Alcohol Addiction The Silent Killer
Tips On How To Stop The Pain|Many people have been suffering
This Year about 140,000 deaths were caused by alcohol. In 21 days…yesterday the number was 135,000. In one day 5,000 people died because of alcohol.
I have lost family a young uncle because of alcohol. I have lost friends and seen many people sick around me because of alcohol.
Alcohol has been around forever and will be around for a long time. Some people are able to drink a glass occasionally for celebration and many people can not. Those are the people who I see as an addiction nurse. People who suffer from trauma, and pain, got into the notion of covering the pain by drinking alcohol to numb the painful memories.
I had seen people become addicted to alcohol as a child as they were given regular drinks by parents, aunts, abusers, and more. A devastating cycle. I believe everyone deserves a chance to get out of addiction. I believe addiction is not a choice. People can easily get lost in the path down on the addiction road and can find it very difficult to get out.
Many people drink socially feeling they need to do so to follow the societal norm. I am one of those people who does not follow the crowd when it comes to alcohol consumption. I have lost too many friends, family, and patients because of alcohol. It is simply not worth it for me.
There are people who like the taste of alcohol, like how it makes them feel “buzzed” how it changes their inhibition, and how they move around the world. On the other hand, I have never met a person who said to me I like to be around drunk people. People seeing someone drunk on the street cross to the other side. It is not a pretty picture.
When someone drinks too much they change their personality and they might do things that they would not do otherwise if they could think clearly. In the hospitals, clinics, and the community, I mostly saw people who had gotten into a spiral with alcohol addiction for one reason or another and were desperately trying to get out of it.
Many times alcohol might have destroyed their life and they have lost family, friends, relationships, jobs, health, and their home. Yes, I have seen many people who have lost everything because of alcohol. While in the beginning, it might seem like a good “medicine” to cover up pain, anxiety, and stress in our lives in the long run it creates more problems.
What can be done?
It is never too late to ask for help. Life has many ups and downs and many times we fall down. There are always helping hands around us to help us climb up on the steps again. I had seen many people move from being hopeless to full recovery, getting a job, and reconnecting with family and friends.
Life can bring a lot of pain and trauma and it can be difficult to admit that one needs help. Please if you are one of those people who are suffering from pain from a trauma that happened in the past there is help out there, there is support for everyone. it will not be easy as many demons or fears might need to be tackled to build a new road in life, yet in the end, it will be worth it.
I had seen thousands of people change their lives. It is a difficult road and it can be done.
I recommend checking out James Boylan’s articles about addiction and recovery how he got out of the addictive cycle as well as Leonard Tillerman’s work on tackling the habit of addiction.
1st step
Recognizing that there is a problem. Next….
Reach out to anyone around for help. It can be a social worker in the emergency room, a primary care doctor, a community leader, a pastor in a church, a neighbor, or a family member. Recognizing that this is not something that can be tackled alone and seeking help is the first step to recovering from pain and addiction to alcohol or any other substance.
Helplines/Resources
https://www.linesforlife.org/services-and-crisis-lines/alcohol-and-drug-helpline/
Call 800–923–4357
Youth call tel:877.968.8491
National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Hotline 1–800–662-HELP(4357)
National Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Information Center 1–800–784–6776
https://www.usa.gov/substance-abuse
1–800–662-HELP (4357).
https://alcoholawareness.org/oregon/
Call 800–273–8255 to be connected with a specialist, or text “recoverynow” to 839863.
Alcohol Statistics - Worldometer
Live statistics showing how many people in the world are dying this year because of alcohol
Thank you for reading,
Gabriella
Dr. Kőrösi Gabriella has a Ph.D. in public health and a master’s in nursing and she is the author of multiple books. She focuses on topics about healing, addiction, health, mental health, wellness, fun activities, travel experiences, nature, books, creativity, art, food, and poetry. More information about Gabriella can be found on her website at www.gabriellakorosi.org. Substack Magazine.
A version of this story was originally published on Medium.
More stories about addiction
Addiction and More Uncovered Book Chapters
52 stories
The Link Between Addiction and Genetics.
Does it worth knowing your family history and doing genetic testing?
Addiction Cases Are Increasing
Pandemic side effects
Health and Wellness articles
Health and Wellness
78 stories
It is silent in the fact that it’s acceptable to get drunk in America. It’s part of growing up.
Nice article.
In college, i was one of many students who dubbed Thursdays, the start of the weekend- which meant we walked to the local bars and ordered pitchers of beer. In three hours, most of us drank 3 glasses from each pitcher. After the first couple of times, I realized I was acting and talking silly and losing inhibitions. Sometimes, I'd have another half glass and the room spun. Other kids drank more than I, I must have made a fool of myself too many times. Thank goodness, I began to dislike those bouts and I just stopped. I think each semester I became more serious about my studies, but still was drinking socially, but school work became the priority and so did self respect. By graduation, most of us matured and found that walking to bed sober meant it was easier to get up to find work, Some never stopped, from what I've heard and took the wrong path. Some went to for rehab, counselors and family. Thank goodness, most are occasional social drinkers. What we though was fun, really was sad. Gabriella, thank you for writing an article, I'd be proud to show any parent whose son or daughter might be drinking- and in print let them see the dangers and common sense ways to stop drinking if it is taking up time that should be productive and purposeful.