Have You Fallen in Love With Your Addiction?

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red heartLove starts off with an infatuation for a person.  Developing a drug addiction is like falling in love. But anyone with an addiction has fallen in love with drugs, or alcohol, not a person. Or they’ve fallen in love with prescription pain-killers, or any other substance or activity that is the focus of their irrational desire.

Suppose we’ve become infatuated with a person – we think about them all the time and cannot get them out of our heads.  We can’t help ourselves, the thoughts just appear in our heads all the time.  We are obsessed. We engineer situations to increase the chance to be close to this person.  We will do anything to please them. Continue reading →

Safe Drinking: How Much is Too Much in the USA?

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alcohol glass Many people are surprised to know how much alcohol they are really drinking.  One drink served in a bar is often more than one Standard Drink.  A Standard Drink is the name given to any alcoholic drink that contains a specific amount of alcohol.  One Standard Drink does not depend on the amount of liquid in the glass, but on how much alcohol is contained in that amount of liquid.

The actual amount each country decides is ‘A Standard Drink’ differs from one country to another.  In the USA, a ‘Standard Drink’ contains 14 grams of ‘pure’ alcohol, which is about 0.6 fluid ounces of “pure” alcohol.  This does not mean 0.6 fluid ounces of liquid in the glass, but 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol contained in that liquid in the glass. Continue reading →

Safe Levels of Drinking Alcohol: Australian Guidelines 2009

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addiction glass So called ‘Safe’ levels of drinking alcohol are estimates of Risk – not a prediction of what will happen to any single person if they stay under the limits – or drink above those levels. Safe Drinking Guidelines are not a guarantee that we will not harm our health if we stay inside these Recommended Limits.  Guidelines are guidelines only.  They are guidelines based on estimates. They are estimates of Risk.

These Risk estimates are based on information collected from large populations of drinkers.  Health researchers match up the self-reported levels of alcohol consumption against documented health outcomes in those people studied.  The statistics are clear – and we all know what they say: Continue reading →

Is there Ever a Safe Level of Drinking? UK Guidelines

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alcohol wineHow does anyone know how much alcohol is too much?  If they can be honest with themselves, most people already know when they have A Drinking Problem.  Once you find yourself saying ‘I don’t really have a problem’ you know you already do.  Just telling yourself this statement shows that you already know, deep down that you are drinking too much. What you might not know is how big a problem you have.

To know that, we need to know about the different levels of drinking. Continue reading →

Classifications: How Much Alcohol Is Too Much?

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addiction-whiskyIn Western cultures, almost everyone drinks alcohol, sometimes.  Many people drink a lot of alcohol very often, and many people drink only occasionally.  We are always being told that drinking too much alcohol is not good for our health, but how much is ‘too much’?

Most western countries have Health Guidelines that specify how much alcohol is considered to be too much alcohol, but each country’s recommendations for ‘safe levels of drinking’ are not all the same, but are similar. Continue reading →