Teen alcoholic admits: Booze nearly killed me

Helen ( name has been changed to protect identity ) nearly died when she was 16 due to a drink habit.

A shy and socially awkward teenager, she had her first drink at 14 “just to fit in with the crowd”.

Quickly becoming hooked, Helen says she and her mates would regularly shoplift to get the alcohol they craved and would think nothing of downing bottles of gin and vodka in local parks and on waste ground.

“I liked it, the feeling of euphoria it gave me, and the confidence to talk to people and especially to boys,” says Helen, now 38.

“Sober, I had no social confidence and felt that I was unattractive. With a drink inside me everything was great. Anyway, people thought you were weird if you didn’t drink.”

But at 16, and after drinking two-thirds of a bottle of neat gin and tumblers of vodka in one evening, Helen threw herself down a flight of concrete steps and nearly died.

“I’ve no memory of what happened,” she says, “but friends said there was some drama or other and it looked like I threw myself down the steps rather than just falling.

“If it hadn’t been for the mate who put me in the recovery position I would be dead, because by then I was vomiting everywhere.”

Her parents were called and they took her home, but did not realise the severity of Helen’s drinking.

“I think they knew I was drinking, but they had no idea how much and anyway they thought it was just a phase,” says Helen, who now lives in Mid Wales.

“They warned me about the dangers of drinking – I had a good, solid upbringing in that sense – but we all hid what we were doing very well.”

But years of heavy drinking through university and then work culminated in a nervous breakdown at 35.

It was then that Helen sought help for her addiction from Alcoholics Anonymous, which she says “completely turned my life around”.

“Drink becomes an obsession, but the more you drink the more you have to drink to get that feeling of euphoria,” says Helen.

“And soon you don’t get that feeling at all.

“For me, drinking in my teens was all about going to the disco and drinking my guts out.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if I had my chance I wouldn’t do what I did to that extent again.

“Drinking to excess can put you in so many dangerous situations.

“Basically you lose your right to say ‘no’, because effectively you have lost your mind.

“I used to come home covered in bruises and have absolutely no idea how I got them.

“So very many bad things could have happened to me while I was drunk – and to this day I have no idea whether they did or not.”

source: Wales On Sunday

Anorexia Symptoms Test

If you suspect you or a loved one may be suffering from Anorexia Nervosa, This test can help you determine the severity of the disorder and what should be done to investigate further or to get additional help to resolve the problem. It is always better to get help to investigate a possible eating disorder than to assume there is no problem. This disease can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated. To learn more about this disease, here are the recent top-selling books on anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia Symptoms Test:

Answer "yes" or "no" to the following questions:

1. Divide your weight (in pounds) by your height (in inches). If the result is over 2.4 pounds per inch or you don't think of yourself as "fat" or "overweight", you can discontinue this test...you are not anorexic. Do you think of yourself as overweight or "fat" although the result is less than 2.4 pounds per inch?

2. Do friends and family regularly express concern about your weight loss?

3. Has a doctor told you you need to gain weight?

4. When you look at yourself in the mirror, can you see your individual ribs or hip bones?

5. Do your arms have light, soft, peach-fuzz-like hair?

6. Have friends or family members regularly expressed concern about how little you eat or about your apparent weight loss?

7. Do you regularly suffer from fatigue or inability to concentrate?

8. Do you feel anxiety about eating?

9. Do you regularly find it difficult to consume a normal serving of meat, grain and vegetables at one meal? A normal serving of each is about 6-8 ounces.

10. Do you regularly find it difficult to consume 3 normal meals a day?

11. To control your weight, do you feel it's necessary to exercise more than 1 hour a day, 3-4 days a week?
Anorexia Symptoms Test Scoring:

A. If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, monitor yourself for the next 3 months and visit Anorexia Nervosa Tips for more information.

B. If you answered "yes" to 3 or more of the questions, take the actions in "A" above and find a trusted friend or family member (one without an eating disorder) to help you monitor yourself.

C. If you answered "yes" to 5 or more of the questions, Take the actions in "A" & "B" above and have your friend take you to the doctor for a complete examination to rule out Anorexia Nervosa. Your friend is necessary because many who suffer from this disease also suffer from denial.

D. If you're taking this test to see if a loved one may have Anorexia Nervosa, understand you may have fewer "yes" answers for them by observation and they still may have the disease. If you're still concerned after the test, confront them on the issue and get them to take the test, themselves. Then help them follow the instructions in the test scoring section.

Teen Smoking

Why do children smoke?

There are a number of reasons why children may try smoking.

Tobacco advertising

Research has shown that advertising may encourage children to start smoking. Even adverts aimed at over 18s are attractive to children who aspire to adult behaviour. Direct cigarette advertising is now banned in the UK.

A sibling or parent who smokes

Siblings and parents are role models for children. If a child's parents smoke they are four times more likely to smoke themselves.

Experimentation

All teenagers experiment - often with activities that they believe make them appear more 'grown up'. Trying new things and making mistakes is part of the normal learning process. But the danger with trying smoking is that nicotine is very addictive.

What can you do if your child has started smoking?

Talking to teenagers about smoking can be tricky. Read these tips if your child is smoking and you want to try to help them quit.

- If you smoke yourself, give up. It will help if you can set a good example.
- Don't panic or overreact. If you are very worried you may want to talk to another adult before talking to your child.
- Choose a time to talk to your child when you're calm and they don't want to be somewhere else.
- Ask lots of open questions to find out how they started smoking, how often they smoke, who they smoke with etc. Be aware that starting conversations with 'why' can seem aggressive.
- Make sure you really listen to what your child is saying.
- Explain that it's better never to start smoking as it quickly leads to addiction.
- Point out how expensive smoking is and discuss what else your child could do with the money.
- You can try discussing the health effects of smoking. But young people will often have learnt about the consequences of smoking at school and may not want to think about their long-term health.
- Keep talking about smoking from time to time in a non-confrontational manner. At the same time make it clear that you do have your own views and house rules.
- Offer your love and support. Focus on the positives and try to build your child's self esteem. Acknowledge any progress they make with giving up.
- Giving up isn't easy for adults or children. Be aware of the difficulties your child may be facing and the isolation they may feel if all their friends are smoking.

Giving up smoking

There are professionals available to help you give up smoking. The NHS has a range of services on offer including stop smoking groups and one-to-one counselling. You are up to four times more likely to succeed if you use NHS support and stop smoking medicines such as patches or gum to manage your cravings. To find out more about these services call the NHS Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 0 169, open 7am-11pm every day, or visit the NHS Go Smokefree website.

Quit also have a helpline with information and advice to help you give up smoking. Call 0800 00 22 00 between 9am and 9pm or visit the Quit homepage. Quit have also developed a youth stop smoking programme called Quit Because.

Early Signs of Drug Abuse in Children and Adolescents

Some signs of risk can be seen as early as infancy. Children’s personality traits or temperament can place them at increased risk for later drug abuse. Withdrawn and aggressive boys, for example, often exhibit problem behaviors in interactions with their families, peers, and others they encounter in social settings. If these behaviors continue, they will likely lead to other risks. These risks can include academic failure, early peer rejection, and later affiliation with deviant peers, often the most immediate risk for drug abuse in adolescence. Studies have shown that children with poor academic performance and inappropriate social behavior at ages 7 to 9 are more likely to be involved with substance abuse by age 14 or 15.

Other risk factors relate to the quality of children’s relationships in settings outside the family, such as in their schools, with their peers, teachers, and in the community. Difficulties in these settings can be crucial to a child’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Some of these risk factors are:
• inappropriate classroom behavior, such as aggression and impulsivity;
• academic failure;
• poor social coping skills;
• association with peers with problem behaviors, including drug abuse; and
• misperceptions of the extent and acceptability of drug-abusing behaviors in school, peer, and community environments.
Association with drug-abusing peers is often the most immediate risk for exposing adolescents to drug abuse and delinquent behavior. Research has shown, however, that addressing such behavior in interventions can be challenging. For example, a recent study (Dishion et al. 2002) found that placing high-risk youth in a peer group intervention resulted in negative outcomes. Current research is exploring the role that adults and positive peers can play in helping to avoid such outcomes in future interventions.
Other factors—such as drug availability, drug trafficking patterns, and beliefs that drug abuse is generally tolerated—are also risks that can influence young people to start to abuse drugs.


Research has shown that the key risk periods for drug abuse occur during major transitions in children’s lives. These transitions include significant changes in physical development (for example, puberty) or social situations (such as moving or parents divorcing) when children experience heightened vulnerability for problem behaviors.

The first big transition for children is when they leave the security of the family and enter school. Later, when they advance from elementary school to middle or junior high school, they often experience new academic and social situations, such as learning to get along with a wider group of peers and having greater expectations for academic performance. It is at this stage—early adolescence—that children are likely to encounter drug abuse for the first time.


Source taken from excerpts of http://www.drugabuse.gov/pdf/prevention/RedBook.pdf

Learn how to say no

ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — Teens who can recognize and resist the persuasive tactics used in alcohol ads are less likely to succumb to alcohol advertising and peer pressure to drink.

The results of a three-year study of inner-city middle school students by Weill Cornell Medical College researchers appears online in the journal Addictive Behaviors (April print edition). Previous research has shown the connection between advertising and adolescent alcohol, use as well as the influence of peers in promoting adolescent alcohol use.

"There are many pressures on teens to drink. One very powerful influence is advertising — from television to billboards, it's everywhere. Our study found their ability to be critically aware of advertising as well as their ability to resist peer pressure are both key skills for avoiding alcohol," says Dr. Jennifer A. Epstein, lead author and assistant professor of public health in the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Results were taken from surveys of over 2,000 predominantly African-American adolescents from 13 inner-city junior high schools in New York City over three years. The study found that seventh graders better able to be critically aware of advertising — something the study terms "media resistance skills" — were significantly less likely to drink alcohol as ninth graders.

These same seventh graders were more likely to have developed better skills for resisting peer pressure by the eighth grade, further reducing their likelihood of drinking. Armed with media resistance and peer refusal skills (saying "no"), these students were less likely to succumb to advertising and peer pressure to drink alcohol subsequently in the ninth grade.

Alcohol is the number one drug of choice in this country and among our nation's youth. A recent report by the Surgeon General found that despite laws against it, underage drinking is deeply embedded in American culture, viewed as a rite of passage and facilitated by adults.

"Our findings point to the need for prevention programs that teach adolescents media resistance skills and peer refusal skills to reduce the likelihood that they will succumb to the powerful dual influences of alcohol advertising and peer pressure," says Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin, the senior author; professor of psychology in public health and professor of psychology in psychiatry; and chief of the Public Health Department's Division of Prevention and Health Behavior.

Dr. Botvin, who developed the award-winning Life Skills Training (LST) substance-abuse prevention program for junior high and middle school students more than 25 years ago, continuously works with his colleagues to refine and disseminate the program through research and teaching. (Dr. Botvin has a financial interest in LST, and his consulting company provides training and technical assistance for the program.)

This study was supported by a grant to Dr. Epstein from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and to a grant to Dr. Botvin from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Adapted from materials provided by Weill Cornell Medical College.

Video Game Addiction

by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
June 8, 2007

While it has long been suspected that video games can cause problems in a person’s life if they play them for too long, too often, more recent research confirms that video games do have an impact. There are things, however, that a person can do to reduce the impact of video game playing and reduce the likelihood of video game addiction seriously impacting a person’s life.
What to Do to Better Cope with Video Game Addiction

If you feel like you can’t part from your favorite video game or have run up huge gaming WoW bills unexpectedly, don’t worry, there are some steps you can take to bring your relationship with video games back down to earth.

1. Track your video game use. Yes, it’s a pain to do, but the more you keep track of the time you spend playing video games, the better you’ll be able to control it. Jot down in a notepad when you start and stop game play. Keep the journal for a week’s time, then review the amounts of time you’re spending on each game, or if it’s just one game, the activities that keep you in-game for so long.

2. Start the weaning. Now that you know you’re spending 20 hours a week on game play, it’s time to start cutting back. Take it slow and start with the least important game or activity in a game. Commit to reducing the time spent on that game or activity just 10% the first week. So if you’re spending 10 hours a week on planning for battles, aim for 9 hours the next week. That means being more conscious each time you’re in-game doing that activity, and trying to cut things short sooner rather than later.

3. Commit to being in the moment. One of the reasons people enjoy playing video games as much as they do is because it is very rewarding and often, fun. Most modern video games also offer a level of social interactivity with other players in the game, which is also rewarding. The key here is to prioritize what’s important in your life. If it’s more important for you to spend time with your online friends that your IRL friends or significant other, that’s your choice. But don’t expect your significant other to still be there when you decide you have time for him or her. It is a choice you make every time you pick up the control or sit at the keyboard, and it is one you have to become more conscious of in order to change that choice to one that can accommodate both in your life. Living life in the moment means, first of all, to live life outside of a screen.

4. You don’t need that kind of connection. So many people spend so much time online or in playing video games because they believe it is a necessary part of their connections with others, or with their ability to move forward in the game. For what purpose? If you need such hyperactive connectivity, that suggests something isn’t entirely healthy with some of those relationships to begin with. Or that the game was designed to only reward spending massive amounts of time playing it. Great for the game developers or publishers, who are enjoying your money. Not so great for you. While it’s fun for a time, it’s not going to lead to a higher-quality relationship or a better, more enjoyable life (especially if it’s creating anxiety and problems in your existing life).

5. Turn it off. Yes, that’s right. Turn it off. There’s no easier way to deal with video game addiction than to simply turn off the console or the computer and go out and do something different. By turning it off, you’re taking back conscious control of your life and this little piece of technology. Instead of it calling to you, you’re telling it, “Hey, I’ve had enough for one day. Seeya in the morning.” Set a deadline every evening for a time to retire game playing, and then don’t check or play it again until the next morning.

6. Technology works for us, not the other way around. If technology is taking control of your life — creating stress, anxiety, arguments with other people in your life, or financial hardships — then you have a backwards relationship with technology. Technology — including video games — works for us. If it’s not working for you, you’re chosen to be on the losing side of the relationship, and it’s time to put a stake in the ground and take responsibility and control for your use of the technology. Set aside specific times of the day or evening you will play your favorite video game, for instance, rather than doing so every spare moment you get. Instead of playing video games being the default thing you do, change the default to “living my life.”

Video game addiction doesn’t have to ruin your life, your work, or your relationships with others. If these tips still don’t help, it might be a sign that your video game addiction is more of an issue in your life than you realized. A psychotherapist who has experience in treating addictions can often help in such a case, and it is a treatment you should explore if you can’t reduce video game playing on your own.

What's Related

* Understanding More about Sexual Addiction
* What If Someone I Know Is a Compulsive Gambler?
* Neurofeedback Training for Your Brain
* Is Sexual Addiction a Recognized Disorder?
* More articles about holiday coping
* If You Think You Have a Problem with Sexual Addiction
* If Someone You Know Has a Problem with Cocaine
* Preparing Kids for Holiday Visits
* Symptoms of Sexual Addiction
* Self Quiz: Am I Addicted to Sex?
* Other articles by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

Teen girls see sex assaults as ‘normal,’ educator says

A growing number of teenage girls view sexual harassment and even assault as “normal,” says a top Toronto school board official.
Gerry Connelly described the “new normal” phenomenon during her keynote address at the annual Safe Schools Conference in Toronto today.
“A young girl will see somebody being pushed against a locker and fondled inappropriately, or they are being touched inappropriately and they say: ‘Well that’s just the way it is,’” said Ms. Connelly, director of education at the Toronto District School Board.

“Well folks, that’s not acceptable, but our young girls are treating it like it is acceptable and we have to address that.”
The Toronto school safety report released last month found that “sexual assault and sexual harassment are prevalent in TDSB schools.”
According to a survey conducted at one North York high school, 33% of students surveyed reported being sexually harassed in the school over the past two years. Twenty-nine per cent reported being the victim of unwanted sexual contact, including touching or grabbing at their school, and 29 female students or 7% of respondents reported being the victim of a major sexual assault at their school.
Another report on sexual harassment at 23 Ontario schools by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health showed that 30% of Grade 9 girls and 28% of Grade 11 girls reported having been touched, grabbed or pinched in a sexual way.
The panel behind the school safety report, led by human rights lawyer Julian Falconer, said more must be done to encourage students to report all incidents of violence, and urged a sexual assault and gender-based violence prevention strategy at the TDSB.

Ms. Connelly said she was disturbed to learn that 80% of TDSB students said they would not talk to teachers or police about crimes they witnessed or experienced.
“Why? You’ve heard the expression: snitches get stitches,” she said told the audience, which included educators, social workers and police officers.
But students also worry that if they tell, their parents will forbid them from associating with certain peers or force them to switch schools, said Ms. Connelly. Many students do not trust police, she said.

Some schools have “safe rooms” where female students can talk freely about their feelings. But more must be done to create more welcoming environments that combat the “code of silence” that appears to be fostering gender-based violence directed at girls, said Ms. Connelly, who cited figures from the CAMH study and a TDSB survey that showed the troubling rate of sexual harassment and assault in schools.
For example, 21% of surveyed TDSB students said they knew at least one student who had been sexually assaulted at school over the past two years.
“It’s a phenomenon across Canada, and it’s a phenomenon that is not well researched or understood,” said Ms. Connelly.

Ontario’s education minister today announced a team of safety and education experts will examine the causes of sexual harassment, homophobia and gender-based violence and draw up recommendations to prevent the behaviours.
The Canadian Safe School Network, which put on the conference, is developing a program that addresses sexuality and unhealthy relationships among girls in Grades 6 to 10. Pauline Auty, a former guidance counselor who is part of the network, detailed some of the shocking revelations in focus groups across the province, including some from mothers as young as 12 and 13 years old. “We don’t know how to have a healthy relationship,” the girls told her. “We just know what feels good.” The children also distinguish between relationships between their friends and relationships between adults. “They think it’s OK for kids to sleep around, as long as they don’t tell (but they think) it’s not OK for adults,” said Ms. Auty.
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source: The National Post