty or criminality. My point is that those caught up in addiction usually can't recognize that they're being dishonest. Instead of censure and punishment they need help healing from "this problem." Those who love people who are addicted also need help understanding addiction, so they can learn to protect themselves and to recover from the prolonged damage it can cause in families and communities.

Finally, we need to learn how to talk sensibly with our children about addiction prevention. Regina Labelle, chief of staff in President Barack Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the summit audience, "It's hard to talk to kids about prescription drug abuse."

But why? Kids are imaginative and intelligent creatures, and metaphor and story always work well to explain tough subjects. In my experience, speaking to them about addiction is a matter of letting them know that an internal switch exists inside the body and mind that gets flipped once we're exposed to chemicals or behavior that change or suppress one's feelings. With greater and more frequent exposure to drugs and alcohol, people with a genetic predisposition to addiction run the risk of flipping that switch permanently. Once the switch is soldered to "On," it can never be turned off. So it's important for kids to learn to deal productively with feelings and to be extremely careful about their exposure to these substances and behaviors.

I've been talking to my son about this disease that runs in his family for three years. He understands that when he goes to high school this month, he needs to be especially alert about drinking and drug use.

I'm not too worried. He's a competitive soccer player who, when injured, is vigilant even about how much ibuprofen he takes. He knows substances and behaviors can change feelings. He knows addiction can kill. So far, he wants to experience life as it is.

And this part of the message is equally important, and often forgotten: If the switch gets flipped, it's important to get help, no matter what it costs, and sooner rather than later. Effective help exists, and it saves lives.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/addicts-are-not-low-lifes-649550/#ixzz246n3kAG3

Alcohol Classes Keep People Sober and Save Lives

The best way not to kill anyone after drinking and driving is to have never consumed a drink in the first place. I believe that alcohol awareness classes, administered often and at an early age, beginning at 11 or 12, will help reduce future alcohol consumption and drunk driving.

Less alcohol consumption means fewer DUIs and fewer fatal accidents caused by drinking and driving.

New research shows that in 2010, more than two-thirds of the 10,228 drunk driving deaths (7,145 or 70 percent) involved drivers with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .15 or higher.

The most frequently recorded BAC among all drinking drivers in 2010 fatal crashes was .18, more than twice the legal limit in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. On average, there was one alcohol-related death every 51 minutes.

Not surprisingly, the age group with the highest percentage of drivers with BACs of .08 was 21 to 24 years old. The alcohol impairment rate among drivers in fatal crashes in 2010 was four times higher at night than during the day.

A higher percentage of fatal crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers occurred on weekends (31 percent), compared to 16 percent during the week.

What do these statistics mean? I challenge my loyal readers to let me know. Do you think alcohol classes will help keep people sober and thus save innocent lives?

http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1078518_most-drunk-driving-deaths-caused-by-drivers-with-twice-legal-bac-limit

College Binge Drinkers Should Take an Alcohol Class

Do you think binge drinking is a problem on American campuses? If not, start lining up your evidence because the majority of evidence points to a major problem with binge drinking among college students.

Is this a new problem? Certainly not. Is it worse now than ever before? Who knows. But the fact remains that it is a big problem that affects many college students.

Are you ready to take a look at this from a very deep perspective? If not, quit reading now. If you are ready begin by asking yourself if alcohol should be banned from college campuses. I know how radical a thought this is, but just think about any possible reasons why this might be a good idea.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of students on college campuses are under 21, the legal age to consume beverages in the United States. This simple fact, legality, is often overlooked, yet still a good reason why, perhaps alcohol should be banned on campus.

This is the third in a series of blogs looking at the nature of binge drinking on college campuses. In our next one we will take a deeper look into how harmful alcohol is for college students.

Hsu told CBS Atlanta in an email that researchers involved wanted to specifically focus on the motivation for a student to drink unsafe amounts of alcohol despite knowledge of its harmful effects.

“There are a lot of alcohol education programs in the U.S., and students are aware that [there are] negative consequences to binge drinking … like being at higher risk for sexual assault, violence, drunk driving, future alcohol dependency,” she said. “They know that they can get in trouble with school authorities and with the law. If they persist in binge drinking despite this, there must be some kind of other positive motivation for doing so.”

Monica Swahn, a professor at the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University, was alarmed by the findings and their allusion to a dichotomy between student knowledge of the negative effects of drinking and the desire to enrich their social lives.

“These findings make me distressed as a public health professional, especially knowing that binge drinking is associated with so many adverse consequences,” she said to CBS Atlanta. “Addiction, poor academic performance, violence, drunk driving, suicide, sexually transmitted diseases – the list is so long of what’s linked to alcohol abuse, especially in the late teens and early 20s.”

Steven Liga, director of the Middlesex County, N.J. chapter of the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, noted to CBS Atlanta that expectations of a college experience centered around alcohol have made class after incoming class of college freshmen see drinking as an unavoidable part of higher education.

“They think drinking is part of the culture – what they’re supposed to do. They start out doing that because everybody else started to do that at the same time,” he said, noting that the shared experience creates a feeling of community. “They feel a part of something, especially coming in as a freshman in a new place. It’s easy not to feel a part of something, so they gravitate to it. Freshman [gravitate] toward a drinking party. It’s an equalizer. Everyone is new, and social inhibitions – that feeling that you don’t belong – disappear.”

These expectations also lead to feelings of pressure regarding binge drinking.

“At the end of the survey, students were given an open comment box and could whatever they wanted. … [Q]uite a number wrote that they did not want to binge drink,” Hsu recalled. “But they felt pressured to do so because ‘everyone’ … does on campus. At the same time, they would associate binge drinking with high status, saying that rich, white kids in fraternities were the ones to drink.”

Liga noted that, while the frequency of such binge drinking incidents may not necessarily be increasing, the level of consumption is all the same in danger of rising.

“What people are hearing about are more and more cases of extreme drinking,” he said. “It’s not just four or five drinks several times a month – it’s, ‘Let’s see how many [drinks] I can do in a short amount of time.’ That’s where the funnels come in, and beer pong.”

That mentality, combined with a lack of student knowledge regarding what they are drinking – and how much of it – could lead to serious problems with binge drinking.

“Most kids don’t realize they’re drinking as many drinks as they are,” he said, adding that red Solo cups, a college party staple, have enough room for the equivalent of multiple drinks. “It’s very easy to binge drink, particularly going into social situations where someone is trying to fit in.”

Hsu mentioned that the objective of the study was to delve into why students engage in behavior they know to be risky, and found that the main differences were between what she called “subjective” or temporary happiness and “objective well-being.”

“Binge drinking is objectively bad, a dangerous and self-destructive behavior. In our study, students who binge drank often missed class because they were hung over, or felt hung over in class. They put themselves at risk for sexual assault and harassment,” she said. “On the campus where the study was conducted, students have been suspended, expelled, arrested, physically harmed, and even killed as a result of intoxication. Studies show that students who binge drink are at risk of becoming alcoholics for the rest of their lives.”

Swahn asserted that these studies highlight the importance of discouraging drinking activity in minors for as long as possible.

“Addiction, poor academic performance, violence, drunk driving, suicide, sexually transmitted diseases – the list is so long of what’s linked to alcohol abuse, especially in the late teens and early 20′s,” she said. “It’s about trying to figure out how to delay the age at which they drink … to delay alcohol use as long as possible.”

And for Liga, who works in an organization geared toward addiction prevention, the emphasis falls on how to break the stigma of drinking as an integral part of the college experience.

Consistently scheduled activities that offer legitimately fun opportunities for students interested in sobriety are one part of the potential solution.

“It’s important for people not to just give up on colleges – to not simply say, ‘There’s going to be tons of dangers drinking and there’s nothing we can do about it.’ We know that’s not true,” Liga observed. “Part of that [solution] is going to be the way the school handles drinking infractions, whether they are being proactive or not regarding interventions with students when they see problems developing and doing something about it early.”

Swahn agreed, while additionally pointing out the influence of one crucial unit – family.

http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2012/08/28/study-college-binge-drinkers-happier-than-sober-students/

Binge Drinking on College Campuses

As a college graduate I can personally attest to the binge drinking that goes on at college campuses across the country. This does not mean that all college kids binge drink, however, there most certainly is a problem with binge drinking on college campuses.

Many think that binge drinking is a rite of passage, especially if you are part of the Greek system. They think these are just a few years of your life and the binge drinking will not hurt.

How wrong they are!

Do students who engage in binge drinking enjoy themselves? From my own personal experience, combined with those of friends, colleagues and students in my alcohol education courses, I would say that the answer is a resounding yes. I never even considered being sober during my four years of college.

I binge drank two or three times per week while at the university. There were certainly plenty of my peers who consumed far me than I. There were a few that already had reached an advanced state of alcoholism. Yes – they were not even 22 years old! They already had problems functioning, fulfilling their educational responsibilities.

One friend failed out after one semester with a 0.7 grade point average. That never would have happened had he been sober!

Alcoholism is a serious issue. If you think you may have a drinking problem please seek help. If you prefer to maintain anonymity, there are online alcohol classes too.

Opioids Go Mainstream!

Whether you are rich or poor, black or white, tall or short, skinny or chubby, there is no way to guaranty you will not become addicted to something in your lifetime. No one is immune from addiction.

I will not be the first to say that a major factor in the drug problem in America today stems from the fact that opioids are not readily available. Until very recently these powerful narcotics were only available to cancer patients and patients who were terminal. If you were looking for pain relief it was aspirin acetaminophen, or maybe a codeine-based medication if you went to a physician.

Today doctors prescribe opioids as if they were aspirin. That wouldn’t be so bad except that while they are very good at getting patients on these drugs, they can’t help them get off. I know doctors take the “necessary” precaution of warning their patients as to the dangers and addictive nature of the medicines, but they know that many of their patients will, and are becoming addicted to these powerful painkillers.

Most People Benefit from Drug Awareness Classes

If you or someone you care about is addicted to prescription medication, please seek help immediately. The first decision should be to quit using drugs. The second should be to take a drug class. If you prefer to maintain anonymity, there are online drug classes too.

Are You Ashamed to Take a Drug Class?

One of the hardest steps toward becoming sober is fear. There are many kinds of fear and every person is different. One of the most common fears is that you have to come clean about your addiction. Your friends, family and coworkers who drank alcohol or used drugs with you in the past will need to know why you have stopped.

Many people choose to try lying when they first become sober. They will tell their cronies they are quitting to lose weight or because they want to be able to pass a drug test.

It is easy to “save face” if you decide to start drinking again because you gave up on your diet or didn’t get the job you hoped for. You can “hide” the true reason - because you are so addicted to the drug of choice that you cannot quit.

Just Quit

If you successfully quit using weight loss or employment the logical argument becomes now that I have not drank or used in six months or a year, I feel great. I don’t want to go back to that lifestyle.

3 Reasons to Take an Alcohol Class

Do you drink alcohol? If not, this blog entry may not be for you. What we will discuss in this article is why anyone who drinks should take an alcohol class.

1. Basic Training – Either a classroom or online alcohol class can provide extensive information about the basics of drinking. It will educate you on alcohol, its properties and chemical make-up. And it will educate you on how alcohol affects each part of the human body. You will learn the basics about how even a small amount of alcohol can negatively affect your mind and body.

2. Self-Assessment – Taking any alcohol class, including an online alcohol class, can help you gauge whether or not you have a drinking problem. Alcohol classes explain the different patterns of drinking and help the student evaluate his or her own pattern of consumption. Maybe you have a drinking problem, maybe you don’t.

3. Action – An alcohol class can help motivate you to take action to cease aberrant behavior. This is not fiction – thousands of students have quit drinking after having taken an alcohol class. One of the primary focuses of both in-class and online alcohol classes to prevent recidivism. In layman’s terms, that means to help you quit drinking and stay sober!

If all of those reasons seem hard to grasp how about this one – you will feel much better in the near and long-term future if you quit drinking right now!

An Alcohol Awareness Class Can Help You Stop Drinking Today

As a recovering alcoholic I can tell you there is no better time to begin your sobriety than right now. Sometimes quitting a terrible habit like drinking alcohol to excess happens with a snap decision. It happened for me, and it certainly can happen for you.

As a counselor for both in-class and online alcohol classes I often discuss the benefits of a life without alcohol to my students. Please believe me when I tell you that the benefits far outweigh any pleasure you derive from alcohol.
 
Quitting is One Stage

It has been said there are three stages to addiction – denial, anger and acceptance. The human brain is an amazing organ and can help us rationalize all sorts of aberrant behavior.

Again, having counseled thousands of students from my alcohol class I can attest that once one’s addiction takes hold, the addict is cognizant of the situation. Denial is a very short phase and sometimes anger does not have to happen. It is possible to go straight to acceptance.

I went from being a serious alcoholic who got intoxicated daily to quitting. An alcohol class helped me and it can help you too!

If You Sneak a Drink, You Need an Alcohol Awareness Class

Have you ever hidden the fact that you were drinking alcohol? I am not talking about hiding it while you and your friends drank a beer in your basement in high school. It is common for adolescents to hide their drinking when they are first experimenting with alcohol. What I am referring to is known as the “closet drinker.”

What exactly is a closet drinker? A closet drinker is anyone who as a young adult or adult hidden their drinking behavior because they thought they would be criticized or chastised for drinking or drinking too much.

• If you sit at your desk and take a few belts out of a bottle of booze, you are a closet drinker.
• If you pound a beer quickly and then grab another to make it seem like you only have one beer, you are a closet drinker.
• If you drink vodka because you think it will not be detectable on your breath, you are a closet drinker.
• If you hide alcohol anywhere (other than from your kids because you don’t want them drinking), you are a closet drinker.
• If you drink while you drive, hiding the booze in a brown paper bag, you are a closet drinker.
• If you mix your alcohol in a Gatorade bottle and drink while driving, you are a very dangerous closet drinker!

While one or all of the above-mentioned “closet drinking” activities may seem ludicrous, believe me when I tell you, they are all very common.

As a counselor for both in-class and online alcohol classes I always discuss the nature of hiding drinking behavior with my students. Given that virtually all of my students have been charged with an alcohol-related offense, many have personal experiences with “closet drinking.”

This will be the first in a series of articles dealing with the problem of “closet drinking.” We will use real-life experiences and discuss what to do if you, or someone you care about is a “closet drinker.”

Mabry’s Story 

Mabry is a 45-year-old geologist. She is married and has three children between the ages of 4 and 12. In a private counseling session after her alcohol class she disclosed to me that she and her husband are “closet” drinkers. You see, she knows her husband hides his alcoholism from her. He drinks in the garage while he works and gets rid of the recyclables away from home. Rooting through his trunk she found numerous empty vodka bottles.

Despite her being aware of his problem, she truly believes he is unaware that she too is suffering. She hides her drinks. They drink together, but she has hidden locations for extra “pops.” They do not discuss their relative problems.

Mabry was shocked when her husband asked her if she had a drinking problem after her arrest for driving under the influence (DUI). She admitted that she drinks and drives all the time, as does her husband.

It seems like her DUI conviction turned on the light. She wants to stop drinking, but knows that she must also address and confront her husband. I am hopeful that together they might be able to support each other and quit their destructive, addictive behavior.

If you or someone you care about has a drinking problem, I urge you to seek help immediately. An alcohol class is a good place to start. If you prefer to maintain total anonymity there are online alcohol classes too.