047: Americans are Drinking Themselves to Death

by Paul Churchill | Jan 11, 2016 | Podcast

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An article written by the Alaksa Dispatch News titles “Americas are drinking themselves to death at record rates”  was recently posted in the Recovery Elevator Private Accountability Group on facebook and I was blown away by what I read.

Here are some of the bullets that I want to point out from the article.

• Last year more than 30,700 Americans died from alcohol-induced causes
• In 2014 there were 9.6 deaths from these alcohol-induced causes per 100,000 people, an increase of 37% since 2002.
• in 2014 28,647 people died of heroin and prescription drug overdoses which is less than the 30,700 from alcohol.
• The top 10% of American adults consume the lions share of alcohol in this country with close to 74 drinks on average.
• Line between “moderate use” and “Dangerous use”can be a thin one.
• A recent study quantified the rise of death associated with the use of a variety of common recreational drugs and they found that at the level of individual use, alcohol was the deadliest substance, followed by heroine and cocaine.

Meetup! Bozeman in January 23rd and Seattle February 27th 2016

This is huge Recovery Elevator. The first Recovery Elevator meetup will be taking place in Seattle on Saturday February 27th, 2016. Details to come. Email info@recoveryelevator.com for more info on this meetup.

You might be an alcoholic if:

– you feel like you have to hide it from anybody at any time. Bill – Interviewee

-you swish mouthwash to freshen your breath and you notice you cannot taste or feel it… it’s like swishing water  -Margaret

-at 476 days you are still finding empty beer cans in the garage, workshop, musical equipment cases etc because you were hiding so many empties thinking that you were fooling everyone about how much you were actually drinking. -James P

-you carry the tiny wine bottles in your purse and one falls out when you go to pay for your mani pedi at the nail salon.  -Larecia

-you live in a really small tourist town with 3 liquor stores within walking distance and you go in the liquor store to buy your usual, and the clerk offers you the “locals” (read frequent buyer) discount! -Tyrrell

You find a half-empty flask of flavored vodka that you hid under the sink months ago and actually contemplate drinking it, even though you just hit one week sober. -Me

This podcast was brought to you by Sober Nation.

046: Sobriety in the New Year and Resolutions

by Paul Churchill | Jan 4, 2016 | Podcast

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Are New Years resolutions really a good thing? In my opinion, if there is anything in life really worth changing, then waiting till a certain day to make that change seems silly to me. However, if the spirit of the New Year is to create goals and accountability, then I am all for it.

My new years resolution is to quit the gym. I know that sounds really strange but I have gotten way to comfortable with my routine at the gym to the point where I am in the center of my comfort zone circle. Last night I cancelled my gym membership and will be making an effort to to outdoor activities with my dog and use my own body weight for resistance. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Here is an outline of what is discussed in today

1)  For people thinking of making “stop drinking” a new years resolution:

Resolutions are good and its a great time to start something new.   However, alcoholics are experts at making promises (even to ourselves) and then letting ourselves down.

There are thousands of self help books on reaching goals (i.e. tony robbins) but a true alcohol problem requires more than will power and knowledge.

I think we have all made the resolution to stop drinking on new years day – and that is good! But when dealing with addiction, the day doesn’t have much power than the other 364 days a year if we don’t take a few steps to get us on the path to sobriety.

If this is you, I encourage you to save yourself a lot of grief and supplement this resolution with some action such as: attending a meeting (maybe your resolution includes attending at least one meeting a week for a year), telling someone close to you, and maybe even join our private Facebook accountability page and post to the group introducing yourself.  Its a lot easier to quit drinking when you are part of a community that cares about you.

2) For people well on their way in sobriety that are making new resolutions:

We are experts at making promises and failing.  We are also experts and trying to do things our own way, only to find ourselves humbled as we constantly “bang our head on a wall” hoping the outcome will somehow “be different this time.”   I almost want to save myself (and all of you) the agony of defeat by just skipping resolutions this year.   However, not trying something is way worse than not trying and failing!    What if we tried something and we actually succeeded!

Sobriety can be so fragile in the beginning.  Maybe skipping resolutions and just “working your program” is the right move.  Without sobriety nothing else in life really matters.

However, if you are at a point in your recovery where your program is working and you still have some energy to spare.  Improving other areas of your life can actually strengthen your sobriety.

The key then, is to skip the standard mode of operation (make a big promise and use willpower to try and fulfill it) and instead use some of the tools we have learned in recovery to help turbo charge our progress.

A few ideas:

What tools  in your “recovery portfolio” can help you achieve your goals.

Is the resolution necessary and realistic?

Example:  quit all sugar vs quit processed sugar.   Necessary because regulating or moderating has produced nothing but failure.

Is it measurable:

Lose weight vs, loose 5 lbs every 3 months for a total of 20 pounds in the year.

Can you vision yourself and what it will be like when you achieve the resolution?

How good will you feel!  Weight loss and how you will look?  Pride from being successful.

What are you doing to hold yourself accountable?

Telling others, scheduled review times, public posting?

Have you laid out the steps necessary to get there?

i.e.  learn to fly…. what steps does that take?

This is all good and can really improve our health, happiness and thus sobriety.  One thing is for sure, achieving lofty goals were probably not possible when we were drinking!  Its okay, its more than okay – its so powerful to do awesome things in sobriety!   New years is a good time to expand upon our sobriety by really living.   Improving our lives through by achieving resolutions another way we can express gratitude for our sobriety.

You might be an alcoholic if:

• You might be an alcoholic if you get arrested for trying to pump your own gas at a closed gas station while your friend is taking a leak outside your car. -Rob

• You might be an alcoholic if you teach your kids how to play beer pong, but you are the only one that drinks every cup. -Rob

• You might be an alcoholic if you go on vacation in the first thing you do is locate the nearest liquor store. -Chris H
• You might be an alcoholic if you have to replace your debit card once every few weeks, because you black out and lose it on a regular basis. -Amber O.
• You might be an alcoholic if you have to buy a replacement bottle of wine for special occasions because you drink it before the event. -James M
• You might be an alcoholic if you are upset by facebook ads relating to alcohol. -Meg
• You might be an alcoholic if the remedy (alcohol) has become the ailment. -Dee M.

This is huge Recovery Elevator. The first Recovery Elevator meetup will be taking place in Seattle on Saturday February 27th, 2016. Details to come. Email info@recoveryelevator.com for more info on this meetup.

This podcast was brought to you by Sober Nation.

045: Recovery is Moving in the Right Direction | A Recap of the 60 Minute Segment on Drug and Alcohol Addiction

by Paul Churchill | Dec 28, 2015 | Podcast

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• 40 years and a trillion dollars, nation has little to show of the war on drugs.
• 21 million americans are addicted to drugs and alcohol and nearly 1/2 of federal incarcerations are in for drug crimes. “can’t arrest addiction out of people.” “We have learned that addiction is a brain disease.” “ We can’t expect cancers patients to just stop having cancer.”
• Addicts should be patients and not prisoners.
• Michael Botticelli has created a high school for teens in recovery in Massachusetts.
• Convicts can choose rehab over jail and this actually reduces crime.
• in 1998 crashed his car and woke up hand cuffed to a gurney. Alcohol free for 27 years.
• Oversees 26 billion dollar budget across 16 government agencies. Over 1/2 of the money goes to drug enforcement.
• Says the heroin crisis was created at home. Pain scripts have risen from 76 million in  1991 to 207 million in 2015.
• More than 120 americans die of drug overdoses each day.
• Tried an experiment in 2010 with the quincy police department. Officers are armed with Naloxone. A nasal spray for an overdose. Also changed laws called the good samaritan law.
• Today, 32 states have adopted similar laws and more than 800 police departments carry Naloxone.
• In Massachussets, Botticelli has made treating addiction routine health care.
• The affordable care act requires the most of insurance companies to cover addiction treatment.
• Substance abuse is one of the only disease where we let people reach their most acute point of the disease or “bottom” before we intervene.
• Botticelli prefers the word disorder instead of addict.
• Sees a model in the attitude towards the stigma with the gay rights movement. He was more comfortable being a gay man, before saying he was an alcoholic. “We have more work to do.”
• over 1/2 a million a year are killed by legal drugs. Alcohol and nicotine.
• Botticelli is not in favor of legalizing marijuana.
• Grew up as in insecure kid.
• A very wise judge said you can either get care for your drinking problem or you continue the path of this criminal behavior.

You Might be an Alcoholic if…

Claire

You keep a note pad by the phone so you can take notes about your drunk dialings, but then you can’t read your handwriting

You’re now sober but want to wear a sign on your shirt that says you are enjoying a piece of gum to merely blow bubbles, not to cover up the vodka smell

Caleb

You buy canned beer so you can hide it in your bag without anybody hearing the glass clinks

Simone

If you log into MyFitnessPal as soon as you wake up…to log in the calories of the 8 double whiskeys you’ll be drinking later…to know how much not to eat today.

Shane

If after a night of drinking an entire 26er of scotch, the only thing you can think of is “what am I going to drink today?”

Brian in KC, MO

You might be an alcoholic if it’s your turn to be the DD, so before the baseball game you pound beers at the tailgate before the game hoping it carries you through to the end of the game….but then the game gets rained out in the 5th inning and you are still too drunk to drive home.