Addiction

There are quite a few signs of alcohol misuse, but in this day and age where drinking has become the norm when done in moderation, alcohol abuse has turn out to be a serious problem in our culture. Alcohol recovery pertains to everyone in all walks of life, from the mailroom to the boardroom and it has no age barrier.

The alcoholic is very sick. They are sick physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You see, addiction stunts your growth; it literally makes you stop growing emotionally. The alcoholic does not know this and they sure don't mean to be this way, it’s just part of the sickness. Immaturity is a symptom of alcoholism.

A few years back, there was a story going around the 12-step rooms about a frog in the water. It goes like this:
If you put a frog into a pan of boiling water, it will jump out faster than the eye can see. But if you put the frog into a pan of water that is the frog's body temperature and then slowly turn up the heat the frog will stay in the water -- even to the point of boiling alive. Why? Because the frog does not notice the gradual change in temperature.

Alcoholism works the same way... the heat is constantly turned up but nobody notices. Cunning and baffling! A progressive disease. It may start out with casually accepting unacceptable behavior -- Oh, he didn't mean that, he just had too much to drink last night. A few years down the road the behavior has slowly grown more and more intolerable, but it is still being accepted and becomes the "norm."

Alcohol recovery for the alcoholic is promising and it is important to know that alcohol abuse is a sign of an underlying trouble and it is good to know that getting an individual to stop drinking alcohol many times is the easy part of the recovery process. When a person is in alcohol recovery the most difficult part can sometimes be learning how to be happy once again, without the use of alcohol.

Using a Vision Map Video to remind the person in recovery daily of the joy and happiness that is available and can be found again, is a perfect tool in the recovering person’s sober toolbox. Many people know about Vision Boards for mind mapping, but now there is Vision Map Videos and they are so much more private than a board for all of the family and friends to see. No matter how hopeless and unmanageable a person's life has become due to the effects of alcohol, recovery is possible. The person in recovery needs as many tools as possible to overcome the urges to drink again.

Labels: addiction, advice, alcohol, effect, tips