Sponsoring or Coaching in Recovery from Alcoholism
Test your knowledge of alcohol-related risks and find out the facts about drinking. Can you tell fact from fiction?
There are so many stories around alcohol and drinking that it’s hard to know what to believe.
Knowing the facts about how drinking affects your body is the best way to make sure you drink safely.
Below are some common myths around drinking. Read on to find out the real facts about alcohol.
Myth: Drinking makes sex better
Truth: Alcohol can help you avoid feeling awkward or can help you feel more confident. But it can keep men from getting or keeping an erection, and it can reduce sex drive. More importantly, you might put yourself in a risky situation or you might not use a condom, putting you at greater risk of a sexually transmitted disease or an unwanted pregnancy.
Myth: Beer gets you less drunk.
Truth:
all have around 2.8 units of alcohol .This is what makes you drunk chemically, and the faster you drink the full 2.8 units, the higher your peak blood level.
Myth: Switching between beer, wine, and spirits will make you more drunk.
Truth: Your blood alcohol content is what determines how drunk you are. Mixing drinks may make you sicker by upsetting your stomach, but not more intoxicated.
Myth: A big meal before you drink will keep you sober.
Truth: Drinking on a full stomach will delay alcohol getting into your system, not prevent it. However, it is best to eat a proper meal before a night out, especially foods rich in carbohydrates and proteins.
Myth: Your body develops a tolerance to alcohol, so you can safely drink more
Truth: The more you drink the more damage your body will sustain and the greater the risks become. Tolerance to alcohol can actually be seen as a warning sign that your body has started to be affected by too much drinking.
Alcohol’s hidden harms usually only emerge after a couple of years. And by then, serious health problems can have developed.
Keeping to NHS recommended limits will reduce the risk of alcohol harming your health:
Source: NHS Choices
“The entire purpose of my life had been to see my father sober but even after I had succeeded, I couldn’t be happy. My life was void of meaning. Other people couldn’t understand it. Honestly, neither could I. I used to think that some sick part of me wanted my father to keep drinking so that it would give purpose to my own life. If it hadn’t been for Al-Anon, I might have even killed myself,” recalls a member of Al-Anon.
Al-Anon and Alateen are twin international fellowships – also known as the Al-Anon Family groups – designed with the sole purpose of helping those families that are adversely affected by alcoholism. While Al-Anon supports family members and friends of alcoholics, Alateen helps young people, generally between the ages of 13-19, whose lives have been affected by drinking.
Relatives of alcoholics share trauma – The Times of India.
About that title…
Even the words “stay sober” -let alone live sober-offended many of us when we first heard such advice. Although we had done a lot of drinking, many of us never felt drunk, and were sure we almost never appeared or sounded drunk. Many of us never staggered, fell, or got thick tongues; many others were never disorderly, never missed a day at work, never had automobile accidents, and certainly were never hospitalized nor jailed for drunkenness.
We knew lots of people who drank more than we did, and people who could not handle their drinks at all. We were not like that. So the suggestion that maybe we should “stay sober” was almost insulting.
Besides, it seemed unnecessarily drastic. How could we live that way? Surely, there was nothing wrong with a cocktail or two at a business lunch or before dinner. Wasn’t everyone entitled to relax with a few drinks, or have a couple of beers before going to bed?
However, after we learned some of the facts about the illness called alcoholism, our opinions shifted. Our eyes have been opened to the fact that apparently millions of people have the disease of alcoholism. Medical science does not explain its “cause,” but medical experts on alcoholism assure us that any drinking at all leads to trouble for the alcoholic, or problem, drinker. Our experience overwhelmingly con-firms this.
So not drinking at all-that is, staying sober-becomes the basis of recovery from alcoholism. And let it be emphasized: Living sober turns out to be not at all grim, boring, and uncomfortable, as we had feared, but rather something we begin to enjoy and find much more exciting than our drinking days. We’ll show you how.
(Introduction; Living Sober, Alcoholics Anonymous 1975)
See also;
 |
Living Sober |
MORE than four million Australians say they drink alcohol with the aim of getting drunk, a new study has found. And about half of those people try to get drunk at least once a week.
The report, commissioned by the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation, says 80 per cent of Australians believe the nation has a drinking problem.
The report has also found that alcohol is seen a more harmful drug than tobacco or illicit substances.
Professional Site