Alcoholism and Stupidity!

So today I meet this nice Christian mother but her wisdom is lacking in the fact that she is an enabler to her alcoholic son. She knows he is an alcoholic and she doesn't like it but she continually bails out her son. She claims she doesn't pay any of his bills just his fees for being arrested. He's been arrested for driving while intoxicated and for being in public while intoxicated. Yes, he's experienced a short prison sentence of 3 months but he still hasn't learned his lesson.

This infuriates me! Here is a 35 yr. man who lives at home with mommy and takes advantage of her and his situation. And mommy dearest blames a cop for going out of his way to just hurass her son and look for him. Come on if you do the crime you need to do the time and not blame the police for doing their jobs.

Statistics

•In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in alcohol-impaired traffic crashes

•Three in every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lives.
from MADD, Mother's Against Drunk Drivers!

It's just not fair that so many people die from drunk drivers. Who is helping who? How can a mother justify her son's alcoholism and try to protect him from the law and then allow him to drive? That is so unfair to the person that he may kill or hurt through his drunk driving

Lets look at the facts of what alcohol does to your body:

1. Arthritis:  Increases risk of gouty arthritis

2. Cancer:  Increases the risk of cancer in the liver, pancreas, rectum, breast, mouth, pharynx, larynx and esophagus

3. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome:  Causes physical and behavioral abnormalities in the fetus

4. Heart Disease:  Raises blood pressure, blood lipids and the risk of stroke and heart disease in heavy drinkers. Heart disease is generally lower in light to moderate drinkers.

5. Hyperglycermia:  Raises blood glucose

6. Hypoglycemia:  Lowers blood glucose, especially for people with diabetes

7. Kidney Disease:  Enlarges the kidneys, alters hormone functions, and increases the risk of kidney failure

8. Liver Disease:  Causes fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis

9. Malnutrition:  Increases the risk of protein-energy malnutrition,; low intakes of protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamine, vitamin B6 and riboflavin, and impaired absorption of calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D and zinc.

10. Nervous Disorders:  Causes neuropathy and dementia; impairs balance and memory

11. Obesity:  Increases energy intake, but not a primary cause of obesity

12. Psychological disturbances:  Causes depression, anxiety and insomnia
healthchecksystems.com

Brain damage is a common and potentially severe consequence of long-term, heavy alcohol consumption. Even mild-to-moderate drinking can adversely affect cognitive functioning.
About.com

Alcohol does have its effects so if you choose to drink, don't drive and don't be in public drunk either. STAY AT HOME!




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Self Medication or Prescription Medicine?

Hum, let me see, is it wise to self medicate or is it better to get prescription medicine from your doctor? I believe that when someone is highly stressed or depressed he needs some outside help to make wise decisions in regards to his health and well being.

Ultimately, I believe when someone is stressed they need to seek God for answers and help them to remain calm and help them make good rational decisions. But for some people they need physical help along with spiritual help.

Turning to drugs and alcohol are not the answer to life's problems. These things gives a person a false since of hope and helps them to make irrational decisions.

According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia: Self-medication is the use of drugs or self-soothing forms of behavior to treat a perceived or real malady. Self-medication is often referred to in the context of a person self-medicating, in order to alleviate their own distress or pain.

Some mental illness sufferers attempt to correct their illnesses by use of certain drugs. Depression is often self medicated with alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or other mind-altering drug use. While this may provide immediate relief of some symptoms such as anxiety, it may evoke and/or exacerbate some symptoms of several kinds of mental illnesses that are already latently present, and may lead to addiction/dependence, among other side effects of long-term use of the drug.

Alcohol and sedative/hypnotic drugs, such as barbiturates (depresants or downers) and benzodiazepines (antianxiety drugs), are central nervous system (CNS) depressants, which produce feelings of relaxation, and sedation, while relieving feelings of depression and anxiety. Alcohol also lowers inhibitions, while benzodiazepines are anxiolytic. Though they are generally ineffective antidepressants, as most are short-acting, the rapid onset of alcohol and sedative/hypnotics softens rigid defenses and, in low to moderate doses, provides the illusion of relief from depressive affect and anxiety.

Self medicating with benzodiazepines or alcohol often make the symptoms of anxiety worse. Approximately half of patients attending mental health services for conditions including anxiety disorders such as panic disorder or social phobia are the result of alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence. Sometimes anxiety pre-existed alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence but the alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence act to keep the anxiety disorders going and often progressively making them worse.

Knowing all this information helps or should help people realize that when it comes to drugs it needs to be given with doctors orders so a person can get the right help needed with the right doses and the right type of medicine for the person's particular problem. Laymen or women do not have enough knowledge to make a rational decision to relieve the pain one is carrying on their own.

If things are too stressful, and at times we all have stresses, please seek counselling, doctors and ministers to help you cope with overwhelming issues and don't self medicate.