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Show Total Abstinence Will Lead To Recovery from Alcohol This is the first in a series of articles by the writer on this subject, subsequent articles ar-ticles will appear every week. Alcoholism is a disease ; which need not lead to death' I or confinement in a mental , institution. It can be arrested through total'abstinence if the sufferer reaches the most important and difficult point on the road to recovery identification of his sickness as alcoholism and the acceptance accep-tance of the fact that he is an alcoholic and no longer can practice controlled drinking. drink-ing. A man or woman who concludes, con-cludes, from matching typical symptoms with his or her own behavior that his drinking drink-ing problem is out of control is not a rarity, an isolated individual. Surveys show there are more than 9,000, 000 alcoholics among the 30, 000,000 who today use alcohol alcoh-ol regularly. PROGRESSIVE DISEASE. Because alcoholism can be recognized, " diagnosed and treated successfully (but never nev-er cured so the . pearson can again ' drink socially) the Times -' Independent today starts a series of brief stor- . ies about this disease. They are intended to help each heavy drinker, who suspects he has this disease, to determine deter-mine for himself if the secrets sec-rets he so long has kept from others make him the alcoholic alcohol-ic that family, medical men and members of the clergy may have been confronting him with for years. ALCOHOLISM nearly always al-ways is a progressive disease. While progression differs in many cases the majority of alcoholics follow patterns which can be used as guidelines. guide-lines. Some cases develop slowly and methodically, others oth-ers swiftly and violently; but for the most part, the average aver-age time required to progress from the! first signs of loss of control to final stages is 15 years for men and seven for women. To begin at earliest ear-liest stages, we look at pre-alcoholism pre-alcoholism periods when in-dividuals in-dividuals may show first symptoms of the disease. The length of time varies considerably consid-erably from a few months to years. Only some of this type of drinker develop alcoholism. al-coholism. It is that person with whom we must be concerned, con-cerned, not all who drink. Through the pre-alcoholic stages ' there is a gradual, quite . often' noticeable increase in-crease in the use of liquor, both in the frequence of imbibing im-bibing and the quanity of alcohol al-cohol consumed. This in-crease in-crease usually is not' entirely intentional. PERSON UNAWARE; - The person who eventually abuses) alcohol invariably is finding, although not deliberately an increasing number of occasions oc-casions for drinking.' This person derives an "exceptional "excep-tional reward" from his drinking. He feels liquor does more for him than it does for most people. For him, alcohol brings a relief from tension. This feeling of pressure, he is positive, comes from circumstances cir-cumstances and surely not from liquor. When much later la-ter he analyses honestly, he realizes that his reaction to liquor has built up tensions. CALLElJ . . . . PROBLEM DRINKER. He continues to drink more heavily and more often, experiencing feeling of freedom, adequacy and confidence which normally is more important than is this occasion he once considered to be an excuse. The next step is obvious. The former pattern of "occasional drinking" drink-ing" grows into "constant or regular relief drinking". Once such relief drinking begins, the imbiber may be designated designat-ed as a "problem drinker". His drinking "most likely is not yet as conspicuous as that of the aicohoilc. Usually, at a point just prior to the onset of alcoholism itself, the individual in-dividual develops an increase' in alcohol tolerance. In other words, it becomes necessary to consume a greater quanity of liquor to achieve the samo degree of satisfaction and feeling of release. "Solitary drinking," a later development develop-ment in the course of alcoholism, alcohol-ism, rarely occurs at the early ear-ly phases in pre-alcoholism. MAY GET HELP The next article will begin a study stu-dy of warning signs that can serve to aid a heavy drinker in determining the chances of him becoming a victim of the disease of alcoholism. Alcoholics Alcoh-olics and their families', friends and employers will bei able to get information and receive help at Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center in Moab Information Center: 253-8741. |